CONTENTS

LANGUAGE AND CULTURE

3

EXCUSES:
But I...: 4 Activities
for Teaching Excuses
SARCASM: But I
Just Love Mondays!
3 Situational Games to
Teach EFL/ESL Sarcasm
GAMBLING
REFERENCES: Ante Up
and Place your Bets:
7 Casino Breaks to Teach
Gambling References
in English

15 CROSS-CULTURAL
EDUCATION: Crosscultural Education - How
It Helps ESL Students
PLACES AND PEOPLE
16 FEELINGS: How do you
feel? Prepare your ESL
students for the worst
with these easy activities
17 DISASTERS: Are they
ready for the worst?
5 Great ESL tips on
preparing your students
for disasters

GOVERNMENT: Keeping
it in Check: Teaching
the 3 Branches
of the US Government

COLOR: Are You Feeling

Blue? 3 Ways to Use
Color to Teach Other
Concepts in English

MOVIES: 7 Great
American Movies
to Reinforce Vocabulary

20 NEGOTIATIONS: Do We
Have a Deal? Help
Your ESL Student
Negotiate in English

PERSONALITY:
The Good and the Bad:
5 Strategies for Teaching
Personality Traits

21 AWKWARD SITUATIONS:
5 nifty tips on how to help
your ESL student handle
awkward situations

10 WEIGHTS AND
MEASUREMENTS:
Weighing in at the Gym:
How to Teach Weights
and Measurements
Experientially
11-12 COMPLAINING: I Have
a Problem with That:
Teaching 7 Situations
When Complaining
Means Something Else
13 HISTORICAL IDIOMS:
Make it Ring a Bell:
How to Explain
8 Common American
Historical Idioms
14 CALENDAR: Give it
a Year: 7 Strategies
for Teaching
about the Calendar

18 DIRECTIONS: Directions:
3 Outdoor Activities for
Three Types of Directions
19 SHOPPING: Shop Till
You Drop. 6 Great
Activities to Help
Your ESL Students Shop

22 TRANSPORTATION:
Moving Right Along:
4 Fresh Classroom
Activities for Teaching
Transportation
23 BANKING:
You Can Bank on it:
5 Strategies to Teach
the How-Tos of Banking
24-25 PETS: Roll Over,
Rover: 5 Easy Ways
to Teach about Pets
26 EMERGENCIES:
Somebody Call 911:
Valuable Activities
for Teaching
about Emergencies
27 OCCUPATIONS: Great
Work: 5 Basic Activities
to Teach
about Occupations

28 LAUNDRY: Clean It Up:

5 Activities for Teaching
about Laundry
29-30 FAMILY: Its All
Relative: 10 Ways
to Teach about Family
31 COOKING: 10 Baste and
Batter Basics: Translating
American Cooking Terms
for EFL Learners
32-33 FOOD: Hot Dog-itty
Dog! 12 Funky English
Food Words and
How to Teach Them
34 FOOD: A Totally
Yummy ESL Lesson
Your Students Will Just
Gobble Up
35 CHORES: Teaching
Chores is not a Bore:
6 Activities
to Keep their Attention
36-37 HOUSEHOLD
DANGERS: Warning:
5 Activities to Teach
about Household
Dangers
38 SEASONS: The Most
Wonderful Times
of the Year: Teaching
about the 4 Seasons
39 INTERNET: Get in Line to
Get Online: 5 Activities
to Make Learning about
the Internet Fun
40 TOOLS AND REPAIRS:
Thatll Fixem:
5 Strategies to Teach
about Tools and Repairs
41-42 MOVIES: Lights,
Camera, Action:
10 Activities to Teach
about Going
to the Movies
43 SOCIAL CONVERSATION
SKILLS: I Brought
the Beer! Using a Class
Party to Teach 10 Social
Conversation Skills

But I...:
4 Activities for Teaching Excuses
Given the difficulty of pinning down students who arrive late to class, dont finish their homework, or commit any of the
other transgressions that teachers must
address on a daily basis, it seems almost counter-intuitive to teach them how
to effectively make excuses.
Why make our jobs any more difficult?
On the other hand, giving a reason for
not being able to complete a task or having missed a deadline is certainly an important life skill. The first step to teaching
excuses is to select one or more forms.
Perhaps because I am Canadian, I am
partial to the Im sorry, but ... approach.
Other forms include: I wish I could, but
... I cant because ... I couldnt because ... and so on. Many teachers may
be restricted to the form that is in their
assigned textbook. I have had several
classes struggle with ensuring that the
excuse matches what has been asked
or missed. This is especially true when
giving excuses for something that will
happen in the future (eg. when someone
asks for a favour). However, once you
have gone through the process of presenting the language and explaining the
need for the excuse to match the situation, its time to practice using it. Here
are four activities to get those creative
(and sometimes competitive) juices
flowing in the kids.

TRY THESE
4 CREATIVE WAYS
OF TEACHING EXCUSES

SLAP GAME

This takes a bit of preparation on

the part of the teacher. Create a list of ten
to fifteen different situations that would
require excuses. Try to make them relevant to the students lives (ie. late coming to class, didnt finish the homework,
etc.). Then create a matching number
of excuses. Ideally, these excuses will
work for only one of the situations. Creating such clear distinctions means that
the excuses must be specific and may
need to include information that ties it
to a single situation. For example, if the
situation is about why you didnt come
to a Saturday morning class, the excuse
could be that the student was visiting
their grandparents that weekend. In this
way the excuse does not work for why

are you late to class.

Once you have all of the situations and
excuses, create laminated cards from
the excuses. The teacher will need to
either memorize the situations or have a
list of situations with them in class. If you
have twelve excuses, then each card set
will have twelve cards in it. You will need
one card set for every group of three or
four students in your classes. Have each
group of students sit facing one another around a table. They spread out the
cards face up on the table so that there
is some space between each card. The
students then put both hands on their
heads. The teacher calls out a situation
(no students can move until the teacher
is finished speaking) and then the first
student to slap the appropriate excuse
gets to keep that card. They then place
their hands on their heads and wait for
the next situation. Whichever student
has the most cards at the end wins.

TEAM FLASH-CARD GAME

This game works best for excuses

about things that will happen in the future
(ie. when someone asks for a favour).
Create a set of playing cards based on
a variety of requests for a favour. In this
case it is best to have far more questions
than excuses in a set. For each excuse
there should be several different questions that would work. Likewise, create
some excuses that work for almost any
request for a favour and some that work
only for certain requests (ie. Im sorry,
I cant. Im busy. vs. Im sorry, I cant. I
have school on Friday.)
Divide the class into groups of three
or four. Each group will get one set of
cards. The teacher will ask for a favour.
The first group to hold up an excuse that
fits the situation can lay that card aside.
When one group has used all of their
cards they are the winners.

EXIT FEE

As a final practice activity, have

the students pay an exit fee. The teacher must create a card set of situations.
There needs to be as many cards as
there are students. Not all need to be
unique, some can be duplicates. At the
end of class set aside enough time for
all students to give an excuse. Have the

students line up to leave and the teacher wait near the door. As each student
comes up to the door they must pay an
exit fee of one excuse. A card is drawn
from the stack and the situation presented to the student. They must provide
a fitting excuse for the situation before
they may leave. Teachers may want to
consider banning blanket excuses such
as I am busy etc.

CREATIVE EXCUSES

This works best with classes that

are a little more outgoing. Create a set
of large cards, so the words can be read
from all over the room. These should
be a mixture of adjectives and random
other words such as space, monster,
animal names, and various other nouns.
Either in advance or on the fly, the teacher makes up a series of situations requiring excuses. Put all the cards up on the
board and divide the class into groups.
From here there are several ways to
proceed. The teacher can give each
group a number and then roll a dice to
determine which group will go first. Alternatively, groups can simply volunteer.
Regardless of how order is determined,
the teacher reads a situation and then
gives groups a minute to talk it over.
They must make an excuse using two
or three (teachers choice depending on
class level) of the cards (ie. I couldnt
clean my room because the vacuum
turned into a huge purple monster!). The
most creative excuses earn points for
the group. Once a card has been used
it is removed from the board. To make
it clear what is expected, the teacher
needs to give several different examples
of creative excuses and encourage students to make crazy word associations
for added points.

EXCUSES, AS WE ALL KNOW, RANGE

FROM CALM AND WELL THOUGHT
OUT, TO SO FAR-FETCHED THEY ARE
LAUGHABLE.
Often, the latter are by far the more interesting. While students often become
comfortable using single, blanket excuses (I am busy) the above activities allow
them to practice a wide variety. Ideally,
these activities are also enjoyable for
the class and get the students speaking
English in a more relaxed atmosphere.

But I Just Love Mondays! 3 Situational Games to Teach Sarcasm

NATIVE ENGLISH SPEAKER USE OF
SARCASM VARIES CULTURALLY, BUT
NEARLY ALL CULTURALLY NATIVE
SPEAKERS USE IT TO SOME EXTENT.
While some teachers might argue you
cannot teach a complex humor tool
like sarcasm, this one argues that you
can at least try. Why? Because it will
be like no other class your students
have had before, and you will all be
laughing at the end! Three games
to mix up your normal conversation
class integrating sarcasm follow.

TRY THESE 3
SITUATIONAL GAMES
TO TEACH SARCASM

DONT YOU TAKE

THAT TONE WITH ME

Many times, sarcasm is portrayed in

a tone of voice. The tone can be an
accent to the sarcasm or it can be the
sarcasm itself. Tone is a very important conversation skill that we often
neglect in our conversation courses. To respond properly to a native
speaker, an EFL learner has to pay attention. Give a list of 5-10 comments
that could be sarcastic or sincere, and
change their meaning with your tone.
Have your students work in pairs to
replicate your tone, and have them
practice responding to each other in
turns based on their tone. Examples
include:

I just love Mondays, especially

after a big football game when
I only got 3 hours of sleep.
Children are such a delight
when they spill coffee on your
new $1,000 laptop.

These sarcastic lemon drops do not

need a tone change, and hence can
be confusing and difficult to read.
Teach that when a student suspects
a statement is untrue, he should consider sarcastic intent before branding
the native speaker a liar. Tell students
to visualize the situation and how one
would really feel because this type
of sarcasm evokes imagery. The first
comment makes one feel tired and
possibly hung-over and thinking that
they do not actually like Mondays,
hence it is sarcastic. The second
comment makes one annoyed at the
child as opposed to feeling delighted.
Focus on looking for that contrasting
imagery! Create a list of 10-20 sarcastic comments and have them pick
out the contrasting emotions/feelings
underpinned.

PUN INTENDED.

I just love your outfit today. Are

those blue sneakers?

I cant wait for my workout today at the gym!

Sarcasm often relies on puns,

and puns are very fun to teach, especially to advanced learners! First
explain what puns are and how they
are used in sarcasm by deconstructing two or three statements. Students
should pick out the play on words and
then explain how it is sarcastic. For
examples:

Eating healthy just makes me

feel so good. I really dont miss
cake.

Sure, she was attractive... she

was pretty ugly.

I want to beat the clock because I am tired, not because

I am in a rush.

LIGHT LIES
THAT CONTRADICT

Sarcasm can seem like lies or contradictory language to a non native

speaker, and hence it is important
to point out when it is intended to be

funny or to make another point as opposed to being untrue.

Put two or three other puns on the

board, and have students design sarcastic statements from them. Then
have them work in pairs or groups
to invent their own puns or use ones
they know to express sarcastic ideas.

THE SUBTLETY OF SARCASM IN

ENGLISH HUMOR IS DIFFICULT, BUT
NOT IMPOSSIBLE TO TEACH.
Use it as a fun tool for your advanced
or even intermediate conversation
classes to mix up their normal practice! At a minimum, it will help them
deconstruct complex meanings of
particular words and phrases, and all
will have a good laugh.

Place your Bets: 7 Casino Breaks

to Teach Gambling References
AMERICAN ENGLISH HAS A NUMBER
OF COMMONLY USED WORDS AND
EXPRESSIONS THAT DERIVED FROM
GAMBLING.
If you teach conversation classes or
advanced English learners that want to
understand colloquialisms to improve
their fluency, or if you want to energize
your intermediate or even beginner
classes with interactive games, try one
of these quick gambling casino breaks
that also educate!

TRY THESE
VOCABULARY
ACTIVITIES TO
TEACH GAMBLING
REFERENCES IN
ENGLISH

ANTE UP

This phrase refers to placing a

starting bet to enter a round of poker
or other gambling card game. Bring
poker chips (or a handful of coins)
to class. Have an empty box or can
ready. Also bring quick prizes, like
candies. Prepare to ask a lot of questions that day that quiz prior teaching
or follow-up on that days learning objectives. Give a set amount of chips to
each student at the beginning of class,
like 5 chips. Explain that you will ask
questions throughout class, and, if
they think they know the answer, they
can ante up to get in the game by
placing a chip in the can. Then, if they
are in, ask them to write down the correct answer. If they answer correctly,
give them a candy.

PLACE YOUR BETS

Americans use this phrase quite

frequently, and it is a reference to
placing a wager on a particular horse
before a horse race. It can be applied
to wagering on any competitive event
before it happens. Try a Place Your
Bets grammar game. Again, you can
use your poker chips. Give students
a set number, and separate them into
two groups. For a grammar principle
you are teaching, like relative clauses,
create a list of words that can make

a properly constructed sentence. Only

give the topic, relative clauses, and
have the four first contenders come to
the board with a marker. Tell students
in the audience that they can bet any
number of chips on any combination
of players, depending on who they
think will form a correct sentence first
from the given words. Say, Place your
bets! and have them set their bets on
their left hand side for group one or
right hand side for group two. Double
their chips if they win, or take them
away if they lose!

ROOT FOR THE UNDERDOG

An underdog refers to any team

or player in a sporting situation that is
considered inferior to her opponent
and most likely to lose. Americans love
cheering for underdogs and use this
term often in other non-sport arenas
as well, so it is helpful to understand.
Play on the phraseology by creating
a game where students have to pick
between two words to complete under sentences to practice vocabulary
or other concepts. For example, ask
them to choose which word best completes the sentence We walked under the _____ and provide two words
such as, sky and ceiling. You can
actually make these quite tricky!

ALL IN

This refers to wagering all of your

remaining gambling money because
you think you are going to win. Americans use it in situations to express that
they are putting their confidence and/
or resources and support into something or some situation. Make a game
where students have to rate their confidence level for an answer, like not
sure, probably, or all in. Give them
more points for going all in and getting
the answer right!

HIT ME OR STICK

This comes from Black Jack

when the player gambles on taking
another card to improve his chance of
reaching 21 without going over. Create a quick game where students line

up, and, one by one you show a picture flashcard of a vocabulary word,
or a number, or whatever else you are
practicing. The player keeps the card
if she gets the answer right and can
choose hit me or stick. She loses
all the cards won during her turn if she
goes over, or gets one wrong. The
player with the most cards wins.

LUCK OF THE DRAW

This applies to chance games

where one wins solely on being lucky
and getting the winning number or
card. Make participation cards of any
sort depending on what you are teaching that day like conversation questions, vocabulary words, etc. Mark
one with a star or other symbol. Ask
students to draw a card at any break
point in your class, and exercise your
chosen activity. Then, ask students
who has the star, and explain that she
wins by luck of the draw and give her
a prize. This is a good game to repeat
every few classes with different concepts so that they anticipate the star!

CARD UP YOUR SLEEVE

Give each student a card with a

principle that you are going to teach
that day, whether it is vocabulary
words or grammar. If they do have
long sleeves, ask them to look at the
word or principle and put the card up
their sleeve to take out when the topic
comes up in class. For example, if you
are teaching question words that day,
like who, when, where, and why, give
cards to students with what on one
side and a question on the other side.
After you explain what, you can ask,
Who has what up their sleeves? The
students with what cards can read
their questions for the class to answer.

IF YOU ARE LOOKING FOR WAYS TO

ENERGIZE YOUR CLASS, INCREASE
PARTICIPATION, OR JUST TEACH
IDIOMS, PULL A FEW CARDS OUT
OF YOUR SLEEVE AND GO ALL IN
WITH SOME OF THESE GAMBLINGINSPIRED GAMES!

Keeping it in Check: Teaching the

3 Branches of the US Government
LEARNING ABOUT A NEW GOVERNMENT CAN BE A BIT OVERWHELMING
FOR STUDENTS WHO ARE WORKING
ON LEARNING WHAT THEY NEED TO
KNOW FOR EVERYDAY ROUTINES.
However, it is important that they understand the workings of the government
where they live. In the United States,
there are three branches of the government that keep each other in check.
These lessons are geared toward those
at an intermediate or higher level as they
require some more advanced vocabulary and concepts in English.

TEACH ABOUT
THE US GOVERNMENT
WITHOUT BEING
OVERWHELMING

CHECK THIS OUT

To start, you will need to explain

that there are three branches of government in the United States. A good
way to show this is to draw a tree, write
government on the trunk, then write executive, legislative and judicial on each
of the branches. Also, have a picture of
the President for executive, Congress
for legislative and the Supreme Court
for judicial. This will give students some
idea of what you are saying before you
even explain it. Tell them that the founding fathers of the US did not want anyone in the government to have too much
power, so they created the three branches, each with its own limitations. In this
way no one has all the power in decision making. All of these officials meet
in Washington, D.C, the nations capital.

THE EXECUTIVE BRANCH

The executive branch consists of

the president, the vice president and
cabinet members (heads of various
departments). The president is elected by the people and may serve up to
two four year terms. The people of the
United States vote for the president and
vice president. The president chooses
his cabinet members. You may want
to explain about how the word cabinet relates to a kitchen cabinet, keeping everything in one place. Make sure
the students know who our president
and vice president are. You should let

them know the names of the positions

in the cabinet. They should know that
the president is the leader of the country and commands the military. The vice
president is the President of the Senate
and becomes president of the US if the
president can no longer do his job. The
cabinet members advise the president
on important matters. The president approves bills that were approved by the
House and the Senate so they become
laws. He can also veto a bill, but if 2/3
of Congress votes against him they can
override that veto and it can still become
a law. However, the president cannot actually write bills himself. He also leads
the military. He can authorize the use of
troops without declaring war, but must
get the approval of Congress to declare
war.

THE LEGISLATIVE BRANCH

The legislative branch writes the

laws. It consists of two sections: the
House of Representatives and the Senate. Together we call them Congress.
The purpose of the two houses is to be
fair to the people of the United States.
In the Senate, there are two elected officials from each state. The number of representatives in the House of Representatives (also elected officials) from each
state depends on the population of that
state. The more people the state has, the
more Senators they have. Congress can
write bills, which when approved, can
become laws. Each Congress lasts for
two years. When the two years are over,
new members of Congress are elected.

THE JUDICIAL BRANCH

The judicial branch is the part of

the government that makes sure the
laws are carried out fairly. In the United
States, the judicial branch consists of the
Supreme Court Justices, of which there
are nine. These justices are nominated
by the president, but must be approved
by the Senate. One of these justices is
the Chief Justice. The Supreme Court is
the highest court of the United States.
Justices have their jobs for life, unless
they resign, retire, or are impeached by
the House and convicted by the Senate.
Of about 7,500 cases that are sent to the
Supreme Court every year, only about

80-100 cases are heard there. Once

the Supreme Court makes a decision,
only another Supreme Court decision or
an amendment to the Constitution can
overrule it.

PUTTING IT ALL TOGETHER

After your students learn all about

the three branches of United States government, here is a fun activity to do to
tie it all together. Give each pair of students an outline of a tree that has three
branches. Have them label the trunk as
government, and one branch each for
executive, legislative and judicial. Next,
give them pictures of the officials in each
branch, and facts about each branch.
Have them match them to the right spot.
When they are done, have students take
turns reading the facts aloud. If they are
willing, students can come up to the front
of the room and share their project.

DEBATING THE BEST

Finally, for the more advanced

learners, it would be fun to have a debate about which branch is the most
important. Of course, they are all important in running the US government, but
debate is a fun way for more advanced
students to utilize their skills. Divide the
class into three teams and assign each
team a branch. Have them come up with
ways that branch can help the US. Have
each group choose a speaker and let the
three students take turns arguing their
points. There may be a rebuttal if you
choose. Finally, have the students vote
(secret ballot, of course!) for the team
who they thought presented the best
argument, and announce the winner.
Competition often brings out the best in
people in general, and so it probably will
in your students. You will be surprised
at how confident they will become in using English when bragging rights are at
stake!

UNDERSTANDING THE THREE

BRANCHES OF GOVERNMENT IN THE
UNITED STATES IS VERY IMPORTANT
FOR SOMEONE LIVING HERE.
It will help them in everyday conversation and possibly help them to assist
their children with their homework, if that
is the case. Use these activities to make
sure your students know all about it.

Feeling Blue? 3 Ways to Use

Color to Teach Other Concepts
STUDENTS ALWAYS SEEM TO
REMEMBER COLORS EASIER THAN
ALMOST ANY OTHER VOCABULARY
CONCEPT. WHY?
It is probably because we attach so
many other meanings to colors, like
emotions. Here are four activities you
can use focusing on color to teach
emotions, moods, weather, and grammatical and writing skills, geared toward any age and any level of learner.

TRY THESE 3 WAYS TO

USE COLOR TO TEACH
OTHER CONCEPTS
IN ENGLISH

IMPRESSIONIST
PAINTINGS

If you have the technology, put together a slide show of impressionist paintings that use a lot of colors. If you do
not have the technology and still want
to try this, find an art book at a local
library or school or network with other
local teachers to find a colleague that
can loan you one. You could use other
art that evokes emotion as an alternative. Show a slide and ask:

What do you feel?

What colors are in this painting?

Do those colors make you feel

that way in other circumstances?

Do they make you remember

events that happened to you?

They will link the colors to their moods,

emotions, and even past events in
their lives. This is a great discussion
starter to practice conversation as
well as feelings and past tense!

NATURAL WORLD COLORS

If you can, go on a walk with students in a natural setting (a forest, a

park, the beach) early in the morning
or during sunset. You could make it a
homework assignment as well. Have
students identify as many colors as
they can in the natural landscape and

relate the colors to an object in a full

sentence (i.e. the flowers on the tree
are purple). Then, as a homework assignment or in the next class, have
them write a story or a poem about
the park/natural place you visited. It
can practice present or past tense:
What did you see at the park? or
What colors are in the park?

SUNNY SPIRITS

Ask students for all of the weather words they can think of and write
them on the board. You could use this
activity to introduce weather concepts
as well if they have not learned them
yet. Then, select the best words for
number of students that day to relate
to a color. Write the words on big pieces of paper, and assign one to each
student. Ask the students to draw that
weather element, offering as many
vivid crayon colors as you can. After
the students finish drawing, ask them
to connect what mood they feel when
that weather happens and write the
mood words in their selected crayon
color.

minutes to pick out colors from pages

that particularly strike them.) If you
can, collect their pictures and present
a slide show to the class, asking them
to write down a mood they feel when
they see the color. Then, ask the picture provider why he chose that picture. The connotation between mood
and emotion and color will become
very apparent to them and help them
remember all of the concepts!

WHETHER YOU ARE TEACHING

COLORS AND SIMPLE MOODS TO
LITTLE CHILDREN OR COMPLEX
GRAMMAR CONCEPTS TO
ADVANCED ADULTS, ACTIVITIES
THAT MAKE STUDENTS RELATE
IDEAS TO COLOR, FEELINGS, AND
MOODS WILL HELP THEM RETAIN
THAT INFORMATION IN A MUCH
MORE PROFOUND WAY

For example, if a student has

sunny, she will draw a sun, in
yellow probably, and write happy,
cheerful, or a more complicated
word based on her vocabulary
level.

This is a great activity for kids, but you

can use it with adults as well! Adult
answers just might be more sophisticated. Have students share their results with the class and explain their
color and mood choices.

PICTURE PERFECT

Ask students to take pictures

for a week when they notice a color
that strikes them. They should select
their favorite five photos at the end of
the week. Do not give them any more
directions than that. Pictures can be
taken on cell phones or whatever
camera they have available to them.
(If they have no access, make this a
magazine activity game and bring a
stack to class one day, giving them 20

7 Great American Movies

to Reinforce Vocabulary
EVERYONE LOVES POPCORN AND
SNACKS MOVIES!

If you are having trouble getting students to practice at home, or if they

need to study before an exam and
have trouble memorizing their vocabulary, have them watch movies in
English with subtitles (or vice versa)
to reinforce word lists! It is almost as
good as reading a book, and they
will probably actually complete the
assignments. Here are 3 vocabulary
activities and 7 movie suggestions to
which to correlate them.

SHOWING A SCENE
IN CLASS WITH THE
TRANSCRIPT

Go to a site that has movie scripts,

like http://www.moviescriptsandscreenplays.com/.

Download the script of the movie suggested, or of one that you

know your students will like.

SUBTITLE SEARCH
If you have the time, or if they will invest two hours at home, have them
pick a movie that they can access
from a list. Tell them to watch the movie in English with English subtitles.
To make sure they read and pay attention, ask them to write down a set
number of vocabulary words from different class concepts you are learning, like 30 dialogue words, clothing, or directions.

Search the transcript for a part

with vocabulary you want to reinforce. For example, if you want
to use Finding Nemo to reinforce
ocean and sea life concepts and
words, look for a section heavy
with fish, waves, or other
words on your list.

This can make a great exam as well

and you can even incorporate grammatical concepts for more advanced
students, such as 10 examples of
conditional clauses!

Show the scene in class, and ask

students to write down as many
words related to the ocean that
they can hear in the film.

Give students the transcripts and

have them circle all of the sea life
words, then have them compare
the lists they had generated while
watching.

USING THE MOVIE AS

A VISUAL STIMULANT

Prepare a vocabulary sheet based on

things they can see in the scene. For
example, if you want to reinforce restaurant vocabulary, show the scene
in the diner from When Harry Met
Sally and include plates, table, booth,
counter, soda fountain, door, etc. on
your vocabulary sheet. Ask students
to describe what those elements look
like in the movie scene.

Pick out a movie with high visual

stimulation for the vocabulary
concept you wish to teach. Animated movies are great for this,
like again, Finding Nemo, or Rio,
or Avatar. It could also be a movie
scene in a particular setting, like a
sports field.

7 MOVIE
SUGGESTIONS
FINDING NEMO

This movie is visually stunning

and fun to watch. Animate movies
aimed at kids for their primary audience do not use complicated vocabulary, either, so they are great for beginners. You can use this movie to
reinforce sea life vocabulary or just
basic dialogue skills, like How are
you?

RIO

This is a visually fantastic film

that you can use to practice basic
concepts of pets, birds, parades, or
parks.

AVATAR

Another eye-friendly film great

for forest, wildlife, or military vocabulary.

WHEN HARRY MET SALLY

This classic Meg Ryan and Billy

Crystal film has great scenes on city
streets, diners, and museums. The
witty dialogue makes for a comical
transcript lesson as well.

THE GODFATHER

This movie has visually stunning

scenes and is interesting to watch.
Use Michael Corleones trip to Italy
with subtitles in English to hunt for
words about family and weddings, or
use the famous restaurant scene for
a vocabulary background description
activity.

SCARFACE

Show a scene from the beach in

Miami, the club, or a hotel for a vocabulary scene search, or use a transcript to search for words related to
money.

FORREST GUMP

Any number of scenes are great

for a transcript activity. Use a scene of
Forrest playing football at the university to reinforce sports vocabulary, for
example.

ALMOST ANY MOVIE HAS THE

POTENTIAL TO BECOME A TEACHING TOOL APPLYING ONE OF THESE
THREE ACTIVITIES!
These are just some suggested movies to help you begin to integrate movie media into language learning, with
the end goal of helping your students
practice with better results by hearing,
seeing, and reading at the same time.

The Good and the Bad: 5 Strategies for Teaching Personality Traits
BEING ABLE TO DESCRIBE SOMEONES PERSONALITY IS IMPORTANT
FOR EVERYDAY CONVERSATION.
ESL students will need to learn how to
do this. This can be a challenging topic
for some because it is not so hands-on,
nothing is tangible. Nevertheless, using
some or all of the strategies below will
help you convey the meaning of personality traits. You will need to adapt each
activity depending on the level of your
class. These five strategies will help you
teach them so they can learn how to describe others in conversation.

USE THESE IDEAS

TO TEACH
PERSONALITY TRAITS

TEACH THE TERMS

Your students will need to learn

the vocabulary to express personality traits. Begin by showing them cards
with large pictures and the name of the
trait under it. Introduce these, having
the students repeat after you as you
pronounce them. The traits you choose
will depend on the level of your class.
For beginners, you may stick to more
basic words such as nice or mean.
For more advanced classes, you may
extend to words such as generous or
petty. Dont be afraid to act the traits
out as you introduce them. This added
modality will add to understanding for
your students. It can be a lot of fun for
them to act out some of the vocabulary
words. Acting them out often helps students to remember the meaning of the
word when they come across it later. It
can be a very useful tool for you as a
teacher.

THE PROS AND CONS

Begin by reviewing the traits you

introduced in the previous activity. List
them on the board in no particular order. Next, give the students a T chart
with the headings positive and negative, or if they are beginners, you may
want to label the two sides good and
bad. Ask the students to put the traits
on either side of their chart. If you have
picture dictionaries, you may want them

available for those who do not remember the meaning of each word. After you
are done, have the students use their
lists to compile a class list together.
Note that some may have the same trait
as a positive that others may have as a
negative. This can prompt a great class
discussion about each students choice.
Depending on your class, you may need
to remind them about disagreeing politely with someone. Some students may
not be used to this type of discussion.

class, you may want the mystery person

to reveal him or herself.

YOURE NOT MY TYPE

Take these same personality traits

you have been working on, and turn
them into a fun activity. Have each student talk about someone they would
never want to meet, listing all the negative traits of which they can think. Have
a template on the board, Youre not
my type. I would never want to know
someone who is _________________.
Model reading this aloud with some theatrical contempt for the person about
which you have written. List all of the
negative traits you would like to include.
Now have the students take turns doing the same. If they start to get into the
spirit of being dramatic about it, this can
be a fun activity. Again, you may want
to talk to the students about this being
a fun, silly activity, and make sure they
are not referencing any specific student
when they make these remarks. Depending on the class, this may be challenging. Try a few and see how it goes,
then determine if it is a good activity for
your students.

WHO AM I?

This could work for any class, but

would be a lot of fun with a class who
knows each other fairly well. Begin by
reviewing the personality traits with the
picture cards. Next, tell each student to
choose three personality traits to describe themselves and hand it in to you.
You take turns reading the three traits
for the person without revealing their
name. Next, give the class a chance to
guess whose traits they are. If the class
does not guess after three tries (or an
appropriate amount for you, depending
on how many students you have in your

For an interesting twist on this game,

you could use celebrities or historical
figures as the target person. It would be
wise to limit it to a certain group, however, so that your students have an idea
of who they may choose. For example,
if you are studying the presidents, you
could give them a list of five presidents
you have discussed to use.

YOU CANT JUDGE A BOOK

BY ITS COVER

You will need three volunteers from outside your class for this one. They could
be friends of yours, fellow teachers willing to give up some time or students
from another class looking for extra
English practice. Have the volunteers
write down a list of five personality traits
(from your original list) to describe themselves. The students will need copies of
those lists. Next, have the volunteers sit
in the front of the room and not say a
word. Judging on appearances alone,
have the students decide which person wrote which list. After everyone has
made a decision, let those who are willing to share describe why they chose
who they chose. Then, let the volunteers
reveal their own lists. Be sure to discuss
how this activity, again, should be kept
positive, and that students should be respectful of each other at all times.

TEACHING ABOUT PERSONALITY TRAITS CAN BE CHALLENGING

BECAUSE THEY ARE ABSTRACT.

Your students can not touch a generous or see an angry. It is a topic that
is very reliant on people and, for the purpose of demonstration, their facial expressions and actions. It can be taught,
but some patience may be required.
The more active the students are in your
classroom, the more they are able to act
out what they need to act out. This will
help them understand personality traits
even better.

Weighing in: How to Teach Weights

and Measurements Experientially
TO BE ON THE SAFE SIDE AS LANGUAGE
TEACHERS, WE SHOULD ASSUME THAT
MATH IS NOT THE STRONGEST SUBJECT
OF PEOPLE STUDYING ENGLISH AS A
FOREIGN LANGUAGE.
Even if it is, equations and numbers do
not automatically relate to physical weight
and size in our heads. There are 2.2
pounds in a kilogram, but what does that
weight feel like? A mile is a little less than
2 kilometers, but how far is that really? To
instill weights and measurements in your
EFL learners, teach the concepts experientially. Here are some ideas as to how
you can do that!

CHECK THE IDEAS FOR

TEACHING WEIGHTS
AND MEASURES

WALK A MILE IN MY SHOES

Plan an hour and a half for this activity. Map out a mile from your classroom to
another destination that has a reward, like
an ice cream shop. Figure out a landmark
at each quarter mile. Have a car available with a volunteer driver for students
with disabilities if necessary. Only tell students, We are going for a walk. Go for
a walk! Have a conversation class along
the way. Be enthusiastic about pointing
out the landmarks at the quarter miles.
When you get to the ice cream shop, buy
some for your students (if you can, or use
a different reward based on your budget,
like a stop at a park and some candies).

Ask them: How far do you think we

just walked?

Explain to them how to divide up a

mile in quarters. Ask them: When did
we hit a half mile, a quarter mile, and
three quarters of a mile?

Walk back and point out when you hit

each landmark again.

PUMP SOME IRON

Go to a gym for this activity. Hopefully you have a school gym in your teaching facility, or ask a local hotel or fitness
center if you can bring a class in for a half
hour learning session on an off hour. You

10

could also bring some free weights into

class. Prepare a checklist activity where
students have to work in pairs and try to
pump the amount of weight in different columns, starting with 2 pounds, 5 pounds,
and up to as much as 100 pounds. Have
students check

stand. If you are teaching in a non-English speaking country, bring an English

measurement scale with you if you can,
or just convert afterwards. Create a list
of questions beforehand, like how much
do four apples weigh? Students should
work in pairs and gather and weigh each
item on the list.

1. If they can lift the weight,

2. To what ease they can lift the weight,
and
3. Which muscle/body part could lift that
weight or what machine they used.
This activity will correlate pounds to real
weight in their minds!

CARPENTRY CLASS

Find a precut wood assembly activity, like a birdhouse kit. If each student
can buy the materials, great, but if not,
use one as a demonstration and have
each student assemble a piece. Bring in
measuring tapes as well. Have students
work in pairs if they each have a kit. Ask
them to measure each piece and make
sure it correlates to the size listed in the
directions. They will have to understand
English inches and feet to assemble, and
they will have a finished product for their
efforts. You can alternatively use a sewing exercise or paper construction for this
activity if wood is expensive or messy!

THAT WEIGHS A TON

How much is a ton really? Find a

few parents, or students if they are older,
willing to participate with their cars and
trucks. Find an empty space in a parking
lot or a flat street clear of traffic. Put the
cars in neutral and have the students try
pushing them in pairs and then guessing
how many tons they weigh. Look up the
actual weights in the owner manual or
on the Internet. Give prizes to whomever
was closest to the real weight!

HOW MUCH
DO FOUR APPLES WEIGH?

To teach ounces and smaller weights,

go to a supermarket or local vegetable

TEACHING WEIGHTS AND MEASUREMENTS IN ENGLISH CAN BE A MATHEMATICAL NIGHTMARE, OR IT CAN

BE A FUN EXPERIENTIAL LEARNING
OPPORTUNITY!
Take your students into the field with these
observational do and learn exercises.

Teaching 7 Situations When Complaining Means Something Else

English speakers probably seem to
complain a lot to EFL learners. What
we natives may not realize is that we
do complain more often than other cultures.
We do not realize because we are not
always complaining but using complaint
language to express an opinion, a concern, or to relay another concept. Here
are 7 fun ways to illuminate your learners on the particularities of complaining,
critiquing, and euphemizing with situational activities for your conversation
class.

TEACH THESE
7 SITUATIONS WHEN
COMPLAINING MEANS
SOMETHING ELSE

BUT I DIDNT WANT

PICKLES WITH THAT!

Native English speakers like food to be

perfect, and they are quick to comment
if it is not so. These critiques are not
necessarily complaints, but they sound
like complaints to non native speakers
who might think it is rude to criticize
food! Emulate restaurant ordering and
complaining with a role-playing activity. This will practice restaurant ordering
dialogue as well.

First, show a short video clip of

someone sending their food back at
a restaurant or act out a scene in
front of the class.

Ask students to work in pairs.

Provide a menu where students

have to pick a very specific order,
like three toppings for a pizza that
also requires selection of one of
five different crusts and four different sauces. One will play the waiter
and the other the customer, and
then they can switch roles.

Instruct the waiter to bring the

wrong food, and role play placing
it on the table and naming different
pizza components than what the
customer ordered.
The customer should then practice

complaining by critiquing the food,

i.e. I wanted cheese, pepperoni,
and onions, and this pizza you
brought has olives.

The waiter should apologize and

take the food away.

You can use a similar role playing game

for other service industries, like hotels. The learning objective is explaining the formula that when a customer
complains about something not being
exactly how she wanted, the other person should be polite and apologetic and
look for a solution to change the situation to the liking of the customer.

MY BLASTED
MOTHER IN LAW

Many cultures would not dream of

criticizing or complaining about family
members, but English speaking natives
do so on a daily basis! Most native English speakers learn to be independent
and think freely from their parents and
siblings early on, so they clash often
with family, especially in laws that think
differently than their family.

Construct an I cant believe she

activity to explain lightheartedly
what bothers natives about their in
laws or family.

Put scenarios on papers/cards such

as said I ..., ate all ..., etc.

Ask students to complete the sentences. I cant believe she said I

was fat. I cant believe she ate all
the turkey.

This is a great way to practice complaining behind someones back as well

as simple past tense verbs!

IT IS SO COLD!

Bad weather makes people

grumpier, and native English speakers
live mainly in fickle climates and hence
grumble about gray skies frequently.

Use complaint language like I hate,

bothers me, annoys me, I find to
talk about snow, ice, rain, wind, and
all of the other bad weather most

natives know so well.

Have students pick a weather condition and tell why they hate it.

For example, I hate the snow because I cannot drive my car.

I CANT BELIEVE
HE MADE ME WAIT!

Waiting annoys most born with the English tongue. Practice waste of time
language in your conversation class.

Give scenarios on papers about

situations where one has to wait,
and then ask students to apply an
idiom supplied on the other side of
the paper in a sentence.

For example, a paper might read:

you have a 10:00 am doctor appointment and it is 10:30 and you
are still in the waiting room, with
testing my patience on the back.

This doctor is really testing my patience for making me wait.

MY BOSS MADE ME

We complain about our bosses

and about work. It is good to teach the
specific situations that annoy English
speakers so that ESL students understand the derivation of such anger in the
workplace.

Work long hours: I had to stay until

8:00 at night and cancel my plans!

Not giving credit: He told the board

members that his team designed
the plan, when I did all the work!

Makes you do something below

your ability level: She made me get
coffee for everyone at the table! It
was my meeting!

Create scenarios on a list or hand out

on pieces of paper to each student and
have them read the sentence and try to
guess why it would make the speaker
so mad. You can discuss how cultural
values drive annoyance.

THAT IS SO UNFAIR
Native English speakers will actu-

11

ally complain to their bosses or other

people that seemingly have control
over them to change a situation they
view is unjust, which is somewhat
unique in a generally order-taking
world. Teach what situations are considered unjust and how to complain
about them politely to try to change
the situation by passing out scenarios and having students try to create a complaint. They can write their
complaints or verbally discuss them.
Teach soft complaint language like
I would like to discuss an issue with
you..., a situation happened that bothered me a bit ..., I think maybe you
overlooked this detail. Scenario examples include:

Money: You are paid less of a

bonus at Christmas time than a
colleague on the same pay scale
and think it is unfair. What do you
say to your boss?

Family favorites: Your Dad takes

your brother out to dinner one
night and you were not included.
What do you say to him?

HE DRIVES ME NUTS!

The romantic relationship is the

source of the most confusing complaint language in English. While a
whole article could be devoted just to
this subject, try a simple conversation
exercise where students talk about
love gone wrong or things their partners do that irritate them.

What bothers you the most about

your wife?

What is the thing you and your

husband fight the most about?

What is your biggest complaint

about your ex-boyfriend?

COMPLAINING AND COMPLAINT

LANGUAGE CAN BE NEGATIVE AND
DEPRESSING, BUT, IF HANDLED THE
RIGHT WAY, IT CAN CONVERSELY
BE A FUN WAY TO ENERGIZE YOUR
CONVERSATION SESSIONS!
By including it in your EFL lessons,
you will be providing a service to your
students as well, as it is critical to understand the values that drive irritation, annoyance, and criticism within
English speaking cultures.

12

How to Explain 8 Common

American Historical Idioms
IT CAN BE HARD TO EXPLAIN
IDIOMS COMMONLY USED IN
ENGLISH WHEN WE AS TEACHERS
ARE UNSURE OF THE MEANINGS
OURSELVES!
Invariably, students will hear idioms in
songs and on TV shows and ask you
what they mean. Be prepared with the
background knowledge and turn their
curiosity into an interactive history lesson with these 8 strategies.

BE PREPARED TO
EXPLAIN HISTORICAL
IDIOMS EFFICIENTLY

AT THE ELEVENTH HOUR

This expression is used frequently to refer to completing a task

at the last minute before a deadline.
English speakers use the 12 hour
clock as opposed to a 24 hour clock,
so the eleventh hour is the last one to
finish a project or event on a certain
day. He finally got the paper in at the
eleventh hour.

BLOW OFF SOME STEAM

The steam engine was popularized for trains in the United States in
the 1800s. When pressure builds in
one, steam has to be blown off, or
released from the mechanism. This
expression is widely used by Americans when they need to relax after
being in a stressful or pressure situation: I need to blow off some steam
and go golfing.

CHEW THE FAT

Native Americans would chew

whale fat like gum, socially or to pass
the time. Chew the fat refers to sitting
and talking socially about lighthearted
subjects with someone. Lets get together and chew the fat after work.

COLD TURKEY

Turkeys are white, bumpy, and

cool to the touch when dead and
plucked. This expression refers to the
way one looks going through with-

drawal from a drug quit without assistance: cold and pallid and moist to the
touch. I quit smoking cold turkey.

JUMP
ON THE BANDWAGON

Political campaigns in the worlds oldest democracy would try to engage

people to listen to a speaker and vote
for a candidate with wagons of musical bands before TV and cars. If people jumped on the bandwagon, they
were offering their support literally to
that candidate that was using popularity to gain votes. This expression
is used in English to refer to joining
a cause or movement, especially one
that is popular, or rooting for a sports
team that is likely to win a championship. I jumped on the bandwagon
and tried that new diet everyone is
talking about.

ONCE IN A BLUE MOON

The Farmers Almanac was

used throughout America, which was
predominantly agricultural until after
World War II, to predict weather conditions annually. The Almanac listed
the full moon cycle. It is rare for a
month to have two full moons, but if
it did, the first one would be in red letters and the second in blue. Hence,
the expression once in a blue moon
means that something occurs very
rarely. My daughter eats broccoli
once in a blue moon.

Teaching techniques: use these activities together or separately to teach

and reinforce history idiom learning.

Slide Show with historical cartoons, and/or old pictures: Put

together a slide show to show a
page from the Farmers Almanac,
a political bandwagon, a steam
engine, etc. This will make the
terms come alive for students!

Match the definitions: Separate

the students into two groups.
Give idioms on paper cut outs to
one group of students, and then
modern situations that apply the
idioms to another group. Instruct
them to walk around the class,
talk to each other in English, and
find their matches.

Act it out or draw it out: Make a

charades game or a drawing
game as a check for learning after
you have explained the concepts.
Students should act out the words
in their phrases or draw the concepts in two teams. The team has
to guess the phrase in a minute or
less to get a point.

ON THE BALL

This term comes from baseball.

When a pitcher has good control of
the game, he is on the ball. English
speakers say they are on the ball
when they are on top of a situation,
a project, or just completing a task.
He was really on the ball and got that
project done before the deadline.

almost always had a church with a

bell as a central meeting place. Before
alarms, electricity, and phones, the
bell was rung to remind townspeople
of events and hours. Hence, if a clue
or signal rings a bell, it is an alarm
trigger to remember to do something
or just to remember something in general. My mom calling me rung a bell
that her birthday is next week.

RING A BELL

Modern America was created by

settlers colonizing new towns across
the North American continent. Towns

INJECT A BIT OF HISTORY INTO

YOUR CLASS AND/OR CONVERT
YOUR CONVERSATION COURSE INTO
AN EDUCATIONAL EXPERIENCE
WITH AMERICAN HISTORY IDIOM
EXPLANATIONS!
They can be powerful tools to help
students make word and concept
connections that help elucidate ideas
in English and are also interesting to
learn.

13

Give it a Year: 7 Strategies

for Teaching about the Calendar
The topic of calendars is a very important one for ESL students. Everyone
needs to be able to discuss the date or
the year, no matter what their age. An
added challenge for some is that they
may usually put the date before the
month, but now need to adjust to the
month and then the date. Of course,
there are also ordinal numerals to work
with as well. Here are some simple, fun
strategies to teach reading a calendar
for your ESL class.

TRY THESE
7 STRATEGIES
TO TEACH ABOUT THE
CALENDAR

SPELL IT OUT

First you will need to introduce the

names of the days of the week and the
months of the year. Show a calendar of
the year in its entirety. Point out how the
calendar week starts on Sunday, as in
other cultures it may start on Monday or
another day. Go over the pronunciation
of the months and the days. This lends
itself to a lot of repetition. If you have
covered birthdays, or it is an intermediate or advanced class, you can ask,
Who has a birthday in ___________?
(insert month), or simple questions like
On what day is this class? and look
for correct answers. This keeps it a bit
more interesting.

WHOS ON FIRST?

In some other languages, it is not

necessary to use ordinal numbers to
express the date. You may need to explain to your students that in English it
is done this way. Teach them the ordinal
numbers all the way to thirty-first, as
is necessary for the calendar. Some fun
activities to teach them would be to have
students line up, and other students tell
you who is first, second and so on. You
can make this activity as easy or difficult as you choose. Depending on your
class, you may want to continue further
with the ordinal numbers now or in future sessions.

14

ITS A DATE

It is very important to teach how to

say a full date in English. Students may
be used to giving the number before
the month and so on. You will need to
explain to them how the date is said in
English: the month followed by the ordinal number, then the year. Start with todays date and proceed with a few other
example dates. Be sure to work on the
pronunciation of the year as well. You
may want to explain that some people
say two thousand thirteen, while others say, twenty-thirteen, but they both
mean 2013. You may want to ask the
students for dates important to them
to make it more relevant. Asking them
who has a birthday in a certain month
and then having them tell you the actual
date is a fun way to include everyone on
a personal level.

MAKE IT YOUR OWN

This activity requires some preparation from your student. If possible,

order blank calendars from a teaching
supply site, or print them out. You will
need blank calendars with a space for a
picture on the top. Have your students
bring it a list of dates that are important
to them, at least one for each month if
possible. Have them design their own
calendars, drawing a picture symbolizing either the month or the people who
have important dates for them in that
month. On the calendar grid, have them
write Annas birthday or whatever the
occasion may be, filling in the correct
English terms. After they are done, have
the students write sentences for five of
those occasions. For example, My sisters birthday is on October 16th. After
they are done writing, they can share
these with the class.

YOUR NUMBERS UP

Reading and writing the date using numbers only may be a challenge
for your students, particularly those who
are used to putting the day before the
month. Now, using numbers, they will
need make sure they are putting the
month before the day. You may want to
start by drilling them regarding the num-

bers for each month. You call out a number and they respond with the month,
and vice versa. For a fun twist, you may
let the students act as the leaders and
call out the numbers or months. Many
students enjoy taking a leadership role.

FRIENDLY COMPETITION

This is a fun way to practice writing the date using numbers correctly
in English. Begin by reviewing how to
write the date in number form. This is
very important because students will
need to be able to write the date in number form on a check or the like. Divide
the class into teams (number of teams
would depend on number of students).
Have one member of each team come
to the board. Read aloud a date in this
format: the 27th of February. The first
player to write 2/27 correctly wins that
round. This becomes a high energy
game and is popular with students.

THIS IS YOUR MONTH

Assign each student a month of

the year (repeating if necessary), but
tell them not to tell others which month
they have. Have them write three clues
about the month, such as its holidays,
season or usual weather in your area.
When they finish, have them take turns
reading them aloud. When it is their
turn, have them choose volunteers to
guess the correct answer. It is fun to
see who can guess the answers the
most quickly.

BEING ABLE TO READ A CALENDAR

AND READ AND WRITE THE DATE ARE
ALL VERY IMPORTANT SKILLS FOR
YOUR ESL STUDENTS. It will help them

at work, at home and socially. Calendar

is definitely one of those activities that
you can and should put into your class
routine, either at the beginning or end
of every class. You can practice by yesterday was _____________, today is
______________ and tomorrow will
be ________________. Getting into a
routine of saying the date on a regular
basis will help your students become
comfortable with using a calendar in
English.

Cross-cultural Education How It Helps ESL Students

Lots of ESL teachers teach English
in countries where English is not the
native language, and the students
culture is the dominant one. But there
are ESL teachers that teach English
as a second language when it is, in
fact, the dominant one. In addition to
the language, students need to learn
the cultural aspects that will help them
not only understand the country they
are now living in, but also interact with
the locals. It is precisely this crosscultural training that helps everything
seem a little less alien and a little
more familiar. Heres what you need
to know for effective cross-cultural
training within your ESL classroom.

THE BENEFITS OF
CROSS-CULTURAL
TRAINING IN THE ESL
CLASSROOM

Whether your students are adults

who will be doing business in a
country that is foreign to them, or
children who want to make new
friends, cross-cultural training relieves the stress of relocation.

It helps prevent culture shock.

It helps students connect with locals faster, more confidently and

enables them to form stronger social and business connections.

HOW TO INCLUDE
CROSS-CULTURAL
TRAINING IN YOUR
ESL CLASSROOM

GIVE THEM SKILLS THEY

CAN USE EVERY DAY

Upon arriving to a foreign country students may not understand a whole

lot, but they will understand one thing:
lots of things are different there. The
first thing they can do to ensure there
are no misunderstandings, and that
no one is offended by the wrong type
of remark is to learn some basic skills,
which include:
Asking the speaker to slow down
Asking the speaker to repeat what
he/she said

Retelling, to confirm theyve understood correctly

Making polite requests
Asking for more information and
learning about differences/things
they dont understand
Proper ways to greet people and
say goodbye

These are essential skills that will not

only help them get around but also get
them started on the right foot towards
making new contacts/friends.

FOCUS ON THEIR NEEDS

What is your students most

pressing need? To make new friends
at school? To do business/errands
around town? To give professional
presentations and participate in meetings? The answer to this question
should give you exactly what you
need to focus on throughout your lessons. You might want to tailor role
plays with this particular need in mind.
For example, if your ESL students are
homemakers who have had to relocate with their husbands, there are
several role play situations that will
be specifically useful for them, from
grocery shopping to health care concerns.

USE
THEIR OWN CURIOSITY

More often than not, a student will ask

you what a particular word means. It
might be a food, an item of clothing
or a word used in a phrase. Take the
opportunity to teach the meaning of
that word but also any others that fall
into the same category, like other local foods.

INCLUDE
INFORMAL LANGUAGE

One of the most confusing aspects

of the new language is the set of colloquialisms and slang a student is
suddenly exposed to. Cash becomes
dough, men become guys, women become gals, and the list goes on. Dont
forget to teach informal language that

is useful to students, while still avoiding words and phrases that are obviously vulgar and cant be used in polite conversation.

SPARK INTEREST

While there are plenty of things

you can teach them in the classroom,
there are things they should also find
out on their own. If they show interest
in the local cuisine, you might want to
teach them a few new words, but then
encourage them to research others.
Assign projects or homework that includes, for instance, taking photos of
the food at a local restaurant or looking up menus online.

ELIMINATE EXCLUSION,
FOSTER INCLUSION

ESL students may learn all the right

skills and useful vocabulary to communicate and interact with the locals,
but that does not mean they wont feel
less excluded. Are there any opportunities for them to interact with local
groups? A quick search on Meetup.
com may turn up some interesting results. There are groups for people interested in photography, art, reading,
and even foreign language exchange
in practically every city in the globe.
They may not share the same native
language, but they will certainly have
a special interest in common. The
sense of belonging to a group and
feeling included can do wonders for
your ESL students.
This last point cant be emphasized
enough. Whats the point of helping
them learn more about the local culture if they wont have anyone to interact with? For example, you may teach
your class all about the American
Thanksgiving, but hopefully at some
point, they will participate in the actual
celebration at someones home. Our
goal is to help them prepare so that
they can face these events and dayto-day interactions with confidence,
and enjoy them for what they are:
opportunities to connect with others
despite the cultural differences.

15

How do you feel? Prepare

your ESL students for the worst
FEELING SICK IS ALWAYS A DRAG,
ISNT IT?

It gets even worse when you realize

you need to see a doctor.
Now imagine this, you are in a foreign country and you feel terrible. You
know you need medical attention, and
thats when you become aware of the
fact that your whole conversation with
the doctor will be in another language.
Youll need to describe symptoms and
how you feel in general.
Communicating with a doctor in a
foreign language can be frustrating,
and this is why our students need to
be ready. In this scenario, things can
only get worse if they arent prepared.

PARTS OF THE BODY

In any kind of medical situation it is
essential to know where everything is
first. You should teach your students
the parts of the body so they can
clearly express where the discomfort
is. To do this, you can work with an
illustration of a human body and have
them repeat as you go along. Another
option is to point to parts of the body
and have them tell you what they are.

PREPARE YOUR
STUDENTS TO SEE
A DOCTOR IN A
FOREIGN COUNTRY
PAINLESSLY

WHATS THE PROBLEM?

When anyone arrives at a doctors office, the first thing the doctor is
going to want to know is what is ailing
that person, in other words, why that
person has taken the trouble to go to
their office. Your students should learn
what questions they will be asked and
what they should answer. Here is a list
of useful questions that can help you
prepare them.

What brings you here?

What is bothering you?
What seem to be the problem?
How can I help you?
Now come the answers. Here they will
need to give accurate descriptions of

16

symptoms and where they are located on the body.Take a look at some
typical ailments and the expressions
used to talk about them below.

I have a backache/ headache/

toothache/ etc.
My head/ back/ leg/ foot/ stomach
hurts.
I have some discomfort on my ...
ACTIVITY 1

To practice, make cards with the questions a doctor might ask and others
with answers. Have some students
pick a card from the doctors questions and others from the patients.
Pair the students up and have them
act out short exchanges where one is
the doctor and the other is the patient.

HOW DO YOU FEEL?

In addition to expressing what

they have, it is also important to describe symptoms using adjectives.
Adjectives provide more details and
can come in handy when the doctor
wants to know where to look. Take a
look at some examples:

My throat feels scratchy/ irritated/

raw.
I feel feverish.
My nose feels itchy.
My neck is stiff/ sore
My chest feels constricted.
My feet are swollen
ACTIVITY 2

Write down a list of ailments on the

board. Assign one to each student
and have them describe how they
might feel when they have this ailment. For example: Sore throat. The
student would then say, My throat
feels raw and irritated.

IS IT BAD?

Very often simply stating what

you have or what hurts just isnt
enough. We need to let the doctor
know how bad that pain or problem
is. A great way to intensify is by using
adjectives and adverbs. Take a look at
some popular choices.

I have a terrible headache

I feel intense pain in my leg when

I walk.
I have a mild stomachache
I feel a little dizzy when I get up.
My throat is terribly irritated
ACTIVITY 3

Here you can use a simple guessing

game. Student A can describe how
he/she feels and student B has to
guess what he/she has. For example:
Student A: I have intense pain in my
stomach.
Student B: You have a stomachache.

WHEN DID
THESE SYMPTOMS BEGIN?

This is another typical question. Doctors naturally want to know and always ask when symptoms began.This
information is also vital for an accurate medical diagnosis. With your ESL
students it is a good idea to practice
this. Take a look at the following expressions
They started last week/ one week
ago/ last Monday.
I have had these symptoms for a
week.

ACTIVITY 4

For this last activity a role play is very

handy. Basically one student plays
the doctor while another plays the
patient. After they are done they can
switch roles.

THOUGH WE WOULD ALL LIKE TO

FEEL LIKE A MILLION DOLLARS
EVERYDAY, THAT IS SADLY
IMPOSSIBLE.
Getting sick is a natural human condition. By practicing this, we are in fact
helping our ESL students cope with
difficult situations. After all, they have
to be ready for whatever happens.

Ready for the worst? 5 Great tips

on preparing students for disasters
EXTREME WEATHER EVENTS ARE
EVERYWHERE.

Who hasnt been affected by one in one

form or another? Whether its extremely cold or hot, wet or dry, our weather
conditions are changing drastically and
bringing all sorts or unexpected chaos
in its wake. Lets face it, these problems
are here to stay. Now, facing difficult situations like these is certainly hard anywhere you are, but think about your ESL
students who usually need to travel and
might even live abroad at some point.
Dont they deserve to be ready? If you
consider that disasters of different sorts
are more and more common, helping
your ESL students for unexpected mishaps is very important. So the question
is, how can you do this? Take a look at
these tips.

TRY THESE 5 GREAT

TIPS TO PREPARE
YOUR STUDENTS FOR
DISASTERS

HERE THE INFO IS.

The first rule in any kind of

preparation is info, info, info. The first
thing your students will need to do is
learn where they can find information
about the disasters they might encounter. So a little research is required here
but fortunately, there plenty of different
sources of information. The main objective here is not only to find information
but for them to learn how to search for
that kind of information by themselves.
Once they are on their own things could
get a bit hairy if they arent ready. Also
since there are many sources of information on just about anything, it is necessary to check these sources ahead of
time.

Be sure to do a bit of research

ahead of time so that by the time you
have the lesson you are ready to guide
your students to the best sources. Governmental organizations are usually
very trustworthy but there are others as
well. A bit of looking around will definitely
help you find great info.

ISASTERS AND WHAT THEY

ARE ABOUT

So now that we know where the good

information is, you are ready for the next
step. First things first, what is a natural
disaster? In this case you will need to
learn about different kinds of disasters
together and go over the information
with your students.

Start with a list of some of the most

common disasters. Of course there are
different types so what you should focus
on is names and general description of
each. It is important to understand what
the consequences of each type of disaster are. Ask yourself these questions.
What happens when they hit? What do
they do? What is the degree of destruction? Of course you can add to this list
and remember the more info you cover,
the more they will know.

Your students will not encounter

all types of disasters. They might however bump into one or two depending
on where they are traveling or moving
to. After going over a list of common
natural disasters, you should focus on
where they happen. What types of disasters affect the place where theyll be.
By doing this you can spend more time
on the types of situations they will likely
encounter.

Make sure your students are ready

to follow steps and fully understand
what they need to do when something
happens.

Teach them expressions like take

cover, evacuate, warning, emergency,
etc. They are necessary for them to understand what they need to do. You will
find much more vocabulary on the sites
you are consulting. They should understand all of them clearly because there
may be cases where their survival might
depend on it.

BEING READY CAN GIVE PEOPLE A

FIGHTING CHANCE TO GET THROUGH
HARD SITUATIONS UNSCATHED.
HOWEVER EVEN THOUGH WE ARE
TALKING ABOUT DISASTERS, WE MUST
ALWAYS KEEP THE LESSONS UPBEAT,
GOAL ORIENTED AND POSITIVE. KEEP
IN MIND THAT WE ARE PREPARING
THEM FOR THE WORST BUT EVEN
IN HARD CONDITIONS WE SHOULD
ALWAYS HOPE FOR THE BEST.

HAT SHOULD BE DONE

OK, you have your sources,

you know about disasters, some of their
main characteristics and where they hit.
What comes next? Well, just learning
about possible problems isnt very useful unless you know what to do about
them. So for this last part of the lesson,
you should focus on what should be
done when disasters come knocking at
your door. Once again, you will find this
info on the sites you consulted earlier.

17

Directions: 3 Outdoor Activities

for Three Types of Directions
DIRECTIONS ARE SOMETHING EVERY
ESL TEACHER WILL HAVE TO ADDRESS
AT SOME POINT.
Asking, understanding, and giving directions is such an important skill that it really
cant be overlooked. As a result, a plethora of directions activities are available on
almost any ESL or EFL website. Some
are good and some are not so good, but
one thing they all have in common is that
the students stay inside. Now, there are
obvious benefits to keeping the kids inside, and working with maps will certainly
help them start to get a firm grasp on the
language they need to ask directions.
But nothing really prepares students like
actually using the language out in the
world. Not every teacher has the good
fortune to be allowed to take their students outside, but for those who do, here
are three great activities for getting your
students using English directions in real
time.

TRY THESE 3 GREAT

OUTDOOR ACTIVITIES
TO HELP STUDENTS
USE DIRECTIONS

BLOCK BY BLOCK

This is one of the easiest activities

to create. All you need is a map of the
neighbourhood and a familiarity with the
area around your school. This will be a
group project and the teacher must decide if they want every group to complete a different route, or it they want to
send all of the groups on the same route
and make it a timed event. In the latter case, allow at least five minutes between groups departing to prevent a foul
up along the way. My preference is for
sending them all out on different routes. It
makes sure that there they dont just run
along and follow one group after another.
Depending on the level of your class there
are two ways to prepare. Either give them
a sheet of written, block-by-block directions that they must follow or give them a
map with a series of points indicated on
it and have them create the most efficient
route to visit all of them. Once you are
sure that they know where they are going
turn them loose in the neighbourhood to
follow the directions. In most well wired
countries, students will have cell phones
with cameras. For each location, select
a specific business or landmark and require that the students take a photo of it

18

to show the teacher when they get back.

They must have all the photos in the correct order when they arrive back at the
school.

LANDMARKS

In some ways this is very similar to

the above exercise but it practices a different kind of directions. This also requires
a map and knowledge of the neighbourhood on the part of both teachers and students. Create a list of major neighbourhood landmarks and locate small lesser
known shops or markers near them. It is
these lesser known places that your students will have to locate and document
in some way. Each group will get a list
of landmarks in the neighbourhood and
with each landmark, directions to get to
the smaller location nearby. For example
the landmark might be the bank. The directions that the group are given would
be something like the following: go to the
bank. Locate the small restaurant with a
red sign that is kitty-corner to the bank
and on the second floor. From here, this
activity plays out the same way Block by
Block, with the various groups competing
with one another to complete their list of
destinations first.
Extension: Rather than just giving them
the names of landmarks such as banks,
create a jigsaw style puzzle that they
must solve before they can go out and
find the landmark. To do this, each member of the group would get a set of numbered clues. All the number one clues
would lead to the same thing, so they can
read the clues to one another and try and
work out what the place could be. Taking
a bank as an example, student As first
clue could be People would love to rob
me, student Bs first clue could be I have
a very big safe and so on.

LARGE SCALE MADE SMALL

Finding a way to practice large

scale directions, such as would be used
between cities, is very difficult and obviously falls in the category of how can I
approximate the skills they need while
still making a fun activity? This activity
necessarily draws on the landmark style
instructions as well as practicing compass based directions. Designing this
activity requires that the teacher spend
quite a bit of time finding suitable landmarks and that they understand the
layout of the neighbourhood. Identify

several landmarks, crossroads, or other

distinct locations and mark them on the
map. Create a set of directions from the
school. These should take the form of directions and distance (ie. Go northwest
850 meters). If the students have access
to compasses you can make these directions even more specific with degree
values etc. For low level classes simply
continue in this vein, giving new directions from the new location to different
selected landmarks. Give the students
a scale map of the neighbourhood and
make sure they have a ruler. They use
these to locate their destination on the
map and then go to it.
For higher level classes, and classes
where there is more time, include a small
landmark based instruction at each location. For example if the first instruction
takes them to an elementary school,
the second might be to locate the market with a green sign. From there, go
southeast 200 metres. In this way, the
students must take the map, ruler, and
directions with them. Once they reach
the first destination they have to search
for the landmark. Then they must locate
the landmark on the map, read the next
compass based direction, draw that on
the map, and head off to their new destination. As you can see, this activity takes
a lot of class time, but the students seem
to enjoy it. However, it is labour intensive
so do not make these courses too long or
the students will lose interest.

CONCLUSION

Obviously, all of these are only the activities and none of them will work if the
teachers have not first taught the necessary vocabulary and phrases to their students. To emphasise listening skills with
higher level classes, read the directions
out to the groups rather than handing
them sheets of paper with written directions. Students love these activities because they get to head outside and run
around. Its like free time for them, but
they are actually practicing using the
language in an applicable manner. Also,
when they see how useful, and challenging, directions can be, they start to realize
that this might actually be a useful ability
to have and tend to make a greater effort
to understand the necessary language.
Beyond that, it is always fun to watch the
kids charging off and racing back having
completed their tasks, so sit back and
share in the fun.

Shop Till You Drop. 6 Great

Activities to Help Students Shop
WHO DOESNT LIKE SHOPPING?

The thrill of buying new things is truly

exciting, always something to look forward to, or is it? Now picture this: you
are in a store and have a couple of
items you like but the sizes and colors
are not what you need or want. You
need assistance but you cant ask for
help -- you dont speak the local language. You desperately point and use
your hands to show the sales person
what you want, but sadly she doesnt
understand. That is when you realize
shopping will be a lot harder than you
had imagined. This is what a lot of our
students might go through unless we
step in and do something about it, and
there is a lot we can do. Take a look
at these great tips and goal-oriented
activities.

MAKE STUDENTS
SHOPPING PLEASANT
IN AN ENGLISH
SPEAKING COUNTRY

SIZE DOES MATTER

There is nothing worse than

buying something that doesnt fit.
Whether its too big or too small, if it
isnt just right, it is simply wrong. So
this is one of the things our students
have to learn. How to describe sizes
and what size they are. Lets take a
look at some useful expressions.

Im size 12. I dont see it on the

rack.
May I have a size 10 please?
Id like this in large.

COLOR ME HAPPY

All of us have colors we simply

love and others we can live without.
Colors we wear affect how we feel.
Naturally, we all have preferences depending on taste and also the occasion where that piece of clothing will
be used. Where ESL vocabulary is
concerned, it is important to go over
colors with your students. You might
also want to introduce modifiers such
as bright, light and dark.

What colors does this come in?

Do you have this in red/ bright

red?
Is this available in blue/ dark
blue?
Id like this in black, please?

IN STYLE

Though styles change from time

to time, all of us also have our own
preferences. The style of clothes we
use is something that identifies us. It
can make us more formal or casual.
It can make us look more professional or fun and carefree. Here, we are
aiming for language functions that describe styles.

Im looking for something a bit

more formal/ elegant/ casual.
Is there anything a bit shorter/
longer.
I was thinking of something a bit
more loose/ tight.

HOW DO I LOOK?

At this point your students have

already chosen a couple of things
they like and would like to try on, so,
its off to the fitting room. Here, they
will need to describe what was wrong
with their choices and why they didnt
like them. Also, they will need to express what they did like. It is a good
idea to practice brainstorming what
things they might like or not like about
different pieces of clothing. An example with a sweater is that they like
it because its warm. They could also
say they dont like it because the wool
is rough. Take a look at some popular
choices.

tice language functions where they

ask about the price and if there are
any sales or discounts. Take a look at
some of the most common questions.

How much does it cost?

How much is it?
Is this on sale?
Do you have anything a little
cheaper?

CASH OR CHARGE?

All this fun must conclude some

time, right? At the end of any shopping spree we have to pay. This is not
the part we like the most, but unless
you want to have problems with the
police, it is non negotiable.Here are
some language functions you should
practice with your students at this
point.

How much is it in total with tax?

Do you take credit cards/ checks?
GIVE YOUR ESL STUDENTS THE
TOOLS TO MANAGE SITUATIONS
LIKE THESE CONFIDENTLY AND
COMFORTABLY.
When students are ready, theyll see
shopping can be a blast, not a drag.

Its a bit too tight/ loose / big /

small
Its fine, Ill take it.
I dont like the way this looks on
me.
I love this ..., its so comfortable/
soft.

IS THE PRICE RIGHT?

As it goes, once youve chosen

what you like and tried it on, its time
to look at the price. Some people do
that at the beginning. In any case, it
is critical to have your students prac-

19

Do We Have a Deal? Help Your

ESL Student Negotiate in English
NEGOTIATIONS ARE PRESENT IN
OUR EVERYDAY LIFE.

Many ESL teachers consider negotiation is a skill only business students

should develop. However, if you think
about it, you negotiate everyday and
more often than you can even imagine. We do it with our spouses, kids,
siblings, and even our students,
young or old. However, though negotiation is very common, there are certain types that dont come as naturally
to everyone alike. Some people feel
reluctant to find a compelling argument to convince others to do or not to
do something. They simply dont like
it. Others, on the other hand, are very
willing to negotiate but are not very
good at it. Negotiation is an art but not
a secret. We can all learn to be better
negotiators. Take a look at the negotiating strategies and ESL language
functions below.

PREPARE
YOUR STUDENTS
TO NEGOTIATE
EFFECTIVELY

GET READY

As in anything we do, preparation is key. At this point, students

must understand that in any negotiation theyll be lost if they rush in without the necessary preparation. They
need to be clear on what they want
out of the arrangement, but, they will
also need to research the counterpart
to better understand what their needs
are. To help your students, have them
consider and practice answering the
following questions.

What does the other party hope to

get out of this?
Why is this outcome important to
them?
What might happen if they dont
get what they are after?

LISTEN

Listening is always important

and in a negotiation it can go a long
way. Listening to other part while negotiating will enable students to make

20

the other person feel respected and

as a consequence, it will build trust
which is essential in any negotiation.
It also gives people a good opportunity to make sure that there are no
misunderstandings.
An important language skill to build on
at this point is echoing. This is when
you repeat back what the person is
saying. A good way to practice this
with your students is to read a short
text to them and have them echo what
you said. Take a look at the example.

T: What I really want to do tomorrow is watch a movie then go out

for a bite. Maybe afterwards we
can go to the party at Tinas.
S: Ok, so you want to go to a
movie, then dinner at a restaurant
and to go to a party later on.

MUTUAL BENEFITS

Negotiating shouldnt be about

winning and leaving a devastated opponent behind. Your students should
understand that if this is what they
expect, reaching and agreement will
be much harder. The best way to approach negotiations is to find options
that are beneficial to both parties.
They need to be ready to make concessions and to plan what these might
be. As you can imagine, the counterpart thinks the same way, so try to
have a clear idea of what you want
and what you are going to get.
Some language skills needed at this
point involve making concessions and
also making counter offers. Take a
look at the following expressions.

We were hoping for....

I am afraid that is out of the question.
I dont think that we could go that
far.

UNDERSTANDING
COUNTER OFFERS

Counter offers are a natural part of

any negotiation. Your student should
understand that they have to be prepared for counter offers from the other

party when negotiating. They should

also be prepared to make them when
they are negotiating. In any case, acknowledging objections is another
very important point to keep in mind.
Doing this makes the other person
feel understood and avoids bringing
the discussion to an end. Take a look
at some useful phrases you can teach
your students.

I understand where you are coming from but,...

I see your point, however...
There may be some room to manoeuvre, if you....

CLOSE
WITH CONFIRMATION

All negotiations will come to an end

whether an agreement is made or not.
At this point students should be aware
that it is important to recap everything
discussed in the meeting, whether
they have made a deal or not. They
should never leave any loose ends,
so after the recap, everyone should
confirm. In business negotiations, appropriate follow up e-mails should be
sent . Take a look at the examples.

So we will ... and you will... Its

been a pleasure. Lets keep in
touch. Feel free to contact me
anytime.
Ok so Ill ... and you .... Great
thanks for your time.
SOME NEGOTIATIONS CAN BE
TOUGH.

In life, many negotiations have a lot

riding on them. No matter what your
students will be negotiating, preparing them will give them the self confidence they need to make the best
deal.

5 Nifty Tips on How to Help Students Handle Awkward Situations

LIFE IS FULL OF AWKWARD SITUATIONS, AND HANDLING THEM IS NOT
ALWAYS EASY.

However, managing them in a different language is much harder still. What

should you do in this type of situation?
When other people are involved, is it a
good idea to say something? Is there
a good time to do so? What if it is you
who has caused the awkwardness? I
guess we all ask ourselves these questions but when the people involved are
from other countries, the discomfort
can only rise.
There are many different kinds of awkward situations and fortunately there
are great techniques to handle them.
Lets take a look at some of these uncomfortable scenarios.

CHECK OUT THESE 5

TIPS ON HOW TO HELP
YOUR ESL STUDENTS
HANDLE AWKWARD
SITUATIONS

AVOIDING PERSONAL
QUESTIONS

Nosy people are everywhere. Some

are simply unaware their questions
are too personal or private. Others do
it intentionally to get the dirt on others. Whether they are innocent or like
to gossip, the technique you should
teach your student is the same. Let
them know they can answer questions
without actually answering them. This
is great because they can manage the
situation comfortably without being too
direct about how they really feel. Take
a look at the examples:
Student 1: So, how much do you make?
Student 2: Not as much as Id like but I
guess cant complain.
Student 1: Why did you get divorced?
Student 2: Well, lets just say my ex
husband and I didnt have a lot in common.

I FORGOT YOUR NAME

Remembering peoples names

is extremely important if you want to

build strong relationships in life. We all
know strong relationships are one of
the most important factors for success.
But, who hasnt forgotten someones
name at some point. This is a very
common situation and it is much more
uncomfortable for those who forget
than for those whose name was forgotten. In the business world, this can become even more complicated. In any of
these cases, what we have to keep in
mind as ESL teachers is that there are
different techniques we can teach our
students to help them get through this.
This first option is quite direct. It is
simply a an extraordinarily polite way
to ask someone to repeat their name.
Take a look at an example.

Excuse me, I know weve met,

could you tell me your name
again?
This second option is a bit different.

-- Hello, you are Jill from the accounting department, right?

-- Hi, actually Im Jane from the
accounting department.
-- Did I say Jill? I meant to say
Jane.

CHANGING THE SUBJECT.

There are topics we all want to

avoid. Either because the timing isnt
right or because you think it is downright inappropriate. Sometimes it is
simply a good idea to change the subject. As ESL teachers we need to provide our students with useful language
functions to suit different situations.
Lets take a look at a few.

express something in a way that is misleading and right after that comes the
uncomfortable silence. The good news
is that it is possible to make things right
again, and that it is exactly what you
are going to practice with your students. Lets take a look at some handy
expressions to handle this.

What I meant was....

What I was trying to say was...
That wasnt what I wanted to say.
Let me try that again.

YOU DIDNT UNDERSTAND.

In different social encounters

there is yet another difficult situation
many people face, specially those who
dont speak the language. For ESL students, not understanding what others
are saying is truly very common. Again,
by teaching your ESL students these
useful expressions you can give them
great tools to cope with comprehension
issues.

Im sorry would you mind saying

that again?
Would you mind repeating that?
Excuse me, could you please say
that again?
Excuse me, I didnt catch that.
REMEMBER TO TELL YOUR STUDENTS
THAT IN ANY AWKWARD SITUATION
THE OBJECTIVE IS TO MANAGE AND
CONTROL THE SITUATION AS QUICKLY
AS POSSIBLE. PRACTICE DIFFERENT
SCENARIOS WITH THEM AND MAKE
SURE THEY ARE READY BECAUSE
SOCIAL INTERACTIONS TEND TO BE
VERY UNPREDICTABLE.

Id rather not talk about that.

I dont thinks this is a good time to
discuss that.
If you dont mind, Id rather not talk
about that now.

CLARIFYING
WHAT YOU MEANT.

Sometimes what we what to express

doesnt quite come out the way we intended it to. We say the wrong thing or

21

Moving Right Along: 4 Fresh Activities for Teaching Transportation

TRANSPORTATION IS A COMMON
SUBJECT IN ESL CLASSES.

Not only does a unit on transportation

have practical applications, like vacationing in a foreign country, most ESL
students who study in English speaking
countries have experienced many types
of travel just to enter their program.

CHECK SOME NEW

IDEAS TO TEACH
ABOUT TRANSPORT

SAFETY FIRST

Different modes of transportation

have different rules for being safe. For
example, safety precautions for riding
a bicycle are very different for those for
flying in a plane. Start by brainstorming
with your class all the possible modes of
transportation, then have your students
choose one mode of transportation from
the list. Ask them to write five ways to
be safe when travelling that way. For
example, when riding a bicycle, someone should wear a helmet and reflective
clothing. They should obey traffic laws.
They should walk their bicycle through
intersections, and they should not let another person ride on the bike with them.
As they write their safety precautions,
they should number them one through
five but not write on their paper what
mode of travel they are talking about.
Collect everyones paper, assign each a
number, and then share them with your
class. You can either post the safety
measures or read them to the rest of
the class. The other students should try
to guess what travel method the writer
was describing when he wrote his five
safety measures. Have them number
their papers and write what method of
travel they think each list describes. Let
students check their answers with a partner and then clear up any that are still
stumping your students.

GRAMMAR RACE

Do you want to stir up some competition among your students? Have a

grammar race as part of your transportation unit. Divide your class into teams
of around five students each (try not to
have more than four teams), and have
each team use a large cardboard box to
make some type of vehicle. (Students
can decorate them with scraps of paper,

22

cardboard tubes and other craft supplies.) Then use masking tape or pieces of construction paper taped to the
floor to create a life sized game board.
Each round, one player from each team
comes to the front of the class and
stands at one corner of a student desk.
You should tape a red construction paper circle to the center of the desk to
serve as the buzzer. Practice a current
grammar topic or review ones you have
already covered by asking a fill in the
blank question. Even better, ask a grammatical question that ties into the transportation theme. If a student knows the
answer, he hits the buzzer. The first one
to hit it gets a chance to answer. If he is
right, he rolls a six sided die and moves
his teams vehicle that many spaces. If
he gets it wrong, the second to the buzzer answers, rolls the die and advances.
The first team to the end of the game
board is the winner.

VEHICLE VOCABULARY

A transportation unit is a good opportunity to teach some vocabulary that

might not otherwise come up in class.
With your students, brainstorm as many
different types of transportation as possible. Your list should include everything
from hot air balloons to mopeds, skateboards to space shuttles. Then, have
each student choose a different vehicle
as the topic for some personal research.
As they research, your students should
create a diagram of their mode of transportation and label several of its parts. A
person who diagramed a bicycle might
label handle bars, wheels, spokes, seat
and reflectors. This is a good activity to
use for homework or during a free study
period. Once students complete their
diagrams, put them into groups of about
four to share what they have discovered.
Each group should make a comprehensive list of all the vehicle parts they labeled on their diagrams. Now your students have a chance to get creative.
Each person should choose at least
three components from the comprehensive list that he would add to his original
vehicle that were not already part of his
vehicle. He should make a new diagram
which shows the three additions to the
vehicle. Have students follow up by writing a paragraph describing the additions
they would make to their vehicle and
why.

DO YOU HEAR WHAT I HEAR

A transportation unit is a great opportunity to talk about onomatopoeia in

English. Onomatopoeia is a category of
words that represent an actual sound.
Words like woof, ding and thump fall into
this category. (You can find other examples here: bit.ly/NyqerH) Students of foreign languages will soon learn that even
though onomatopoeia is a representation of a sound in real life, not all languages transcribe those sounds alike.
This is why a dog says woof woof in English and wang wang in Korean. All kinds
of vehicles make noises that are represented with English words. Sounds like
vroom, choo-choo, toot-toot, honk, zoom
and chug represent sounds that have all
become English words. Give your students a chance to talk about their home
countries and language by asking them
what noises different vehicles make in
their native languages. Then brainstorm
a list of English onomatopoeia related to
vehicles and travel. You might want to
have students use these words to write
a poem about travel. A haiku is a simple
poetry structure of five syllables, seven
syllables, and five syllables in three separate lines. Challenge your students to
choose one type of transportation and
write a haiku using at least two words
from your onomatopoeia list. This is also
a good opportunity to review syllables
and word stress as your students follow
the haiku format. If you like, have students illustrate their haikus and display
them on a bulletin board in your classroom.

CHALLENGING YOUR STUDENTS TO

GIVE DIRECTIONS FROM ONE PLACE
TO ANOTHER OR MAKING CONDITIONAL SENTENCES ABOUT PLACES
THEY WOULD LIKE TO VISIT ARE GREAT
ACTIVITIES THAT TIE INTO A UNIT ON
TRANSPORTATION. Sometimes, though,
students and teachers alike want something different, a new approach to a
classic ESL unit. When something different is what you are in the mood for, try
talking about vehicle safety with your students, making a life sized game board,
getting creative with a transportation reinvention or talking about unique sound
words and poetry. It will challenge your
students and take what they are learning
about trains, planes and automobiles to
a new experience.

You Can Bank on it: 5 Strategies

to Teach the How-Tos of Banking
BANKING IS A VERY IMPORTANT
SUBJECT FOR ADULT ENGLISH
LEARNERS.
It is a challenge to manage ones money
when the business is being conducted
in a language you are still learning.
From filling out forms to reading bank
statements to having a conversation
with a bank teller, these strategies will
help your students navigate the banking
system using English.

HELP ESL STUDENTS

GET COMFORTABLE
USING BANKING
PROCEDURES

YOU CAN BANK

ON BANKING

To start a discussion about banking, you

will want to find out your classs experience with banking in their native country
and in their current one. Some students
may be very comfortable using a bank,
while others may not trust the banking
system to safeguard their money. If applicable, you may want to briefly explain
about the history of banking where you
are (about the FDIC if you are in the
United States) to help those students
understand the precautions that are in
place.
If necessary and possible, you may
want to have someone from a bank who
speaks the language of the majority of
your students to explain exactly how
banking works when you start this topic. That person can speak in whatever
language necessary to explain the reason why using a bank may be a good
choice, and what they may need to open
a bank account. Banks are often eager
to form bonds in the community, so you
will most likely be able to find someone
to do so enthusiastically. After covering
these activities, it would be great if that
person could allow your class to visit the
bank. This will be discussed at the end
of this article.

FIRST THINGS FIRST

As with any new topic, you will

need to lay the groundwork by cover-

ing basic banking terminology. As this

is such a real-world topic, it would be
wise to have as many authentic materials as possible, such as a checkbook,
checking and savings withdrawal and
deposit slips, and a debit card. Introduce
the terms which you feel are most important for the group you have by showing them the item and having the name
of the item in large, clear print so they
can easily see it. Review pronunciation
as you go along, checking for any major
errors and trying to correct them in the
beginning. The amount of vocabulary
words you will introduce at this time will
depend on the level of your class.

FILLING OUT THE FORMS

The next step would be to practice filling out the various forms necessary when banking. You will want to
have ahead of time: a form to apply for
a bank account, checking and savings
deposit slips and a blank check (please
do not use a real account number, you
will have to make a check). Demonstrate filling out these forms. Provide
students with samples of these forms,
along with a list of fake names, addresses and other necessary information so
they may use it to practice filling in the
forms. It is very important that students
become comfortable filling out forms in
English as they may need to do so at
a time when no assistance for them is
available.

BRING ON THE ACTION

You want your students to feel

comfortable doing banking before they
actually go into a bank. Set up your
classroom to look like a bank, with stations for tellers. If possible, have several
volunteers act as tellers in those spots.
Begin by demonstrating how to fill out
the proper paperwork as you arrive at
the bank. Next, show them how to approach and interact with the teller appropriately. Introduce some short scripts
to your students to help them know what
to say. Have them practice those scripts
together. Then have them take turns going to the tellers and making a transaction. With the more advanced students,
you may tell the teller to veer away from

the scripts after a while so the student

is required to react spontaneously in
English. Afterwards, have the students
share how they felt doing the role plays,
what their strengths were, and what
they thought they could improve on.

PAY A VISIT

The ultimate culmination to the

topic of banking would be to take your
students on a trip to the bank. If you
have made that contact in a bilingual
person from a neighborhood bank, then
get in touch with that person again to
arrange a visit. If not, as stated in the
beginning of the article, most banks are
looking to connect with the community.
Contact your local bank and explain
what you are doing. Even if they do not
have a community liaison, they should
have someone who is willing to work
with you. Let them know that you have
covered the topic of banking and would
like to bring your ESL students in to
practice their skills. Ask if your students
can have a tour of the places in the bank
where they are permitted. They can let
you know a time that will work for the
both of you. The representative from the
bank will probably be happy to speak
with them and if it is not too busy a time,
let the students do some mock transactions with the representative. This visit
would be a great conclusion to this topic. If you cannot arrange a visit, look for
a virtual tour or video online that would
give your students a look at being inside
a bank to increase their comfort level.

BANKING IS A VERY IMPORTANT SKILL

FOR EVERY ESL STUDENT.

It is a valuable skill. It will definitely make

the students more successful in their
personal banking endeavors. Banking
is one of those ESL topics which, once
conquered, will make the student more
independent. This independent functioning in English is, of course, the goal
of every ESL teacher. The strategies in
this article will help you to start teaching
about banking to your students. Moving
through them, and if possible visiting a
bank, will certainly assist your students
in becoming the confident banking customers they can be.

23

Roll Over, Rover: 5 Easy Ways

to Teach about Pets
EVERYONE NEEDS TO KNOW HOW
TO TALK ABOUT PETS FOR DIFFERENT REASONS.

Some students may have pets, and

some may not have them, but certainly may need to talk about them in
everyday conversation. Either way, it
is a topic that needs to be covered in
ESL class. Read this article to learn
about five fun ways to teach about
pets.

TEACH ABOUT PETS

IN A GREAT WAY

PET SURVEY

Begin by talking to the class

about pets. Be sure to show large
cards with pictures of various common pets and the name of each pet
printed on the card. Teach the cards
in groups of three, reviewing periodically as you go along. When the
students seem to be familiar with the
names of the pets, you can move on
to taking the survey. If they are beginnings, do not worry about the term
survey. Just explain that you will be
asking some questions. If the group
is intermediate or advanced, you may
want to take this opportunity to teach
survey as a vocabulary word. Either
way, call out the name of each pet and
have the students raise their hands if
they have or have had that pet. Make
a graph with tally marks on the board
that reflects their answers. Then ask
if anyone has another type of pet that
you have not yet mentioned. Allow
them to draw the pet for you if they
do not have the vocabulary word for
it. Add any of these extra pets to the
graph.
Depending on the level of the class,
this graph could be used for teaching
the most, the least, more than, or
less than in a class discussion about
how many pets there are. You may
use the graph to have a lively class
discussion about pets in general. An
interesting question would be if there
are pets that are popular in their
country of origin that are not as popular here. Class discussion on a high
interest topic can help students lose

24

their inhibitions because they are so

focused on communicating that they
stop worrying about making mistakes.

PICTURE PERFECT PETS!

This activity would be a great

follow-up to the pet survey above. At
the end of the pet survey, ask the students if they would bring in pictures of
their pets for the next class. If they do
not have a pet, tell them they can bring
in a picture of a pet they would like
to have. Be sure to have some extra
pictures on hand for those who do not
bring a picture in with them. Introduce
possession by bringing up a willing
student and his picture, and writing on
the board, __________s (name) pet
is a dog. Have them take turns coming up and each time have the class
repeat after you, _____________s
pet is a __________. After doing
this several times, ask the class as
a whole, What is Marias pet? They
should answer, Marias pet is a cat.
This lesson could also be used to
teach possessive pronouns: What is
his pet? His pet is a bird. This activity promotes forming relationships
among the students. Building these
relationships increases confidence,
and this in turn leads to increased oral
communication. Be sure to bring in
pictures of your own pet or a pet you
would like to have. Let your students
get to know you. The more comfortable they are with you, the more likely
they are to speak aloud.

ILL TAKE CARE OF IT,

I PROMISE!

Role playing is a great way to encourage oral communication in a supportive environment. Remember asking
your parents for a pet as a child? You
promised to take care of it all on your
own, to walk it, to feed it and so on.
Chances are many of your students
did the same, and the adult students
who have their own children may now
be on the other end of the request. Either way, most will be familiar with the
scenario of asking for a pet. You will
need to prepare some short scripts in-

volving a child asking a parent for a

pet, giving their rationale. For the first
few, have the response scripted. As
times goes on, make sure the class
knows the two possible final responses: Yes, you may have a pet, or No,
you may not have a pet. After a few
totally scripted role plays, have some
in which you provide the entire script
except for the parents final decision.
Allow the student who plays the parent to make the choice. This student
involvement makes the activity higher
interest and will encourage students
to participate. It may also cause some
laughter as the parent says yes or
no, which lowers student stress levels and encourages speaking as well.

AT YOUR SERVICE

Service animals can be another take on the pet topic for students
learning English. Begin by starting a
discussion among the students about
what types of activities our pets usually do. Explain to them that there are
some animals who work every day
to help people in need. Using large
cards like you did when you first introduced the topic of pets, have a picture of the service animal in action, its
name and a couple of its usual ways
to assist humans. Keep these cards
on display. You will also need several
small pictures of the service animals,
each on small cards. Each student
needs one or two of these cards. You
will need large cards that each have
one way that a service animal assists
humans, i.e. opening doors or alerting them to the doorbell. Hold up one
of these cards, and have all students
who have the card for any service
animal that performs that service to
stand up and name their animal. In a
more advanced class, they may say,
A service dog alerts the human to a
doorbell. The kinesthetic movement
in this activity will keep everyone moving and smiling.

DREAM PET

This activity works well with

younger children, but older children
and adults will enjoy getting creative

as well. Start by reviewing the types

of pets which you have discussed.
You will need to have copies of coloring pages of various pets, pairs of
scissors and glue sticks, as well as
plenty of drawing paper and crayons,
colored pencils and/or markers on
hand for this activity. Begin by discussing with the students the pros and
cons of having different types of pets.
Explain that today, they can take what
they like from each pet and make
their own. Using the materials you
have assembled, the students can
take the head portion of one pet, the
middle of another and the bottom of a
third to make their own personalized
pet. They can name it if theyd like.
They can decorate these creations.
Some of your more artistic students
may choose to draw the entire creature, for example the head of a fish,
body of a lizard and feet of a cat. Students may share their creations with
others, which promotes that oral communication that is so helpful when
learning English, while having fun.

TEACHING ABOUT PETS CAN BE A

LOT OF FUN BECAUSE MANY STUDENTS CAN MAKE A PERSONAL
CONNECTION WITH THE TOPIC.
Working on high interest topics is
what you strive for in the ESL classroom. High interest leads to the desire to communicate, the ultimate goal
of an ESL class. All of these activities
promote oral communication in some
form, which is important at any age or
level. Take on the topic of pets to start
some engaging conversation in your
class now!

25

Somebody Call 911: Activities

for Teaching about Emergencies
ENGLISH LANGUAGE LEARNERS NEED
TO KNOW HOW TO REPORT EMERGENCIES, NO MATTER WHAT THEIR ABILITY
LEVEL.
Therefore, it is important to teach about
emergencies even in a beginners class.
Everyone can learn enough to be able
to report the most necessary information. The following activities will help you
teach your students how to report emergencies in English.

CONSIDER USING
THESE ACTIVITIES
FOR REPORTING
EMERGENCIES

PICTURE THIS

First, your students must have

the necessary vocabulary to talk about
emergencies. Make sure to emphasize
the importance of dialing 9-1-1 for all
emergencies. Choose the vocabulary
words you feel are most important, and
find pictures of them. Make the pictures
large and write the word under the picture clearly. For verbs, you will need to
find a picture that shows the action. You
may also act out the verbs as well. Teach
these words a few at a time, reviewing as
you go. Students should feel comfortable
with these terms before you proceed with
the rest of the activities.

INFO, PLEASE

Use role-playing to help students

practice what to do in case of an emergency. Have some short scripts involving reporting a fire or a car accident. The
script may include, I speak __________
(the students native language). This
could be helpful in the event that there
is a dispatcher who also speaks that language, which could speed up the process. Have students start by practicing
with you, and then have them work in
pairs on these scripts. If you have volunteers in your classroom, they could also
model the scripts and then work with
pairs of students. In a beginners class,
this activity works better if done after a
lesson about addresses and phone numbers, so that students will be ready to
give their address and phone numbers
aloud during the script reading.

26

LABEL IT

This activity is best suited for

adults. Accidents may occur because a
person cannot read the label of a cleaning solution or medication in English. To
do this activity, you will need to collect
empty cleaning solution bottles as well as
empty medication containers with labels,
if possible. Students must learn common
phrasing on a bottle of cleaning fluid
which may include the words warning,
toxic, or Do not mix with _________.
These terms need to be taught with pictures. After introducing the terms, students will be paired up and given one or
two empty containers with labels. Students will take a highlighter and highlight
all of the terms they just learned on their
containers. When everyone is done, the
students will share the terms they found
with the rest of the class. During this
time, be sure to review the meanings of
the various terms. It would be wise to
discuss keeping all these products out
of the reach of children. You may want
to give out information about the Poison Control Center. Check to see if they
have some information in any of the native languages of your students. Be sure
to keep track of the containers you gave
out and make sure they are returned to
you at the end of class.

ITS ALL ABOUT THE FORM

When visiting the emergency room,

there are many forms to be filled out.
These forms require personal information including where you live, past medical history, insurance information and so
on. It can be overwhelming as an English language learner if you need to fill
out these forms at the same time you or
a loved one is in distress because of an
emergency. Start this activity by talking
about the emergency room and key vocabulary words. Talk about how there are
forms that will need to be filled out. Show
students a sample form (some hospital
admittance forms can be found online)
and fill it out in front of them to demonstrate what each part means. Then give
each student a blank form. Also have
ready some sample information, such
as a name, address, medical history and
insurance information. This is because
some students may prefer using their
own information on the form in order to

practice for themselves, but others may

choose to use your information to protect
their privacy. As they are filling out the
forms, be sure to circulate and answer
any questions they may have. When everyone is done, you may have volunteers
read certain parts of their forms aloud to
reinforce what they learned.

INVOLVE THE COMMUNITY

A great option for a follow-up lesson on emergencies is to invite someone

from the community to speak, for example a police officer, an EMT, a doctor or a
nurse. This community member could reinforce the basics needed to deal with an
emergency in English. You may want to
research and see if there is an appropriate community member who is bilingual
in a language that is a primary native
one for your students. If this is the case,
the person may want to speak in that
language for some part of their presentation. This presentation is the start of a
relationship between the student and the
community at large. Many ESL students
are new to the community, and this trust
building is very important in raising their
comfort level. The more comfortable the
students are, the more likely they are to
speak aloud, which is our goal.

KNOWING WHAT TO DO IN AN EMERGENCY IS IMPORTANT FOR EVERYONE. IT CAN BE A CHALLENGE FOR

YOUR STUDENTS, BUT IT IS ONE YOU
CAN HELP THEM OVERCOME.

Using the above activities, you are sure

to help them feel more comfortable in
using English to deal with emergencies. Using authentic materials such as
the hospital admittance form and have a
community member come and speak to
your class are some ways to keep it real
for your students. These are real situations that they may be involved in at any
time, so it is good that they are getting
prepared now. A couple of these activities suggest finding materials or people
who speak your students native language, which may sound strange for an
ESL class. While teaching English is the
primary goal, keeping everyone safe is
the overall goal, no matter what the language.

Great Work: 5 Basic Activities

to Teach about Occupations
BEING ABLE TO TALK ABOUT JOBS IS
VERY IMPORTANT TO ESL STUDENTS,
NO MATTER WHAT THEIR LEVEL OR
SITUATION.
Younger children will need the vocabulary to have conversations and be able
to express their interest. Older children
and adults will need to actually use
these terms in the workplace. They
may need to use it as they go on job interviews and go out into the workforce.
Whatever the case, all ESL students
will need to be able to discuss occupations. The following activities will help
your students learn these terms and
use them well.

TEACH ABOUT
OCCUPATIONS USING
PRACTICAL IDEAS

START AT THE BEGINNING

First, you will need to teach your

students the names of various common
occupations. How in-depth you go with
types of jobs will be determined by the
level and interests of your students. If
you are teaching a group of business
people who have a working knowledge
of English, you may want to review the
basic occupations they will need for
everyday conversation (teacher, mail
carrier), but you may also want to focus on more specialized positions that
commonly occur in their field(s). If you
are teaching younger children, you
may want to stick with community helpers (firefighter, police officer). If you are
teaching beginner adults who tend to
work in certain fields where they live,
you may want to cover the basic community helpers and branch out into the
popular local jobs to help them as they
go out into the work force. Regardless of the population, begin with large
pictures clearly labeled with the name
of the occupation. Review as you go,
making sure the class is picking up on
proper pronunciation.

BRING ON THE ACTION

After your students have a good

handle on the basic occupations you
want to cover, you will want them to be

able to describe what it is that the job

entails. In other words, you will need
to cover the verbs that pair with each
occupation. To do this, review the jobs
you have just covered. Now introduce
the verbs. If it is a beginners class, you
will want to keep it to third person singular, for example: A teacher teaches.
If it is a more advanced class, you can
use this to review conjugation of verbs,
such as I teach, you teach, he/she
teaches, and so on. By the same token, depending on your class, you may
take this as an opportunity to actually
teach conjugation of verbs.

GOING PLACES

The next idea you will want to

teach is where these people work. To
do this, you will need to have large pictures of the typical settings of each job.
Teach the names of the settings, if necessary. For example, you would have
a picture of a classroom for a teacher.
You also need cut outs of the various
occupations you have covered. To introduce the concept, show the workers
(the cut outs) in their correct settings.
Then remove them from their settings
and have students come up and put
them in their right places. When holding up a new worker, you can ask,
Where does a doctor work? The student who puts the worker in the right
setting should respond, A doctor works
in a hospital. Repeat this exercise as
necessary as long as it holds their interest. You can also have a matching
worksheet with these pictures for them
to do in pairs for reinforcement. Make
sure they are verbalizing the sentences
as they make the matches.

THE RIGHT DIRECTION

You may use this activity as a

follow-up to a lesson on cardinal directions or you may use it to teach cardinal
directions in this context. You will need
a simple map with a grid of city blocks
which are labeled. This map needs to
have at least five of the settings you
introduced in the last activity, for example a hospital or a school on it. You
will need a map key to tell what each
of the settings is. You can start by ask-

ing students to point to the place where

a doctor works. Do this several times
with several occupations. Next, have
the students start at a certain place on
the map, like the school. Tell them to
go three blocks east and tell you who
works there. Then have them go two
blocks north and do the same, and
so on. Make sure they are verbalizing
what they find and not just pointing as
they did to start. Students may then
break into pairs and do a worksheet
you have prepared to continue with the
same activity. If you have volunteers in
your class, now would be a good time
to use them.

DREAM BIG

This activity should be a follow-up

to the basic occupation activities or be
used for a more advanced class, as it
requires some writing. Start the activity
by telling the students what your dream
job is. Explain why, where you would
like to work, and so on. Letting the students know a bit about you personally
strengthens your relationship with them
which helps them be more confident in
speaking aloud and sharing their own
thoughts. After you have done this,
have them name some dream jobs: actor, doctor, astronaut and so on. Talk
about why some people want those
jobs. Next, tell the students to pick their
dream job. Give them a worksheet to
fill in which talks about why they would
want that job, where they would work,
what would be the best part of that job
and so on. Tell them they may draw a
picture of themselves doing that job if
they would like on the paper. Have the
students share their dream jobs. If feasible, talk about some steps a student
could take to get their dream job.

LEARNING ABOUT OCCUPATIONS

IS VERY IMPORTANT BECAUSE
REGARDLESS OF AGE OR LEVEL, STUDENTS WILL USE THESE TERMS IN
EVERYDAY LIFE.
Occupations are often what allow us to
go further in life, so it is a great topic
to address with your students as they
continue to improve their English.

27

Clean It Up: 5 Activities

for Teaching about Laundry
ONE OF THE FIRST THINGS ESL STUDENTS, PARTICULARLY ADULTS, WANT
TO LEARN IS THE VOCABULARY FOR
EVERYDAY ROUTINES.

This pertains especially to routines in

which they may encounter others who
only speak English. One of these routines is doing laundry. Some people
may do theirs in a laundromat, where it
is likely they will meet others who speak
English and will need this vocabulary to
communicate. Even those who do their
laundry at home need to buy the supplies, and need to be able to ask for help
with them when necessary.

TEACH
YOUR STUDENTS
ABOUT LAUNDRY
USING NEW IDEAS

SHOW ME THE LAUNDRY!

The best way to teach laundry vocabulary is to set up a laundromat in your

classroom and dont worry, you dont
have to actually go out and get a Maytag!
Youd be surprised what a big piece of
cardboard decorated to look like a washing machine and another decorated to
look like a dryer can do. Youll have to
do that ahead of time, of course. In addition, have friends and neighbors save
empty laundry detergent and fabric softener containers for you so that you have
enough for everyone in the class. The
multisensory experience of having the
bottle and then pretending to pour the
detergent in while using the vocabulary
is going to help the students retain these
words. Youre also going to want some
fake debit cards. You can even cut them
out of card stock and label them debit
cards. Finally, youll want some clothing
and laundry baskets.
You may ask students to bring in two articles of clothing and have some of your
own as a backup, and you may want to
ask friends and neighbors to loan you
their laundry baskets for the day as well.
Have pictures with labels to teach everyone this vocabulary to start. Show them
the picture and have them repeat your
pronunciation. Include all nouns such
as the detergents, the machines and
forms of payment. Include verbs such
as fold, pour and measure, and adjectives such as wrinkled and clean.
With a student or a volunteer, begin to
go through the motions of doing laundry,

28

using the vocabulary as you do it. Have

the students take turns doing the same.
This activity will be enjoyable and will
likely get some laughs, as well as instill
the vocabulary for doing laundry in their
memory.

LAUNDRY EMERGENCY!

As we all know, bad things sometimes happen to good laundry. You may
get bleach stains, shrink something in
the dryer, or turn your white t-shirt pink.
English learners want and need to know
how to express these issues as well.
Laundry Emergency is an activity you
can do with them to teach the vocabulary
for these cases. Again, it is key to bring
in actual items that have these problems.
If you or your friends do not have any of
these items on hand, it may be worth it
to make them so ahead of time for the
classs sake. Bringing in a shirt with
bleach stains all over it and then giving
them the printed and oral vocabulary for
it is much more effective than just looking at the words on a page. Show your
examples and teach the vocabulary first.
When it is fairly clear that most students
are able to use the vocabulary with some
prompting, hand out emergency cards
face down to each student. Depending
on the number of students in your class,
you may give them one or two cards
each. When it is their turn, the student
must act out (using the props you have
brought) what the laundry emergency is.
The other students will take turns guessing what the term is. It is similar to charades, but you are using the props to aid
in understanding. Again, students will enjoy themselves as this activity is bound to
cause some laughter along the way.

ROLE PLAYING

Role playing is very important when

anyone is learning a new language. It allows them to practice without the pressure of actually being out in public and
using English. There are a couple of
different levels of role playing. The first
one involves actually giving the script to
the students so that they can practice it.
They do not have to come up with the
wording on their own, but they are using
the target vocabulary. When first starting
this, you may want to put the short script
up on the board and have the whole
class practice in unison. Then you can
pick volunteers to act out that script using possible scenarios in a laundromat

or purchasing laundry supplies. A higher level would be to give out the scripts
and not go over them first, but allow the
students to read from the scripts as they
act out the scene. Finally, for a more advanced group, it may be possible to just
give them a scenario and have them act
it out, similar to improvisation techniques.

TEACHING IDIOMS

For a more advanced class on

laundry, it would be great to include English idioms that use the words wash or
laundry. Some examples would be airing your dirty laundry, or washing your
hands of the situation. Knowing idioms
always helps the advanced learner to
sound more like a native speaker. Understanding the literal meaning of the idiom is, of course, important. That is why
you would first teach the basic laundry
vocabulary and scenarios. Once those
are understood, it is fun to include some
of these English idioms: bit.ly/1fdePUn
More advanced learners will appreciate knowing them and being able to use
them in various everyday situations.

VISITING A LAUNDROMAT

Optimally, you and your class could

take a trip to a local laundromat and put
your vocabulary skills to use. Depending on your situation, that may actually
be possible. If it is, be sure to do it as
a follow-up to an initial class on laundry
terms. Do not try to teach the terms as
you are there, as that would probably
be challenging for many students and
somewhat waste your time on the trip. If
the students take a trip and already have
the vocabulary down, they can put it into
practice. It would be great if you could
communicate ahead of time with the supervisor there so that some of the employees there could talk to the students
and help them use their vocabulary while
onsite. Taking a trip to the laundromat and putting that vocabulary to use
would be the best way to ingrain it in their
minds. All of the students who took the
trip will definitely remember it, and therefore remember the related vocabulary.

TEACHING ABOUT EVERYDAY CHORES

SUCH AS LAUNDRY CAN BE TEDIOUS,
BUT AS YOU CAN SEE IN THIS ARTICLE
IT CAN ALSO BE FUN. It certainly is
an important part of learning English.
Remember to include as many hands-on
activities as possible, and have fun teaching laundry!

Its All Relative:

10 Ways to Teach about Family
NO MATTER WHAT, EVERYONE
NEEDS TO TALK ABOUT FAMILY.

ESL students need to have the vocabulary and background to talk about
their families as well. Use the activities below to have them chatting all
about their relatives in no time!

CHAT ABOUT
RELATIVES USING
THESE FRESH
ACTIVITIES

CLIMBING
THE FAMILY TREE

Introducing the vocabulary to talk

about family is the most important.
When teaching about family, it is easiest to teach it with a family tree. You
will need a large family tree, illustrating mother, father, sisters, brothers,
grandparents, children, grandchildren, aunts, uncles and cousins. Each
branch should have a picture and the
title of the person clearly written. You
will need to go over the family tree
slowly and clearly, reviewing as you
go along to make sure the students
are picking up the pronunciation and
meaning of the words.

CUT TO THE CHASE

To reinforce the family vocabulary, start with a review of the family

tree. After that, introduce a cut and
paste activity. You will need to make
a worksheet that is a smaller version
of the family tree you presented in
the last activity with the pictures in it,
but leave the titles blank. Put all the
titles on a separate page. Have the
students cut out the titles and place
them in the correct positions. Have
students volunteer to read the titles
to review pronunciation of the family
words.

WHATS IN A NAME?

This activity will help your students to learn the many different titles
there are in English for various family members. For example, a grandmother can be called: Grandma,

Grandmother, Nana, Grammy and

so on. Your lists will vary depending
on where you live. Start by explaining
that there are many names that various family members go by in English.
Make several columns: one each for
mother, father, grandmother, grandfather and any other title you are going
to include. Show students the alternate titles on cards, and have them
guess in which column they should
go, correcting them as necessary.
Discuss as you go. Then take cards
down, and have students place the
cards in the correct columns on their
own.

ITS ALL IN THE FAMILY

Your students will want to know

the vocabulary to talk about their extended family as well. Titles such as
stepmother and father-in-law are necessary for everyday conversation.
Present this vocabulary with your
family tree again. You can show them
the relationships on the tree and label them as such. Afterwards, take off
the titles and have students try to put
them in the right spots. This could also
be a great time to review the original
family tree vocabulary.

HOW CAN YOU COMPARE?

The topic of family can be a

good time to introduce comparisons.
Statements like, My brother is older than me, or My grandmother is
shorter than my cousin, are good
examples of this. Have various pictures of families available, and have
students come up with similar statements. If necessary, teach the word
than before starting this activity as
well. For a more advanced class, you
may want to have students come up
with statements that may or may not
be true of the pictures, and then the
others will need to decide if it is true
or false.

GO FISH

Another way to reinforce the

titles of family members is to play Go
Fish with family cards. You will need

to make these cards. Make a blank

grid about the size of playing cards.
Take the titles and pictures from your
original family tree (add the extended
members if possible if you think
that is too advanced for your class,
just take them out as necessary), and
put one on each card on your grid.
Now make two copies of this for each
deck of cards you want to make. Do
this on card stock and/or laminate
them if possible to make them more
like playing cards. The rules for Go
Fish can easily be found by doing an
internet search.

FAMILY FEUD

Choose ten people (or a more

appropriate number for you, depending on your class size) to participate.
Divide them into two groups of five.
Have them each name their team. You
will need to have questions prepared
where the answers are the vocabulary
terms from the family tree, and a bell
or some type of noisemakers for each
team. For each question, one member from each team comes up to you.
You ask the question, and the first
one to ring their bell gets to answer.
If that person is right, his team gets
the point. If he is wrong, the opposing
member gets a chance to answer it.
The first team to get ten points wins.
This game can become competitive
and is fun for the students.

LAST ONE STANDING

Stand with the class in a circle.

You will need a large ball to play this
game. Begin by saying the title of a
family member and throwing the ball
to a student. As soon as he catches it,
that student must say a different title
of a family member, and then immediately throw the ball to another student. That student in turn must throw
to another who gives yet another family member title. This continues until
a student catches the ball and cannot
immediately think of a family member
title, and that student is then out. He
must leave the circle. This continues
at a rapid pace until there is just one
student left. That student is the win-

29

ner. Students of all ages enjoy this

fast-paced game.

HOT SEAT

In this game, one student sits in

a chair facing the board, and another sits in a chair directly behind him.
The rest watch until it is their turn.
You show the first student the picture and title of a family member, and
that student must describe the family
member to the second student without actually naming the title. If the first
student accidentally names the title,
he is out, and another student from
the class sits there and describes.
When the student with his back to the
class guesses the title, he gets to face
the board in the hot seat, and another
student is chosen to be the one who
guesses. This game is a lot of fun, and
allows students to use their language
skills from previous lessons when giving a description.

10

FAMILY REUNION

This activity is for students

who are able to ask simple questions
of each other. The classroom should
be set up like a party, with items labeled (such as pretzels) that have
not yet been covered in class. Each
student should be assigned a family member and wear that title on his
back. The students will talk to each
other, trying to figure out what name is
on their back from the questions they
ask one another. For example, Do I
have grandchildren? If the answer
is yes, they are either a grandmother or a grandfather. Once they have
guessed their title, they can move it
to their front so everyone knows that
they know who they are. When everyone has guessed their family member,
the students should interact at the reunion in character. This is a fun activity which can be a culmination to the
topic of family.

LEARNING ABOUT FAMILY IS VERY

IMPORTANT FOR AN ESL STUDENT.
They will need to talk about it every day for a variety of reasons. The
above activities will help your students
to be able to say what they need to
say about their families in everyday
conversation.

30

10 Baste and Batter Basics: Translating American Cooking Terms

AMERICANS HAVE A VERY UNIQUE
WAY OF DESCRIBING COOKING TERMINOLOGY, AND THEIR ANTIQUATED
MEASUREMENTS AND ONOMATOPOEIA WORDS HAVE INFILTRATED THE
ENGLISH LANGUAGE AND TAKEN ON
ADDITIONAL MEANINGS IN EVERY DAY
SPEECH AS WELL.
Explaining terminology, expressions,
and measurements that come from
American cooking terms can be challenging for the EFL teacher as a result.
The best way to teach them is show from
where they derived! Hence here are 10
demonstrative and visual ways to show
the meaning of cooking-derived terminology for EFL learners.

PRESENT AMERICAN
COOKING-DERIVED
TERMINOLOGY

BROWNING

You generally do not really want to

turn food brown when you brown! This
is very confusing for EFL learners. It is
possible that brown meant more like tan
in the past, but now it means burnt. For
this term, compare it to sunning oneself
and getting a tan. We call that browning as well in English. Mimic lounging
in a beach or pool chair in the sun and
browning your skin. You are really tanning. Hence, browning (meat) will have
a connotation in their minds of sun tanning!

BATTER IT UP

Batter is important to teach students because it pops up in a number

of different common idioms and clichs.
In cooking, it refers to a generally flour
based liquid that either coats something
or is the base for something, like a cake.
This is not easy to understand because
batter for fried chicken is very different
from batter for chocolate cake! The common connection between the two is that
they are bases for a finished product that
has to be cooked. So, when we batter
it up, we are getting something ready
to go in the oven, to be finished. Hence
put both images in their minds: beating
cake batter and slopping batter on chicken. Both batters are gooey preparatory
steps to a finished product, and both result in the same comprehension.

POACHING

Poaching is referenced often in

English idioms. Translate it as skimming from the top, with a big spoon or
spatula. Then compare it to how we use
the term poaching to reference killing
animals illegally from someone elses
land, or quasi-stealing. Those hunters
are skimming from the top of the water
of their neighbors.

MINCING

This is another verb referenced often in idioms. Cut garlic or another vegetable into nearly pulverized squares! Be
very demonstrative with this one: bring a
big knife. You want to show how it is not
chopping or cutting, but converting foods
into very small pieces. Then ask them to
think what mince words means.

SAUT

Explaining sauting can be challenging because it is not really an English word. Link it to sauce because the
words are so similar. Teach them to
make spaghetti sauce, or another similarly globalized food they know. Saut
onions, garlic, and tomatoes to make
sauce. The connotation to sauce will
help them remember the word and the
technique.

PUREE

Similarly, puree comes from a foreign language, and its spelling and pronunciation will confuse learners. Create
a tongue twister for this one and have
them repeat it 10 times. Pure puree
promises no pulp, for example. You can
also have a fruit prepared in three different ways. For example, bring three
bananas, and have one whole, one
cut into minced squares, and then one
completely pureed into a smooth sauce.
Have them literally feel the different textures.

DASHES AND PINCHES

These mean the same in cooking,

but it is confusing as they have different meanings in other contexts! Explain
dash in its meaning of a punctuation
mark, a hyphen, instead of a quick running spurt. Write a sentence on the board
with a dash, or tape the dash in between

the words if you can. Then literally pinch

it out of the sentence with your fingers,
and add it to your pot or bowl! It will put a
visual in students minds of taking a little
bit and pinching it into your cooking.

CUPS, QUARTS, GALLONS

Four cups makes a quart and

four quarts makes a gallon. Instead of
translating what the measurements are
into the metric system, have four cups,
four quarts, and four gallons available
and pour water to fill each and show
the quantities. Their minds will naturally
translate what the measurement equivalent is in metric much better than an
equation, and they will have a visual of
the words connected to their sizes.

TABLESPOONS
VS. TEASPOONS

It can be a challenge to remember the

difference between the big one and the
small one. Put a tablespoon on a table
next to a plate if you can, and put a teaspoon in a mug. Explain, tablespoons
are big because you want a big spoon
on the table next to your plate, and
teaspoons are small because you only
need a small spoon to stir your tea.

10

PIE PLATE,
CHEESECLOTH,
AND PARING KNIFE
What about all those other terms that
came from special foods cooked in
America or Britain? Make an activity
where they look for clues in the word
phrase to understand the meaning, even
if they do not know what paring or a pie
is. Ask, What is a plate? and then What
kind of special food would you put on a
plate? Have them list all of the special
foods that deserve their own plate, and
then tell them what a pie is! Do the same
for 10 terms that couple common kitchen
and cooking items with a special term.

IDIOMS AND SPECIAL WORDS CAN

BE CHALLENGING FOR EFL LEARNERS, BUT THEY CAN ALSO BE A FUN
AND INTERACTIVE WAY TO GET STUDENTS TO THINK ABOUT ENGLISH AND
ITS ROOTS AND INGRAIN THAT VOCABULARY IN A MORE PROFOUND WAY.
Demonstrative activities in the class are
a great way to break up intense grammar
sessions or other learning as well!

31

Hot Dog-itty Dog! 12 Funky Food

Words and How to Teach Them
Whether you teach EFL/ESL fundamentals and need to explain restaurant dialogue and how to order foods,
you teach a pronunciation/phonics
lesson and find students stumped by
strange food words, you teach common foods to beginners, or you teach
conversation classes and need more
topics, try using explanation of these
12 funky foods to spice up your class!

12 FUNKY ENGLISH
FOOD WORDS AND
HOW TO TEACH THEM

HOT DOG

The hot dog is a classic American treat with origins in German frankfurters that is now a global food. Its
heritage of being related to a dog is
because of its appearance to a dachshund, a small, skinny, long dog with a
similar reddish brown hue.

yellow sponge cake filled with cream,

disgustingly sweet and famous for its
long list of chemical ingredients.

Buffalo wings are a food from

the city Buffalo, New York not mythical wings of North Americas largest
land mammal! They are chicken wings
smothered in varying levels of spicy
sauce and famous for being part of
all you can eat competitions. They are
traditionally served with celery and
blue cheese dressing.

PUMPKIN, CHERRY, APPLE,

LEMON MERINGUE,
BOSTON CRME

Pie or placing a filling on top of a thin

dough is very English, and Americans sweetened it up. English is riddled with pie idioms, and a students
first visit to a classic American diner
might leave her befuddled with different flavor options. Explain that a pie in
America is a sweet dessert with a thin
crust and then a dense sweet filling of
fruit or something sugary.

SMORES

The name comes from the fact

that one will want some more after trying one! Smores are a classic
camping treat for kids with graham
crackers, marshmallows, and chocolate roasted on a fire during a summer
outing in the woods. Make them with
your class!

TWINKIE

This Hostess pre-packaged cake

is an American classic and an emblem
of convenience store culture. It is a

32

GRITS

Grits are slowly cooked corn

meal that southerners in the United
States eat as a staple, especially with
breakfast. They look like particles of
dirt and can be a bit crunchy in the
mouth, hence they do appear as dirt or
rocks as the name might suggest.

BUFFALO WINGS

COOL WHIP

This is a very American, chemically-derived whipped cream alternative. It is sweet, fluffy, and delicious
without having anything to do with
dairy.

JELL-O

Jell-O is a classic American, prepackaged gelatin product that can be

purchased in little boxes of powder in
dozens of flavors. The user adds water, refrigerates, and has dessert ready
in a snap! Like Kleenex is synonymous
for tissue, the food is so common that
it has become the definition of gelatin
dessert.

DONUTS

Dunkin Donuts is now an international food chain and popularized the quick spelling of this sweet
fried dough treat. They are not nuts
though, but more like cakes! Sweet
bread is stuffed with gooey sweets and
fried or fried first and then topped with
sugary flavors.

10

MEATLOAF

Students might guess that

this is comprised of meat in a block
of some sort, but what is it? Traditionally it is ground pork and ground beef
mixed with spices like onion and garlic, shaped into a bread loaf shape,
topped with ketchup or tomato sauce,
baked in the oven, and then sliced.
It comes as a sandwich or served in
slices with mashed potatoes.

11

JAMBALAYA

This is one of the most fun

American food words to practice pronouncing, along with its twin Gumbo that you can teach as well. It is a
southern stew incorporating okra, a
green vegetable.

12

SPAM

Canned, processed ham

product might be the most American
food available. It was so widely used
in World War II for soldiers for its transportability across the Pacific Ocean
that American territory islands such as
Guam, where a large US military base
still exists, have incorporated it into a
number of common foods.

TEACHING IDEAS
Incorporate common fruits, vegetables, meats, and meals into the list
above and try a funky food activity in
your class.

SALTY OR SWEET

Separate students into groups,

and ask them to guess whether the
food is salty or sweet, or in what food
group it falls. Write the names on flash
cards and show them alternately to
each group in turns. If a group answers correctly, they receive a point.
You can use pictures for the flashcards
as well if your students are beginners
and need extra help!

HOT DOG-ITTY! IDIOMS

AND PUNS

Foods create thousands of figures of

speech. Have fun with your advanced
learners and quiz them on their idiom
and pun understanding by designing
a quiz incorporating a verb tense or
grammar concept you are teaching.
For example, if you are teaching past
progressive tense, write quiz questions like It was going to be as easy
as with multiple choices to pick the
right pie flavor.

PRONOUNCE THAT

Use strangely spelled words

like jambalaya, Twinkie, donut, and
cheese whiz to encourage students
to practice their pronunciation skills.
Use a rhyming chain game, where
students go around the class and try
to add rhymes. Start with pronouncing
Twinkie, for example, and add a word
that rhymes, like pinky. Ask the next
student to repeat Twinkie and pinky
and add another word.

WHAT IS THAT

Show pictures of the foods and

play a questions game where students ask you yes or no questions to
try to discover what kind of food each
is.

JUST EAT IT!

Have a special foods month during your class time where you bring in
two or three different funky foods every class. Use your donut or Twinkie
as a prize for winning a game or participating, and have the winner try the
food and describe it to the class.

EVERYONE LOVES FOOD, SO USE IT

TO GET THE ATTENTION OF YOUR
STUDENTS.
You can use funky foods to practice
any of your grammar concepts or
challenging pronunciation, or just as
unique conversation starters in any
level of ESL/EFL learning!

33

A Totally Yummy ESL Lesson Your

Students Will Just Gobble Up
THE FACT THAT EVERYONE DEPENDS
ON FOOD TO SURVIVE IS OF NO SURPRISE TO ANYONE. WE NEED TO EAT
AND A LOT OF US ALSO ENJOY IT,
SOME OF US MORE THAN OTHERS.
For this reason, the topic of food is always present in any and all ESL programs. These programs are designed
to cover needs our ESL students might
have abroad or when dealing with foreigners. Our students need to be able
to talk about food and to describe it.
Also, keep in mind what an important
role meals play from the social point
of view. We share meals to celebrate
events and even to do business. So, if
you think about it, our students might
have a lot riding on a simple meal!

HELP YOUR STUDENTS

WITH THEIR WINING
AND DINING, WITH
THESE KILLER TIPS
ON WHAT TO TEACH

ASKING ABOUT
AND DESCRIBING FOOD

The unknown can be scary for most of

us. Dealing with something we are unfamiliar with can be a daunting task and
when talking about unfamiliar food, it is
no exception. All of us have a story or
two about eating something we were a
bit reluctant to try. A lot of times, these
stories end well. After tasting whatever
it is you are trying, you realize is is quite
palatable or even yummy. Other times,
however, we are faced with a very different situation. We try something and
we dont like it at all. This is very hard to
manage, but we will deal with this later.
For now lets concentrate on asking
about food and describing it.

UNFAMILIAR FOOD

When someone is unfamiliar with some

type of food or drink, the best and most
obvious way to handle this is to simply
ask the host /hostess about it. Let your
students know they should be careful
not to insult anyone, so a good way to
start would be by complimenting the
host/hostess first, then ask about the
food. Take a look at some examples.

34

This looks delicious/ fabulous/ incredible. May I ask what it is?

This look amazing! What are the
main ingredients?
What a fabulous meal! How is this
prepared?
DESCRIBING FOOD

Hopefully your students will also have

the opportunity to entertain others. In
that case they need to practice describing food. Take a look at following examples.
Flavor: This is (a little/ very) sweet/
salty/sour/ bitter/spicy/hot.
Temperature: It is hot/warm/chilled/
cold
Texture: It is tender/ soft/ hard/ tough/
crunchy/ crispy
Comparisons: It tastes like ... or Its
like/ similar to ...

DECLINING
FOOD AND DRINK

There will be times your students will

need to say no to food or drink. Perhaps
because they have eaten too much, or
because they are sure they wont like it.
Also many people suffer from different
conditions that dont allow them to eat
certain foods. There can be many reasons, and whatever the reason is, they
have to be ready to say, no thank you.

MEDICAL CONDITIONS.
It looks delicious but Im allergic to
...
This looks great but I have/am ...
and I cant eat/drink...
IT IS TOO MUCH
This is incredible but I cant take
another bite.
Everything is so delicious but Im
full.
THERE IS SOMETHING THEY DONT
WANT TO TRY
Some foods with their flavors, smells
and textures are way out of our comfort zone. This can happen to anyone
and it is a delicate situation. After all,
we dont want anyone to feel insulted
or rejected. Tell you student there are

different strategies for this. They can

come clean with expressions like:

It looks very delicious but Im afraid

it is a bit too different from what Im
used to. Is it OK if I just have ...?
Another choice is to use an excuse like,
allergies or that they are not hungry.

ASKING FOR SECONDS

Lets imagine another scenario,

a much happier one for your students.
They have been invited to a meal and
everything is absolutely scrumptious.
They are enjoying the food so much in
fact, that they want more. Teach them
the following expressions and they will
be able to continue stuffing their faces.

This is amazing! May I have some

more?
Incredible! Can I have seconds?
May I have another piece/ portion/
slice of ...?
SHARING A MEAL WITH A NICE
GROUP OF PEOPLE IS ALWAYS
LOVELY. HELP YOUR STUDENTS
ENJOY THEIR SOCIAL LIFE.
Prepare them and encourage them to
go to dinner parties and restaurants,
to try new dishes and flavors. Theyll
thank you for it.

Teaching Chores is not a Bore: 6

Activities to Keep their Attention
Most people do not like doing household chores, so teaching or learning
about them is not usually first on anyones list. However, household chores
are an important part of our daily routines, and therefore ESL students need
to learn how to communicate about
them. Use the activities below to teach
your students about household chores.

KEEP YOUR STUDENTS

ATTENTION WITH
THESE 6 ACTIVITIES

FINDING THE WORDS

In order to talk about chores, your

students need to have the vocabulary words. You will need to present
clear pictures and labels to accompany each word. Go over all of the
common household chores you feel
are appropriate for your class. As you
review them, ask them which one is
their favorite and their least favorite.
Students can say, My favorite chore is
______________, but my least favorite
chore is ____________. Relating to
them on a personal level tends to let
students see how important learning
these terms is to them.

GET EQUIPPED

Along with the names of various

household chores, your students will
also need to know the names of the
equipment we use to do household
chores, such as a broom or a vacuum.
You will need to get actual examples of
this equipment ahead of time to have it
for your class. Show them each item,
saying, This is a ________ (item). We
use it to _________ (action). Have
them repeat it back to you, paying attention to pronunciation. When you
are done, place large titles of each
household chore around the classroom. Choose a student, and have
them come up and choose a piece of
cleaning equipment. See if they can
place that item under the correct label,
for example they would need to put
the broom under the word sweeping.
For a fun twist on this game, divide the
class into two teams. Divide the equipment up into two equal piles. The two
teams will race to see who can put their
equipment in the right spots first. Some

friendly competition usually makes

class more fun and memorable.

MAKE IT A GAME

This involves some preparation

ahead of time on your part. You will
need to design a simple board game.
Blank board game templates can easily be found online by using a search
engine, and you can print one out. You
will also need one pair of dice for each
board. Mark some of the spaces with
commands such as: You made your
bed. Go forward 3 spaces, or You forgot to take out the trash. Lose a turn.
Make copies of this game and laminate
them. Have some item to use as markers, such as bingo chips or coins, a different one for each player. Divide the
class into groups of 2-4, depending on
your numbers. Have them roll the dice
and move that number of spaces, reading the board as necessary. You may
make it as complicated as you wish by
adding spaces to the board with a ?
that lead you to pick a card. Then you
would need to prepare of pile of cards
with additional directions. Have fun
with this activity to review the names
and actions associated with household
chores.

DAY BY DAY

It is important that students are

able to talk about their daily routines,
and household chores are usually a
part of that routine. This activity works
best if you have already taught telling
time in English. You will need to prepare
a sample daily routine with times of day,
such as, 7:00: Wake up. 7:15: Walk the
dog. 7:30: Make breakfast, and so on.
Review this routine with your students,
answering any questions. Then give
them a blank template. Tell them they
need to provide 5-10 (depending on the
level of your class) times and routines
for their typical day. Tell them to include
as many household chores as possible.
When everyone is done, let the students share their schedules. Compare
and contrast the different schedules
over a typical day.

WOULD YOU RATHER?

This activity is another way to re-

view household chores in a fun game

format. You will need to prepare sets of
cards ahead of time. On each card, you
should write something like, Would you
rather clean the bathroom all day for a
month and never have to do it again,
or clean the kitchen floor with your
toothbrush once a year for ten years?
These questions should be silly, but
force the student to make a choice. The
student should answer, I would rather
clean the bathroom all day for a month
because
____________________.
Model a couple of cards for your students, so they can see what your goal
is, before you divide them into groups
with sets of cards. Have no more than
4 students per group, so everyone gets
a chance to talk. This is a fun way to
review this material.

ROBOT TO THE RESCUE!

This activity gives students a

chance to use their imaginations while
reviewing household chores, which is
always a great way to help remember
what you have learned. It may serve
as a culminating activity for the topic
of household chores. Begin by reviewing the various household chores and
equipment that you have covered. Let
your students know that today, they will
have the chance to invent a robot that
will do one of their chores. Provide them
with a blank template that has room for:
the robots name, its chore, how it completes its chore, how much it would cost
and why they chose that specific chore
for the robot. It should also have space
for a drawing of the robot. This activity
works for children and adults alike, as
everyone would like to find a way to get
out of their chores! Have them share
their robots when they are done. If this
is a class of children and this can be
a multi-session activity, you may even
want them to build the robot out of recycled materials and then present it to
the class.

LEARNING ABOUT HOUSEHOLD

CHORES IS A NECESSARY PART OF
LEARNING ENGLISH. YOU CAN MAKE
IT A BIT MORE INTERESTING FOR
YOU AND YOUR STUDENTS BY USING
THE ABOVE ACTIVITIES. INTEGRATE
SOME OR ALL OF THEM INTO YOUR
LESSONS SOON!

35

Warning: 5 Activities to Teach

about Household Dangers
NO MATTER WHAT THE AGE OR
LEVEL OF YOUR ESL STUDENTS,
THEY MUST BE ABLE TO TALK ABOUT
HOUSEHOLD DANGERS FOR SAFETY
REASONS.
For some of these activities, you will
need to think about the age of your
students. For example, in general you
would teach the term childproof to
older children and adults, but not to
primary age students, as even native
speakers at that age generally do not
use that word. Nevertheless, all students need to know how to communicate about household dangers in
order to stay safe. Use the activities
below to teach this skill.

TEACH ABOUT
HOUSEHOLD
DANGERS WITH
THESE 5 ACTIVITIES

ROOM BY ROOM

This activity is a great one to

use if you have already covered the
names of rooms in the house. You
will need a large cut-out of a house.
You can even use a dollhouse if one
is available to you. Your teaching is
always more memorable for your students if you have visual aids. Begin by
going room by room, and reviewing or
teaching the names of the rooms. Explain to the students that you are going to talk about household dangers.
Next, make a chart that has each
room as a heading. Brainstorm with
your students for possible household
dangers, and discuss what room they
might happen in (it could be more
than one room, such as a fire). You
will also want to cover general terms,
such as dangerous, poisonous,
and warning.
If it is an intermediate or advanced
class, you can try just brainstorming
with little to no prompting. If it is more
of a beginners class, have pictures
of various household dangers, for
example a fire or a child getting into
cleaning solutions under the sink.
Have them put the pictures in the
right places, and then give them the

36

vocabulary for the danger terms. Letting them brainstorm first allows them
to process the idea before adding on
learning some new vocabulary.

PICTURE THIS

This is a good follow up activity

to the introduction of the vocabulary
terms. You can also use it to teach
the imperative sentence. If you are
not ready to teach that yet, just teach
them the phrases necessary, such as,
Dont play with matches! and the
like, without going into the term imperative. You can always refer back
to this lesson when you do cover it.
Review the terms they have learned
to describe emergencies. Explain to
them that today they are going to be
the teacher, and warn others about
possible household dangers in their
homes. Give the example of Dont
play with matches! and see if the students can come up with some other
examples. Depending on the class,
you may need to give them some
possibilities. Have them each create a poster warning others of their
chosen household danger. When
they are done, have them share. At a
minimum, they should read what they
have written and label their pictures
aloud. More advanced students may
talk more in-depth about the poster,
and even take questions from the audience.

UNDER THE SINK

This activitys focus will vary depending on the age of your students.
Typically, many people keep cleaning
solutions and the like in the cabinet
under the sink. This activity will focus
on the dangers lurking there. If this
activity is for children, it should focus
on knowing not to ingest any of the
cleaning solutions found there. If it is
for older children or adults, it should
focus on childproofing that area and
keeping children safe. Begin by having various empty containers of different cleaning products. Discuss their
names and their purposes. Review
a typical label, showing an enlarged
one if possible, and talk about the

important terms, such as Warning,

Do not place near heat, and Poison
Control Center. Discuss where they
may typically be found in a home (in
the cabinet under the kitchen sink).
Introduce the term cabinet, if necessary. Talk about keeping that cabinet locked if possible, and/or keeping
those cleaning products out of the
reach of children. Model a phone call
to the Poison Control Center in case
of ingestion and have the students
role play that, if possible.

FIRE SAFETY

This activity would be best for

older children and adults, due to the
subject matter of planning an escape
route on their own. Younger children
can learn the vocabulary for fire,
smoke and firefighter. They can see
what a firefighter looks like in his full
gear, and that they are there to help
even though they look strange in all
their gear.
A big household danger, of course, is
fire. Review with students the possible causes of a fire in the home. If you
have not done so with them yet, role
play calling 9-1-1 in case of a fire or
other emergency. In addition, let your
students know that it is important to
have an escape plan in their homes
in case of fire. To do this, have your
students make a map of their home
with the rooms labeled. This can help
to serve as a review. Next, tell them
to draw lines on the map to show how
their family could escape from various rooms in their home in case of a
fire. They also need to mark a meeting place for the whole family outside.
Have them share their maps, using prepositions to explain how they
would escape from the house, if possible. This can be a great preposition
review if you have already covered
them. If not, provide assistance as
necessary. Students can take these
maps home and discuss them with
their family.

WHAT WOULD YOU DO?

This activity would be great for

a class that has some conversational

skills. You will need cards (approximately five per student) prepared with
various household danger scenarios.
One example would be, You smell
smoke in the living room, so you feel
the wall. It is hot. What would you do?
Start by modeling: choose a card,
read it and give an example of how
to answer it. Next, put the class into
partners and divide the cards among
them. Have them take turns with their
partners answering the questions.
When they are done, have each person choose one card from their pile,
read it and answer it in front of the
whole class. Giving them a choice
of answers which they have already
composed makes students feel more
comfortable. Having that level of comfort enables students to take risks with
speaking, which is always our goal.

ALL ESL STUDENTS NEED TO BE

ABLE TO TALK ABOUT HOUSEHOLD
DANGERS, ESPECIALLY IN CASE OF
AN EMERGENCY. USE THE ABOVE
ACTIVITIES TO HELP YOUR STUDENTS BE READY TO COMMUNICATE
IN ENGLISH IN ANY OF THESE DANGEROUS SITUATIONS.

37

The Most Wonderful Times of the

Year: Teaching about the 4 Seasons
THE 4 SEASONS IS A FUN TOPIC FOR
ENGLISH LEARNERS BECAUSE THERE
IS SO MUCH TO TALK ABOUT.
You can touch on weather and holidays.
For some, the seasons here may be very
different from their country of origin. For
all these reasons, the 4 seasons is a topic you do not want to skip. The activities
below will help you get your students excited to learn about them as well.

HOW TO TEACH ABOUT

THE 4 SEASONS

A PICTURE IS WORTH A
THOUSAND WORDS

To begin, you will need a large picture of

each season. This picture should include
the typical weather as well as some symbols for each season. Examples of symbols would be a kite for the spring and
falling leaves for autumn. Also on the
pictures should be the name and dates
of the season. Begin the conversation by
asking if anyone knows what season we
are in currently. Depending on the class,
you may need to teach the term season
to them. Then use your cards to teach the
names of the 4 seasons. Pronounce the
names slowly and clearly, and have the
students repeat what you say. It will be
helpful if you have a calendar showing
the whole year where you can point out
each seasons start and end date.

DRAW TO LEARN

This activity can be used as a follow-up to the previous one. It can also
stand alone for a more advanced class.
Review the names and dates of the 4
seasons, along with their weather and
symbols. Hand each student a piece of
paper with 4 boxes, each one labeled
with one of the seasons. Tell them to draw
symbols to show what they know about
each season in the boxes. When they are
done, let volunteers from the class come
up and draw their pictures under each
season name. Go over their drawings,
seeing if any other students in the class
remember the English term for some of
them. Finally, teach everyone the names
of those symbols in English. Drawing is a
good way to get some reluctant students

38

involved. This is a fun activity for any age.

MATCH IT UP

Many students enjoy a game format. For this activity, you will need cards
with the names of the four seasons
printed on them, as well as cards printed with various pictures and symbols of
each season. Put the word cards out on
the table. Put the picture cards in a bag.
Have students take turns pulling a card
out of the bag and placing it under the
right season name. There may be some
discussion involving a picture that could
belong to more than one season. That
is a great opportunity to have spontaneous conversation. When the students are
done, they should read over all cards,
saying, We see pumpkins in the fall, or
We see snowflakes in the winter. This
review will reinforce using complete sentences which is sometimes a challenge
for the English language learner.

WHAT TO WEAR?

An important piece of knowledge

for each season is what types of clothing to wear. This is a time when authentic
materials would work best. You will need
to gather several articles of clothing typical of each season, for example flip flops
for the summer or a parka for the winter.
You may need to ask others to help you
gather these clothes ahead of time. If you
have already done a lesson on clothing,
hold up the clothes and have them tell
you the name of each item. If you have
not yet done the clothing topic, you will
need to teach these terms as well. After your class is fairly confident with the
names of the clothing, have them discuss
which type of apparel goes with which
season and why. Have them share why
they placed the clothing as they did.

HOLIDAYS

Teaching about holidays is a fun

part of the 4 seasons topic. First, brainstorm a list of what holidays your students
are familiar with, and separate the ones
that we celebrate here as opposed to the
ones only celebrated in their country of
origin. Add to the list of holidays celebrated here by discussing any major holidays

they may have missed on their list. Next,

separate them by season. Discuss the
weather for that holiday. Talk about what
types of parties and celebrations are typical for each holiday. With the students
suggestions, put the holidays under the
right seasons. When they are done, try
listing the dates for each holiday. For
those that change every year, put the
typical month. Then order them from first
holiday of the year to the last. Encourage
as much discussion as possible in order
to promote oral communication. Have
students talk about their favorite holiday
and what season it is in.

TELL ME ABOUT IT

For this activity, you will need a

spinner with the four seasons on it and
one section that says, Your Choice.
Pair up the students. Each student has
to spin the spinner and record their season. The two students in the pair cannot
have the same season. When this is finished, the interview may begin. Using a
worksheet that you have designed, your
students should interview each other regarding their favorite season, what happens in that season, favorite symbols of
the season and so on. When they are all
done, they will come up as partners and
read about the other persons interview.
This provides more practice in oral communication which is so important to the
English learner.

KNOWING ABOUT THE 4 SEASONS IS

VERY IMPORTANT FOR ENGLISH LANGUAGE LEARNERS.
They need to know about the seasons
for everyday conversation. Having the
knowledge of the 4 seasons would make
them more comfortable when they are in
spontaneous conversation. It comes in
handy for English language parents as
they are involved in their childrens activities throughout the year. It is definitely an
important topic for all English language
learners that needs to be addressed, and
these activities help to make learning fun.

5 Activities to Make Learning about

the Internet Fun
THE INTERNET IS SUCH A HUGE PART
OF OUR LIVES.

People use it at work, at school or for

social reasons. It is important for ESL
students to be able to use the internet in
English well for these reasons and more.
Your class will probably have a wide variety of experience with the internet. Some
may use it every day, and others may
have little to no experience with it. Before you begin any activities, it would be
wise to survey them and get a handle on
how much experience they do or do not
have. This will affect the direction of your
lessons.
With some of these activities, it would
be easier if all students had access to a
computer, but it is understandable that
this is not the case in every classroom.
If there are few or no student computers,
the teacher may model the lesson and
make some worksheets that would reflect the objective of the activity. Please
note that these activities are written for
use with students who are adults for internet safety reasons. They are not written with any safeguards in place.

TRY THESE ACTIVITIES

TO IMPROVE YOUR
STUDENTS INTERNET
EXPERIENCE

THE BASICS

If your class has a good handle on

how to use a computer, you can just use
this activity to introduce the terms in English. On the other hand, you may have a
class who needs to be introduced to the
computer in general. In that case, you
will want to demonstrate these actions
and parts of the computer: screen, keyboard, keys, mouse, control-alt-delete,
battery, username, password and so
on. You may also want to show them a
tablet, as many may be using that and
would need the vocabulary word for it as
well. If you have a class who is actually
learning to use the computer, it would be
great if they could actually practice using
one. If that is not possible, just demonstrate for the class. If you do not have
one yourself in the room, be sure to bring
large pictures to show them the different
parts of the computer. Have them repeat
after you as you teach for pronunciation
purposes.

THE WORLD OF WEBSITES

This is an activity that requires no

computers. Your students need to know
the terms used daily with the internet.
Reading website names can be a challenge. Talk about www being pronounced as the three individual letters,
and the . being pronounced as dot.
Also, be sure to discuss .com, .org and
so on as common endings to websites.
Explain that websites often have catchy
names to make the customer want to
visit, and show some interesting ones.
Next, tell the students they are going
to make up their own website names.
Tell them to think of five products they
would ideally like to offer or groups they
would like to start, and to come up with
names for them. They will need to start
with www and end with .com or .org for
uniformitys sake. When they are done,
have them draw a homepage for one or
more of the websites. Have them share
with the class. This is a fun, creative way
to introduce the concept of websites that
does not require a computer for each
student.

SURFING THE NET

This activity is written for students

who have computers with the internet on
them. If this is not the case, you can either demonstrate if you have a computer
or show a video of someone doing the
same. Once they are on the computer,
give them the term search engine with
an explanation. Have them double click
on the surf engine of your choice. Now
you will need a plan of what you want
them to search. You should have up to
5 specific questions, such as: What holiday is celebrated on January 1st? Show
them how to do the first one, so they
are comfortable. They need to be questions that have specific answers that will
be easily found. You may want to relate
your questions to a previous lesson on a
certain topic to extend that lesson. Make
sure you are circulating around the students to help them as they need it. When
most students have found the answers
to the questions, have willing volunteers
read the questions and answers to the
group.

EMAIL
Most students will need to know

how to email if they do not do so already.

Like all things technological, some students will just need the terms in English,
and others will need to know how to use
email from start to finish. This activity is
for a class that has email set up between
you and them already through your program. If you do not have this in place,
you may teach them the terms and explain about email as much as possible
without actually sending one. If you have
a teacher computer, you may send an
email to a friend to show them how it
works. You will need to cover at least the
following terms: To, from, subject line,
send, forward, cc, reply vs. reply all, attachment and so on. Teach these terms
by showing a blank email to all of them
at once if possible. If they are able, have
them send you a short email to show
they understand. If that is not possible,
have them make a list of 3 people they
would send an email with a reason for
each. Then have them choose one of
those people and actually write the email
out on a worksheet you have given them
that looks like a blank email. Have the
students share their work if they are willing.

PICK A TOPIC, ANY TOPIC

This activity would be for intermediate or above, as it requires some reading and writing. As the students become
more comfortable with the internet, you
can assign them a research project using it. Choose a broad topic that goes
along with what you have been teaching:
animals, food, holidays, etc. We will use
animals for this example. Make a list of
animals for which you know there will be
information online, and let them choose
from there. Next, have a list of about
five websites where you know they can
get fairly simple information on animals.
Have them use the internet to research
and find the information that you require.
Be sure to circulate among the students
as they research to answer any questions. Have them share their findings after everyone is done.

THE INTERNET IS A VERY IMPORTANT

TOOL IN TODAYS WORLD.

We use it everywhere. Use these 5 activities to help your students learn how
to use it to help them be even more successful in their business and personal
lives.

39

Thatll Fixem: 5 Strategies

to Teach about Tools and Repairs
MURPHYS LAW, IF SOMETHING CAN
GO WRONG, IT WILL GO WRONG,
KNOWS NO LANGUAGE.
Everyone is going to need to repair
things. It is important that your students
have the language in those cases. Help
your ESL students gain the vocabulary
and expressions to talk about fixing
things around the house or at work with
the strategies below.

TEACH YOUR
STUDENTS TOOLS AND
REPAIRS VOCABULARY
USING NEW IDEAS

BEGIN AT THE BEGINNING

First and foremost, your students

need to acquire the vocabulary for tools
and repairs. Introduce the names of
tools by actually having the tools there,
if possible. When introducing the actions, perform them, if possible. This
is a great way to involve students who
may be reluctant to speak aloud. They
may feel comfortable enough to participate in a kinesthetic activity even
though they do not want to speak aloud
in front of the class yet. Also, have their
names written clearly to go along with
them. Take time and review pronunciation as necessary. Be sure to note how
some actions have the same name as
the tool that goes with it, such as you
hammer with a hammer and saw with a
saw. You will also want to cover the various jobs that go along with this topic,
such as a plumber or a mechanic.

MAY I HELP YOU?

Your students may need to go to

a hardware store to purchase tools. Doing this activity will prepare them for it.
You will need to set up your classroom
to look like a hardware store. You may
want to have either a toy cash register or
a calculator available. First, go through
a few simple scripts of people shopping
at a hardware store. Allow the students
to practice these scripts using the tools
and the cash register if possible. As the
students become more comfortable
with using the vocabulary, encourage
them to have spontaneous interac-

40

tions regarding the tools. This may be

easier with intermediate and advanced
students, but can be done with beginners if they have a lot of support with
the vocabulary. They would need to feel
comfortable. This role playing activity
will build confidence for when they actually go shopping at a hardware store.
Depending on your program, you may
be able to go on trips. If that is the case,
see if you can plan one to a local hardware store. Set it up ahead of time so
the staff there will be aware that you are
all going to be there, and what your purpose is. This real-world experience will
help your students use their vocabulary
more spontaneously.

to fix it? You will need at least one card

per student. Students will each take a
card. They will look at their card and
decide what they should use and what
they should do to resolve the problem.
If the class is able to write, they should
write down the tool(s) they will need,
along with one-three steps to fix their
problem. They should take turns sharing what they have written. Have them
actually perform the action and touch
the tools if at all possible. If they are
not able to write, they should just take
turns showing which tool and stating
the steps they would take. This activity
helps with spontaneous thinking in English, which is always one of our goals.

BE OUR GUEST

Its always a great idea if you can

get guest speakers to come into your
class with their real-world experience.
In this case, that would mean finding
someone who is in a business where
repairs are done. Invite a mechanic or
handyman in to discuss how they use
some of their tools. It would be a good
idea if in the class before you have the
students brainstorm questions they can
ask the guest about repairs. Then they
will feel more comfortable when the
guest arrives about using their English
skills. Let the guest talk about what he
does on an average day, and then have
the students ask their questions. After
that, see if any students feel comfortable asking the guest a spontaneous
question. This is bound to be a rewarding experience for the students, the
guest and you.

HELP, WE NEED SOMEBODY!

Often we use tools because something has gone wrong. In this exercise,
students will address different possible
problems and decide what tools would
be used to fix them. Begin by reviewing the names of the tools and the actions for each. Have the tools you used
to introduce the vocabulary with you, if
possible. You will need to prepare cards
ahead of time that give sample problems you would need tools to fix. For
example: Your car has a flat tire. What
should you use and what should you do

IM HERE TO HELP

This can be a fun activity with a

little imagination. Review the list of possible occupations that involve repairing.
Let the students know they are going to
try on one of those jobs for size today.
If it is a class of adults and they actually
do one of those jobs, let them choose
their true job even if it means you have
repetition of jobs in the class. It would
be great for those students to practice
using their English work jargon in a supportive environment like their ESL class.
If none of those are their occupations,
let everyone in the class choose a job.
See that there is as little repetition as
possible unless necessary. Have them
write three sentences (or say, if they do
not write in English yet) about what they
do as if they were that type of worker.
For example, a mechanic: I fix cars.
I change oil. I check the brakes. The
sentences should reflect the skill level
of your students. After they read their
sentences, the other students should
guess which type of worker they are
talking about.

USING TOOLS AND MAKING REPAIRS

AT HOME AND AT WORK ARE AN
IMPORTANT PART OF MANY STUDENTS LIVES.
Using these strategies, you will be able
to help them get the vocabulary and expressions they need to feel comfortable
talking about it in English.

Camera, Action: 10 Activities to

Teach about Going to the Movies
GOING TO THE MOVIES IS FUN FOR
EVERYONE.

You can use this fun activity as an opportunity to teach your students more
English, as well as teach them about
typical routines and conversations
about going to the movies. Enjoy!

TEACH ABOUT GOING

TO THE MOVIES WITH
THESE 10 ACTIVITIES

FIRST THINGS FIRST

To begin talking about going to

the movies, you will need to introduce
the vocabulary to your students. You
will want to include terms like: movies, tickets, seats, theater, popcorn,
soda, candy, and so on. You may also
include terms directly relevant to the
movie, such as: actor, scene, previews
and so on. Use large, clear pictures
with clearly written labels to introduce
these vocabulary words. Check for
pronunciation as your students repeat
after you.

WHATS PLAYING?

Your students will need to be

able to check what is playing at a
given theater. It would be great if you
had computers available for this activity, or at least one teacher computer
to model. Choose your favorite movie
times website. Let students know you
want to see a certain movie between
two given times. Let them search for
it on the website. They will need to tell
you the name of the theater and the
starting time of the movie there. You
can treat this like a scavenger hunt,
having them look for running times of
certain movies or a theater that has
three certain movies playing in it. This
will all make them familiar with using a
website to find movie times.

TICKETS, PLEASE

While it is possible to purchase

movie tickets online, many people still
go to the theater and buy them in person. Therefore, it is a good idea to roleplay for your students how to buy tick-

ets at a movie theater. You will need

several role plays ready giving examples of how to say, Two adult tickets
for the 5 oclock showing of The Movie, please. It would be fun and fairly
easy to construct a cardboard cut-out
for the worker to stand behind while
the customer asks for their tickets.
Model one or two role plays, and then
let the students take over. Building
familiarity with the concept of buying
tickets in English will make them more
at ease when they actually go to do so.

SNACK TIME

You will definitely want to go over

typical encounters at a concession
stand. Go over typical food and drink
items that are sold there, bringing in
empty containers of them, if possible.
Emphasize pronunciation here, as the
workers understanding of your student may hinge on that proper pronunciation of his order. Discuss small, medium and large as sizes of containers.
Introduce sentences such as, Where
are the napkins, please? or May I
have butter on the popcorn, please?
This can be driven home by role playing as well.

MOVIE ETIQUETTE

Have students brainstorm examples of movie theater etiquette, such

as silencing cell phones and not talking during the movie. When you have
the list up and have discussed them,
write them down on a piece of paper
and cut it up into individual sentences. Pass them out, and play a game
of charades with them. Pick a student
randomly, and have that student act
out their etiquette example. The other
students should try to guess what that
student is acting out. In a beginners
class, you may want to leave the brainstorming on the board so they have an
idea of what the answer may be, but
in an intermediate or advanced class,
you may want to erase the brainstorming so they have to remember the etiquette example on their own.

WHAT KIND OF MOVIE

IS IT?

Your students need to be able to categorize movies for when they have
conversations in their social lives
about them. You will need to prepare
several clips from all types of movies:
horror, romance, drama, documentary
and so on. Show a clip of one type and
introduce the name of it, for example,
This is a scene from a documentary,
and explain what a documentary is. Be
sure that all of your movie clips are appropriate for your audience. After you
have gone through all of the movie
types, divide the class into two teams.
Have one player come to the front of
the room from each team. Show a different movie clip, and the first player to
buzz in with the correct type of movie
gets a point. Play until one team has
five points, or an appropriate number
for your class. This is a fun way to get
students familiar with this topic.

PICTURE THIS

It is always great to let students

use art to learn. Show students several movie posters from famous movies.
Talk about what is on the poster, such
as the picture, the title, the main actors names and maybe even a quote
from the movie. Tell the students this
is what they will need for their movie
poster. Have them think of one of their
favorite movies. Assist them with finding the title in English, and any other
information, if necessary. Have them
each design a movie poster for their
movie. When they are done, they will
each share with the class. These posters can be hung in the classroom, if
possible, as a reminder of what they
have learned.

YOURE A STAR!

Tell the students that today, they

will become a movie star. Explain the
concept of a movie star, if necessary.
Have them make up a stage name (if
they would like) and a short biography talking about in what movies they
have appeared, and what type of mov-

41

ies they like best. Have some props

if possible, such as sunglasses, hats
and a boa for them when they present
their autobiography. Let them take
turns sharing in front of the class with
their props. This activity provides opportunity for using their imaginations,
which is always a fun direction.

THE CLASSICS

Choose 10 appropriate classic

movies for the class. Discuss the plots
and the main characters. If you would
like, show a short clip from each.
Have several sets of cards ready: You
will need cards prepared that have the
movie title, and then cards prepared
listing a one sentence plot about that
title. Divide the class into pairs, and
play the game of concentration with
them. This will reinforce the titles and
main storylines of some classic movies.

10

MOVIE DAY!

Allow the class to vote on

a favorite movie of those ten movies
listed in the activity above. Let them
watch the movie they voted on for a
special treat. You may choose to provide typical movie snacks while they
are watching the film, just be sure to
check for food allergies in the class
first. Watching a movie together will be
a fun culminating activity for a group
who has covered the topic of movies.
Depending on your class time, this
may take more than one class period.
Enjoy!

GOING TO THE MOVIES IS A POPULAR

ACTIVITY FOR EVERYONE. USE
THESE ACTIVITIES TO HELP YOUR
ESL STUDENTS BECOME MORE
FAMILIAR WITH THE ASSOCIATED
VOCABULARY AND ROUTINES. THIS
WILL HELP MAKE GOING TO THE
MOVIES AN EVEN BETTER EXPERIENCE FOR THEM.

42

Using a Class Party to Teach

10 Social Conversation Skills
ARE YOU TIRED OF YOUR TYPICAL
SOCIAL CONVERSATION ROLE
PLAYING EXERCISES?
ESL teachers know that possibly the
most important skill for learners is social mixing and mingling conversation,
but role playing in partners or repetitions
often lack real life context and go stale
after a while. Give your ESL students
an opportunity to practice one-on-one
conversation with natives or advanced
speakers and liven up your class with a
real party!

PUT TOGETHER A REAL

PARTY
Invite good natured English speakers
to class, to an afternoon cocktail party,
a light lunch, or whatever other party
is culturally appropriate. You want to
have, at minimum, a ratio of one native
or advanced speaker to two students
if possible. Do whatever is within your
means and budget! If you are in a foreign country with few speakers, invite
an advanced class to come, or other
teachers.

SOCIAL SKILLS LESSON

Before the party, teach the following 10
basic social skills to students and have
them practice on each other. Give them
a debriefing checklist with the skills before the party telling them that they are
responsible to record both the responses of the natives as well as note their
body language and other conversational
cues. Give a certain number of points
for completing each task, and award
the student with the most points a prize.
Save time also at the end of the party or
the next class to have a gossip session
about the results!

10 SKILLS

THE GREETING

Your students probably already

know greetings and the difference between formal and informal salutations.
They might not have ever had a chance
to practice using them in a real social
setting, however. Tell them to see how
many different hellos and I am well
responses they can fit into their conversations! Award a point for each different

one used.

WHAT DO YOU DO?

Ask students to practice eliciting

vocation information in a social conversation context. They can ask What
do you do? and Where do you work?
Give them a point for each answer they
receive.

HERITAGE

Have students practice asking if

people are from around your community
or from where their family originated. For
each answer they receive, give them a
point. They can ask, Where are you
from originally? or Do you live around
here?

WHAT DO YOU LIKE TO DO?

It can be trickier getting personal

with strangers! Brief them that to ask
these questions about hobbies and
pastimes, they might have to wait until
some information is offered from another question. For example, if they had
asked What do you do? and received
an answer like I am a waiter but I really
love to write novels, they can use that
as a cue to ask about a writing hobby.
Practice this skill before the party by
preparing a list of short dialogues for
pairs to take turns dialoguing in front
of the class. Give two sentences like
above and then demonstrate that they
should respond something like Oh, so
you write in your free time? Give two
points for each hobby solicited as this is
more challenging!

FAMILY

Students should wait for cues to

ask about family in most cases as well.
You can design another practice dialogue like in number four or teach to ask
general questions, like Do you have
family in the area? Give two points for
each specific data point they can figure
out via open ended questions.

CONNECTIONS

Have them try to figure out how

people are connected to the group. This
is an important social skill and a good

conversation starter. They should ask,

How did you get involved in this party? This is a great way to solicit work,
hobby, and heritage information as well!
Give two points if students can figure
out how your native speakers ended up
at the party. If you invited an advanced
group, have them try to discover why
they are studying English.

BODY LANGUAGE

Give a point for each body language note students deliver. For examples, they should focus on 1) if people
look them in the eye when they speak
and 2) if people laugh or smile during
the conversation.

GIVE BACK

Give students a point for each appropriate response they give to elicited
personal information. For example, if
they manage to discover where a natives family is from, they should respond
with where they are from! Giving back is
critical to dialogue.

MANNERS

Teach the art of polite interjections,

such as I see, how interesting, and
that sounds amazing. For each proper
use, give a point.

10

WHEN TO QUIT

Teach students to look for

cues of when a mingling conversation
should end. Cues can be My drink is
empty, I need to go to the bathroom,
or body language hints like they begin
looking away. For every proper cue noted and responded to by walking away,
give a point.

SOCIAL CONVERSATION SKILLS MIGHT

BE THE MOST IMPORTANT ASPECT OF
ENGLISH LANGUAGE LEARNING FOR
ESL STUDENTS. WHEN PRACTICING IN
CLASS HAS BECOME BORING OR JUST
DOES NOT SEEM LIKE ENOUGH, TAKE
EXPERIENTIAL TO THE NEXT LEVEL
AND BRING THE PARTY TO YOUR
STUDENTS!

43