SUMMER TRAINING SCHOOL FOR NOVICE TEACHERS

15 SECONDS OF ME

Allow each student 15 seconds to tell you as many things as they can about themselves. Students get a point for each new piece of information (name, birthday, city, country, nationality, family, pets, favourites or anything else that comes to mind). The person with the most points wins the game.

N.B. This is a great game to use as an ice-breaker with older students since it can be a challenge to get them talking. 

Summer Training School for Novice Teachers

INTERESTING TECHNIQUES FOR TEACHING ENGLISH AS A FOREIGN LANGUAGE (EFL)

Nazaru Cristina, “Ion Creanga” SPU

 Summer Training School for Novice Teachers

ACTIVITIES FOR PRACTISING SPEAKING AND LISTENING

Story Telling interactive story-telling continue the story

Information Gaps gapped texts split crosswords

Dictations dictation races broken telephone

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INTERACTIVE STORY-TELLING Variation I

Divide the students into pairs and tell them a story. At certain points in the story pause and ask them to discuss with their partners - to decide what a character who has just been introduced looks like or what the place where the story takes place is like, to decide what a character is thinking about, what is going to happen next etc. After the students have had time to discuss in pairs, ask for their ideas, choose the version which fits the story (or if there isn't one provide the correct one) and then go on with the story.

Summer Training School for Novice Teachers

Variation II Chose a set of words or pictures that are

somehow connected with the story you are going to tell. Begin the story and stop at a certain point, show a word/picture and elicit a student to continue it by using the word/ picture. Go on with other words/pictures. When the story goes too strange continue yourself as closer as possible to the original and let the students go on again.

N.B. For more amusement choose words or pictures that do not fit together and let the story go crazy.

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Variation III (involving Total Physical Response)

This is suitable mostly for young learners. Chose a short story that contains lots of

action verbs that listeners may follow. Introduce the verbs as a pre-reading activity miming the actions and ask the students to repeat after you. Explain that they have to perform the actions when they hear the verb. Begin reading and make a short pause after each verb to give time for learners to do the activity.

N.B. Mind you have a lot of space for moving in class.

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MAKE UP AN INTERACTIVE STORY

Dictate the first line of a different story to each of several groups. They have a few minutes to continue the story, and then pass their piece of paper to the next group, who read the story so far and add the next part. Carry on until the stories reach their original groups, who then conclude and read out the stories.

Variation II. For more amusing results, suggest the same beginning for all groups. Each group write their ideas for a limited period of time, then fold the paper and pass it to the next group. When th

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CONTINUE THE STORY

Make up a set of sequenced questions that will help students to continue the story. Divide the class into small groups and read the beginning of the story. Ask the groups to continue it by answering the questions they have. Elicit a student from each group to read their stories and choose the best one.

N.B. You may use this as an alternative to the usual “continue the story” tasks from your textbooks.

Summer Training School for Novice Teachers

INFORMATION GAP ACTIVITIES

In Information Gap activities each student has information that the other student doesn't have. Students work in pairs or groups and have to ask/answer questions to find out the missing information and complete their part of the task.

▪ Gapped texts ▪ Spot the difference

▪ Split crosswords ▪ Describe and draw

▪ Info-gap charts ▪ Jigsaw readings▪ Sentence halves

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DICTATION RACES Students split into groups of three with one

piece of paper and will alternate as speaker/writer. Teacher goes to a far corner of the room or out in the hall. In turns one speaker from each group join the teacher who clearly dictates a message repeating it twice. The first speakers run to their writers and dictate the message, while the second speakers join the teacher for the next piece of information. The second speakers run to their groups in which the first speakers are now the writers while the writers become the third speakers.

Summer Training School for Novice Teachers

Variation II With a focus on reading, rather than listening,

post the entire texts in some far corners of the class equidistant from as many groups as possible. Students run in turns to the text and try to memorize chunks of it, passing them on to the writers.

Variation IIIInstead of full texts you may divide them into

small messages that you post in different places, so that students have to collect the pieces of information, sequence them in the correct order and then pass on the messages to the writers..

Summer Training School for Novice Teachers

PASS IT ON (BROKEN TELEPHONE DICTATION)

Choose or write one paragraph of about 5-6 sentences based on language your students have studied recently. Type each paragraph on two separate pieces of paper. On one sheet type the complete sentences, on the other type the same sentences in the same order, but with blanks in each sentence. You will need one copy of each paper for each team.

Divide the class into teams of about 5 or 6 students. Have each team sit in straight rows, one student behind another. Give the paper with the complete sentences to the first student on each team. Give the paper with the sentences that contain blanks to the last student on each team. When the teacher says "Go," the first student in each team reads one sentence at a time to the second student, who remembers the sentence and passes it on to the third student, who tells the fourth student, etc. The last student listens to the sentence and fills in the blanks with the correct words.

Summer Training School for Novice Teachers

ACTIVITIES FOCUSING ON VOCABULARY AND GRAMMAR

Word Games taboo words anagrams missing letters a jigsaw problem definition racers memory games

Summer Training School for Novice Teachers

TABOO WORDS Before class, create several index cards. On each

card write one word in a large font, and underneath write 2-3 related words in a smaller font. The goal is for students to get their teammates to guess the circled word. They can say anything they like to try to make them guess, except for the words written on the card.

Variation I You can divide the class into groups of two, where partners explain the words to each other, alternating roles. Each group will have the same number of chances for defining words and the team with most guesses wins.

Variation II. Elicit a student to explain one word each time and let the rest guess it. The student who guesses more words is the winnerюSummer Training School for Novice Teachers

ANAGRAMS An anagram is a type of word play, the

result of rearranging the letters of a word or phrase to produce a new word or phrase, using all the original letters exactly once; for example cheater can be rearranged into teacher. 

You can create your anagrams yourself, or you can find them on the net, grouped according to topics, with picture or text hints, or even may use special softs to make anagrams online.

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PORTS ANAGRAMS

kiss

tab

ten

stakes

lopes

coresSummer Training School for Novice Teachers

If you want to drive you need a driving silence.

One of the worst things to do is to teach somebody playing cards.

Look! That man is cutting his bread. Could you borrow me your life? Pass me the last shaker, please. Memoirs of A Geisha is a film about

relation culture. She was marching in her red stain

dress.Summer Training School for Novice Teachers

Summer Training School for Novice Teachers

MISSING LETTERS Fill in the missing

letters.1. not day2. “8”3. scare4. noun of “see”5. heaviness6. “80’7. noun of

“high”8. may9. not dark10.not wrong

_ I G H T _ I G H T _ _ I G H T _ _ _ I G H T _ I G H T _ I G H T _ _ _ I G H T _ I G H T _ _ I G H T _ I G H T

1. go to a class2. Table of _______3. past part. of “eat”4. scared5. a baby cat6. pay attention to a

sound7. frequently8. act as if9. not fresh anymore10. having a subject and

an object

_ _ T E N _ _ _ _ T E N _ _ _ _ T E N _ _ _ _ _ T E N _ _ _ _ _ T E N _ _ _ T E N _ _ T E N _ _ _ T E N _ _ _ _ T E N _ _ _ T E N _ _

Summer Training School for Novice Teachers

MISSING LETTERS

Fill in missing letters and say these five times fast

1. _he _ells _ea _hells on the _ea _hore.

2. _liver _rdered _ily _range _ysters.3. _ive _at _lat _ish _lapped.4. _on _an _ound the _oman _uins.5. _nn _nd _ndy's _nniversaries _re in

_pril.6. _rincess _atty’s _retty _ainting is

_erfect.Summer Training School for Novice Teachers

A JIGSAW PROBLEM

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ACTIVITIES FOCUSING ON VOCABULARY AND GRAMMAR

Grammar games what’s my question? snap it (memory game) sentence race

Board games round the board easy money

Summer Training School for Novice Teachers

OTHER INTERESTING TIPS

Dictionary and alphabet games let’s have fun with the alphabet dictionary quizzes and races the Super Teacher Alphabet Race

Summer Training School for Novice Teachers