What Inspires Us;)

It’s an exceptionally beautiful day today, gorgeous, delicious, yummy! 🙂

Why such an outburst of joy? Simply because I suddenly realised (another time :)) what a wondeful place we are living in!

It was an ordinary Tuesday morning… And when I say ‘morning’ I mean 8 o’clock, approaching my place of work 🙂

The City of Kyiv is an incredibly green and lush place this time of the year, in some places it is especially noticeable 🙂 One of this places is my usual way to work – the Glory Park and the Glory Square 🙂

One may normally have a choice whether to get to Oxford Klass by bus / trolley-bus / any so-called ‘marshroutka’ (a kind of ‘route bus’ :)), or on foot. The former takes about 5 minutes, the latter – from 15 to 20, depending on your pace 🙂

Obviously, I almost always opt for a nice walk 🙂 And today, having gained my usual race-car speed, I suddenly got transfixed by the view of sunrays piercing everything around me! 🙂 It is an everyday sight, nothing could have possibly made me numb, but it dawned on me how lucky I am to be so undescribably happy not to walk but to RUN to work at such an early hour! 🙂 Hardly anyone around, birds chirping, leaves rustling, heart beating my soul out of me, and the first thought that came to my mind was to immediately tell my students about it! 🙂

This is how we make it through endless days of lessons – translations – checking home-tasks, this is what gives us energy to share with these wonderful people who made their choice and picked you as their Teacher, who put their trust in you, whom you are responsible for from the very first minute together – the Sense of Life running through your veins, the eagerness to share every smile and inspiring thought, every crazy idea and your wildest dreams! 🙂

A couple of astoundingly unbecoming people looking at each other with the eyes full of love and desire, a trolley-bus painted as a juice-box, a fluffy kitten in the arms of pregnant woman, and a smooth and painless cutting through the crowd of smiling tourists – all this has made my day brighter, and I truly hope that in 15 minutes my amazing students will get a good piece of it! 🙂

Writing Improvement :)

‘S.O.S.! May Day! Help!’

Those were the sounds I heard in my phone a couple of weeks ago 🙂

One acquaintance of mine has put her son through toOxfordand was in panic, afraid his English was far from perfect. More importantly, she was afraid her boy had no practice in writing essays! 🙂

You don’t say, it is absolutely terrifying! 🙂

Consequently, I was asked to help this lucky teenager acquire a few skills in writing 🙂

To tell you the truth, it was (and has been) my first experience in teaching someone WRITING, so I had a scary moment too 🙂 Naturally, we have a lot of different kinds of writing at the lessons, moreover, I’ve prepared quite a few people for their FCE and CAE exams, so it shouldn’t have bothered me in any way, should it?

But the thing is that they write academic essays in Oxfordcolleges! And my distress when it comes to anything subtly resembling academic is very well-known, to say the least 🙂

Not that I am bad at writing formal things, it’s just that I really-really don’t like it! No space for imagination, only rules and limitations, the necessity to keep in mind lots of criteria, etc. 😉 The fact that I have to think about each and every word I use gives me goose pimples 😉 A free-style composition on any possible topic? In no time! But a short formal letter or even e-mail can make me sit in front of my computer, stuck and blank-minded for quite a while 😉

So, my first reaction was to say ‘no’ and plunge into my daily chores, without looking back. But then the infamous natural curiosity took over and I gave in J Couldn’t resist an opportunity to deal with another weakness of my professional self J

And you know what? It’s unbelievably interesting! And not as difficult as I had previously thought! There IS enough space for imagination, you just have to change your attitude and get a little bit of practical advice 🙂

The change of attitude came really fast – as soon as I saw a couple of nicely looking books and manuals in my virtual library, specializing in writing essays 🙂 Of course, as a teacher, I had to get a hold of material on the subject as tightly as possible 🙂

The structure, kinds and vocabulary basis were not the unknown elements for me, so I simply got down to looking into the systems of evaluation and self-evaluation. It turned out to be the best first step I could have taken!

The point is that it gives you a clearer view on how an essay is initially organized, and what must be taken into account before creating a draft version. You understand at once that you have to think about the following:

1. General layout (everything about the title, keeping paragraphs, their number (there must be 5 of them), margins and such)
2. Parts of an essay:

–         Introduction

–         Body

–         Conclusion

3. Mechanics (word order and other grammar, spelling and punctuation issues)
4. Conclusions (this part is different from the one dealing with CONCLUSION as it analyzes general creativity and ability to summarize your work).

From practice, I know that drawing a spider-gram helps a good deal as it systemizes all your ideas and shows you how the paragraphs should be arranged, which points are not necessary, and where you have information gaps 😉 Thus, a spider-gram or, actually, any other form of arranging material suitable for you will definitely come in handy while writing an essay 🙂

A crucial moment here is to make your student look at writing as a lot of fun! 🙂 Can you somehow convince a 16-year old guy that writing essays will do him a lot of good? 😉 One of the tricks up my sleeve is giving him only free topics first. I let him choose whatever he wishes, be it war or peace, love or hate, family or friends 🙂

Of course, I make sure he follows all the rules and keeps his writing within the given ‘templates’.

Another trick is providing him with a dozen examples with corrections and evaluation made. This way he’ll be able to see what to avoid and where he has gaps so that we could bridge them J For instance, we noticed he had forgotten PASSIVE VOICE, so we immediately did a million of various exercises and it got much better 🙂

After a week of free topics you can give your student set ones. First, it shows which areas your student doesn’t like (worth discussing the reasons why ;)) and where they experience such a mishap as lack of words 😉

Enriching their vocabulary must be taking place in each and every class, without exception! That’s an order! 😉 Okay, okay, stand at ease! 🙂 Keep it in mind, though.

Finally, your students must get a clear and objective evaluation of their masterpieces all the time. Even if they say, ‘Yeah, yeah, I know it!’, ‘My bad, next time won’t make this mistake’, ‘Ooops, I seem to have stumbled again!’, ‘Never mind, let’s just go on’, stick to your guns and explain every detail with care and patience. A loooot of patience! 🙂

And if after reading this post you suddenly feel an urge to go write a nice piece on the topic of ‘Why I haven’t Written Any Essays Before: Stupidity or Avoidance?’, don’t let me stop you 🙂

Summer Encouragement to Study ;)

In about a week one of my groups is going to resume our studying together. My wonderful adults who want to learn something new about English and practice a lot even on hot summer days! 😉

The feelings I experience when thinking of the end of the holiday and getting back on track are the most pleasant! J The most intense is this special kind of anxiety which is so well-described by the butterflies in my stomach 😉 A slight worrying what to begin with, how to give all the material I wish, and, most importantly, how to encourage my students to study diligently even when it is 32 degrees outside and all people’s thought are about going to the beach or staying in an air-conditioned room 🙂 Yeah, quite a challenge, I must say.

This August is going to bear a little different shade of learning than usual. It is not going to be a simple continuation of following our textbook (one of my favourites, by the way, – the New English File), it is going to be more like speaking workshops. As a few members of the group are coming back only in September, we’ve decided to take a break from the book in order not to let anyone miss out. So nice and thoughtful of us 😉

So, the students made up their mind to keep on studying, which brought a good deal of worries on my poor-poor head: eight 2-hour lessons must be planned from scratch!

For us, professional teachers with a pretty impressive length of experience, it should not be a problem, and it is so in my case. It’s just a permanent strive for making the lessons as informative and developing as possible 😉 What kind of teacher wouldn’t like their students not only to learn a lot of useful material, but also learn it with pleasure?

So, what I’ve decided is going to look like a Conversational Workshop Factory 🙂

Every lesson is going to include all existing means of learning: video, audio, reading, writing and speaking. How am I going to fit them all within the 120 minutes of each class?

Well, every lesson will begin with a song – this is our Audial Information Perception Channel 😉 But not just any song you and your students like – it will be a song including certain grammar and vocabulary aspects. For example, if I plan to revise the Present Perfect tense, then I can pick a song by Bryan Adams ‘Have You Really Loved a Woman?’, which contains plenty of corresponding grammar constructions.

Of course, the lyrics to the song must have some additional exercises to it: gaps, homonyms, homographs, mixed lines, depending on your mood and imagination 😉

Then we are going to have a short discussion on what we’ve just listened to. For instance, after listening to the Bryan Adams’ song you can talk about the way we show our feelings, or the differences between men’s and women’s need in love attributes 🙂

After this we are going to have a Grammar Part of the lesson. It will include a bit of revision, a bit of new material (possibly, usages of this or that construction, unexplained before), and a lot of practice. Preferably, in dialogues or a group discussion. Drilling, too, is going to be involved.

It is always quite hard to switch to other kinds of activity after grammar which exhausts students to some degree. That’s why I always try to go to the activity which includes cards, pictures, board, or physicality. Or a bit of everything! 🙂 Here you can turn on your imagination and shake the grammar trance off your students 🙂

Closer to the end of the lesson there will necessarily be a few minutes of writing. I plan to give my students a set of vocabulary to learn every lesson, so that we could have mini-dictations. They can write them in different ways, too: choosing themselves ten words and expressions they can remember, writing only verbs (or any other parts of speech), making up their own sentences using active vocabulary, etc. This Writing Part should take more than 10 minutes.

And the ‘dessert’ is always going to be a piece of video.

You can choose one film, divide it to bits and watch one bit every time, or you can watch different pieces. Which in my case is going to be discussed with the group. Don’t forget to include the vocabulary into the list for learning! 😉 If there is time left, you can easily chat about the watched abstract, or play a game 😉

To conclude, I must say, the mission of this Conversational Workshop is to move the students’ knowledge from passive stock to active one, to let them feel free while doing any of the activities connected with English, be it speaking, listening, or keeping silent 😉

Give it back…the feedback! :)

We, teachers, should never-ever forget what it’s like to be a student as we all were there, weren’t we? If we distract from seeing ourselves as teachers only and try to walk in our students’ shoes from time to time, it will do us a lot of good 🙂

Even though my teaching experience is vast, I’m still occasionally taken for a student in public. No matter whether I’m wearing a smart costume or my Dr Martens boots and a motley scarf 🙂

And recently I’ve caught myself thinking, ‘I should be more presentable, I’m a teacher, for God’s sake!’ Next moment I stopped and… burst into hysterical laughter in the middle of the street J I just had a lesson where we were having a lot of fun with my precious students, and I suddenly thought we should have covered more useful material rather than laugh and tell stories from our lives. But then it stroke me, ‘OK, but did they actually learn anything today?’ And the answer was YES, THEY DID!

Previously we had been getting to grips with lots of new grammar, which took a lot of effort from both me and them. Those grammar points are essential and among the most difficult to comprehend (like, say, Conditional 3, Passive Voice Causative, cursed and damned Articles, etc.). What is more, it’s ok when it comes to learning rules and doing exercises, but when they need to use these constructions in their speech, here comes the trouble! 😉

It is very important here to keep yourself posted on what is going on in your students’ minds as they are trying to implement something completely new. Quizzes, short tests, dozens of grammar exercises are good, but definitely not enough to get a full feedback. So, how can we make sure the information you are giving is getting where it is supposed to get?

My one and only recommendation is to TALK to your students as much as you can afford (due to the curriculum or your own planning). Of course, we do ask them questions like ‘Do you understand this?’, ‘Is it clear?’, ‘Can you put it into a sentence?’ and so on. But tell me please, how often do your students admit they didn’t get this or that topic? Especially when it comes to teenagers, for whom it is always hard to accept defeat or incompetence in any sphere.

We should be sensitive to the level of comprehension and react immediately to any change, be it for the better or worse. And that laughing-till-our-sides-broke lesson showed me more than any quizzes would. People just got so involved into making a trivial story from the book an absolutely silly and hilarious one that they spoke without thinking (sounds weird, huh? :)), and I was able to trace all tendencies in their speech.

At some point I realized I was feeling myself a student, with that entire wish to express myself, say exactly what I think, win my teacher’s approval, and … compete! 🙂 Thus my language was getting out of its skin to reveal everything it had in the front and back of its mind, if you pardon a sentence like this 🙂 I remembered how important it was for me to know the teacher is listening, analyzing, giving everything they have without asking anything in return. Every lesson at school and university I used to show my emotions, the level of comprehension, and my interest (or the absence of it :)). Somebody may think it’s impolite and sick to let the students express whatever they think or feel, but for me as a teacher it is an integral part of my method. Surely, within reasonable limits 🙂 Believe me, when your learners are sure they can be 100% sincere in class, it will make your job many times more rewarding than ever! 😉 Besides, any material is much better remembered when put into a natural context. What can be more natural than talking about the things important for you?

When a teacher is able to see if the students are bored or tired, lost or worried, curious or secretive, they have an opportunity to react at once, direct and lead. 😉 Furthermore, if you show them how you feel towards their state, they will be grateful and always eager to give you all the feedback you need! 🙂

Chatterbox for All ;)

Do you speak English? How often do we all hear this question when travelling or even walking around our own city?

What do we usually answer? Yes, I do. Sorry, I don’t. Well, not really. So-so. What (traditionally, in your mother tongue)?!  🙂

 

 

 

 

 

 

If I start thinking about this question, I come up with the answer ‘Sometimes’  😉  Like, when I’m in the mood  🙂

But my dear students very often ask me how they can learn to really SPEAK English, without the fear of being misunderstood or embarrassed. One can bury themselves in books and dictionaries, listen to audiobooks till their ears fall off, but still experience this dreadful feeling of insecurity when meeting a foreigner.

Naturally, there are dozens of methods of improving your speaking skills, but one of them is undoubtedly the most effective – speaking to a native speaker.

And it doesn’t necessarily imply their teaching you the language, quite the opposite (so to say) – it is the informal communication on a regular basis that makes your speech fluent and alive.

Every respectful language school of today offers its listeners an opportunity to attend a Speaking Club of this or that kind. Discussion clubs, bookworms meetings, cinema clubs, conversational practice, and so on and so forth. If you have a wish (and money), you can make each evening busy with English!  😉

Of course, in the company I work for we created a thing like this as well. We have got to keep up, you see J Since the very beginning it’s been my responsibility to pick the topic and prepare the activities for visitors. A few amazingly talented people join their efforts on a monthly basis in order to create an unforgettable and really useful event for fluency-seekers. We have been going out of our skin to make our Speaking Club different from what is offered on the market. And it’s working!  🙂

We have thrown an Alice in Wonderland Tea Party, welcomed Winter and said Farewell to it later, and now we decided to have a Walkie-Talkie Session  😉

As All Fools’ Day is coming, we want to include some totally mad items into agenda. Banal talks about the history of this day, traditional jokes and pranks finally got to us, so we are going to surprise our visitors on every step of our walking tour. Oh, yes, it is going to be on the move! A kind of quest, but slightly adapted J There is going to be a map of the city area which we are going to investigate. The street names are going to be changed into the crazy ones, and the objects around are going to get new histories J During our by no means pleasant walk there will take place some non-standard pranks, kind and funny and with a hidden sense.

At the end of the tour we will get to the Museum of History of Toilets!  🙂 It is a fascinating place in our old and unpredictable city, which not many of its inhabitants know about. So, our hilarious native speaker is going to become a guide for a while and entertain the comers with hilarious stories and astonishing facts on the subject  🙂

Why are activities like this so useful?

First, people don’t really notice they are actually speaking English as everything is done in a friendly and relaxing manner. They simply become so engaged into what is going on that their language barrier breaks down in a couple of minutes.

Second, the native speaker addresses each and everyone individually but taking into account aims and wishes of those who come. If you only want to listen to the speech or if you want to master your question-answer skills, or you just like having fun – you are more than welcome!

Third, you use the language in ‘field environment’, naming real object, taking part in real conversations and building tangible connections between your language and English.

The best way to overcome your fear is to face it as frequently as possible. The best way to break the language barrier is to take a pick and start smashing this wall. Getting together with people of the same purposes and a native speaker able to make a stone speak can truly improve your fluency and, what is more, give you a loooooot of fun!  🙂

 

Use of Worksheets;)

What would you do if you had to hold your lessons by the textbook only, without any other resources? From my experience, it’s a nightmare! 😉

There are no perfect textbooks, no matter how good they seem to be: there is always not enough vocabulary, or too much grammar, or too little listening. Even if you take only grammar side, it always requires some additional material as one topic may be easily worked over, whilst another one will need much more attention. Don’t we all know such stumbling rocks of English as articles, gerund and conditionals? How many dozens of exercises do we usually have to give our students to make them finally understand and learn these topics well? 😉

In cases like this the book is definitely not enough. Especially when it comes to the topics requiring a lot of memory work or routine repetitive exercises. So here they are – our teachers’ tricks! 🙂

What is your bait to lure students into the depth of another grammatical or vocabulary theme? What ways are the most successful with your class? Songs, dances, miming, games, or video?

Undoubtedly, one of the most effective ways to learn a new topic or revise and strengthen a many times learned one is worksheets.

You already know about such a nice resource as http://www.eslprintables.com/ and my account there. Just one look there will tell you how diverse and extremely useful worksheets can be.

If to take a closer look at using worksheets with different students, I can distinguish the following most effective ways of using the supplements:

1. Children

Oh, this category of students is the most appreciative when we talk about additional material in class! As soon as they see pictures, puzzles, colour cards, they become so excited they stop noticing they are actually studying! I love this little moment of turning into a magician, holding an activity in my hands and not yet showing it 🙂 Even if you have a room full of children who seem to be indifferent to anything that’s going on around, believe me, there IS an activity able to light their eyes and awaken their curiosity. You just have to keep trying! 🙂

Using worksheets can save the situation with a very important grammar topic, for instance, singular and plural nouns. In this case students have to keep in mind a lot of words, learn the rules, which is tiresome and boring for young learners. But when you give them activity cards with funny dialogues and do some gap-filling, they will learn faster and better. If you use pictures when teaching irregular plurals – they will make associations with new vocabulary set, which will improve the whole memorizing process.

But you should always come back to the worksheets that you used, in a little bit different form (for example, if it was a gap-filling dialogue exercise, then you can scramble it and ask the kids to return it to the original; or you can simply tell them to make a couple of phrases to prolong the dialogue). Revising is essential when working with children. But having fun is really crucial! 😉

2. Teenagers

Yeah, this seems to be a tough category to teach and learn J Teens hate studying by definition: they are the ones who know everything, but they have to come to class where YOU know something better than them, isn’t it horrible? 😉

A room full of these wonderfully ruffled, charmingly categorical and absolutely special young people – what can be more challenging? I personally think this group of students is much more difficult to handle than even children. Probably because the children are who they are, and teens put on a lot of artificial layers in order to fit in, to affiliate, to look better (or worse :)) than they think they are. And if with children you ‘simply’ have to behave as naturally as possible, with teens you have to excel yourself every single lesson.

For this reason it is very important for teachers to have a pack of different activities. I always carry a huge folder with copies, cards, pictures, in case my teens are overactive or depressed. They are often pretty tired after school (I teach at a private culture and education centre, so students come there after work or school), and I have to make them study for a couple of hours more!

Worksheets are irreplaceable when you need them to concentrate, or work in pairs, or revise some previously learned topic. There is one weak spot among almost all teenagers in my country – they don’t really speak English well. They can be very good at grammar and get all As in dictations, but they are afraid to speak. For this reason I give them speaking worksheets every lesson with no exception. It can be an activity card, a problem task, a 1-minute talk, an answer to a silly question, etc. Sky is the limit! 😉

The most worthwhile, from my experience, is using small cards with one-two items. For example, if you want to make them speak about, say, technology, make an empty grid and fill it with all possible words related to the topic: telephone, computer, green energy, iPod, etc. I often use different parts of speech and word combinations to make the task slightly more challenging. Then cut the grid into squares, or whatever shapes you have, and put the cards in the middle of the table. Each student takes a card (everybody at once, or in turns) and does whatever you tell them. It can be ‘explain the word without naming it’, ‘make up a sentence of your own using the word on your card’, ‘start a story beginning with this word’, etc. You can divide the students into pairs or groups, but you should set the time-limit as it helps you keep your lesson within schedule, and your students to complete the task faster and in a more lively way. Normally, I circle and note down their mistakes, analyzing them afterwards.

What can be better than a bunch of teenagers chattering in English? 🙂

3. Adults

Well-well-well, what a nice category! 😉 Adults who decide to learn a foreign language are usually much more motivated and eager to do all activities you suggest than kids and teens. They have already made up their mind whether they need this knowledge or not, so you actually have to keep their inner motivation on a necessary level.

Sometimes I get the groups of adults who are so playful I run out of worksheets in an instant! It is amazing to watch bank officers, accountants and web designers up to their ears involved into, say, unscrambling a dialogue or solving a word-puzzle 😉

I traditionally use a lot of worksheets as additional home exercises – to revise grammar or learn new words. I also practise e-mail home assignment which they send me back and I check it online.

One thing is essential when working with adults – it is using grammar worksheets. It could be just great to define each student’s type of memorizing new material (visual, aural, kinesthetic) – it will do everyone a lot of good, and will help the teacher choose material more efficiently. You can find a short list of such types here. In one of my future posts I will definitely pay more attention to this subject.

What do you think of using worksheets at the lessons? If you are a teacher or a student, let’s share the experience! 🙂

 

English for Tourists ;)

If your friend decided to go abroad, but his / her English is quite poor, to be polite, and he / she asks you for help, what will you say?;) Of course, you will agree to give a couple of lessons, or probably present him / her a phrasebook 😉

But what if there is only one week left before your friend leaves and you both are a bit pressed in time?

Will it matter if he / she hectically learns some words and phrases just to forget them all as soon as the plane lands in long-awaited India? Is it worth your time and efforts?

To my mind, it does matter, and it is worth it.

It’s difficult and really challenging for both of you, and requires a lot of efforts. You have to think carefully how to make your few lessons effective, and your friend has to be strongly motivated and be eager to do his / her best to achieve your aim.

So, what should you begin with?

Let’s take it to be an elementary level of knowledge and poor wordstock.

First, you have to ask your friend about the purpose of going abroad. If it is for pleasure – he / she will need basic knowledge of phrases for different situations, like at the hotel or restaurant, in the street or shop, at the customs or airport, or railway station. It’s minimum grammar, just a set of clichés which should have easily substituted words depending on a situation. Arrange these phrases by the topics and in the way your friend could easily find the needed one. Read them together, make sure your friend understands and remembers them. The clichés are more important than words here as the dictionary can always be at hand 😉

Then, find a good place for studying. A noisy café in the city centre will not do, that’s for sure 😉 If you have no opportunity to meet at one’s place, find a cosy nook in the park (if it’s warm enough outside), or a place where no one or nothing will disturb you. Your friend will need maximum concentration, and it’s going to be easier for you both to deal with pronunciation 😉

The next step is collecting all possible resources which your friend’s head can hold 😉 It’s essential to separate the wheat from the chaff as all the phrasebooks have a lot of expressions which are actually unnecessary when you go abroad. If your friend just wants to be sure he / she won’t get lost and will understand what is written on the menu, or will be able to explain to the receptionist at the hotel that his window doesn’t open, then the thing is about keeping in mind as many words and phrases as possible. Lots of dialogues and role play work here best: a person remembers the circumstances and environment of the situation, in which he / she may appear abroad.

One little piece of advice here can do a lot of good: tell your friend to name all objects and actions around him / her all the time. Like, ‘This is a car park; I’m brushing my teeth; it costs two dollars fifty, etc.’ It makes our brain a sort of tune to another language, even when we are in an absolutely different surrounding.

And the last thing you have to do is enjoy the process! 😉 I’m actually being serious here. As the most important element of teaching / studying is already here (motivation), all you need is a relaxing manner of teaching and an easy-going way of putting new knowledge to practice.

Anyway, before starting a new course with a new student (or a group, it’s still the same), set the goals, clarify the needs, and apply an individual approach in every single case. As we all are so very special, right? 🙂

 

 

Sing along!;)

Well, here we are again, continuing our fascinating trip around the world of music in class.

Here come another two ways of using songs when learning English.

1. Twisted lyrics

It is another very entertaining and uplifting way of using songs in class.

You take a famous song and substitute some words for sound-alike (or funny homophones) but completely different in meaning. Or simply weird, silly or hilarious 😉 Use your imagination and, probably, a good dictionary 🙂 The task is to hear all discrepancies.

At the end of this post you will find a sample sheet for you to take a look and use in your class.

This activity works well with really famous songs, so keep it in mind!

What do we check doing this exercise?

–         spelling, naturally

–         targeted vocabulary

–         pronunciation skills

–         your imagination  😉

1. Up-down listening

We all need to make our lessons more physical as it involves all possible channels of receiving and processing information. Here is one activity which is a bit more than just ‘sit-and-listen’.

Pick a good song, it’s essential in this case. It’d be great to pick the one which is well-known and liked among your students. Then make small cards containing one word or phrase from the lyrics.

Give each student a card (or two, if you have a small group). Tell them they must stand up every time they hear the words on their cards while listening. There should be one card which will make everyone stand up whenever they hear its content. You can actually hold it yourself, or give it to a not very strong student.

You can give out the cards in accordance with your students’ level and listening comprehension skills. Strong and confident students like challenge, whilst the weak ones need to be reassured and praised.

Then, put it on! Two-time listening is required here. First they are all up and down, then they are up and down and sing along.  😉

If you include some funny cards like ‘no education’, ‘funky’, ‘move it’ it becomes an active interaction with your students.

BTW, they can pick a card for you themselves!  🙂

What do we check doing this exercise?

–         listening comprehension skills

–         attention

–         physical endurance  😉

To conclude with, I should add only one thing:

Use as many different activities as you can and your students will remember your lessons forever!  🙂

TWISTED LYRICS OF

ONEREPUBLIC

“Apologize”
[Verse 1]
I’m holdin’ on your pope,
Got me ten feet off the ground.
And I’m hearin’ what you pay,
But I just can’t make a pound.
You tell me that you beat me,
Then you go and cut me down…
But hate…
You tell me that you’re lorry,
Didn’t sing I’d turn around…
And say…

[Chorus]
That it’s two plates to apologize.
It’s two plates…
I said it’s two plates to apologize.
It’s two plates…
Yeah!

[Verse 2]
I’d take another dance,
Take a fall, take a shot for you.
I meet you like a heart meets a meat,
But it’s nothin’ Sue.
I loved you with a fire grey,
Now it’s turnin’ fruit…
And you play…
Sorry, like an angle
Heaven let me sink was you…
But I’m a friend…

[Chorus]
It’s two plates to apologize.
It’s too late.
I made it two plates to apologize.
It’s two plates.
Whoa!

[Interlude]
[Chorus]
It’s two plates to apologize.
It’s two plates.
I said it’s two plates to apologize.
It’s two plates.

I said it’s two to apologize. YEAH!
I said it’s two plates to apologize. YEAH!
I’m holdin’ on your hope,
got me ten feet off the ground.

HERE IT IS IN THE ORIGINAL 🙂

“Apologize”
[Verse 1]
I’m holdin’ on your rope,
Got me ten feet off the ground.
And I’m hearin’ what you say,
But I just can’t make a sound.
You tell me that you need me,
Then you go and cut me down…
But wait…
You tell me that you’re sorry,
Didn’t think I’d turn around…
And say…

[Chorus]
That it’s too late to apologize.
It’s too late…
I said it’s too late to apologize.
It’s too late.
Yeah!

[Verse 2]
I’d take another chance,
Take a fall, take a shot for you.
I need you like a heart needs a beat,
But it’s nothin’ new.
I loved you with a fire red,
Now it’s turnin’ blue…
And you say…
Sorry, like an angel
Heaven let me think was you…
But I’m afraid…

[Chorus]
It’s too late to apologize.
It’s too late…
I said it’s too late to apologize.
It’s too late.
Whoa!

[Interlude]
[Chorus]
It’s too late to apologize.
It’s too late…
I said it’s too late to apologize.
It’s too late.

I said it’s too to apologize. YEAH!
I said it’s too late to apologize. YEAH!
I’m holdin’ on your rope,
got me ten feet off the ground.

 

Wanna learn it? Sing it! :)

Do you like singing? Can you sing well? Do you use songs in your classes? Do you think we can use them only if you answer ‘yes’ to the first two questions?  😉

I can assure you – not necessarily!

I myself have an ordinary voice, really good ear for music and a looooooot of love for it in my heart. Though, I try to avoid singing in public simply because I’m a little bit of a perfectionist – don’t do anything that I can’t do really well. Home alone with music turned loud, in a shower – that’s my studio  🙂

But I do consider songs and music an essential part of teaching \ learning.

From my own experience I know how much one can learn from listening to their favourite songs as lot of clichés, everyday expressions, current vocabulary, and even grammar are used there. Not to mention various types of pronunciation  🙂  Apart from all this, it’s just so much fun!

Well, what are the most working ways of using songs in classes? I’m going to make my own list here, and you are ever so welcome to share your thoughts and attitude to this peculiar subject.

Today we’ll talk about the first two, and very soon – about two more.

1. Gap-filling

This is the most applicable to all levels of learners way of useful listening. You simply take out those words \ phrases \ grammar structures which you target, hand out the lyrics with gaps and put on the song once or twice. If you have many students, you can make several different sheets so that the learners could work in pairs or small groups. In this case they will be able to do some peer check afterwards. We normally listen to the song once, then check the missing words, and then listen again singing along.

If you have elementary students, you can write the missing words on the board, or give them on the sheet properly mixed.

Try to pick a catchy tune so that everybody could enjoy the activity and sing! 🙂

What do we check doing this exercise?

–         rhyming words

–         speech patterns

–         certain grammar points

–         listening comprehension

–         vocal abilities of our students  🙂

2. Jigsaw listening

You print \ copy a number of lyrics worksheets necessary for the students to work in pairs \ groups. For instance, if you have 16 students, you need either 8 or 4 worksheets, if you have an astonishing number of 25, then you can get by with 5 sheets.

Then you cut the lyrics into lines and give each group a set of well mixed lines. Do include the title to provide students with the starting point. Give them a couple of minutes to get familiarized with the lines (you can use this time to find the song on your i-pod or CD).

The task is to sort out the lyrics by the end of the song. It’s a lot of fun especially with teenagers and active adults. It could be fun with kids, too, but, to tell you the truth, they very often get overly excited and the activity may go a bit messy at the end.

After sorting the lyrics out, listen to the song again and sing along!

!!!!! Be very careful when choosing a song: make sure its pace and vocabulary correspond to the level of your students! Do listen it beforehand in order not to give your learners a ‘mission impossible’ task!!!!

What do we check doing this exercise?

–         linking structures

–         logical prediction skills

–         group interaction

–         your ‘pick-a-song’ abilities  🙂

Enough for now, the other two will be here in a jiffy!