Teach English as a Foreign Language

Type: scoring system
Setup: 20mins to make the cards
Length: NA.

This is a scoring system which I invented around Halloween time.

If you’re running a competitive game with a score then you can spice things up with life or death cards.

The cards comprise a set of point cards (-20,-10,0,10,20 etc) as well as two special jokers a typhoon and a tsunami.

Typhoon means that all the scores from every team are swept away, and Tsunami means that that team’s points are given to another team.

There are also life cards (I use a picture of a baby) and death cards (a suitably comic skull or crossbones etc). Death card means that the chooser can “kill” someone on his/her own or another team. Life card means that they can bring anyone back to like, if they wish.

If a team member wins a point in the game you are playng, they have to take a card to score, and accept the consequences of the card they picked.

Although this is a little evil, the games get really fun when you have teams full of strong rivals, and the chaos when the last card picked is Typhoon and all teams points are gone is awesome. Consistantly getting minus points is really fun too.

I typically have 4 death cards and 2 life cards in a pack, but you can vary this.

You can find pics of babies and skulls etc freely on the internet. I’ve laminated my cards to ensure durability.

Type: verbal, written, concept check
Setup: 1 min
Length: NA.

This is a fun game which can be played in a variety of ways, is quick to setup and can last a while. The idea is to freely associate words going round the class and can be used to concept check vocab as well as spelling and pronunciation.

Start: Introduce the idea of free association by writing a single word on the board and then add a couple more to show that the words have a relationship. I usually use my name, then add teacher, English etc.

Once they get the idea do a trial run by writing another word and inviting free association from class members. Once everyone is onboard you can start the games!

Get students into groups and give them different coloured chalk per team. Divide the board into as many groups as there are, and then instruct the first person in each team to write a word.

Then the first writer has to move across and write an associated word on the other team’s section, once written move on the the other team’s and so on in a round robin style.

Once they have written on each team’s section and are back to their own team, they hand the chalk over to the next member of their team and start again. Great chaos and screaming, add tension with a time limit.

When its over, check associations and spellings – sometimes you’ll get a funny association that has no match and it’s fun to find out what was going!

Another way is to give each student a piece of paper and then have them all write a word at the top and when you clap your hands they pass it on to the left or right. You can double clap and that means reverse direction. Again great fun if you start slow and build up speed!

You can also do the same thing verbally with students in circles going round, or add a ball which the student passes to their friend (or enemy) to randomize the process a little. Can be great fun if pronunciation is off and the association starts going wild!

When the dust has settled give feedback on pronunciation or spelling or relationships between the words (clarifying meaning and concepts).

Bingo is always a favorite and is useful for filling up a few minutes at the end of a class.

Here are a bunch of premade bingo sheets just print out and cut up.

You can also make your own bingos using the bingo generator!

They include single words and also phrases.

What did you do? – phrases in the past tense.

How often?

How was your weekend?

Minimal pairs

Places

Pizza toppings

Hey

My name is Keith and I’ve been teaching English in Japan for several years.

I know there are thousands of sites out there which have great resources for EFL/ESL teachers, but I wanted to start my own as a place where I could share the materials and experiences I have gathered and hopefully make something useful.

I’m interested in a variety of methods to teaching English, and I’m learning more and experimenting everyday. Specificially I’m into using technology as a way of making English real for people, and there is now so much opportunity for interaction with the internet.
I hope you find this site useful, and if you have anything to share please register and use the forums.

Cheers

Keith