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Post by con's fly is open on Jul 27, 2005 17:28:58 GMT 7
I'm gonna totally abuse this in every class I have this weekend. Yer the best, Nate! Oh, there's a game I got off the Greasy Spoon, called Paddy's Game: you write the alphabet along the top of the board, divvy the brats into two or three teams, and get them to take turns. The first player from the first team can spell ANY English word he likes, and if spelled correctly, his team gets one point for each letter in the word. Then you erase the letter it began with from the top of the board, and no one can use it again. E.g. if she spells Dinosaur correctly, 8 points... and no one can write a word that begins with D from then on.
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Post by Canuck on Jul 30, 2005 21:34:34 GMT 7
Thanks Con.. used this with my adult beginner class.. it rocks. Can't wait to try it with the brats.
I got another idea from a colleague that has worked well with all the levels I teach and I regret I didn't get a chance to try it with the advanced students I taught last spring. very simple.. almost too simple. here goes.. I printed a checkerboard on cardstock paper. with a few arrows from start to finish. The first square is marked "tell" then alternately "ask" and "tell". I get the students to form groups of 3-4 student per group (3 works best). I give each group a die and a fen for each player. The students take turns rolling the die and if their fen lands on "tell" they have to tell their group something.. if their die lands on an ask they have to ask another player something. The other player has to answer. If the unit is about giving advice I get them to give some advice when they land on "tell" and to ask for some advice when they land on "ask". It gets everybody talking in English, I walk around the room listening to each group and helping them with their vocabulary, sentences and grammar. A great idea for English corner.
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Post by con's fly is open on Jul 30, 2005 22:20:19 GMT 7
We're even Canuck: I'll lay that on my smartypants kids in the afternoon.
Funny thing I noticed in that class today: I've always been frustrated by the fact that the 3 boys make an effort to talk to me outside of class, but the 2 girls never did. Today Mandi sat in, and they flocked to her during the break... and spoke to her in English. I'm thrilled at the change, but geez, how am I supposed to grow breasts on short notice?
Does anyone else have a gender problem along these lines?
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Post by Canuck on Jul 31, 2005 21:50:21 GMT 7
I have 13 girls and 5 boys.. the girls won't talk to the boys.. not as I could blame'em. The girls work hard, and contribute.. the guys are busy smacking each other around and generally causing mayhem. 5 young would be liu mang. I think the guys have a lot of pent up frustration that the girls don't seem to have.
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Eagle's Nest
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Post by Eagle's Nest on Mar 16, 2006 4:05:55 GMT 7
Hi all, didn't see this anywhere and thought it might be of interest to those who want a bit of "fun" with their students ... you gotta love the English language.
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Can you read these right the first time?
1) The bandage was wound around the wound.
2) The farm was used to produce produce.
3) The dump was so full that it had to refuse more refuse.
4) We must polish the Polish furniture.
5) He could lead if he would get the lead out.
6) The soldier decided to desert his dessert in the desert.
7) Since there is no time like the present, he thought it was time to present the present .
8) A bass was painted on the head of the bass drum.
9) When shot at, the dove dove into the bushes.
10) I did not object to the object.
11) The insurance was invalid for the invalid.
12) There was a row among the oarsmen about how to row .
13) They were too close to the door to close it.
14) The buck does funny things when the does are present.
15) A seamstress and a sewer fell down into a sewer line.
16) To help with planting, the farmer taught his sow to sow.
17) The wind was too strong to wind the sail.
18) Upon seeing the tear in the painting I shed a tear.
19) I had to subject the subject to a series of tests.
20) How can I intimate this to my most intimate friend?
Let's face it - English is a crazy language. There is no egg in eggplant, nor ham in hamburger; neither apple nor pine in pineapple. English muffins weren't invented in England or French fries in France. Sweetmeats are candies while sweetbreads, which aren't sweet, are meat. We take English for granted. But if we explore its paradoxes, we find that quicksand can work slowly, boxing rings are square and a guinea pig is neither from Guinea nor is it a pig.
And why is it that writers write but fingers don't fing, grocers don't groce and hammers don't ham? If the plural of tooth is teeth, why isn't the plural of booth, beeth? One goose, 2 geese. So one moose, 2 meese? One index, 2 indices? Doesn't it seem crazy that you can make amends but not one amend? If you have a bunch of odds and ends and get rid of all but one of them, what do you call it?
If teachers taught, why didn't preachers praught? If a vegetarian eats vegetables, what does a humanitarian eat? Sometimes I think all the English speakers should be committed to an asylum for the verbally insane. In what language do people recite at a play and play at a recital? Ship by truck and send cargo by ship? Have noses that run and feet that smell?
How can a slim chance and a fat chance be the same, while a wise man and a wise guy are opposites? You have to marvel at the unique lunacy of a language in which your house can burn up as it burns down, in which you fill in a form by filling it out and in which, an alarm goes off by going on.
English was invented by people, not computers, and it reflects the creativity of the human race, which, of course, is not a race at all That is why, when the stars are out, they are visib le, but when the lights are out, they are invisible.
PS. - Why doesn't "Buick" rhyme with "quick"
You lovers of the English language might enjoy this .
There is a two-letter word that perhaps has more meanings than any other two-letter word, and that is "UP."
It's easy to understand UP, meaning toward the sky or at the top of the list, but when we awaken in the morning, why do we wake UP ? At a meeting, why does a topic come UP? Why do we speak UP and why are the officers UP for election and why is it UP to the secretary to write UP a report ?
We call UP our friends. And we use it to brighten UP a room, polish UP the silver, we warm UP the leftovers and clean UP the kitchen. We lock UP the house and some guys fix UP the old car. At other times the little word has real special meaning. People stir UP trouble, line UP for tickets, work UP an appetite, and think UP excuses. To be dressed is one thing but to be dressed UP is special.
And this UP is confusing: A drain must be opened UP because it is stopped UP We open UP a store in the morning but we close it UP at night.
We seem to be pretty mixed UP about UP! To be knowledgeable about the proper uses of UP, look the word UP in the dictionary. In a desk-sized dictionary, it takes UP almost 1/4th of the page and can add UP to about thirty definitions. If you are UP to it, you might try building UP a list of the many ways UP is used. It will take UP a lot of your time, but if you don't give UP , you may wind UP with a hundred or more. When it threatens to rain, we say it is clouding UP. When the sun comes out we say it is clearing UP .
When it rains, it wets the earth and often messes things UP.
When it doesn't rain for awhile, things dry UP
One could go on and on, but I'll wrap it UP , for now my time is UP, so........... Time to shut UP.....!
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Ruth
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Post by Ruth on Mar 16, 2006 6:47:18 GMT 7
Hey Edges, those are great. Some will definitely work with my students. I've printed some to show around to my coworkers. It will be interesting to see how many they can do.
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Post by Lotus Eater on Mar 16, 2006 7:06:13 GMT 7
I've remembered homophones - but can't remember the word for words that look the same but sound different. Help please!
(I didn't go to bed until after 3:00 this morning. My brain cells aren't really here yet!)
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Post by ladymel on Mar 16, 2006 10:26:51 GMT 7
Great game ideas guys! Here's mine.
Last week I did a trivia game disguised as "teaching the teacher about China". Little did they know it was really just a grammar lesson on superlatives... It was a little too lively, but they talked (in English) much more than usual!
See, my 13 to 15 year olds are still having problems with their superlatives as they think that I am the "beautifulest" and "most funny" teacher! "Shucks", but get the grammar right kids! So after reviewing some words like lake, river, mountain (no, not hill!), city, province, desert (no, not dessert), waterfall, tourist attraction, etc, I then review superlatives: most beautiful, longest, widest, driest, cleanest, most crowded, largest, most famous etc. Then I tell 'em that "you are going to teach me about China" and I ask them things like What is the most beautiful mountain in Anhui? (Yellow mountain or huang shan). What is the largest lake in China? What is the longest river in China? Who is the most famous basketball player in China? blah blah.
Then I get them each to write 4 trivia questions using the superlatives that we reviewed. Then split the 60 kids up into 2 teams (they push for boys against girls) and get them to ask each other the trivia questions. The questioner must know the answer (it also helps if the teacher does too). Of course, I scored. You might have to teach them the name "Mount Everest".
The answer must be in a full sentence (eg - Yao Min is the most famous basketball player in China)
When I did this there was actually quite a lively debate (if only it was all in English!) and they seemed to get the knack of using the correct superlative. In the end I banned questions like, "Who is the most beautiful girl in the class?"
It was the "most funny" game!
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woza17
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Post by woza17 on Mar 16, 2006 11:41:51 GMT 7
Ladymel, is Doris Day still alive? I like your trivia game idea, One of my favourite esl websites is Bogglesworld, they have some brilliant stuff for the classroom.
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Post by ladymel on Mar 16, 2006 12:27:10 GMT 7
Hey Woza, I'll check out Bogglesworld. I love doing games -- mostly because it gives me leverage for the first half of the class. If they shut up and listen they get a game. 3 strikes and they're out! You know, I don't know about Doris, I did a quick google and I reckon she is still pottering around there somewhere with no money, trying to save the animals. Apparently her last husband and agent made her do so many B grade movies that she sort of went bananas and squandered all her money. Oh, and she was born Doris Mary Ann Von Kappelhoff! I think she should have married David Hasselhoff and had children with hyphenated surnames.
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Post by con's fly is open on Mar 16, 2006 19:17:05 GMT 7
Introduce tic-tac-toe to my students today. The concept of 3 in a STRAIGHT row confused them- and as for strategy, forget it: I get 2 in a row, they respond with 2 in a row of their own. They just started to get the idea of blocking when we broke for Arts and Crafts.
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teleplayer
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Post by teleplayer on Mar 17, 2006 6:10:34 GMT 7
Aerie Engle's Nest, Used your suggestion in my chinese/english trading session yesterday. She's a grad student from Hong Kong. Her English is pretty good so this was a good test for her. The one that she found most troubling was "I was too close to close the door." The similarities in "close" was hard for her to hear. I told her that was to make up for all the second tone words I mess up. Tonight I have "U" idioms to expand on your "up" suggestions. Thanks for good input!
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Eagle's Nest
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Post by Eagle's Nest on Mar 17, 2006 6:56:57 GMT 7
Aerie Engle's Nest, Used your suggestion in my chinese/english trading session yesterday. ... <snip> ... Tonight I have "U" idioms to expand on your "up" suggestions. Thanks for good input! It is "aigle" or "eagle" or "short hairy monster" or "papa-père" or ... well, whatever ... My wife gave those to me (she's busy with a TEFL course as we speak). Now, I have to return to my putonghua lessons ... ga(3)i tia(1)n jia(4)n
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Post by con's fly is open on Mar 17, 2006 17:52:33 GMT 7
Sorry, Lotus: HOMONYM. bred/bread, there/their/they're, etc. Same sound, different spelling, different meaning.
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woza17
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Post by woza17 on Mar 18, 2006 14:18:29 GMT 7
Thanks Ladymel. Go to survival English. The lseesons plans are great and you can change them on the cumputer before you print them out which is great.
I did ordering food in a restaurant it has 8 differnts menus waiter and customer information sheets, customer complaints and the dialog. I print out the material and laminate the stuff I can use again in another class. These students are false beginners and I have to remind them to stick to the dialog you can ad lib but I want to drill it in to them, so that they use one word not 20 to say something understandable. I am becoming quite forceful nowdays, mainly because I am fed up with Chinglish It's like forget everything you have learnt in the past . One of the restaurnt group were great, one woman ordered a beer her sister told her off for ordering beer and it was not good for her health. Then the waitress accused her of ordering too much food and that was not good for HER health. I had to fire the waitress for arguing with the customers.
I flit between each group as the manager of the restaurant checking bills listening to customers complaints.
I certainly enjoy these lessons and the 2 hours flies. Everyone is speaking English.
The students get what I am trying to do
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Post by Lotus Eater on Mar 18, 2006 23:29:49 GMT 7
Thanks Con - I get very frustrated when my brain goes on strike and won't remember something I KNOW I know.
Like that idea Woz. Could be loads of fun.
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Post by Dragonsaver on Mar 19, 2006 9:46:01 GMT 7
Thanks Ladymel. Go to survival English. The lseesons plans are great and you can change them on the cumputer before you print them out which is great. I did ordering food in a restaurant it has 8 differnts menus waiter and customer information sheets, customer complaints and the dialog. I print out the material and laminate the stuff I can use again in another class. I flit between each group as the manager of the restaurant checking bills listening to customers complaints. I certainly enjoy these lessons and the 2 hours flies. Everyone is speaking English. Woza, couldn't find this. Found survival English but couldn't find the lesson plans. Could you give me a little more info. I definitely want to copy this info and I can use.
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Ruth
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Post by Ruth on Mar 19, 2006 20:26:39 GMT 7
Me too, Woza. Google gave me so many 'survival English' sites I wasn't sure which one you meant. Couldn't find menus or dialogues on any of the ones I tried.
Got sidetracked by another ESL site and ended up spending money...
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Eagle's Nest
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Post by Eagle's Nest on Mar 19, 2006 23:27:36 GMT 7
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Post by ladymel on Mar 20, 2006 11:02:53 GMT 7
Restaurant situations make for a really funny class in my experience. All the kids go beserk when I tell them that they can order beer and red wine at my restaurant. Good on ya for being forceful with the war against Chinglish, Woza! It's hard to explain that "white wine" is made from green grapes and is not baijiu (that foul clear spirit). While pre-written drills are a little boring, the kids seem to actually retain the phrases. I was so against parrot-fashion classes when I started, but now I figure it is the way to go(particularly with 50+ students in a class)!
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Ruth
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God's provisions are strategically placed along the path of your obedience.
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Post by Ruth on Mar 20, 2006 12:02:08 GMT 7
I hate the parrot-stuff too, Ladymel, but that's how they are programmed to learn in this country. I've kinda given up on fighting it. Just have to find ways to get them talking without it, and that really is difficult in those large classes.
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Ruth
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God's provisions are strategically placed along the path of your obedience.
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Post by Ruth on Mar 20, 2006 12:16:38 GMT 7
hey Eagle, thanks for the links. Always good to have more ideas.
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woza17
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Post by woza17 on Mar 20, 2006 13:02:25 GMT 7
Thanks Eagle for providing the links, have you all found the restaurant lesson plan? You know I would like to say how grateful I am to these selfless people that go to the trouble of putting these great lesson plans up there for free.
I think I mentioned a while back I made up a restaurant role play. The scenario was, people order the Wuchang fish but it has 3 eyes, the customers complain and the the waiters and managers have to come up with some BS reason. Some of the students were very funny but this takes a more advanced class for it to work well. I feel most of my classes the language has to be directed.
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Post by Lotus Eater on Mar 22, 2006 13:59:59 GMT 7
Some chanting stuff is good for little ones - even today I can only multiply if I go through the 'times table' chant!! And I know how many days there are in a month because of having to chant these essentials.
Children enjoy the music and rhythm and the words stay there!
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woza17
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Post by woza17 on Mar 22, 2006 16:44:46 GMT 7
Thats how we learnt our times tables and so with the Chinese.
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