‘ESPRESSO’ DIALOGUES
Good teaching ideas often come in espresso size. Sometimes a single word is all it takes to get students talking. Less is more My today’s post is about espresso dialogues. This is one of the best formats for teachers who…
DESCRIBING PERSONALITY: MANY ‘ME’S AND ALL THAT JAZZ
What’s in this post: materials writing, describing oneself with a twist, Poetry Comics, the Many ‘Me’s song, clines, Jazzy Bingo, and other activities for practising personality adjectives Materials writing gets a whole new twist (or an evolution?) with new AI…
DRAWING WITH WORDS…LITERALLY
What’s in this post: The Inner Workbench; the inner eye; the Google AI Studio Challenge; Wordsketcher; and a few hands-on activities for the classroom. Many powerful ideas in language learning get a bit lost in the noise of the ‘C’…
BACK-TO-SCHOOL ICEBREAKER, TWEAKED!
If you’re teaching the same class again, chances are you’ve already gone through your arsenal of tried-and-tested icebreakers and back-to-school activities. So what are your options? A) Find something new (you can find plenty in the ELT blogosphere: on this…
PLAY WORDS. INFINITELY.
What do we need? We need word use examples. We need them current. We need them tailored. We need them now. ‘Artificial’ once meant skilled creation. Did you know? The Ancient Greeks divided knowledge into two types: episteme (the theory,…
DIALOGUES: SCRIPT, EDIT, TEACH
Editable dialogues, audio & gap-fills in minutes, while keeping your choices front and centre Looking for a faster way to create scripted conversations or model dialogues for your students? The updated Conversation Generator helps generate scripted conversations that can be…
SENTENCE FLOWGRAPH: TURNING SENTENCES INTO VISUALS
Or Sentence Scrambles with a Visual Twist Are you looking to add a bit of variety or a visual touch to scrambled or jumbled sentence activities? Here’s a great new tool for you to try! Every sentence has its…
TASK TWEAKER: REPETITION, BOREDOM, AND TASK VARIATIONS
Fancy trying Task Tweaker – my new tool for language teachers? Repetition is boring. No? Here’s a quick experiment: say repetition. Now say over and over, time and time again, day after day, again and again, on and on, round…
PODCAST-STYLE FEEDBACK
Or Feedback as a Learning Activity So, it’s that time of the year again – revision and wrap-up time. Time to review (check out my 12 Five-Minute Vocabulary Revision Activities if you’re looking for some ideas) and make those final…
SOCKS AND COGNITIVE BIASES
Or critical thinking for language learners Paraphrasing the infamous song: What’s {socks} got to do with it? At first glance, nothing. Look again, and socks turn out to be the perfect way to help learners spot and reflect on their…
