This blog post is a summary of the talk Raising Scores: Gamification Activities for Test Preparation Teachers given by Christien Lee, the author of the new Tactics for TOEFL iBT book available from Oxford University Press, at the IATEFL Conference…
Image credit: Chris Pirillo, Creative Commons Google-Based Games and Activities Whether we like it or not, we are no longer a comprehensive ‘know-it-all’ repository of knowledge in the classroom. Everything we know and more is readily available via smartphone, and students…
Teaching speaking Silentium est aurum (“silence is golden”). Or is it? If we google “teaching speaking in English”, we’ll get over 66,300,000 search results with numerous tips, fabulous games or tricks how to get learners speaking – all pointing out…
Humor makes the world go round, and All Fools’ Day gives us a nice chance to exercise it playing practical jokes and hoaxes. This set of activities may give a good chuckle to both you and your students. There’s Nothing…
They Shall enter the School room quietly, make a bow on entrance. Shall take their seat & keep the same till noon & the seat that they choose afternoon they shall keep till evening. There Shall be no whispering, laughing,…
1. Classical PechaKucha Ask each student to prepare a PechaKucha presentation keeping to the format of 20 x 20. 2. PechaKucha variations Ask students to prepare one PechaKucha presentation per class – one slide per one student, or 3. Have…
“The bad news is time flies. The good news is you’re the pilot.” Michael Altshuler A 60-year-old woman was arrested after exceeding her allotted three minutes of speaking time at a California city council meeting. She had the whole 3…
Words with the Suffix ‘-able’: Lesson Plan The ability to use suffixes changing a word from one word class to another is what makes our vocabulary flexible and dynamic. It allows us to play around with words and create new…
Manners Maketh Man: Lesson Plan This lesson plan (suitable for intermediate-upper intermediate levels) is designed around a briliant film on Facebook manners. Students discuss new words and new uses of words stemming from Facebook and social media, give advice on…
“I like words. I like fat buttery words, such as ooze, turpitude, glutinous, toady. I like solemn, angular, creaky words, such as straitlaced, cantankerous, pecunious, valedictory. I like spurious, black-is-white words, such as mortician, liquidate, tonsorial, demi-monde. I like suave…
