Over these years of teaching children I got the clear idea that every single structure of grammar or word of vocabulary learnt using textbooks must be put into practice.
Why?
Because the use of the language during situations that require an extra effort to express themselves to reach a goal will make those structures and words stay in their brains forever.
How?
If your students don't have any possibility of having 'real English experiences' in their lives, what you can do is to provide them with games.
Yes, GAMES!
Playing any games in English is an excellent strategy to get them involved into the real use of English and you'll reach two important goals at the same time:
on the one hand you can get their full attention and participation with practically no effort, and on the other hand you'll have them practicing what they have previously learnt in a more natural and relaxed way.
One of my favorite games is 'GUESS WHO?'.
It's really useful to work on questions using the verb to be, the construction have got and the present continuous in the 3rd person, besides vocabulary about physical appearance and articles of clothing.
"Is your person a man or a woman?"
"Is he/she fat/old/young/middle aged?"
"Is he bald?"
"Has he/she got blond/fair/dark/red/white/long/curly/ straight hair?"
"Has he got a moustache?"
"Is he/she wearing a hat/ eyeglasses?
I also recently found another "Guess Who?" , a kind of a copy, which is even a little more complex and complete than the original one because it shows pictures of whole children, not only their faces, wearing a larger variety of clothes and playing some games.
So my students can practice more vocabulary about colours and clothes, and use the present continuous with the verbs wear and play.
100% engaging! I promise!
It would be so amazing to find even more versions of this game!
Many ESL activities, I see, are nothing more than 'fill in the blank' exercises that only teach kids how to fill in blanks and miss the whole point of learning to speak and understand a new language.
It's much easier and more fun to learn by doing, and you'll be surprised at how quickly you'll see valuable results.
You can get my activities on my online store:
I design series of activities based on a communicative method that will help children to practice the grammar they're learning at school.
Many ESL activities, I see, are nothing more than 'fill in the blank' exercises that only teach kids how to fill in blanks and miss the whole point of learning to speak and understand a new language.
It's much easier and more fun to learn by doing, and you'll be surprised at how quickly you'll see valuable results.
You can get my activities on my online store:
