English is FUNtastic

Using drama activities has clear advantages for language learning. Drama can be very useful in order to develop students’ communicative competence. These activities would help them in the development of oral communication skills and reading and writing well. In addition, drama activities can involve children at many levels, not only on the linguistic one but also on the kinesthetic, logical-mathematical, spatial, musical, personal, interpersonal and even naturalistic intelligences. I want show you  a task which engages most of all of the intelligences. I think that is a interesting activity to do in class. Maybe you can use it with your students! We can take a real plant with a flower to class. We introduce the students to the story of a plant and some specific vocabulary about that, so that they became familiar with it and they could use it appropriately. We draw the picture of the plant on the board and ask: what’s this? (a plant/ a flower) We can ask: where do flowers ...

When I try to recall my EFL classes in school, I remember a boring textbook. I remember doing many exercises but with very little variety among them (most were fill-in-the gaps), and write some artificial text with no purpose. English language teacher have always resorted to using a textbook when teaching English as a second language in the school, but sometimes this method don’t work because this book don’t have nothing in common with students' interests of at that age. Something completely different can help to learning and teaching English. Class projects can be an excellent way to focus the whole class and get them together towards a common goal. Students learn better when they can work together in groups. Collective work can activate and build background knowledge. We can ask our students if they would like a magazine in English about our town. We ask children for ideas for a name for the magazine and hold a class vote to decide on the name.  On the board we w...

Teaching English does not simply consist of instructing students in development of linguistic elements but also helping students understand cultural aspects (not assimilate them) enabling them to engage in effective communication. When we read English, we increase the amount and intensity of input, increase the reception and the production skills and provide effective practices that give clues of meaning. Children enjoy listening and reading stories because it is a great way to multiple interpretations and opinions in the classroom. Reading offers a wide range of vocabulary and it deals with matters that are related to personal experiences as seeing, listening, moving, imitating, singing, playing, and speaking.  So here we want to share with you our tips on books which we consider useful in learning and teaching English. Before choosing a book, we will consider different aspects: the book need be adapted and simplified for children whose first language is not English. The stor...

One way to increase the amount and intensity of input necessary for implicit and subconscious EFL learning in instructed contexts is to provide enough exposure for implicit language learning, to increase the reception and the production skills and to provide with effective practices that give young learners clues of meaning. You may think, how can I do it or where I can find some information?     We can teach children to listen and to pay attention in the EFL primary class with multimodal and multisensory techniques. With experiences such as:   seeing, listening, moving, touching, imitating, singing, playing, experimenting, manipulating and speaking are very important. With   techniques such as: making eye contact, facing the speaker, no interrupting, good body language, interest facial expressions, and asking and answering questions.   We have some examples will serve to illustrate a few strategies:   ·        ...

  As you may have already seen by the title, the topic of today will be scaffolding. It is important for us as  future  teachers to recognize the importance of using scaffolding in our class. This entrance shows how scaffolding can be useful for us.   Scaffolding was first used by researchers to describe the role adults could play in helping children or novices solve problems in tutoring situations (Wood, Bruner, & Ross, 1976). In education, S caffolding refers to a variety of  techniques used to move students progressively toward stronger understanding and, greater independence in the learning process. We will provide successive levels of temporary support that will help students reach higher levels of comprehension and skill acquisition that they would not be able to achieve without assistance.    Our main goal  is to reduce the negative emotions that students may experience when they get frustrated when attempting a d...

"But why do I have to go? School is not fun!” That quote could be from a child, asking his mom why he has to go every single day to this place that he was told was going to be a lot of fun, and it’s not. We know that teachers are not selected or trained to be comedians. However, we know that a positive climate for learning, and enjoyment, is correlated with retention of information. Doing some activity this way, could be interesting. How and why? Let's talk about it.   Humor reduces stress and tension in the classroom and promotes creative understanding. But most of all, it brings a sense of pleasure and appreciation and creates a common, positive emotional experience that the students share with each other and the teacher. How would this activity work? •Only "no hurt" humor is acceptable. •Have joke time, we can ask students to bring in jokes to share, either to start the day, to make a transition between break and the following class, or at the end of the...