How to build your spoken English confidence? - Speak with confidence - English Lesson

English Grammar - Gerund or Infinitive? ('I like swimming' or 'I like to swim'?)

12 Fantastic Ways to Start Your Class

Try These 12 Techniques for Beginning a Lesson:

Discussion

Discussion is one of the most versatile activities for ESL classes. It gets students speaking and listening and can introduce a new topic or grammatical structure. Try having students gather in groups of two or three and give them a discussion question related to what you plan to teach. It will help get them ready for what comes next.

Total Physical Response

If you are more of the jump right in type, try a short session of Total Physical Response to start class. Don’t worry about translating what you say or whether your students will understand. Simply go into English only mode and give your students directions on how to move. Use any vocabulary you think is necessary. The most important thing is that your students have a physical response to what you are teaching them in English.

Games

Games are great! Everybody loves a game, and there are tons to choose from when you are looking to practice or review some aspect of the English language. They can be as simple and no prep as Simon Says or as complicated as making your own board game. Use games to get your students interested in class and remember what they learned yesterday.

Discovery Grammar Method

If you like to start class off with a real challenge, try giving your students a worksheet – with the answers already in place! You can introduce a new grammar concept this way. By giving students the answers before you teach them the grammatical construction, you will give your class a chance to figure the rule out on their own before you tell it to them. Your logical/mathematical learners will love this type of instruction, and it’s a great preview for whatever grammar lesson you are going to give later in the class period.

Small Talk

Don’t minimize the value of chatting with your students as they enter class. Letting them chat with you and each other gives them practice with the all too elusive skill of small talk. They will learn what topics are appropriate for chatting with friends and acquaintances and may even encounter some unfamiliar language in the process.

Explain the Plan for the Day

Some people like to have a plan. When they are students in your class, they are at the mercy of what you have scheduled for the day, but that doesn’t mean they have to feel completely out of control. Try starting your class by reviewing the schedule for the day and letting your students know the objectives of your activities. You don’t have to go into too much detail about your lesson plans, but just knowing what comes next and what you hope they get out of it may be enough to set these students at ease.

Warm Up or Ice Breaker

Whether your students are starting their first day of class or they have been learning together for many months, it’s fun to start class with a warm up exercise or an ice breaker. It is always a pleasure to get to know our peers more, and it seems like everyone has more interesting secrets to learn if you just take the time to ask. Plus, warm up activities are good for just that – warming up to English before you tackle greater challenges. Take a look here for some great ideas for icebreakers and warmups that you can use to start your class today.

Review

Do you remember what you had for lunch yesterday? Ok, that’s probably not as important as what your students learned in class yesterday, but they do have something in common. They can both be easy to forget. Taking a few minutes to review what you did last class, especially if you had to stop in the middle of an activity, can be a great help to your students. It will get their brains back in gear for language learning, and it might also bring up some questions that didn’t come up the day before – questions that your students may not have even known they had yesterday.

Checking Homework

Did you give your students homework yesterday? You may want to start your class period by reviewing it. Like doing a quick review at the beginning of class, going over homework can bring up some questions or difficulties that students didn’t even know they had when you presented your lesson the day before. Plus, if you’re anything like me, it’s good to get homework review out of the way before getting caught up in whatever great things you have planned for today. Reviewing homework in class also gives students a chance to help each other out in so doing cementing the concepts in their own minds.

Brainstorm

Was the last time you did a whole class brainstorm when you introduced the last vocabulary unit in class? If so, why not try starting your day with a different kind of brainstorm. It serves as a nice warm up, and your students might also encounter some unfamiliar language in the process. Even if they don’t, it’s a nice way to get students thinking in English and lubricating those brain muscles for the challenges you have set out for the day. Choose any topic you like. It doesn’t have to relate to what you’re planning on teaching today, but bonus points for you and your students if it does.

Show a Picture

Pictures are great sources of inspiration, and you can find a picture of just about anything online. Try projecting a picture on your front board and having students talk about what is happing there, describe the scene, or use it as a writing prompt for class. Pictures are so versatile and can be so creative.

Correct Sentences with Errors

Having one or two error filled sentences on the board when your students get to class is another good way to start. I like to have student copy the sentence as I have written it into a designated section of their notebooks and then write the corrected sentence beneath it. The advantages to starting class this way is that latecomers have a few extra minutes to arrive and get settled and, even more important, students develop an eye for finding mistakes in their own writing. You can also use this class start to introduce new grammar or review areas students are making mistakes.

5 Advanced Techniques for Comparing and Contrasting in English

Determiners

One of the simplest ways to show similarities and differences is through use of determiners. Words such as both, all, neither, and none can show how two items are the same. Consider the following sentences.

o    Both Asia and Europe are continents.

o    Neither boy plays baseball.

Using determiners to show similarities is basic grammar, and even beginning students can use this technique when they speak and write in English. In fact, you can teach this type of comparison before you teach comparative and superlative adjectives it is so simple.

To practice using determiners for comparisons, have students work with a partner to find as many similarities between their home cultures as possible (or between their home culture and U.S. culture). They should express each similarity using a determiner that shows similarities. For example, students might say the following.

o    Both the U.S. and Korea celebrate Valentine’s Day.

o    Both Beijing and New York have taxis.

Adverbs and Adverb Phrases

Adverbs can also be used to show similarities and differences between items. Consider the following sentences.

o    Jason is an optimist. Jude is an optimist, too.

o    Jason and Jude have being an optimist in common.

It’s the phrase in common, acting as an adverb in the sentence that shows the similarity between Jason and Jude. Other words and phrases that can show similarities in this way are as well, also, in the same way, so do, like, and likewise.

To practice using these phrases, have students work with a partner. One person make as observation about a person or object. For example, The filing cabinet is made of metal. The second person must find another person or thing that also has that quality. E.g. My car is made of metal. The first person then makes a sentence which shows the commonality between the two objects using an adverb or adverb phrase. E.g. The filing cabinet is made of metal and your car is as well.

Linking Expressions

When we evaluate two things using comparative adjectives, we must necessarily put both of those items in the same phrase. For more advanced sentence structure, your students can use linking expressions to compare and contrast in separate clauses. Consider the following sentences:

o    Asia is larger than Europe.

o    Asia is huge whereas Europe is small.

Both sentences express the difference in size for the two continents, but the sentence structure is very different. The first sentence is a simple sentence with only one clause. The second is a complex sentence with one independent clause and one dependent clause. Here is another example.

o    Jason is more optimistic than Jane.

o    Jason is an optimist, but Jane is a pessimist.

The sentences in this pair do not have the exact meaning and are therefore not interchangeable, but both do show a contrast between the two people. Again the second sentence is a complex sentence whereas the first is a simple sentence.

While and although are other linking expressions that can be used this way.

o    Jason is an optimist while Jane is a pessimist.

o    Although Jason is an optimist, Jane is a pessimist.

To practice this method of comparing and contrasting, have the members of your class write several phrases on individual index cards. Each should use a linking expressions. Students might write thing such as the following:

o    While Mary likes country music…

o    Although I was on time for class…

o    I studied last night, but…

Collect the cards and shuffle them. Read them to your class and ask students to complete the sentences logically. You can take several answers for each phrase.

Nouns and Verbs

Adjectives are great ways of comparing two items, but you can also use nouns and verbs to show similarities and differences. When they are used for this purpose, the nouns and verbs imply similarities and differences as part of their meaning.

Some verbs that compare and contrast are differ, contrast, compare, vary, change, equate, equal, match, and parallel.

o    Asia contrasts with Europe in size.

o    Jason and Jude match in temperament.

Some nouns that compare and contrast are difference, similarity, contrast, comparison, variance,dissimilarity, change, resemblance, likeness, parallel, connection, and match.

o    The temperaments of Jason and Jude are a match.

o    Asia and Europe have a dissimilarity in size.

To practice using nouns and verbs to show similarities and differences, start with several sentences that use comparative adjectives written out on a worksheet. Have students rewrite the sentences using a noun or verb instead of the comparative adjective. For example, students might change sentences as follows.

o    Original sentence: My apartment is bigger than his apartment.

o    Revised sentence: His and my apartment differ in size.

Degrees of Similarity

Sometimes we want to do more than just say two things are alike or are different. We want to say just how different they are. We want to know the degree of similarity or difference. To express these ideas, English speakers use a word or phrase to modify the adjective they are using. The following phrases express degrees which can be combined with an adjective to say just how similar or different two items are:absolutely the same/different, exactly the same, practically the same/opposite, basically the same/different/opposite, nearly the same, more or less the same/different, quite similar/different, completely the same/different, totally the same/different, slightly similar/different, and very similar/different.

To practice these expressions, try having your students describe just how alike or different people in your class are. Have students write ten sentences each comparing or contrasting two of their classmates. In each sentence, students should use a phrase that expresses just how alike or different those student are. For example, someone might write the following.

o    Juan is slightly different in height than MinHo.

o    Abdul and Hen are opposite in their speech volume.

TALK, SPEAK, TELL - What's the difference?

9 Tips for Great Student Presentations

Have Them to Their Research First

How many students do you have that panic at the first mention of a presentation? It can be a struggle for some students to get up in front of their class when they are speaking their native language, never mind English. But before the panic has a chance to set in, make sure your students know the topics they will discuss during their presentations. Whether you tell them the purpose of the research before or after they do it is up to you, but it is important that students know the information they are going to present before they think about how they will present it. Take some class time to go online or research at your library. Encourage students to read and take notes so they will well informed before they think about how they will deliver that information to their classmates.

Have Them Stress Three or Four Major Points

With just about any topic, the information available can be overwhelming. Knowledge is so prolific these days a person can’t possibly say everything there is to know about a topic in one presentation. That’s why your students should stress three or four major points when they give their presentation rather than trying to give all the information they found in their research. Before they plan their presentation, ask student to think of the three most important points they want to make about their topic. Then encourage students to think of their presentation the same way they would an essay. They should start with some general comments or an interesting story (similar to an introduction). Then they should give three important pieces of information and use details to support those points (similar to the body of the essay). Finally, they should close the presentation with a summary and some final thoughts (similar to a written conclusion).

Encourage Students to Include Personal Anecdotes for Support and Interest

People love to hear personal stories. They can make a dry topic much more engaging and alive. Encourage your students to use at least one personal anecdote in their presentation. Since personal experiences are a great way to introduce a topic, many students may choose to start their presentation with an anecdote. You might also encourage them to tell part of a story at the start of their presentation and then finish the story after they have made their major points and before they summarize their presentation. Students might also choose to use anecdotes as support for details or to explain a confusing or complicated topics. No matter where they show up in a presentation, personal experiences will engage the listeners and bring more life to the topic your students are talking about.

Have Them Include Visual Aids

As your students are preparing their presentations, make sure they are planning on some type of visual aids to go along with their speech. There are many different and creative ways to include visuals in a presentation, but your students don’t have to be fancy. A simple PowerPoint presentation will be plenty. When they make their slides, encourage them to use the slides for more than just making their outline visible to the rest of the class. They might use pictures, diagrams, or quotations on their slides. They shouldn’t use too many slides or put too many words on any one slide as that can be distracting to listeners. They should think of their slide presentation as a way to share information with the class that would take too long to explain verbally. That is what makes the best visual aids in a presentation.

Make Sure They Include Questions in the Presentation

You don’t want your class members having a discussion while someone is up front presenting, but you do want them engaged with the speaker. Encourage your students to include a few rhetorical questions in their presentations. Asking questions will give listeners a chance to reengage if their minds have drifted off, and it will also give listeners a chance to anticipate what their classmate will say next in the presentation.

Don’t Let Students Read Off of a Transcript

Some students will want to work out every detail of their presentation before they give it, and that includes the exact words they will say. All too often I have had students bring a printed essay up front with them and then simply read it for their presentation. And while reading skills are valuable, I don’t like to assess them during class presentations. To make sure students do not rely on a transcript while presenting, I only allow them to use notecards while up front. For more advanced students, I limit them to only one notecard. Lower levels I allow as many as they need as long as their notes are not written in complete sentences. I encourage my students to use two or three words as reminders for each point they want to speak about while up front. What you allow your students is up to you. Just make sure they do not plan on reading a transcript from the podium when they present.

Stress That Students Should Be Careful about the Way They Speak

Giving a good presentation is more than just getting the vocabulary and grammar right. You should help your students think about their tone, intonation, and other patterns of speech as they talk from the front of the room. Remind students not to use slang and to vary the pace and pitch of their speech. They should stress important words by slowing down and putting emphasis on the words during the speech. Make sure that students are speaking at a loud enough volume (some students will tend to speak too quietly due to cultural values or personal fears of speaking up front). All of this attention to how they speak will make their presentations more effective.

Make Sure They Think about Body Language

Your students’ presentations will be more than just the words they say. The listeners will be looking at your students as they speak from up front. Encourage students to keep a straight posture and not lean back or forward as they speak. Students should keep their hands at their sides or on the podium as they speak and not move them around unless they need a gesture to explain something. Movements from up front are distracting unless they are for illustration purposes or are for drawing the audience’s attention to a particular point on the slide or something in the room.

Give Them Time to Practice with a Partner

One way to help students get ready to speak from up front is to give them practice time with a partner.Talking to one person in class is not the same thing as addressing all of their classmates, but giving your students an opportunity to go through their notes and think about the words they will use from up front will only help them as they present to the class. Take time for students to practice with one or two other students so their speech from up front won’t be the first time they have give that information to someone else.

People, Family and social life

Link for activities and handouts.
Children against racism. People and society:
Click here

 Family topics:
click here

Social life:
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