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About this site

Welcome to the EFL page of my website, which started as a place to share useful resources I found on the internet. I have since added some lesson ideas of my own, and many that others have shared with me either at St Giles College (where I teach) or via resource books and articles.
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Latest Ideas and Plans

Creating Lessons from Scratch

Conversation Dice»

 NB I have adapted this activity from Deck of Conversations, on the onestopenglish website.
 Suggested Levels: elementary and above
 
Materials needed: dice and students; a list of conversation topics.
 
Procedure:
 
Before the class, prepare a list of conversation topics, one for each number of the dice; these should be a mixture of “talk about” and “ask about” topics, as [...]

Presentations and group feedback for intonation practice, Chindogu-style»

This is a fun way to practise using intonation to convey interest and enthusiasm, and to encourage students to bond as a group by giving feedback to each other. You will need copies of the Chindogu inventions at the bottom of this page (one for each group of three students), and paper and pens.
RECOMMENDED LEVEL: [...]

Describing Body Language»

This is a lesson to use with an interactive whiteboard, and students who are strong intermediate students or above. Please note that the idea of the body language table comes from Listening by Goodith White (Oxford Resource Books for Teachers: 1998).
Materials: an interactive whiteboard; this lesson (which works on Smart software); pens and paper; video [...]

Using Coursebooks Creatively

Games with Gapfills»

Here are some ways of enlivening gapfill tasks in coursebooks.
Correct the Teacher
Either board the answers in front of the class and invite them to correct your mistakes (make about three or four errors), or prepare a completed gapfill task with some errors; give one copy per student or pair of students, and invite them to [...]

Using Word Search Grids»

Materials: a word search grid on a familiar coursebook theme for each pair of students (a crime one is here); a blank word search grid (here).
Preparation: photocopies of the two grids.
This is a good vocabulary revision exercise, whereby students focus on word recognition and spelling.
I usually start by pairing the students, eliciting “vertical,” “horizontal” and [...]

Listening/Speaking: 4-Way Dictation»

 Note: This idea comes from Humanising Your Coursebook by Mario Rinvolucri (used with permission). I’ve found it to be a very useful way of practicing clear articulation, splitting sentences into meaningful chunks ("connected speech"), listening, writing, and various vocabulary, spelling and grammatical points.
 
Preparation: copies of a medium-length coursebook tapescript, cut into four sections of equal [...]