In every ESL classroom there needs to be some kind of grammar instruction and demonstration. In general, this is the boring stuff students don’t enjoy doing as much. As you probably already know it really helps to find fun ways of explaining, demonstrating, and practicing grammar rules. In my experience, playing games is the best [...]
A good warm-up exercise can really change the entire feel and flow of your classroom. Here are a few good warm-up exercises that may help make a difference.
This activity is best if you start by asking the students questions about girlfriends and boyfriends. This will grab middle school and university students’ attention right away. You can ask questions like… When do most Chinese people have their first girl/boyfriend? What do Chinese parents think about having a girl/boyfriend? What famous couples do you [...]
At some point in your ESL teaching career a student will ask you to give him or her an English name. My advice to you is to take care and time in doing this.
This is a great lesson that never fails to get students’ creative juices flowing. The activity usually takes at least 2 (40-50 minute) periods to complete. You may need to stretch it into 3 periods.
One of the great things about teaching in China (especially at the university level) is the range of perspectives you can get from your students on any range of topics. I have generally found my students to be well informed and intellectually curious in ways that fuel genuinely interesting (if often chaotic) discussions. For the [...]
Highly adaptable to any level and/or material, How’s Your Reception is my personal creation. Students need to use their cell phones for this activity so tell them a class ahead of time to bring their cell phones. This idea alone will get middle school students stirring in the seats.
The basic idea of the activity is to get students to read something, remember it, and then verbally relay that information to a classmate. It’s easily adaptable to any level and/or material. I use this about once every two weeks.
Managing the flow of classroom activity and student interaction is, in my mind, even more important than the material you’re teaching. Managing a university classroom is vastly different than managing a middle school classroom, which is quite different from a primary school classroom, which is different from a small group of adults in a training [...]
When I first came to China to teach in 2003, I made plans for all manner of problems I would encounter. I bucked up on independent clauses, dangling modifiers, and the subjunctive (If I were to be a good teacher, I knew I would need it). Upon arrival, however, I found the largest dilemma in [...]