Teachers' Tip

Here are some helpful tips we've compliled about teaching. We hope they prove useful. If you have any other suggestions of comments, please contact us.

Call my bluff

This game is as old as the hills and a bald man called Robert Robinson has hosted a TV show with this name ever since I was very young (a long time ago, alas).

Students are put into 2 teams and are given a number of difficult but useful words. For each word they must create definitions, one of which is correct, but the others of which are complete rubbish. The word comes up and the definitions are all read solemnly out with the story behind the word, its origin etc all included if possible. The other team must decide which definition is correct.

It sounds like a rather dry exercise, but, if the students are encouraged to use humour in their definitions, examples and etymology, this can actually be a riot.

Collocation and Idiom in L1

If you are dealing with monolingual classes and are interested in teaching collocation, the first thing to do is check which of the partnerships you have selected exist in the L1. A surprising number of collocations that we assume are new to students actually exist in the students' own languages. If you are pressed for time in, for example, an exam class, these collocations can be written down, with their L1 equivalent, and just handed to the students, rather than wasting their time teaching them something that already exists in their own language. For example, the expression to run a risk, which sounds highly idiomatic in English, actually exists in both Spanish and Italian with the same meaning. Students need to know that they can translate that particular expression, but time need not be spent creating exercises practising it, when other combinations can more usefully be practised.

Formal and informal language

A Job Interview

"Alright Mr Jones?"

"How's it going Mr Bradshaw?"

"Sit down."

"Cheers."

"What do you want to work here for?"

"Well, I reckon it's a wicked company and the job sounds cracking."

What strikes you as strange about the above? Of course, the formality and register of the conversation is all wrong. The best way I've found of dealing with formal and informal situations is to create a conversation similar to the above one, and ask students to rewrite it, substituting the words and expressions that are too informal with more formal equivalents. This skill is tested in the First Certificate exam, but can be made more humourous in a class situation, especially if you get students to act it out.

Pete's hidden word game

This game can be a lot of fun when you have an animated class. You choose one word for each member of the class, write that word down on a piece of paper, but don't show it to anyone. You then explain to the students that they must speak for two minutes about a subject that you will give them. They must include the word or expression that you have written on the piece of paper in the talk. The students who are listening must guess what that word is. For example, a student has two minutes to talk about habits and customs in their country. They have 30 seconds to think about what they are going to say and are given a piece of paper with the word lightning on it. They must then try to incorporate the word naturally into their speech so that the other students can't guess what it is.

Some of the speeches that comes out of this are priceless! Try to make sure the words you give them and the subject they should talk about are very different.

Vocabulary revision

Remember, studies suggest that 80% of what someone has studied is lost from memory within 24 hours. Make sure you revise vocabulary first thing in the morning, while the minds of the students are still fresh. Try to ensure they don't look at their books, or the mental effort needed will be lost. Write down the number of letters of twenty of the words on the board, and get them in pairs to write down the words. After 90 seconds, add one letter for each of the words, and after another 90 seconds, add a second letter. The group that finish first are the winners. Don't forget to check meaning, although the mental effort expended in trying to think of the words, will usually be enough for them to remember the meaning as well.

1. r _ _ _ _ _ _ n

2. _ c h _

3. _ h _ _ m _

4. _ a r _ _ _ _ _ _