Listening

I've been looking for more listening activities for my students that isn't just my voice reading stuff all the time. So for our lesson on personal information (phone number, address, etc.) I had my family record some very simple scripts for me through WhatsApp. (I just had each person open a conversation with me, and instead of typing a text, they hit the 'record a message' button. It comes through like a voicemail in your text conversation thread, just hit play to hear it.) I did four of these, below are the first three. They were good practice, and hard but not TOO hard. One of my students said it was really good practice and she wants to do more like this. 

Conversation Cards

When people are filtering in to an ESL class (or any class), it can be awkward to sit around together, waiting to see who else will show up, trying to make small talk, but not starting the lesson yet...especially when it is adults, especially when they don't speak English very well, and especially when you don't really know each other.

I've started doing something for that time before the lesson starts to work on getting to know each other, and also for my students to practice speaking.

I write 6-10 easy conversation questions on individual index cards, and put them facedown on the table we'll be working at. The questions sometimes relate to the topic of the day, sometimes they are just small talk. I also try to think of a variety of types of answers when I write the question, for example, simple yes/no answers, single word responses, and longer sentences.

I'll start by drawing one and reading the questions out loud, showing the question to anyone who is sitting there, and then I'll answer first.  For example: "What is a TV show that you like? I like cooking shows. Do you like cooking shows? Where they show you how to cook? What TV shows do you like?" And then I try to have them answer.

Then I have the students take turns choosing cards, reading the question, and we each take turns answering it. When everyone is there, I just put away the rest of the cards for another day and start the lesson.

Here are some of the topics and questions I've done so far:

Morning Routines:
What do you like to eat for breakfast?
What are you wearing today?
What time did you wake up today?
Do you like to take a shower at night or in the morning?
What time do you like to wake up?

Hobbies:
Do you have any pets?
Do you like to go swimming?
Do you play any sports?
Do you prefer the mountains or the beach?
What is a movie or TV show you like?
Do you go to church? temple?
What do yo like to do on Saturdays?
Where would you like to travel?
Have you gone on any trips lately?

Seasons:
What do you like to do in the summer?
What is your favorite season?
What month is your birthday?
What is your favorite holiday?

Weather:
Do you like the weather in Colorado?
Do you prefer rain or snow?
What is your favorite weather?
What do you think the weather will be like tomorrow?

Making words with Banagrams

I have done this activity with children and adults, newcomers and intermediate/ advanced English speakers.  It is always a hit.

Open up a banangrams and dump the letters on the table.  Have a race between students to see who can make a word correctly first.  For one-on-one, just have the student make the word, then they can give you a word to make, and you can take turns.

Some ideas for what words to make:
Content-specific vocabulary.  For example, we were studying clothing in adult ESL.  Every student had their vocabulary list in front of them, and I would pick a word from the list. ex: "shoes".  Students race to make 'shoes' out of the letters.
Content specific could be ESL related (verbs, parts of the body, animals, colors, etc) or subject related (words from a science text about types of rocks, words from a story you have just read together, words from a math unit).  

Spelling lists.

Sight-words. You could give each student a stack of sight-word cards, and challenge them to make each word then move on to the next as quickly as possible, so they are making lots of words. Just check their spelling after each word.

For non-Latin alphabet learners and non-literate learners, say the name of just a letter, or the sound a letter makes, and see who can find it first.  Ask them to repeat the name of the letter, or the sound, or both.  When you say the name or sound of the letter, show a flashcard with that letter, so the student knows what to look for.  Extensions are to name things that start with the letter (or name the picture on the flashcard, for example A- apple), talk about capital and lowercase letters, and spell their name and the names of other proper nouns that should be familiar to them (Colorado, Denver, etc.)

In my adult ESL class, I would have the 'winner' of each word spell the word for me, to practice saying the names of the letters. Then that person would get to pick the next word for the group to try and make. 


Note: I believe there is only one "J" in bananagrams, so words using J, give some students an I and tell them to pretend it is J, or write J on the backs of some tiles with a sharpie.