Tag: Pre-intermediate

vocabulary

Vocabulary: Dictionary race

Astrid van Houwelingen

Nowadays many of us resort to an app or the internet when we want to know the meaning of a word. This is all fine as long as you are not in an exam setting. Because my students are sitting exams in a few months I would like to make sure that they know how to use a dictionary quickly and correctly. And what better way than to make a race out of it?

The Basics

Level: A1-C2 (Elementary, Pre- Intermediate, Intermediate, Upper-intermediate, Advanced)
Focus: Learning new vocabulary, using a dictionary
Time: 10-20 minutes
Materials: Cards with words (2 or 3 sets), markers (2 or 3), whiteboard, dictionaries (2 or 3)

Aim

Students learn to use a dictionary with speed. Students learn some new vocabulary items or revise words from their vocabulary lists.

The task

Before you start you need to make sure students know how to find words in a dictionary quickly. You could do a practice round by giving the class a word to look up and to let the student who knows first raise their hand and read the right definition to you.

  1. Prepare two or three similar stacks of cards with words from the dictionary on them.
  2. Divide the class in two or three groups.
  3. Put two (or three) tables in front of the room a couple of metres from the whiteboard. On the tables you should have: one stack of cards, one dictionary and one whiteboard marker.
  4. Let the groups of students line up behind a desk.
  5. Explain that they are to take one card from the top of the stack and look up the word as quickly as they can. Once they have found the definition they race towards the board and write down word and definition as quick as they can. When finished, they return their marker to the desk to pass on to another student and join the back of the line.
  6. Set the timer to the required amount of minutes and yell ‘GO!’.
  7. The group with the most correct answers in a limited amount of time wins.

Additional ideas

If you do not want the bustle of the race but do want to make a game out of it you could have the students sit at a group of tables with the stack of words and a couple of dictionaries and have them write down their answers on a piece of paper. Once they have gone through their stack they raise their hands and wait for your approval. First group that is done wins.

If you have a larger group I would advise to use the grouped table method described in the previous paragraph.

If you want the students to have their spelling on point you could decide to only give the point if their spelling is correct.

An alternative way of playing this is to not set a timer, but to allow all groups to work through the same amount of words. The fastest group wins.

If you want students to revise their vocabulary you could use words from their wordlists for this race.

Over to you: Do you ever let students race each other? How does that work in your classroom?

Have fun teaching! ^_^

Love,

Astrid

vocabulary

Vocabulary: 30 Seconds revision game

Astrid van Houwelingen

At the time of writing we are getting closer and closer to the Christmas holidays. The cold, short days and holiday preparations take their toll on students and teachers. People are getting tired and with the two-week school break approaching it is tempting to just put on a dvd or log in to Netflix and call it a listening activity.

But what if we can find a way to bring the Christmas spirit into the classroom without the help of a Christmas film? When asked what students enjoy most about Christmas with their families, many students mention playing games with their loved ones and enjoying each other’s company. Now I am not one to leave a suggestion like that go unnoticed. And because my students were sitting a vocabulary test I dusted off the old 30 seconds vocabulary revision game. Let’s play!

The Basics

Level: B1-C2 (Pre-Intermediate, Intermediate, Upper-intermediate, Advanced)
Focus: Revising vocabulary, speaking, listening
Time: 20-30 minutes
Materials: Vocabulary list, palm-sized cards (or let your students cut these), timers or stopwatches

Aim

Students revise their vocabulary. This can be done either before a test or after you have set some vocabulary revision homework.

The task

30 seconds is a family board game in which two or more teams of 2-4 people battle against each other. One member of the team pulls a card from the deck and gets 30 seconds to describe to their team the five words or terms that are listed on the card. The word itself or translations thereof cannot be used. For each correct guess the team gets a point. When the 30 seconds are up the turn goes to the next team. The team with the most points wins the game. (In this instance I don’t use the board itself. It does not add much to the gameplay in my opinion)

If you want to get started quickly you can make the cards yourself beforehand and skip to step 4. However, if you’re more like me, you make your students do the hard work.

  1. Explain the game to students that have never done the game before. You might want to model it the first time.
  2. Give your students an empty card.
  3. Instruct them to write down five words from their vocabulary list on the card and return them to you once they are finished.
  4. Divide the class into teams and put them around a set of tables shoved together.
  5. Put the stack of cards in the middle and provide a timer (or let the students use the timer on their phones)
  6. Let them play and enjoy the scene.

Additional ideas

With a larger group of students you will find it works better to divide the group into smaller groups of a maximum of ten students. When this is the case you will need as many sets of cards as you have groups of students. This is easily done by asking students to not make one but two or three cards. The students can give these back to you and you divide the cards into two or more stacks, creating two or more game sets.

Depending on the amount of words they had to study you can ask them to make two of the same cards or two different cards.

If you want an even distribution of the words between students you can assign them units or pages of vocabulary.

If you have a pre-intermediate group or a group who finds it difficult to describe vocabulary in the target language you could give them more time to describe the terms. Note, however, that if you allow them too much time, the pressure of the game subsides and the stress factor, which makes it fun, is taken out.

Of course you can save the sets of cards to play in future. It saves you time when you want to play it with another class next week, next semester or next year.

Over to you: Do you ever use family games in your classroom?

Have fun teaching! ^_^

Love,

Astrid

Grammar, Listening, speaking, vocabulary, writing

Creative writing: The holidays

Astrid van Houwelingen

The holidays are always exciting moments for students. Whether it is Halloween, Christmas or some other local holiday, they are sure to get your students wriggling in their seats with anticipation. Why not make use of this time of year and ask your students to channel their excitement into some creative writing and story telling? And while we’re at it, throw in some revision too. Two birds one stone anyone?

The Basics

Level: B1-C2 (Pre-Intermediate, Intermediate, Upper-intermediate, Advanced)
Focus: Listening, revising vocabulary and grammar, creative writing, speaking
Time: 120 minutes divided over two lessons
Materials: Computer with audio, vocabulary list, grammar overview, writing materials

Aim

Students revise their vocabulary and grammar. This can be done either before a test or after you have set some revision homework. They also do some creative writing and storytelling.

The task

We all love to hear a good story. Writing one can be a challenge but it does provide for a great deal of language output and therefore a chance to revise what students have learned. In the slides below you will find a two-hour lesson. Students will write their own holiday related story in the first lesson (in this case a Halloween story). In the second lesson students will read their stories to each other, battling it out in a story battle. To motivate students to include their revision work the story battle works with a point system. The more vocabulary and grammar they include the more points their story has to begin with. The winner can be awarded a prize of some sort (some students work harder with chocolate in sight) or dish out some ‘eternal fame’ (or ‘lame’, as one of my students called it).

Additional ideas

Although the lesson in the slides is Halloween themed, it is easy enough to transform this into a Chrismas themed lesson. It could also be used more broadly as a lesson to be done before students are off on their spring or summer holidays. In that case you could ask your students to write about their best, most amazing, imagined holiday. You do not actually have to leave your chair to imagine where you could go or what you could do with your free time, do you?

Over to you: Do you feel like your students could write a longer piece of text like this? And how do you address the holidays in your lessons? I would love to hear your ideas in the comments.

Have fun teaching! ^_^

Love,

Astrid

vocabulary

Vocabulary: Revision Games

Astrid van Houwelingen

When it comes to making things ‘stick’ revision is the key word. Although repeating words until a student remembers them can be an arduous task, it is essential to learning a language. Of course revising by repeating the words with flash cards or using a vocabulary revision app can be useful. But if you want to liven things up a bit there are many activities and games you can play with your students that will have them begging for some more revision please…

And of course we aim to please. That is why I have designed a slideshow with six no-prep games that you can use in your lessons when you want them to repeat those words and still have some fun!

The Basics

Level: A2-C2 (Elementary, Pre-Intermediate, Intermediate, Upper-intermediate, Advanced)
Focus: Revising vocabulary, writing, speaking
Time: 15-60 minutes depending on the activity you choose
Materials: Vocabulary list, sheets of paper

Aim

Students revise their vocabulary. This can be done either before a test or after you have set some vocabulary revision homework.

The task

In the presentation below you can find six different ways of revising vocabulary. There are instructions on making your own gapfill, writing a short story, making a quiz, playing forbidden word, playing ‘Who is it’ and describing and guessing someone’s character. Because students do more than matching the word and definition or translation it also builds their confidence about writing and speaking in the target language.

Additional ideas

There are many other game forms that lend themselves well to be used in the language class. How about bingo with irregular verbs or playing charades with the words on the vocabulary list? Fun is guaranteed.

Over to you: Do you have fun ideas for revising vocabulary? Let us know in the comment section below.

Have fun teaching! ^_^

Love,

Astrid