Tag: revision

Geen categorie, vocabulary

Vocabulary: Hot seat

Astrid van Houwelingen

In the past few weeks this site has featured a number of ideas on how to revise vocabulary. Here is one to add to that list: The Hot Seat. It is a game which students enjoy as it is the right mix of frustration and victory. It is a tightrope we are walking but the victory is that much greater when you succeed.

The Basics

Level: B1-C2 (Intermediate, Upper-intermediate, Advanced)
Focus: Revising vocabulary, listening, speaking
Time: 10-20 minutes
Materials: Vocabulary list, a large screen or large sheets of paper, seat facing the classroom (teacher position)

Aim

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

The task

A Hot Seat is a situation in which you put a student in front of a class, where they perform an act or share their knowledge in one way or another. In this case however, the student in the Hot Seat is the one who needs to figure things out.

  1. Prepare a slideshow or a set of papers with one word of the vocabulary list on each slide.
  2. Put one volunteer in front of the room with their back towards the screen or the paper signs.
  3. Instruct the class that they will have to allow the Hot Seat student to guess the vocabulary item by using descriptions, synonyms, antonyms and any other ways they might think of. They are, however, not to use the word itself, nor are they allowed to use parts of it.
  4. If the student in the Hot Seat guesses correctly a point is awarded.
  5. Repeat with another vocabulary item for as long as you want.

Additional ideas

If you want to add an element of competition you could put two or even three students in front of the room and divide the class into two or three competitive groups. The group that has the first correct guess wins the point.

If you want the students to have their spelling on point you could give them a piece of paper to write their answers on. They will only get the point if their spelling is correct.

If you want to discourage using the native language you could subtract points for each word or instruction used in the native language.

If you want to sit back and relax you could ask one student to select and hold up the vocabulary item to the class and another to be the ‘referee’. 😉

Over to you: There are many other ways in which Hot Seat could work in a classroom. Have you made use of it in the past? If so, how?

Have fun teaching! ^_^

Love,

Astrid

Geen categorie, vocabulary

Vocabulary: Revision Bingo

Astrid van Houwelingen

Getting students to revise their vocabulary often enough so it sticks can be a tough one. Students find it tedious. They feel like they know it all after having read through the list a couple of times. Getting them to be active and work with the vocabulary can be a challenge. But there is no better way to get students’ interest than the words let’s play a game. In this case: BINGO!

The Basics

Level: A1-C2 (Elementary, Pre-Intermediate, Intermediate, Upper-intermediate, Advanced)
Focus: Revising vocabulary, listening
Time: 20-30 minutes
Materials: Vocabulary list, empty bingo cards (or let your students make a grid in their notebooks)

Aim

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

The task

So if you have never heard of BINGO, it is a fairly simple game in which you listen out for the information in your grid and cross it out once your number, or in this case word, has been called.

If you want to get started quickly you can make the cards yourself beforehand and skip to step 3 or even four. 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 or let them make a grid in their notebook (3×3 or 4×4 or 5×5). The larger the grid the longer the game will take.
  3. Instruct them to fill their grid with words from the vocabulary list you are going to call out from. You can let them write down the word in their native language or the word in the target language.
  4. Once students have their bingo cards ready you will tell them when they have bingo. Is it one vertical/diagonal/horizontal row or the whole card. Agree with students what the ‘penalty’ will be for a false bingo. My class opted for singing a song in front of the other students.
  5. One by one, call the translation or definition of the words. The students will have to mark off the word that has the same meaning. Keep tabs on which words you have called to be able to check for false bingo.
  6. When a student calls BINGO! they will have to show their card to you to verify they were correct. If so, congratulate them or give them a small prize. If not, let them perform the previously agreed on penalty.
  7. You can choose to give other students a chance at bingo or let them have a go at filling up their cards.

Additional ideas

If you do not work with translations in your wordlist but words and definitions then this would work just as well. Let the students fill in the word and you read out the definitions. You could do it the other way around but that would take up some time when creating the bingo card. Nice homework task though!

If you do not have a vocabulary list per se but you do want to expand your students’ vocabulary you could let them play bingo with synonyms or even antonyms. You would need to agree on a set of words that are part of the game. A selection of words from a reading text could work well here.

Over to you: Do you have any other ways in which a game like BINGO could be used in the 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

vocabulary

Linking words: Who am I?

Astrid van Houwelingen

Students are often asked to study new words from vocabulary lists. If they are lucky, these words have been presented to them in a reading or listening task. More often than not, these words are studied in isolation and are produced only in translation or gap-fill activities. Yet, we want students to be able to reproduce them in their own speaking and writing.

This activity invites students to consider when and how words are used. It also invites them to create new contexts in which they can incorporate these newly learnt vocabulary items.

The Basics

Level: A2-C2 (Elementary – Advanced)
Focus: Learning new linking words, using linking words, speaking, writing
Time: 30 minutes
Materials: Post-its, overview of linking words, white board, several markers

Aim

Adding to student’s knowledge of linking words. Knowing a variety of linking words will allow students to become more proficient readers, writers, speakers and listeners. It will become easier for them to make and follow an argument.

The Task

1. Before starting on the assignment, ask students what they already know about linking words. Let your students complete a mindmap, focussing on what linking words are and why the students should become more familiar with them. This should give both you and your students a chance to reflect on what they know and why the upcoming assignment is important.

When everyone is up to speed on the what and why, it is time to dive a little deeper into the material.

2. Provide students with an overview of the linking words you would like them to become more familiar with. This can be taken from the course book or an online list of words such as this one.

3. Hand out sticky notes and invite students to choose a linking word from the list. They should keep this word secret and stick it on their fellow student’s back or forehead.

4. Now the fun starts. Students walk around and ask their fellow students questions such as: ‘Can you use my linking word when you want to connect ideas?’ or ‘Would you use my linking word if you want to give a reason for your argument?’ The fellow student can only answer ‘Yes’ or ‘No’.

Note: Because you would like students to be confronted with as many linking words as possible, you should stimulate your students to ask only one question to one student. This requires them to think about the function of multiple linking words. It also allows them to move around, which energizes them and lets them blow off some steam (if necessary). Feel free to explain the reason for this rule with students who are hesitant to move around.

5. Once a student knows their category, they can start to find out which specific linking word they have on their sticky note. Students should request a gapped sentence from their classmates: ‘Could you create a sencence where my linking word could be used?’ This forces both students to consider the function of the linking word in context. Struggling students could enlist the help of a dictionary to find an example sentence.

6. Once a student knows which linking word they have, invite them to the whiteboard and let them create a sentence with the linking word underlined. Ask them to go back to their seats when finished.

7. When everyone has written down their sentences, review the most remarkable or difficult ones with the class. Does the class feel the linking word has been used correctly? If not, how can the sentence be improved?

Note: With larger classes you could ask students to share their sentences in small groups and give each other feedback on them. The students could provide you with their most remarkable sentence or a sentence they were unsure about. These could be discussed with the whole class.

8. If present, you could ask students to do the assignments from the coursebook to check their understanding. Alternatively, let them write a paragraph including some of the linking words that they have learnt that lesson.

Additional ideas

Who am I? works well with linking words but could also be applied to reviewing vocabulary. Students pick a word from the words they studied previously and go about asking ‘yes’ and ‘no’ questions as well as gapped sentences to figure out which word is on their sticky note. Asking them to create their own sentence with the word allows them to consider when and how a word could be used.

Over to you: Do you have fun ways of teaching linking words or other cohesive devices? I’m always up for a great new idea to try out with my students.

Have fun teaching! ^_^

Love,

Astrid