Filed under: Grammar, Reading, Vocabulary | Tags: English With Jennifer, Jennifer Lebedev, JenniferESL, realia, teaching practical skills
ESL students are faced with two basic challenges: They must master English for communication, and they must learn to function within an English-only environment. For example, a student must be able to ask a passerby which bus he should take to reach the city library. Then, after boarding the bus, he needs to pay the fare, read the bus route, listen for his destination to be announced, get off the bus, and follow signs to the main entrance of the library. In short, he must communicate and function in English to meet his daily goals. ESL teachers should bear this in mind when planning lessons.
Working practical skills into language lessons is particularly helpful for students in English-speaking countries. While their ultimate goals are academic or professional, they must also achieve everyday goals like navigating the local library, using a phone card, and making purchases at a pharmacy. This last task can be overwhelming even for a native speaker. Just think of the array of bottles and boxes that make up the stock of over-the-counter medicines (OTC) at any pharmacy. Choosing and then using OTCs is a practical skill we can help our students learn. Consider different ways you can incorporate label reading into your reading, grammar, and vocabulary lessons:
- Teaching reading skills: scanning for information. Bring in several empty bottles and boxes from OTCs. Have the students pass the empty containers around, examining the labels of each one in turn. They must find the information to complete your chart:
What symptoms What’s the dosage Expiration date does it relieve? for an adult?
Name of medicine:
1. _________ ____________ ___________ ___________
2. _________ ____________ ___________ ___________
3. _________ ____________ ___________ ___________
Etc.
- Teaching expressions of cause. Note how medications state causes of symptoms using due to. Have students find examples on the containers. Example: Benadryl – It relieves symptoms due to hay fever or other upper respiratory allergies.
- Teaching conditionals. Have students find uses of if and in case of and restate the meaning. Examples:
Do not use if seal is broken or missing. = When a seal is broken or missing, you shouldn’t use this medicine.
In case of overdose, get medical help. = If you take too much of this medicine, get medical help.
- Teaching imperatives. Have students find examples of directions and warnings. Examples:
Directions: Pepto-Bismol tablets – Chew or dissolve in mouth. Drink plenty of clear fluids.
Warnings: Benadryl – Do not use in a child under 2 years of age. Avoid alcoholic drinks.
- Teaching vocabulary skills: recognizing the suffix “-er” and its meaning. Have students find examples of the suffix “-er” on labels and restate the meaning. Examples:
Pain reliever = It relieves pain.
Upset stomach reliever = It relieves an upset stomach.
Or ask questions to elicit target vocabulary: What do we call a medicine that reduces a fever? – Fever reducer.
Filed under: Vocabulary | Tags: English With Jennifer, how to teach vocabulary, Jennifer Lebedev, JenniferESL, Memorial Day activity, vocabulary games
Certain sets of vocabulary can challenge students. For example, an exercise in a grammar book might contain both get over and get across, and the use of the same verb in each phrase might create confusion. There are also reading selections that present vocabulary related to a single theme such as jury, judge, oath, and verdict, making it possible to mix up jury with judge and oath with verdict. The key is to consistently contextualize the words. By using the words in phrases if not complete sentences, students must demonstrate knowledge of parts of speech. Is oath a noun or a verb? Can judge be both a person and an action? The second thing to encourage is use of collocations. Look how the word is presented in the book and note common phrases: swear an oath, pronounce the verdict, etc.
In honor of Memorial Day, you can present holiday-related vocabulary and teach your students the importance of contextualizing new words and noting collocations.
Activity: War Stories
Level: Intermediate to advanced
Objective: To practice war-related vocabulary in context
Materials needed: 8 or more photos (headshots are best) of adults who students can imagine as “veterans”.
STEP 1 – Prepare a list of 5-6 words you want to target with your students. Suggestions: military, combat, casualty, wound, veteran, medal
STEP 2 – Ask students to call out words they associate with war. List them according to their parts of speech. Possible suggestions:
· Soldiers, army, death, fighting, guns… = NOUNS
· March, shoot, defend… = VERBS
· Scary, powerful… = ADJECTIVES
Once the lists are recorded, ask students to identify the parts of speech.
STEP 3 – Replace suggested words with the targeted ones if they are synonymous. Then add the rest. The new lists could then look like this:
· Soldiers, military, casualty, combat, wound, veteran, medal
· March, shoot, defend, combat, wound
· Scary, powerful, military, wounded
Define the new vocabulary, taking care to note pronunciation.
STEP 4 – Have students work together in twos or threes. Each small group should receive a photo of a “veteran”. Their task is to make a short story using the new vocabulary words. Hand out a list of questions to guide this process. Each question cues the students how to use the word in a sentence.
Example: 1. What is this veteran’s name?
2. How long was s/he in the military?
3. How was s/she wounded in combat?
4. Were there any casualties among his/her friends?
5. For what reason was s/he awarded a medal?
STEP 5 – Have students share their war stories with the class. Teacher and peer feedback can be provided following each reading.
Filed under: Classroom Tips | Tags: EnglishwithJennifer, Jennifer Lebedev, JenniferESL, practical skills, teaching measurements, U.S. system of measurement
Being able to express measurements is a very practical skill that even advanced students of English may need practice doing. Are they comfortable stating fractions? Do they know that a decimal point is read as “point” as in ninety-eight point six (98.6)? How fluent are they in the U.S. system of measurements? Can they more or less understand weather forecasts using Fahrenheit?
Here’s a fun way to give your students some practice with the U.S. system of measurements. Feel free to share your own ways of practicing these skills.
Set up five stations around the room. In pairs or small groups, have the students move from station to station performing each task. Make sure each student has a notebook and pencil.
- Station 1 – Length. [Supplies needed = tape measure or yard stick]
Task: Measure your partner(s). How tall are they? Record their heights in feet and inches.
- Station 2- Weight. [Supplies needed = a scale and a medium sized trash bag]
Task: Place all your shoes in the bag. How much do they weight? Record the weight in pounds (and ounces, if the scale is electronic). Alternative: Weigh someone’s backpack or purse.
- Station 3 – Liquid measurements. [Supplies needed = 3-4 empty milk or water bottles of different sizes]
Task: Look at the labels. How much does the largest bottle hold? How much does the next largest bottle hold? How much does the smallest bottle hold? Record your answers using gallons, quarts, and pints. (If possible, also record how many fluid ounces there are in each container.)
- Station 4 – Cooking measurements. [Supplies needed = bag of flour, measuring spoons, measuring cups, coffee mug]
Task: How many cups of flour fit in the coffee mug? How many tablespoons are needed to fill one cup? How many teaspoons are needed to fill a tablespoon?
- Station 5 – Temperature. [ Supplies needed = weather thermometer, calculator (optional)]
Task: What’s the temperature of the classroom in Fahrenheit? How much is that in Celsius?
Note: °F to °C = Subtract 32, then multiply by 5, then divide by 9.
Filed under: Classroom Tips | Tags: English With Jennifer, independent learning, Jennifer Lebedev, JenniferESL, wanna-do list
I once had a colleague who on Mondays liked to ask his students if they used any English over the weekend. Despite being in an English-speaking country, a high number of students responded in the negative. It seems that outside of homework, some students fail to take initiative in their language studies. With so many opportunities around them, perhaps what is needed is guidance. One way to encourage independent learning is to make specific suggestions. As part of the end-of-the-week lesson, consider a ritual of asking what students plan to do over the weekend. Direct conversation toward what can be done to use English. At the risk of promoting informal, nonstandard English, you can call this ritual Weekend Wanna-Dos. That’s right. Instead of a To-Do list that sounds burdensome, help students find ways they want to practice their English. They can brainstorm in pairs or small groups, but ultimately have them share their ideas with you. List their plans on the board.
MODEL:
Weekend Wanna-Dos
- I want to watch a DVD in English this weekend.
- On Saturday I want to go shopping for a new cell phone, and I’ll talk to a salesperson about different models.
- Tonight I want to watch a few music videos in English on YouTube.
- I want to write in my journal in English this weekend.
- I want to send e-mail to my Canadian friend.
- I want to talk to my landlord about the kitchen sink because it doesn’t work well.
Filed under: Conversation, Methodology | Tags: English With Jennifer, Jennifer Lebedev, JenniferESL, the breakfast club, warm-up activity
Warm-up activities put students in the right frame of mind to study and use English. Ideally, these are 5-to-10-minute communicative exercises that encourage interaction, collaboration, and self-expression. They are especially practical after a weekend-break and in longer lessons that allow an hour or more of class time. But even if you teach relatively short lessons of 45-minutes or less, a good warm-up activity can either be condensed or saved for a time when the language focus of that activity relates to a lesson topic in your syllabus. Then the warm-up activity seamlessly becomes part of your lesson plan.
Here’s one warm-up activity for you to consider. I call it The Breakfast Club. (Yes, I’m a fan of that John Hughes film from the ‘80s.)
Level: High beginner to low intermediate
Language focus: Question formation in the simple past tense
Objective: To form small groups based on what students have in common
STEP 1 – The first part of this activity tests students listening comprehension. This is especially good for students who have yet to fully wake up or who are quiet by nature. They aren’t immediately asked to produce language, but merely respond. The teacher asks a series of questions about the students’ recent past actions. Students who can answer affirmatively to a given question form a small group. The teacher’s goal is to ask enough questions so that a number of small groups with roughly even numbers form. Model:
T = teacher
- T – Who had breakfast today? …Almost everyone! Okay. All of you who had breakfast, please stand here to my right. You are now a group. You are The Breakfast Club.
- T- Now listen to my next question. Who drank coffee this morning? …Just a few of you. All right. You four can stand here on my left. You are now a group. You are The Coffee Club.
- T – Okay. We still have two students sitting. They aren’t in a group. So let’s see. Can I get them in a group? Everyone, listen to my next question. Did an alarm clock wake you up this morning? …Wow! Many of you woke up with an alarm this morning. Okay. All of you will be a group in the back of the classroom. You are The Alarm Clock Club.
- T– Now only three people are in The Breakfast Club and no one is in The Coffee Club. Let’s see. Can I get a few people back in The Coffee Club? Who had more than three cups of coffee yesterday?…Ah-ha! Two of you! You two can come back here on my left and be in The Coffee Club.
- T – The Alarm Clock Club is quite large. Can I make it smaller? Listen to my question. How many of you in The Alarm Clock Club went to bed after 11:00pm last night? …Okay. About half of you. So those who went to bed early are still in The Alarm Clock Club. The rest of you are a new group. You are The Night Club. You can now sit down in your small groups.
STEP 2 – In their small groups, students must now produce language. They must ask one another questions relating to the group topic. Each student will have a turn answering questions from the group. Each member should pose a question to the student whose turn it is. Model:
The Night Club
Student A – When did you go to sleep last night?
Student B – I went to sleep around midnight.
Student C – Why did you go to sleep so late?
Student B – I wanted to watch TV.
Student D – What time did you wake up this morning?
Student B – I woke up at 8:00.
Do you have a favorite warm-up activity? Please share it.
Filed under: Grammar | Tags: Bank Robbery, conditional statements, conditionals, English With Jennifer, Jennifer Lebedev, JenniferESL, using if
(Originally published in my book Brainstorming. Moscow: Manager, 2001. This is an updated version.)
As with verb tenses, it’s helpful to present one kind of conditional statement at a time (i.e., first, second, third, and mixed conditionals). However, after students demonstrate an understanding of each type, we must then test their ability to use all of them appropriately in situations that force a shift of time frames. Just as we use multiple verb tenses in natural discourse, we also shift easily from one kind of conditional statement to another. Example: “You’d tell me if something were wrong, wouldn’t you?” – “Of course. Trust me. If something goes wrong, you’ll be the first to know.”
What kinds of activities can help students gain comfort in using the different types of conditional statements? Here’s one I call Bank Robbery. I’ve done this activity more than once, and each experience brought forth creativity and laughter.
Level: High intermediate to advanced
Format: Small groups of 3-5 students
Objective: To plan a bank robbery and then discuss its execution
STEP 1 – Hand out the first map of Central Bank. [See photo.] Explain that each group must plan a bank robbery. Each member of the group must play a role in the crime. (The goal is to make a quick, clean steal with no violence.) With highly active students, this step will be completed through free discussion. With less talkative students, each member can take a turn adding on to the group plan or making changes to what has already been said.
STEP 2 – Each group will present their plan to the class. The outline of the plan must include at least one use of the first conditional (real statement in the present or future). You can also challenge them to use the second conditional (unreal statement in the present or future). Model:
- First, two of us will enter through the front door. If we get into a loud, physical argument, we think both guards will come to stop it.
- Then, one of us will enter through a back door and go to the main safe. Our driver will wait on Birch Street, but if we need another person to help carry all the money, he can come inside.
- If we had more time and more people, we would rob the cashiers, too, but we decided only to steal from the main safe.
STEP 3 – Hand out the second map of Central Bank. [See photo.] Explain that the first map they had was outdated and no robbery went according to plan. In their small groups, students need to examine the new map and discuss why their plan failed and/or how their plan could have been improved.
STEP 4 – Each group will voice their regrets to the class. The list of complaints must include at least one use of the third conditional (unreal statement in the past). Award kudos to any group that can use a mixed conditional. Model:
- If we had known there were four guards and not two, we would have found more people to help us rob the bank.
- We could have used the roof to escape if we had noticed it before.
- We wouldn’t be in jail now if we had made a better plan.
SUGGESTIONS:
- Remind students of the sequence markers they can use in formulating a plan: first, next, (immediately) after that, just before, etc.
- Consider a review of ways to offer suggestions or challenge others’ suggestions: Why don’t we…? I think it would be better to…
Filed under: Conversation, Grammar | Tags: amnesia game, conversation game, EnglishwithJennifer, if only, Jennifer Lebedev, JenniferESL, present progressive tense
(Originally published in my book Brainstorming. Moscow: Manager, 2001. This is an updated version.)
Amnesia is a game I created to practice expressing regret and longing (If only/ I wish) or habitual behavior (You’re always + ing). You may focus on only one structure or choose to practice at least two through this activity. So that my illustration is clear, I’ll focus on only one.
Level: High intermediate to advanced
Format: Small groups of 3-5 students
Objective: To help someone recall his or her fictitious identity
STEP 1 – In advance prepare several sets of role cards. Each set should have one “victim” of amnesia* and four supporting roles. You can choose political figures, celebrities, and characters from well-known books. Choose people your students know or professions they are familiar with. Suggestions:
Bill Clinton* (former U.S. president): Hillary (wife), Chelsea (daughter), Al Gore (former vice-president), a body guard
Arnold Shwarzenegger* (actor and current Governor of California): Maria Shriver (wife and journalist), Danny DeVito (film co-star), movie fan, resident of California
Captain of an airplane*: the co-pilot, a flight attendant, spouse, a son/ daughter
Heart surgeon*: nurse, medical student, recent patient, parent
STEP 2 – In class, have students form small groups (3-5 members). Give one set of role cards to each group so that only the supporting roles are assigned. The number of role cards given should be one less than the number of students in a group. Do no hand out the card of the “victim”. Explain that the student without a card has amnesia. The others must help this person recall his/ her identity. These students may now view the card of the “victim” to learn his/ her identity. They will assume their assigned roles and provide clues using the structure: be always + (verb in the “-ing” form). Model with group of 4:
Student 1 (nurse): I often assist you in your work. Patients are always telling me how lucky they are because of you.
Student 2 (medical student): I watch you and learn from you. You’re always telling me something useful about surgery or how the body works.
Student 3 (recent patient): You saved my life. I’m not always trying to catch my breath like I used to. A new heart gave me new life.
Student 4 (amnesia victim): Am I a heart surgeon?
STEP 3 – The “victim” must listen to one clue from each member in the group before guessing his/ her identity. Additional clues may be offered if necessary.
STEP 4 – Have the groups switch sets of cards or pass out new sets and let the game continue. Be sure that different members of each group take turns being the “victim”.
Filed under: Methodology | Tags: adult learners, English With Jennifer, involving family in homework, Jennifer Lebedev, JenniferESL
A few months back, a fellow blogger, Ms. Lucy, made the creative and practical suggestion of involving the whole family in homework assignments. For adult learners with children, there are at least two immediate benefits. Ms. Lucy pointed out that not only do the parents get language practice, but the shared time together promotes the parent-child relationship.
Since reading Ms. Lucy’s suggestion, I have had occasion to explore more ways to stimulate language practice within a family. I recently began teaching a woman who is a mother of a school-aged girl. For both the mother and the daughter, English is a foreign language. The mother has asked for help and guidance so that she in turn can provide more language support to her daughter. Here are two activities I assigned this week.
- Involve children in the writing process. After reading an article about a celebrity father-daughter outing, I initiated relevant discussion and highlighted vocabulary. I then assigned a short composition about a recent mother-daughter outing. As part of the pre-writing process, the mother must brainstorm with her daughter (in English) about what particular event to write about. They will recall the details together, and then the mother will submit her first draft to me. Once we finish the revisions, the mother will read the final draft to her daughter.
- Make language practice a game. This idea came from the days I used to spend with my grandmother playing word games at the kitchen table. It was enjoyable, and it sharpened my spelling and vocabulary skills. I asked my student to practice the vocabulary from the article mentioned above with her daughter. There is a set of questions they must discuss together. Each question reinforces a new expression. If the daughter is unfamiliar with the term, the mother must explain. One question asks them to imagine they must prepare backpacks for a weekend camping trip. They must name items that they will load up on. They must each create a list (in English) and then compare them, agreeing what is necessary and what is not.
I am sure you will find ways to adapt these ideas to your lesson plans, and you can certainly alter them to meet the needs of adult learners without children (e.g., write about a memorable outing with your mother or father).
Filed under: Classroom Tips | Tags: classroom etiquette, English With Jennifer, forms of address, Jennifer Lebedev, JenniferESL, titles
I recently began to accept students for private online instruction, and a question that is becoming common at trial lessons is How shall I call you? The students, who come from all regions of the globe, are unsure how to address me. Jennifer? Miss Jennifer? Mrs. Lebedev? Their questions echo the doubts that many of my former students had in the traditional classroom setting. Previous formal learning experiences are ingrained in the adult learner’s mind. If he or she was taught to address school teachers or university instructors a certain way, these habits are often transferred to our own classrooms, be they traditional or virtual. Do we encourage these habits or try to break them?
My practice now is no different from what it was in the past. I respond to what the students call me. Often the forms of address are chosen out of respect. Ms. Jennifer and Teacher are good examples. I am aware that in other cultures teachers hold a position of authority and honor. Forcing a student to abruptly abandon a familiar practice causes more discomfort for him or her, than hearing an overly formal title causes for me. However, learning a language means learning another culture, so I do make a point of correcting inappropriate use of a title. I have not earned the title of Professor because I do not hold a PhD. I clarify this for students who address me that way. I also note the difference between full names and nicknames. I will respond to Jenn and Jenny, but I usually make a joke about the latter and with a grimace I explain that I have not gone by Jenny since the eighth grade. “Please just call me Jennifer,” I say.
What has been your experience? Do you make a point of telling students how they may address you on the first day of class? How do you handle forms of address that go against your personal preference?
