Drilling techniques 2024

 Drilling techniques

Drilling Techniques N 2443 Teaching Skills Is Published Under The Creative Commons : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

ESOL Teaching Skills TaskBook Drilling techniques: Unit 2 e)  

Do you often avoid drilling new language items with your students? Is this because you don’t think it’s useful or is it because you are not sure how to go about it? This lesson aims to get you thinking about the role of drilling in language‐focused lessons and demonstrate how to go about it. 

Task 1 – To drill, or not to drill? 

Two teachers are discussing drilling in the staffroom.  

  

Mona: Then after I’ve done feedback on the matching tasks, I thought I’d drill the words.  Louise: Really?  

Mona: Yeah – why not?  

Louise: I never drill language – it’s so old-fashioned.  

Mona: Do you think so? I was taught to drill on my training course and that was only last   year.  

Louise: I’ve been teaching for just over ten years now and I’ve never drilled anything.  Mona: Interesting. What do your students say?  

Louise: Nothing.  

Mona: Mine never complain when I drill them.  

  

Whose opinion do you agree with? Jot down your ideas / suggestions  on a note pad, then check the answer key below.  

Task 1 Feedback 

Drilling is a teaching skill that can sometimes be considered controversial. Teachers who don’t like it see it as a relic of the audio‐lingual approach to language teaching. Other teachers think that drilling is useful because that is how they like to learn a language. There is another group of teachers who avoid drilling because they are not sure of how to drill. This lesson will work through some of those issues associated with the skill and describe different drilling procedures.  

Languages International – Auckland & Christchurch, New Zealand www.languages.ac.nz 

ESOL Teaching Skills TaskBook 

Drilling techniques: Unit 2 e)  

Key Skill 

What is drilling? In its most basic form drilling involves teachers asking students to repeat individual words or utterances. The teacher gives a model of the language and the students repeat it either in unison or individually or both.

Task 2 – What are some of the issues? 

Below are some opinions about drilling. Sort them into two groups,  opinions ‘for’ drilling and those ‘against’.  

NB. Two of the opinions are probably NOT true. Can you decide which two  they are?  

 1. Many students expect their teachers to drill new language.  

 2. Part of language learning is a physical skill. Drilling is like sending students’ speech   organs to the gym.  

  

 3. Drilling doesn’t involve real communication.  

 4. Drilling helps students to memorise new language.  

 5. Drilling can help students with pronunciation. It allows them to feel new sounds.   6. Drilling means that the teacher imposes new language on students and is unnatural.  

7. Even if teachers don’t drill, students will often quietly drill themselves because the want   to have a go at saying new language items.  

 8. Drilling won’t necessarily lead to internalisation and acquisition of new language.   9. Drilling helps students to understand new language.  

for 

against 

Languages International – Auckland & Christchurch, New Zealand www.languages.ac.nz 

Check your ideas in the answer key.  Key Skill 

ESOL Teaching Skills TaskBook Drilling techniques: Unit 2 e)  

Drilling probably does not aid the acquisition or learning of new language items, but it can help students with the pronunciation of language. It may not be a natural and highly communicative classroom activity, but students seem to want to be drilled nonetheless. It helps if students understand the language that teachers drill. In other words, the meaning should be clarified first otherwise drilling simply involves mindless repetition. 

Task 3 – Ways of drilling 

Match the five ways of drilling 1 to 5 with the definitions a to e and the  examples i to v.  

Ways of drilling 

Definitions Examples 

1. choral

2. individual

3. open pair 

4. substitution

5. transformation

Definitions  

a. Students repeat an utterance. The teacher says or holds up a new word or phrase.   Students repeat the first utterance, but replace a word or phrase from that utterance   with the new word or phrase.  

b. The teacher drills one student in a question and a second student in an answer to   that question. The two students then repeat their question and answer exchange   with the rest of the class listening.  

c. The teacher says a word or an utterance and the whole class repeats that word or   utterance together in unison.  

d. The teacher says an utterance and the students say something similar to the  Languages International – Auckland & Christchurch, New Zealand www.languages.ac.nz 

 teacher’s utterance, but, in doing so, they change a key structure.  

e. The teacher says a word or utterance and then nominates a student to say that word   or utterance. 

ESOL Teaching Skills TaskBook Drilling techniques: Unit 2 e)  

Examples  

 i. Teacher: ‘He’s just gone home’. - Jin Yong.  

 Student: He’s just got home.  

 ii. Teacher: ‘He’s just gone home’  

 Students: He’d just gone home.  

iii. Teacher: ‘Where’s he gone?’ - Yang.  

 Student: Where’s he gone?  

 Teacher: ‘He’s just gone home.’ - Sven.  

 Student: He’s just gone home.  

 Teacher: OK again. Question – Yang. Answer – Sven.  

iv. Teacher: ‘He’s just gone home.’ - Everyone.  

 Students: He’s just gone home.  

v. Students: He’s just gone home.  

 Teacher: ‘the bank.’  

 Students: He’s just gone to the bank. 

Check your ideas in the answer key.  

Key Skill 

Drilling does not have to always be repetitive and uncreative. Substitution and transformation drills can provide students with a small degree of creativity and cognitive effort. 

Languages International – Auckland & Christchurch, New Zealand www.languages.ac.nz 

ESOL Teaching Skills TaskBook Drilling techniques: Unit 2 e)  

Task 4 – Five steps to drilling 

Numbers 1 to 8 below are eight steps in the process of drilling a new  word or utterance. Put these steps in the correct order. Letters a to h give  a rational for each step. Once you have ordered the steps, match a  rationale to each step.  

Eight steps of drilling 

Rationale 

1. Once students give you the word or utterance, provide your own oral  model at a natural speed … 

2. Students repeat the language together as a group … 

3. Having broken down the oral model of the language, repeat it again  at a more natural speed 

4. If the word or utterance you want to drill is on the white board, start  by wiping it off … 

5. Re-elicit the language you want to drill using the prompts … 

6. Nominate individual students and get them to repeat the word or  utterance … 

7. Show students a prompt – a picture or some key words that relate to  the language you want to drill … 

8. Highlight any key pronunciation features of the new language –  demonstrate these orally rather than using the white board … 

Rationale for each step  

 a. … so that students have some visual representation of the language you want to drill.   b. … so that you can check the pronunciation of the new language by individual students.   c. … so that the first oral model that students hear is a natural one.  

 d. … so that students have to think a little bit about the language they are going to repeat.   e. … so that students focus on pronunciation features such as stress, weak forms and linking.  

 f. … so that all students have the opportunity to say the new language without being   heard by the rest of the class.  

 g. … so that students don’t just read the new language aloud and they have to listen   carefully in order to repeat.  

 h. … so that students will repeat the language with a more natural rhythm. 

Languages International – Auckland & Christchurch, New Zealand www.languages.ac.nz 

ESOL Teaching Skills TaskBook Drilling techniques: Unit 2 e)  

Check your ideas in the answer key. 

Languages International – Auckland & Christchurch, New Zealand www.languages.ac.nz 

ESOL Teaching Skills TaskBook Drilling techniques: Unit 2 e)  

⮊Thinking about your teaching … 

Find a colleague who speaks a second language that you don’t know at all. Ask your colleague to give you two or three mini‐lessons in that language and specifically ask that person to drill you in the new language. After the lesson write down your reactions to being drilled and think about why you had those reactions. 

Note your reactions and thoughts in your Teaching log. 

⮊Taking it to the classroom … 

If you don’t normally drill your students, try doing it over a period of about four or five lessons. If you normally drill, trying not doing it over the same period of time. After that, give your students a questionnaire about drilling – did they like it or did they miss it? Why? 

⮊ Want to find out more … ? 

On pages 255 ‐ 260 of Learning Teaching (2nd edition) by Jim Scrivener (Macmillan 2005), there is further reading on drilling. 

For some practical ideas on drilling options see pages 206‐7 of The Practice of English Language Teaching (4th edition) by Jeremy Harmer (Pearson 2007). 

⮊Related TaskBook lessons... 

You may be interested in the following lessons in the ESOL Teaching Skills TaskBook series, relating to this topic: 

• Unit 2 g) Correcting spoken errors: deals with error correction of students’ spoken errors in the classroom.

Languages International – Auckland & Christchurch, New Zealand www.languages.ac.nz 

ESOL Teaching Skills TaskBook Drilling techniques: Unit 2 e)  

Answer Key

Task 2 – Feedback 

for 

against 

1. Many students expect their teachers to  drill new language.  

2. Part of language learning is a physical  skill. Drilling is like sending students’  speech organs to the gym.  

5. Drilling can help students with  

pronunciation. It allows them to feel new  sounds.  

7. Even if teachers don’t drill, students  will often quietly drill themselves because  the want to have a go at saying new  language items. 

3. Drilling doesn’t involve real  

communication.  

6. Drilling means that the teacher imposes  new language on students and is unnatural.  

8. Drilling won’t necessarily lead to  

internalisation and acquisition of new  language. 

Probably not true: 4. Drilling helps students to memorise new language.  Probably not true: 9. Drilling helps students to understand new language.  

Task 3 – Feedback 

1. choral c and iv  2. individual e and i 3. open pair b and iii 4. substitution a and v 5. transformation d and ii 

Task 4 – Feedback 

4. g 

7. a 

5. d 

1. c 

8. e 

3. h  

2. f 

6. b.  

This work is published under the Creative Commons 3.0 New Zealand Attribution Non-commercial Share Alike  Licence (BY-NC-SA). Under this licence you are free to copy, distribute, display and perform the work as well as  to remix, tweak, and build upon this work noncommercially, as long as you credit the author/s and license your  new creations under the identical terms. 

Languages International – Auckland & Christchurch, New Zealand www.languages.ac.nz 

A class-centred approach to language teaching

 A class-centred approach to language teaching

IELTS - speaking test sample

 

Speaking sample task – Part 1 transcript

Part 1 Introduction and interview [This part of the test begins with the examiner introducing himself or herself and checking the candidate’s identification. It then continues as an interview.] Transcript Examiner: Now, in this first part, I’d like to ask you some more questions about yourself, OK? Let’s talk about your home town or village. What kind of place is it? Candidate: It’s quite a small village, about 20km from Zurich. And it’s very quiet. And we have only little ... two little shops because most of the people work in Zurich or are orientated to the city. Examiner: What’s the most interesting part of this place ... village? Candidate: On the top of a hill we have a little castle which is very old and quite well known in Switzerland. Examiner: What kind of jobs do people in the village do? Candidate: We have some farmers in the village as well as people who work in Zurich as bankers or journalists or there are also teachers and some doctors, some medicines. Examiner: Would you say it’s a good place to live? Candidate: Yes. Although it is very quiet, it is … people are friendly and I would say it is a good place to live there, yes. Examiner: Let’s move on to talk about accommodation. Tell me about the kind of accommodation you live in ... Speaking sample task – Part 2 transcript Part 2 – Individual long turn Transcript Examiner: Alright? Remember you have one to two minutes for this, so don’t worry if I stop you. I’ll tell you when the time is up. Candidate: OK Examiner: Can you start speaking now, please? Candidate: Yes. One of the most important things I have is my piano because I like playing the piano. I got it from my parents to my twelve birthday, so I have it for about nine years, and the reason why it is so important for me is that I can go into another world when I’m playing piano. I can forget what’s around me and what ... I can forget my problems and this is sometimes quite good for a few minutes. Or I can play to relax or just, yes to … to relax and to think of something completely different. Examiner: Thank you. Would it be easy to replace this, this piano? Candidate: Yes, I think it wouldn’t be that big problem but I like my piano as it is because I have it from my parents, it’s some kind unique for me. Speaking sample task – Part 3 transcript Part 3 – Two-way discussion Transcript Examiner: We’ve been talking about things we own. I’d like to discuss with you one or two more general questions relating to this topic. First, let’s consider values and the way they can change. In Switzerland, what kind of possessions do you think give status to people? Candidate: The first thing which comes in my mind is the car. Yes, because lots of people like to have posh cars or expensive cars to show their status, their place in the society. Examiner: Is that a new development? Candidate: No, I think it isn’t. Examiner: People have thought like that for quite a long time? Candidate: Yes. Another thing is probably the clothing. It starts already when you are young. When the children go to school they want to have posh labels on their jumpers or good shoes. Examiner: What do you think of this way of thinking, that I need to have a car or certain clothes to show my status? Candidate: Probably it’s sometimes a replacement for something you don’t have, so if your wife has left you or your girlfriend, you just buy some new, I don’t know, new watches or new clothes to make you satisfied again. Examiner: You don’t think of it as a healthy way of thinking? Candidate: It’s probably not honest to yourself. You can understand what I mean? Examiner: Yes. And do you think this will change? In the future, will cars and designer clothes be status symbols in the same way? Candidate: I’m sure that clothes will be ... that the thing with the clothes will be the same. I’m not so sure about the cars because cars cause lots of environmental problems and probably in some years, a few years, this will change because it’s not reasonable to drive a car anymore. Examiner: Can you tell me a little bit more about that? ... #speaking #ielts #test

PBL - project based learning

 Project Based Learning (PBL) is a teaching method in which students learn by actively engaging in real-world and personally meaningful projects. In Project Based Learning, teachers make learning come alive for students.

Note-Taking

Taking notes as you read is the best way to keep track of the information you process as you skim. There are many different ways to take notes. Each way can be used with different types of texts or for different parts of a text. One way that can be useful when taking notes from a descriptive text, such as "The Underground Railroad" is the clustering method. In this method you note down one main idea in a center circle, then add supporting points around it. Here is an example. 

TOEFL 001 - SPEAKING AND READING QUESTION - rate's comments for the response

 high-level response for Question 3. 

Narrator Now listen to two students discussing the article. 

Man I don't like the university's plan. 

Woman Really? I've ridden those buses, and sometimes there were only a few people on the bus. It did seem like kind of a waste. 

Man I see your point. But I think the problem is the route's out-of-date. It only goes through the neigh borhoods that've gotten too expensive for students to live in. It's ridiculous that they haven't already changed the route--you know, so it goes where most off-campus students live now. I bet if they did that, they'd get plenty of students riding those buses. 

Woman Well, at least they're adding more parking. It's gotten really tough to find a space. 

Man 

That's the other part I don't like, actually. Cutting back the bus service and adding parking's just gonna encourage more students to drive on campus. And that'll just add to the noise around campus and create more traffic ... and that'll increase the need for more parking spaces ... 

Woman 

Yeah, I guess I can see your point. Maybe it would be better if more students used the buses instead of driving. 

Man Right. And the university should make it easier to do that, not harder. 

Rater's Comments 

The speaker gives a clear and coherent response that is detailed and accurate. He speaks quickly, but this does not prevent him from being understood. He very clearly states the man's opinion and summarizes the man's reasons for having that opinion. He uses complex grammat ical structures and a wide variety of appropriate vocabulary. As a result, his speech seems to flow automatically. 

mid-level response for Question 3

Rater's Comments The speaker's first language moderately influences her pronunciation, intonation, and pacing. This creates some listener effort. She provides content that is relevant to the task, but her limi tations in language use hinder her ability to accurately convey relevant details. She fills the entire time with understandable speech. However, she incorrectly repeats throughout the response time that students cannot afford to ride the bus. She also says that few students will drive cars and overcrowd the parking lots. This creates confusion for the listener. The speaker never men tions the man's concern about increased noise and traffic on campus. 

Mind Map

 

Teaching Vocabulary

 visuals & realia

• mime & anecdotes

• eliciting & contexts

• using synonyms & antonyms

• translation

• dictionaries

teaching vocabulary

Factors that Affect Learning

 Factors that Affect Learning

 the teacher

 the environment

 previous learning experience

 aptitude

 materials / lessons

 technology

 lifestyle

 feedback / encouragement

 learning styles

 motivation (intrinsic / extrinsic / instrumental / integrative)

Intrinsic motivation refers to motivation that is driven by an interest or 

enjoyment in the task itself, and exists within the individual rather than 

relying on external pressures or a desire for reward

Extrinsic motivation refers to the performance of an activity in order to 

attain an outcome, whether or not that activity is also intrinsically 

motivated. Extrinsic motivation comes from outside of the individual

Learners who are integratively motivated want to learn the language 

because they want to get to know the people who speak that 

language. They are also interested in the culture associated with that 

language.

Learners with an instrumental motivation want to learn a language 

because of a practical reason such as getting a salary bonus, getting 

into college, or siting a language exam.

games - 13 games about vocabulary for recycling (not ready)

 Back to the board 

Back to the board 

 1. Choose a number of words that you want the class to revise. 

 2. Place a chair in front of the board facing the class (so that it faces away from the board). 

 3. Ask one of the students to sit in the chair (with their back to the board). Write one of the words on the board. 

 4. The task is for the other students to explain the word on the board (using English) to the student sitting in the chair. 

 5. Their task is to guess the word. 

 6. Repeat the activity with the other words choosing a different student (to sit in the chair) each time.

 Added value Added value

 1. Put the class into two teams (for large classes make more teams). 

 2. Explain that you will give the students a 3 letter word and the teams will take turns to add letters creating longer words. 

 3. They can rearrange the letters, but must use all the letters + 1. 

 4. You might want to demonstrate the activity e.g. EAR; Team 1 = REAL; Team 2 = LATER; Team 1 = TALLER etc. 

 5. Teams continue to take turns until one team can no longer make a word. 

 6. To keep the game flowing you might want to set a time limit of 1 minute per turn. 

 7. You may also want to make the game more competitive by scoring. 

The team that win each round get the same number of points as letters in their word. 

 Chain words Chain words 

 1. Sit your students in a circle (if possible – otherwise make sure that everyone knows who they follow). 

 2. The first student says a word; the next student must say a word beginning with the last letter of the previous word etc. 

 3. You might want to give a visual demonstration on the board i.e. Class -> School -> Leg -> Girl -> Lion -> Nut -> Teacher -> Route -> End -> D …. 

4. Keep it snappy by giving very short time limits to think of a word. If a student can’t think of a word they must move their chair back and are ‘out’. Also, words are not allowed to be repeated. The winner is the last student in (but don’t play for too long). 

5. If you want you could say that all the words need to be connected to a topic i.e. Food. Apple -> Egg -> Grapes -> Soup -> Peach etc. 

 What’s the group? (1) What’s the group? (1) 

 Students are used to putting words in groups, but often the groupings or categories are too obvious.

 For more advanced students make the activity trickier by having unusual groupings. 

 e.g. What’s the link (topic) for these words: Chip, Slice, Nutmeg, Chop. 

 Some students might say ‘Kitchen’ but it could also be ‘Football’ (A chip(n) is when the ball is lifted over someone’s head using the foot, A slice (n) when the ball is miss kicked, To nutmeg (v) is when the ball is kicked through a players legs and the player who kicked the ball runs around the other player and carries on playing with the ball, and, To chop (v) is when one player kicks another player causing them to fall down. 

Think of a few groupings of your own and then ask the students to think of some of their own. 

 What’s the group? (2) What’s the group? (2) 

 1. Choose a topic and write down around 8 words linked to that topic (starting with the harder, or more obscure, ones working up to the more obvious). 

 2. Read the words out one by one and see who can guess the topic first. 

 3. To make it more competitive put the students into teams and award points depending on how quickly they guess the topic. 

 4. An example of this activity might be: Boot, Stick, Lights, Belt, Steer, Wheels, Petrol, Drive. = Car or Vehicle. 

 Homograph clues Homograph clues 

 1. You need to think of your words and clues before the class but otherwise there are no materials (either dictate the clues or write them up on the board). 

 2. Think of words that are homographs and then ‘write’ (or think of a clue for the different meanings). 3. The students need to guess the word. e.g. Part of a tree. [Bark] The noise a dog makes. Where you put your baggage in an American car [Trunk] An elephant’s nose. 

 Words that go together Words that go together

 1. Choose some words which either collocate or create compounds. 

 2. Make sure that each word has three or four collocates or compounds. 

 3. Put your students into teams (groups). 

 4. Read out (or write on the board) one ½ of the collocation or compound. 

 5. Each group now has one turn to guess the ‘key’ word. 

 6. If nobody guesses, give the next word (clue) and guess again. e.g. Light ____. ____ work. ____ wife. Detached _____. Key word = House. 

 7. Note: some words will collocate with many words, but tell your students you are looking for one that collocates with all the words on your list). 

 Who am I? Who am I? 

 1. Each student needs a blank piece of paper. 

 2. Ask them to write the following: an adjective they think describes themselves; an adjective other people might use to describe them; an adjective that is totally opposite to what they are like. 

 3. Ask the students NOT to tell anyone what they are writing. 

 4. Collect in the pieces of paper. 

 5. Randomly read out the adjectives from the pieces of paper and see if the students can guess who is being described. Wrong word Wrong word 1. Choose a number of sentences which contain a word that doesn’t really fit (a good source for these is your students’ own writing). 2. Write each sentence up on the board. 3. Ask the students to work in pairs or groups. Their task is to discuss each sentence, find the wrong word and replace it with the correct one, e.g: He kissed her on her laps. (lips). They war some nice new clothes. (wore). You need to take a jump of faith. (leap). Onomatopoeia Onomatopoeia 1. Either write up (on the board) or read out a few words that are onomatopoeic e.g. Buzz, Fizz, Wow! Thud, Grrrr, Psst! etc. 2. Ask the students to think of what is ‘happening’ for each word i.e. Buzz = a doorbell ringing. 3. After they have written down their ideas get them to discuss these in groups (or as a class). 4. As an extension activity you can ask the students to write a short story (or skit) using the words and connections. A simple warmer/lesson filler to practise colours, forms and materials. 1. Write down a colour, a form and a material on the board e.g. yellow, round, plastic green, oval, wood pink, flat, silk 2. Ask students to write down five possible objects under each section. 3. If possible, ask students to find objects with two or all three of these qualities. It’s amazing to see what interesting objects your students suggest. A fun team exercise for revising vocabulary. • Put students into small groups of 3 or 4 and ask one from each group to draw a picture of a horse on a spare piece of paper. • Draw some hurdles on the board from left to right with a starting and finishing block at each end of the board. Take the drawings of the horses and stick them up from top to bottom at the starting block. • Ask the vocab you have been learning that week and get students to hit the table (or make a noise) when they know the answers. When a team gets an answer correct they jump one hurdle. The game ends when the first horse gets to the finishing line. • Great for motivating a class to learn vocab. Pyramid Pyramid All you need for it is some paper, a pen and a stopwatch (or the second hand of a watch). • Divide the class into teams of two contestants. The object of the game is for these contestants to describe seven words from a vocabulary category to their partner within a time-limit. The category could be anything; for example, for my latest game of Pyramid I chose, amongst others, the following: things you can make, the cinema, in a woman's bag and things that can be broken. • Players take it in turns to choose a category, and the teacher gives the player the seven words which he must describe to his partner in English. He is given thirty seconds to do this, and gets a point for each word his partner guesses within this time limit. Depending on the size of the group, give each player a couple of turns at describing words, then add the scores of the pairs to find out which is the winner. • The rules are fairly simple: no root words (e.g. if the word is headache, no using the word head) and descriptions only in English. The game also tends to work better without excessive use of gesture! • This is a warmer pretty suitable to any level; with lower levels categories like cinema can be used to check simple vocabulary (popcorn, seat, ticket etc.), but with higher levels you can use the game to look at collocations. For example, in the category things that can be broken I've chosen washing machine, heart, rule, lift, habit, stereotype and record; similarly, there are many diverse things which you can make in English!

Activities - 10 Vocabulary activities for recycling

 Taboo (aka Hot Seat) 

Divide the class into Teams A and B. Team A sits in a group on one side of the classroom, Team B sits on the other side. Bring two chairs to the front of the room so that when seated, a student is facing his or her respective team and their back is to the blackboard or white board. One member from each team sits in their team's chair. The teacher writes a word, phrase, or sentence on the board. The students in the chairs mustn't see what's written on the board. Once the teacher yells 'go', the teams have one minute, using only verbal clues, to get their seated teammate to say the item written on the board. The only rule (or taboo) is that they MUSTN'T say the item written on the board, in full or part. The first student in the hot seat to utter the word scores a point for their team. When the round is over, two new team players are rotated into the hot seat and a new item is written up. The first team to score X number of points wins. 

Variation: To ensure a slightly quieter and less chaotic game, the teams can take it in turns. Rather than two students in the hot seat, only one member from each team plays at a time. The teacher as usual scribbles a word on the board and gives the team one minute to get their teammate to say the item. If the hot-seated player manages to say the word, the teacher quickly writes another item on the board and so on until the minute is up. The team scores a point for every item they manage to say within one minute. 

Memory Challenge 

Put the students into pairs or small groups. Give them a time limit (e.g. 3 minutes) and ask them to write down as many words, phrases, and/or expressions as they can from the last lesson on topic X. The pair or group that can remember the most items wins. 

Variation: To add a spelling accuracy component, teams can also earn an extra point for each correctly spelt item. 

Last One Standing Give the class a topic (e.g. food, clothes, animals, things in a kitchen) and ask them to stand up, in a circle if possible. Clap out a beat and say, one, two, three, followed by a topic-related word. After the next three beats, the next student in the circle gives a word related to the topic, and so it continues. Anyone who can't think of a word or repeats a word already said has to sit down and it's the next person's turn. The winner is the last one standing. 

Pictionary 

Divide the class into Teams A and B. Team A sits in a group on one side of the classroom, Team B sits on the other side. One member from each team goes to the board. The teacher flashes them a word, phrase, or expression written on a piece of paper. The students have one minute to get their respective team to say the item only by drawing pictorial clues on the board. Written words, verbal clues, or gestures are forbidden. The first team to say the word scores a point. 

Variation: The teams review their notes from prior lessons, and collectively come up with a list of items the other team will have to draw. 

Bingo 

The teacher writes up 10 words, phrases and/or expressions on the board. Each student chooses any 5 of the items from the board and writes them down. The teacher then selects one of the items at random (bits of paper from a hat, for example) and offers a brief definition or synonym of the item but does not say the word itself. If a student thinks they have the word the teacher described, they tick it. When a student ticks all of their words, they shout BINGO!! The first student to shout BINGO wins the round. Additional rounds can be played with different sets of words. 

Outburst 

Divide the class into Teams A and B. The teacher assigns each team a particular topic (e.g. sports, vehicles, things in an office) which is to be kept secret from the other team. Each team meets for 5 minutes in private and collectively draws up a list of ten items related to the topic. After the lists are made, the game begins. The teacher tells Team A the name of Team B's topic. Team A then has one minute to try to guess the items on Team B's list (hence producing a noisy outburst). The members of Team B must listen and tick the items which Team A manages to guess. For every word Team A guesses correctly, they score a point. For every word they miss, Team B gets a point. After the points are recorded, it's Team B turn to guess Team A's list. Additional rounds can be played with different topics assigned by the teacher. The first team to score X number of points wins.  

Concentration 

Divide the class into small groups. Each group is given a set of cards which are spread out on the table face-down. The sets are made up of two kinds of cards: word cards + definition/picture cards. Students in turn pick up a card, turn it over, and try matching it to its corresponding card. If there's no match, the cards are returned to their original place on the table and play passes to the next student. If a match is made, the student keeps the pair and tries to make another match. Once all the cards are matched, the winner is the player who has matched the most number of cards. 

Variation: Rather than using word + definition/picture cards, students can match the first and second half of common phrases, expressions, idioms or other multi-word lexical items; e.g. "have" on one card, "a good time" on the other card. 

Scrambled Letters 

Write up eight words with their letters shuffled (e.g. eicscen for science) on the board. When the teacher says 'go', the students, individually or in pairs, endeavor to untangle the words as quickly as they can. The first student or pair, to do so wins. The teacher can then quickly run through each of the scrambled letter groups on the board, eliciting information about each word or concept. Tip: Don't make them too difficult. 

Variation: Phrases, expressions, and idioms larger than 2 words can also be used (e.g. "you're having when time flies fun" for "time flies when you're having fun".) 

Q & A 

Write up two separate word lists on the board; an A list and a B list. Assign half the class the A list and the other half list B. Each student takes each word from their list and contextualizes it into a coherent question. Ideally, the question should demonstrate some understanding of the word (e.g. Is your family very hospitable?, NOT What does hospitable mean?). If students need help, they can consult the teacher, their notes, or their textbook. When the students have finished writing their questions, As and Bs pair up and exchange their list of questions. The students read each question and write an answer to the question on the same piece of paper. In their answer, they need to use the same word that is underlined in the question. After the answers are written, the papers are exchanged again and read by the original student. 

example: 

Student A's question: Are there any skyscrapers in New York City? 

Student B's answer: Yes, New York City has several skyscrapers. 

Categories (aka The Alphabet Game) 

Divide the class into 3 or 4 teams and assign a secretary for each group. On one side of the board, write down six categories related to the current topic or syllabus of your course (e.g. countries, sports, jobs, movies, furniture, verbs, things that are round). To start the game, the teacher randomly selects a letter of the alphabet and scribbles it onto the board. Each team must then work together to quickly find a word for each of the six categories that starts with the chosen letter. The first team to complete all six categories shouts "stop!" The class then stops writing, and a member of the team goes to the board to fill in the categories. The teacher then checks each word with the class and also elicits what other teams had for each category. If the quickest team has filled in each category correctly, they earn one point for their team. The teacher then chooses a different letter and another round is played. The first team to score X number of points wins

questions about educational background

 • When did you study English?  • (As a child? In college? In 1999?) 

• Where did you study English?  • (In New York in 1998? In high 

school? At Oxford two years ago?) 

• How long did you study ?  • (For ten years? For two semesters? Six  weeks?)