Think for yourself!

In languages we need to leave the children as much mental space as we can do their own generating and organising ideas. These activities are designed to engage the children mentally in a combination of language use and thinking. It is a vital part of the process of helping them to make the language their own.

Logical puzzles.

This activity has been designed for older children because they have to solve a logical problem. To do this they have to do more than just understand the words. They have to work out the implications of what they read.

Can you remember?

The activities in this group are intended to show that we can use memory to create real communication. The main concern is to increase mental engagement by giving the children a good reason to remember what they are saying, hearing, reading or writing.

Disappearing prompts.

In this activity the children are initially shown a sequence of promptcards for which they say the appropriate phrases. The cards are removed one by one until the children say the whole sequence from memory.. it gives the children a chance to recall the English directly.

Click in the image for the full activity

Get up and find out!!

The intention behind these activities is to set up meaningful and real language interaction which involves movement around the room. We have to provide them the opportunity to move around. So, just as we want to exploit the desire to talk, we can also make good use of the desire to move.

Interview grids

The idea of these interview grids is that all the children in the class conduct a class survey by interviewing each other. This activity is very useful in order to encourage real communication. Children can exchange real information about likes and dislikes, details of possession, hobbies…

Guess!!

The intention of this group of activities is to set up meaningful practice through real language use by providing the children with a good reason for going over and over the same items, to exploit the children’s sense of fun and instinct to respond to a challenge and to stimulate the asking of questions.

Battleships

This activity is based on the popular game called Battleships, but in this case instead of working with numbers, the coordinates are given by using phrases not numbers. The aim of this activity is to provide simultaneously involving, mentally engaging and repetitive real oral exchanges in a way which is motivating. Suitable for older primary students because of its difficulty.

Do something about it!!

The particular intention behind this group of activities is to strengthen understanding by linking it to active response. The aim is that the children have something to do as a result of what they hear. This means that they have to process the language they hear.

INSTRUCTIONS:

1.   You are in a boat, sailing on the sea.
2.   Enter in the Treasure Island and go straight along.
3.   You are in a cave
4.   Turn left
5.   Cross the bridge
6.   Walk trough the jungle between palms trees
7.   Go to the waterfall
8.   Overcame the waterfall
9.   Go straight along
10. Climb the volcano’s mountain
11. Turn right
12. Swim across Crocodile lake
13. Come down to the beach
14. You have just find the treasure!!!

STIR AN SETTLE ACTIVITIES

EXPLICIT TEACHING

MISTAKES

Background to language teaching methodology

WELCOME