Thursday, March 03, 2011

Teaching English

My daughter, who is serving a mission in Taiwan, wrote and asked for ideas for teaching english class. When I was a missionary, we had manuals to use, but we also tried to bring in other kinds of games and things. I'm pretty sure that my son also teaches english classes in El Salvador, so I have sent him this same list. Do any of you have any other ideas of things they could do in their english classes?

Here are my ideas:

For the better speakers:
--Have them write out skits and perform them for each other in english
--Have a debate on certain topics. Give them a few minutes to write up their speeches, or else give it as an assignment for the next week.
--If they are kids, have them do puppet shows (paper bag or stick puppets), and write up their own story.

For lower level:
--Write the alphabet in the center of the board in a vertical line going down the board. Draw a column on each side of the alphabet. Divide the class in to two teams. Have two team members come to the board. Have them write as many words as they can that start with that letter. (You could either have the same person write them all, or have the team help, or have them take turns coming up and writing a word) You may want to give them a time limit. The team that gets the most can put a check in their column next to that letter. That letter is now out of play. Have them pick another letter and do the same. At the end of the game, see which team won the most letters.
--Have a sort of "family feud" game. Have two members from each team come up to the table. Give a word in chinese. The first person to slap the table and give the right answer wins the point. You could also modify this and have a question such as, "Tell me a kind of fruit.", or "Tell me a verb" etc.

For little children:
--Teach them the sign language for the alphabet.
--For chinese, I also used to use BoPoMoFo to teach them how to pronounce sounds. Like I would write the BoPoMoFo symbol for "ei" when I wanted them to pronounce "A". You would have to learn it first. :)
--Give them some nouns and have them draw a picture for each. (cat, banana etc.)

5 comments:

Nene said...

I would think that for the smaller children, singing songs would help them learn English. It seems like putting words with music helps you learn things faster.

Fromagette said...

We wrote a Mad Gab once for our English Class. Really, it would only work well with more advanced students, but it was fun.

Delirious said...

Fromagette, that is a GREAT idea! Oh, and it just occurred to me that you are the needlework QUEEN! I should get some tips from you!

Mr. Giggles said...

I spent a whole year with occasional classes in teaching language learners, and have a whole manual on the topic.... Can't remember anything of it.....

Looney said...

I presume that Tiger Mom methods are out. Songs were some of the best that I remember, but that is already on the list.