Posts describing lessons or activities for the ESL classroom.

Activities

People learn new languages in order to share&nbsp;ideas and opinions. However, communicating effectively in another language can be&nbsp;challenging for low-level students&nbsp;who don&#39;t yet have confidence in their ability to express their thoughts. But why not turn that challenge into a game?

One of my favorite lower-level&nbsp;activities is something I like to call the &quot;Silent Film Challenge.&quot;&nbsp;This is a great activity for practicing both speaking and listening skills. Here&#39;s how it works:

<h2>Preparation</h2>

Choose two short videos or films that contain little or no dialogue. The videos should be no longer than five minutes. (YouTube is a treasure trove for&nbsp;short clips.) Make sure you don&#39;t choose something well known that the students will already be familiar with&nbsp;or the activity will be too easy.&nbsp;The activity works&nbsp;best if the two videos are completely unrelated to each other.

<h2>The Activity</h2>

<ol>
	<li>Divide the class into pairs (Student A and Student B). Have all the Student Bs step into the hallway. Make sure they can&#39;t see or hear what&#39;s happening in the classroom.</li>
	<li>Play the first video for the remaining students in the classroom. Students can request to watch the clip again, if needed, but they should not take notes. The idea is to rely entirely on their memories&nbsp;as well as their speaking skills.</li>
	<li>Bring the Student Bs back into the classroom and tell them to find their partner. Now, it is each Student A&#39;s job to explain the video clip to their partner. Give them a few minutes to do this.</li>
	<li>After the Student As have described the video&nbsp;to the Student Bs, choose a Student B at random to describe the clip, which&nbsp;they haven&#39;t seen themselves, based on their partner&#39;s description.&nbsp;After they&#39;ve explained a small chunk of the clip, point to&nbsp;a different Student B and have them continue the explanation&nbsp;until all the Student Bs have had a chance to add to it.</li>
	<li>Play the video again with&nbsp;all the students&nbsp;present. (Student Bs tend to particularly enjoy this part&nbsp;since they can compare their understanding with what actually happens in the video.)</li>
	<li>Have partners switch roles. Repeat the activity using the second video, but this time, have the Student Bs stay in the classroom while the Student As wait outside.</li>
</ol>

I like to end this activity with a little self-assessment. Ask your students which parts of the videos they found easy to explain or describe. Which parts were difficult? Ideally, you can repeat the activity several times throughout the term and ask students if they see any improvement in their own skills.

The Silent Film Challenge

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Articles

The <a href="https://ellii.com/collections/grammar/sentence-constructions/parts-of-speech">parts of speech</a> can be a tricky concept to grasp for ESL learners. In fact, there are even native English speakers who have trouble remembering the difference between a <a href="https://ellii.com/collections/grammar/prepositions">preposition</a> and a <a href="https://ellii.com/collections/grammar/sentence-constructions/conjunctions">conjunction</a> or an <a href="https://ellii.com/collections/grammar/adjectives-adverbs">adverb and an adjective</a>! But as confusing as they can be, the parts of speech are fundamentally important to understanding how English grammar works. Here&#39;s a suggestion for a fun activity to practice this vital concept.

<h1>What is a gap-fill story?</h1>

A gap-fill story (also known as &ldquo;Mad Libs,&rdquo; the popular game created by Leonard Stern and Roger Price) is essentially a fill-in-the-blanks game that often produces wonderfully silly results. The name of Stern and Price&#39;s game itself is actually a play on words. It comes from ad lib, which means to improvise or spontaneously make something up. Ad lib itself is a shortened form of the Latin expression ad libitum, which roughly translates to &quot;as you desire&quot; or &quot;at one&#39;s pleasure.&quot;

<h1>How does it work?</h1>

The concept of the activity is not complicated. You simply take a short story or text (maybe about the length of a paragraph), remove some words, and replace them with new words. The result? A very silly and sometimes nonsensical new text that has little or nothing in common with the original version. It is possible to buy pre-made Mad Libs booklets to fill in, but I&#39;ve found that having students make their own can serve as a wonderful opportunity to practice composition skills.

<h2>For example&hellip;</h2>

Here&#39;s a very basic piece of text to use as a starting point:

<blockquote>
One rainy Thursday night, Michelle was sitting in the living room with her pet rabbit, Mortimer. She was reading her favorite book, The History of Cheesemaking, and snacking on some carrots. Suddenly, there was a loud noise. Michelle jumped off the couch where she was sitting and ran out of the room to find the source of the noise. She did not find anything. When she returned, the door was locked. She could hear Mortimer laughing. &quot;More carrots for me,&quot; he said.
</blockquote>

Now, let&#39;s take this story and make it silly. Remove some of the words and make a separate list that includes each word&#39;s part of speech. Be sure to number each blank space so it corresponds with the correct item on your list to avoid confusion. The result should look something like this:


One (blank #1)1. Thursday night, (blank #2)2. was sitting in the (blank #3)3. with her pet (blank #4)4. , (blank #5)5. . She was reading her favorite book, The History of (blank #6)6. , and snacking on some (blank #7)7. . (blank #8)8. , there was a (blank #9)9. noise. (blank #10)10. (blank #11)11. the (blank #12)12. where she was sitting and ran out of the room to find the source of the noise. She did not find anything. When she returned, the door was locked. She could hear (blank #13)13. (blank #14)14. . &quot;More (blank #15)15. for me,&quot; he&nbsp;said.

<div class="whiteBox">
<h3>List:</h3>

<ol>
	<li>adjective</li>
	<li>proper noun (female name*)</li>
	<li>noun (the name of a room in a house)</li>
	<li>noun (animal)</li>
	<li>proper noun (male name*)</li>
	<li>verb ending in -ing</li>
	<li>noun (food &ndash; plural)</li>
	<li>adverb</li>
	<li>adjective</li>
	<li>proper noun (same name as #2)&nbsp;</li>
	<li>verb (past)</li>
	<li>noun</li>
	<li>proper noun (same name as #5)</li>
	<li>verb ending in -ing</li>
	<li>noun (same food as #7)</li>
</ol>
</div>

*If you prefer not to worry about pronouns, you can just put &quot;name.&quot;

Now, the fun part! Give&nbsp;the list to a partner and have them write down an appropriate word for each item. Make sure you don&#39;t show them the story. If you do, they might try to find words that make logical sense, which would make the result more predictable. Here&#39;s an example of some of the words they might come up with:

<div class="whiteBox">
<ol>
	<li>adjective: cheap</li>
	<li>proper noun (female name): Belinda</li>
	<li>noun (the name of a room in a house): closet</li>
	<li>noun (animal): cobra</li>
	<li>proper noun (male&nbsp;name): Archibald</li>
	<li>verb ending in -ing: snorkeling</li>
	<li>noun (food &ndash; plural): tempura vegetables</li>
	<li>adverb: unfortunately</li>
	<li>adjective: public</li>
	<li>proper noun (same name as #2): Belinda</li>
	<li>verb (past): vacuumed</li>
	<li>noun: rock</li>
	<li>proper noun (same name as #5): Archibald</li>
	<li>verb ending in -ing: painting</li>
	<li>noun (same food as #7): tempura vegetables</li>
</ol>
</div>

And now, the final step. It&#39;s time to take this new list of words and plug them back into the original story. Still keeping with the same example, here&#39;s the result:

<blockquote>
One cheap Thursday night, Belinda was sitting in the closet with her pet cobra, Archibald. She was reading her favorite book, The History of Snorkeling, and snacking on some tempura vegetables. Unfortunately, there was a public noise. Belinda vacuumed off the rock where she was sitting and ran out of the room to find the source of the noise. She did not find anything. When she returned, the door was locked. She could hear Archibald painting.&nbsp;&quot;More tempura vegetables for me,&quot; he said.
</blockquote>

Well, I warned you that it would be silly.

<h1>Resources</h1>

If you&#39;d like to try a simpler form of this activity with your class, perhaps as a warm-up, you can skip the part where each student&nbsp;writes their own original text. There are plenty of blank gap-fill stories that can be downloaded and printed from the internet. Just type &quot;ad lib game&quot; into any search engine, and you&#39;ll see thousands of results. And, if you&#39;re teaching digitally, there are also online versions of the game!

<h1>Hot Tip</h1>

I recommend putting students in pairs and giving each student a different story to have their partner fill out. Students can practice their speaking by taking turns asking each other for words. (&quot;Give me a plural noun.&quot; &quot;Give me an adverb.&quot;) Afterwards, you can ask for volunteers to read the results out loud!

Make Your Own Gap-Fill Stories

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It&rsquo;s no secret that the coronavirus pandemic has left people feeling lonely and disconnected. Lockdowns and quarantine measures around the world have made interaction more difficult than it used to be, and students and teachers alike are feeling the lack of personal human contact. What&rsquo;s more, it&#39;s easy to become burnt out after an entire day of relying on video calls for school or work. With so many people longing for connection, snail mail has seen a major resurgence!

<h1>What Is Snail Mail?</h1>

&ldquo;Snail mail&rdquo; is the modern nickname for the practice of writing letters by hand, something that people have been doing since writing itself was invented. This nickname for letter writing comes from the idea that traditional mail is slow, like a snail! And it&#39;s true.&nbsp;If you want to get into letter writing, one thing you&#39;ll need is patience, especially if you&#39;re writing to people in other countries. But when you recieve a really great letter, it&#39;s worth the wait!

<h1>Snail Mail for Students (Or Teachers!)</h1>

Language teachers have&nbsp;been setting up pen pal relationships for their classes for years. It&rsquo;s the ultimate learning tool because it allows students to practice their reading and writing skills while also letting them explore topics that interest them and make friends at the same time.&nbsp;

Ironically, if you search for the hashtags #snailmailrevolution or #penpalswanted on social media, you&rsquo;ll be able to connect with plenty of other people who wish to step back into the age of written letters. Facebook also has a variety of groups dedicated to this purpose. Writing letters to a pen pal can be a great way for students (and teachers!) to fill the void of social interaction, especially if they are shy, lack confidence in their oral communication skills, or have social anxiety. Creative students can also enjoy the optional tasks of decorating their letters and envelopes.

<h1>Resources</h1>

If you&rsquo;re thinking of finding pen pals for your students, ESL&nbsp;Library has a number of resources in our <a href="https://ellii.com/courses/74/lessons">Writing in English</a> section, including <a href="https://ellii.com/courses/74/lessons/2365">How to Write a Note</a>&nbsp;and <a href="https://ellii.com/courses/74/lessons/1829">How to Write an Email</a>, which could easily be translated to the handwritten equivalent. We also have a resource on <a href="https://ellii.com/resource_categories/107/resources/2356">How to Format an Envelope</a>. Also, if you like the idea of having your students write letters but don&rsquo;t want them to have to commit to a lengthy relationship, there are organizations like <a href="https://www.frommetoyouletters.co.uk/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">From Me to You</a>, which distributes donated letters to patients in cancer wards in the UK&nbsp;with the purpose of bringing the patients cheerful distractions.&nbsp;

Learning with Letter Writing

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Every good teacher knows that students are most engaged when having fun. Fun takes the pressure out of lessons, allowing students to learn without fear of making mistakes. And you know what&rsquo;s fun? Improv!

<h1>What is improv?</h1>

Improvisational theater, or improv, is a type of theater in which the actors make up the play or scene on the spot. This means there is no script, no director, and no costumes. Actors develop their characters while they are already on the stage&nbsp;and react to each other in real time, working together to build a story.&nbsp;

Aside from being fun, improvisational theater has many benefits. It can help people gain confidence, improve public speaking skills, and become more adaptable in unpredictable situations. It sharpens transferrable skills that are useful for acing job interviews, building relationships with peers and colleagues, and connecting with one&rsquo;s inner child. Applied to ESL students specifically, improv provides opportunity to practice vocabulary and build confidence in both speaking and&nbsp;listening.

<h1>The main principles of improvisational theater also apply to&nbsp;life</h1>

<h2>Yes, and!</h2>

&quot;Yes, and!&rdquo; is the most famous principle of improv. The meaning behind these two words is simple: &ldquo;Yes&rdquo; means you must accept whatever information your scene partner gives you, and &ldquo;and&rdquo; means you must build upon that information.&nbsp;

Here&rsquo;s an example:

<blockquote>
Student 1: Hello, John. Good to see you again. It says on your chart that you&rsquo;re here because of a knee injury.
</blockquote>

(From this information alone, Student&nbsp;2 can infer that Student 1 is playing the part of a doctor.&nbsp;Student&nbsp;1&#39;s tone&nbsp;implies that they have met before.)

<blockquote>
Student 2: Yes, Dr. Rodriguez. I tripped over my dog this morning and hurt my knee. I&rsquo;m afraid it might be serious.
</blockquote>

(Here, Student 2 has accepted Student 1&rsquo;s proposition of being a doctor. Student 2 has named Student 1&rsquo;s character&nbsp;and added the information that the knee injury was caused by tripping over a&nbsp;dog.)

In a less literal sense, &ldquo;Yes, and!&rdquo; also highlights the spirit of positivity in improv, which is of course also relevant to the classroom since positivity is conducive to a healthy learning environment. Let&rsquo;s return to the example above. What would happen if the scene played out like&nbsp;this?

An example of what not to&nbsp;do:

<blockquote>
Student 1: Hello, John. Good to see you again. It says on your chart that you&rsquo;re here because of a knee&nbsp;injury.

Student 2: My name isn&rsquo;t John, and you&rsquo;re not a&nbsp;doctor!
</blockquote>

Here, Student 2&nbsp;has denied Student 1&rsquo;s idea, and now the scene cannot go&nbsp;anywhere.

<h2>Mistakes are gifts</h2>

What could be more empowering than the idea that you can never be wrong? While of course it is possible to be wrong when it comes to grammar, students find it liberating to not have to worry too much about what comes out of their mouth. After all, whatever they say must be supported by their scene partner, so the idea that they might be shamed for saying the wrong thing is completely&nbsp;nonexistent.

<h2>Listen to your partner</h2>

Listening skills are important both to learning the English language and to performing a strong improv scene. Listening not only to one&#39;s partner&rsquo;s words but also to their tone allows the listener to pick up on all sorts of information that then can be used in the&nbsp;scene.

<h1>So, how can we use improv in the&nbsp;classroom?</h1>

The easiest way to incorporate improv in the classroom is simply by performing two-person scenes. The teacher can give each group of two a suggestion, such as a relationship: &ldquo;brother and sister,&rdquo;&nbsp;&ldquo;therapist and patient,&rdquo;&nbsp;&ldquo;king and servant&rdquo;;&nbsp;a single location: &ldquo;You&rsquo;re in an airplane!,&rdquo; &ldquo;You&rsquo;re at a gas station!,&rdquo; &ldquo;You&rsquo;re at a child&rsquo;s birthday party!&rdquo;; or even just a single word of inspiration: &ldquo;Pineapple!,&rdquo; &ldquo;NASA!,&rdquo;&nbsp;&ldquo;Anniversary!&rdquo;

However, teachers might want a bit more guidance than this, and ESL&nbsp;Library has a number of resources that can be adapted for improv activities. For example, words from the <a href="https://ellii.com/flashcard_genres">Flashcards</a> section can be selected at random for scene&nbsp;inspiration.

For a more structured approach, there are a number of scene ideas in our <a href="https://ellii.com/courses/96/lessons">Role-Play</a> section, which provides not only situations but also teachers&#39; notes, including suggestions for dealing with shy students. Take information from the &ldquo;scenario&rdquo; section and choose two students to perform the scene while the rest of the class watches. For an additional task, have the students in the audience copy down sentences they hear. I always encourage the entire class to shout &ldquo;Best Scene Ever!&rdquo; after every scene to add to the spirit of positivity and&nbsp;fun.

VIEWING POSTS BY

Lara Henerson

The Silent Film Challenge

Make Your Own Gap-Fill Stories

Learning with Letter Writing

Improv in the Classroom