A food festival Introduction When students are going to do a listening activity, it is useful to get them thinking about the topic of the listening beforehand. That way they can reactivate and extend their store of vocabulary. In this lesson, students first discuss the topic of food festivals, then they focus on their listening skills in preparation for part 2 of the FCE listening test. Through a series of activities students will become more aware of what to ‘notice’ in a gap fill listening exercise, enabling them to do the Listening part 2 more successfully. Topic Listening skills for FCE Listening part 2 Level Time 75 minutes Aims To encourage students to predict which parts of speech are missing in gapped texts.To familiarise students with part 2 of the Listening test of the FCE exam.To develop students’ listening skills. Materials Lesson plan: download Worksheets (1, 2A, 2B, 3): downloadNote to teachers: worksheet 1 is reproduced twice on the page to reduce paper usage. Audio script: download
Help students improve their listening skills with these podcasts Listening is one of the toughest skills to master in any language. With dialects, accents, and colloquial phrasings, it’s no wonder that our students sometimes struggle to understand what they hear on the street, on TV or even in the classroom. Thankfully there are thousands of great authentic listening resources that can help them improve their listening confidence, train their ears and prepare them for exams like Pearson Test of English (PTE) General. We’re talking about podcasts – online radio shows with hundreds of millions of listeners combined. So, here are some top podcasts which you can use with your students to help them boost their listening skills and become more independent learners. Why listen to podcasts and not just watch TV? It’s a great idea for students to watch series and movies in their original versions. Podcasts, on the other hand, can more effectively prepare students for exams such as PTE General. So what are some podcasts I can use with my learners?
Four hats for discussion Introduction In the 1980s Edward de Bono came up with his Six Thinking Hats idea, in which businessmen use a parallel thinking process which helps them become “more productive, focused, and mindfully involved”. A similar process can be used effectively in the English classroom to get learners more involved in discussions. By wearing a coloured hat, learners are given help, guidance and more support when they are taking part in discussions. They are also free of the burden of having to share their own opinions, which can be useful if they have very little to say, or feel shy about giving their views. Topic Any current or relevant discussion topic. Level B2+ (but could be adapted for lower levels) Time 40-50 minutes Aims To encourage learners to use English in a creative way.To develop learners’ speaking skills.To role-play a character type while having a discussion. Materials Teachers' notesThinking hat role cards You can download these below.
Podcasts to help English learners practise listening Do your students want more listening practice? Aoife McLoughlin, blogger with ELT-Connect.com and latest winner of the British Council's Teaching English blog award, recommends five podcasts to get them started. Do you spend enough time working on listening skills with your students? Is there ever enough time? Often, when we ask students what part of their English they most want to improve, they will say listening and speaking. But we often give less attention to the receptive skill of listening, perhaps in the belief that 'if you can do it alone, you can do it at home'. Podcasts are a great way for students to improve their listening on the go. With such a huge selection available, students are bound to find a podcast they are interested in that suits their needs. Here are my top five podcasts for learners of English: Englishclass101.com This is much more than a podcast. TED audio podcasts Podcastsinenglish.com IELTSpodcast.com Downtobusinessenglish.com
Draw a story Introduction This lesson uses a wonderful idea from Chris Riddell, currently the 'children's laureate', of turning children into illustrators. Learners will listen to a story and imagine each scene. Note: If you choose to play the audio of the story at LearnEnglish Kids, you will have to become a member. This activity works with most stories and can be adapted to use with other ages and levels. Topic Stories, picture books Level Time
Some interesting resources for listening at basic levels | English in Soria VOA news: News in easy American English, with transcripts.ESL Lab: An interesting site with a lot of listening exercises.YouTube SpeakOut videos, e.g. The videos are useful and interesting, but don’t have transcripts or activities (though watching and trying to understand is an activity!). Search YouTube for “Pearson ELT Speakout Beginner” or “Pearson ELT Speakout Elementary”.lyricstraining.com. Enjoy them, and please tell me if I could add any to this list! Like this: Like Loading...
“You’re Lying”: a Game to Practise Present Perfect Simple and Past Simple Today I’m really happy to introduce a guest writer to you. Angeles Jimenez is a friend and fellow teacher from EOI Oviedo and, in this blog post, she will be sharing with us an excellent communicative game to consolidate the use of present perfect simple and past simple. Ready for a lot of fun! Do you want your students to keep their noses in the course book? Going into a new class on the first day can be a little bit stressful both for teachers and students. Games for getting to know one another can be an excellent way to establish a stress-free environment in the classroom. The “You’re lying “game lives up to its name. It’s a fun game which works very well at the start of the term as a ‘getting to know you’ kind of game. It’s also a great way to consolidate the use of the present perfect tense to talk about experiences and the use of simple past to ask follow-up questions. For B2 students some warming up may be necessary. I’ve been to many countries in my life. How to play
BusyTeacher.org While these are crucial concepts, others are equally important. What follows is an assortment of alternative ways to teach listening, some quite simple and others based on many years of research. In each case, I will explain each one briefly and give you a suggestion for using it in class. In addition, I have provided a list of resources about each item, for readers who want to learn more about a topic. Get the Entire BusyTeacher Library: Dramatically Improve the Way You Teach Learn more 9 Different Ways to Explore Listening 1Affective ListeningAffective listening (not to be confused with effective listening) refers to listening with the student motivation at the forefront. In conclusion, I’d like to point out that not all of these concepts may be useful in your classroom. Your students might prefer a competitive listening game over applying metacognitive awareness to their burgeoning listening skills. Resources: AFFECTIVE LISTENINGRost, M. and Wilson, JJ. 2013. Bilbrough, N. 2014.
Barack Obama busca trabajo antes de abandonar la Casa Blanca Sólo en Estados Unidos se puede hacer una broma así. El programa de la CBS The Late Show que presenta Stephen Colbert contó con el presidente de Estados Unidos, Barack Obama, para llegar a cabo una divertida broma que simulaba cómo sería una entrevista de trabajo del futuro ex presidente una vez que abandone la Casa Blanca. El encuentro no tiene desperdicio ya que el presentador se planta delante del aún presidente estadounidense y le plantea entrevistarlo para ver que “aptitudes” tiene para encontrar un trabajo. Para ello, se caracteriza como si de un responsable de unas oficinas o almacenes se tratase y comienza a interrogar a Obama. Mirá también: Esto hará Obama cuando deje la Casa Blanca La entrevista de trabajo no empieza bien... “¿Donde nació?” A continuación, el presidente de Estados Unidos dice que le gustaría trabajar en un futuro en un despacho cuadrado o al menos con muchas esquinas, haciendo referencia al Despacho Oval. “¿Qué logros ha tenido durante su último trabajo?”
BusyTeacher.org YouTube, as well as websites such as wikihow.com, instructables.com, and soyouwanna.com, have an incredible assortment of guides on how to do almost anything, from cutting up onions to making paper airplanes. In this article, I’m going to explain how to adapt a video tutorial into a listening lesson for your ESL/EFL classes. How-to videos contain a number of features which makes them perfect for exploitation in the ESL/EFL classroom: authentic English with natural pronunciation content that relates to everyday life a wide range of topics that can be used images and (in some cases) titles and subtitles which make the meaning clearer the pleasure of learning a useful skill and new English vocabulary at the same time The following sections will guide you through several steps of planning for using a how-to video in class. Searching for the Right Video First of all, you need to think of something that your class would enjoy learning. Planning Your Lesson First, start with a pre-listening task.
Street Photographer Tracks Down People He Captured 30+ Years Ago To Recreate Their Photos In the 1970s, 80s, and 90s, street photographer Chris Porsz spent hours walking around the city of Peterborough, Cambridgeshire (Great Britain), capturing hundreds of amazing characters. Now, almost 40 years later, Porsz has tracked down those same people to recreate their pics, resulting in 135 beautiful reunions. Show Full Text Often recreating the pics in the same locations, Porsz captured everyone from policemen to punks to lovers to siblings. He has gathered all the pics together and put them in a book titled 'Reunions', with texts by writer Jo Riley telling the stories of the people in the pics. Take a look at some of his photos below. You can buy 'Reunions' through Porsz's website.
10 Best Free Listening Websites with Quizzes to Practise for Listening Exams So what do you do to practise listening for exams? Growing up, I never had the opportunity to do any extra practice to improve my listening skills. We didn’t have the Internet and the thousand possibilities it offers to learners of any language nowadays. The teachers had an old tape player that sometimes stopped and started on its own and old tapes that ended up sounding distorted and most of the times unlistenable so if you wanted to get better at listening, you just listened to the radio and struggled to understand the lyrics and sing along. So, exams are just around the corner and I know you’re beginning to freak out. These are, in my opinion, the best sites with quizzes to practise listening comprehension. url: five levels ( A1, A2, B1, B2, C1)Pre-listening /Post-listening activities: bothTranscript: yesAudio Download: yesWhat I like best: very user-friendly for both students and teachers.