Warmers and fillers for the online classroom - EnglishUp The online classroom can at times seem like a very cold space and building a supportive and friendly environment for students while getting a clear idea of their capabilities can be quite challenging. Having some zero preparation activities up your sleeve to get students speaking can be a real benefit. Here are some of my favourite warmers and fillers to get students speaking. Find out about Aptis for Teachers Alphabet vocabulary This is a simple warmer that can work with any level from elementary upwards and can help to get students thinking in English and revising their vocabulary. Suggest a subject that your students have studied such as food, sport, objects around the house, etc. Example: Topic: Fruit and vegetables Apple, banana, courgette, etc. If one of you gets stuck on a letter, the other person wins. You can follow this up by getting the students to write down all the items that they remember from the word chain. Two truths and one lie Example: I’ve been married 5 times.
Misplaced Modifiers—What are They and How Can you Avoid Them? | Gallery Languages's Blog The Grammar Owl Photo by If you’ve ever wondered how to help your learners avoid misplacing modifiers in sentences then this week’s post by our guest blogger, Teacher Diane, is a must read. Over to you, Diane. Teacher DianeLike most English grammar, this topic sounds much more difficult than it actually is. So, let’s start with the basics. What is a modifier? So, what is a misplaced modifier? The misplaced modifier can lead to confusion and sometimes completely change the meaning of the sentence. For example, let’s look at the sentence below: The teacher said on Monday we would have a test. In this sentence, on Monday is the modifying phrase. To say that the test will be on Monday, we can write the sentence like this: The teacher said we would have a test on Monday. To say that the teacher spoke on Monday, we can write the sentence like this: On Monday, the teacher said we would have a test. Let’s look at some more misplaced modifiers. Ciao for now Shanthi Like this:
11 Weirdly Spelled Words—And How They Got That Way Why is English spelling so messed up? We get the same sounds spelled different ways (two, to, too), the same spellings pronounced different ways (chrome, machine, attach), and extra letters all over the place that don't even do anything (knee, gnu, pneumatic). There aren't always good reasons for these inconsistencies, but there are reasons. Here's a brief look at the history of English spelling told through 11 words. 1. Way back in the 600s, Christian missionaries arrived in Anglo-Saxon England with their Roman alphabet and tried to make it fit the language they found there. Later, English lost the /x/ sound, but only after the spelling conventions had been well established. 2. Two things happened in the early 1500s that really messed with English spelling. 3. Woden was an Anglo-Saxon god associated with both fury and poetic inspiration. 4. Getty Images 5. 6. Receipt is also a victim of the Latinizing craze. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. That's how you spell it, and say it, in Italian.
About the Visual :: Overview - Visual Dictionary Online A dictionary with a new point of view that catches the eye and enriches the mind. 20,000 terms with contextual definitions,developed by terminology experts; 6,000 full-color images of a wide variety of objects from all aspects of life; One essential reference. The Visual Dictionary is designed to help you find the right word at a glance. Filled with stunning illustrations labeled with accurate terminology in up to six languages, it is the ideal language-learning and vocabulary dictionary for use at school, at home or at work. When you know what something looks like but not what it’s called, or when you know the word but can’t picture the object, The Visual Dictionary has the answer. The Visual Dictionary is more than a reliable resource of meticulously labeled images—it innovates by combining dictionary-scale definitions with exceptional illustrations, making it the most complete dictionary. There is a Visual Dictionary for every age... for every need... for everyone.
» Learn how to use these tricky words correctly An idea is any result of mental activity; a thought, a notion; a way of thinking; an image of an object that is formed in the mind or recalled by the memory. For example: It was his idea to enter the race. She turned her idea of owning her own business into a reality. As a modifier, ideal means optimal; being the best possibility. For example: In an ideal scenario, everyone would do what they enjoy the most. As a noun, an ideal is a perfect standard of beauty, intellect etc., or a standard of excellence at which to aim. Imply means to have as a necessary consequence; to suggest by logical inference; to hint, insinuate, or suggest tacitly and avoid a direct statement. Infer means to introduce something as a reasoned conclusion; to conclude by reasoning or deduction, as from premises or evidence. It’s worth noting that, in recent years, using imply and infer interchangeably has become quite common. To learn more about confusing word pairs, read this blog post about aloud vs. allowed.
All Things Topics - Home Presenting vocabulary Introduction What a student may need to know about an item Ways to present vocabulary Alternative ways of teaching vocabulary Other things to consider Introduction With hundreds of thousands of words in the English language, teaching vocabulary can seem like a very daunting prospect. Remember though that the average native speaker uses around only five thousand words in everyday speech. Moreover, your students won't need to produce every word they learn, some they will just need to recognize. Selecting what to teach, based on frequency and usefulness to the needs of your particular students is therefore essential. What a student may need to know about an item What it means It is vital to get across the meaning of the item clearly and to ensure that your students have understood correctly with checking questions. Which of these areas you choose to highlight will depend on the item you are teaching and the level of your students. Alternative ways of teaching vocabulary
WORD GAMES | ELT-CATION Ammon Shea, a 37-year-old former furniture remover in New York, spent 12 months conquering what he describes as the Everest of dictionaries, the Oxford English Dictionary (OED), by ploughing through 20 volumes, 21,730 pages and 59 million words (read more here). We can only guess how much of what he read has stayed between his ears, which is, at times, quite a challenge for our students. Luckily for the latter, though, their word lists are much shorter. We can use some magic formulae for helping words stick in the head trying to come up with clever associations, getting students to use definitions, determining a rate at which words should be learnt without falling out of their heads, creating some “brain surprises” (see more here), or resort to some oldies but goldies – word games. These are some pen and paper games that require next to no time to prepare and might be used to get students to look through their word lists again and again, and help them retain new vocabulary. Squares Stop!
Rewordify.com | Understand what you read untitled By Laura Wallis for The Stir by CafeMom Kids can’t escape those vocab quizzes, but learning new words and perfecting spelling doesn’t have to be all work and no fun. If your family likes to play games together—whether on a car trip or just whiling away a morning on the sofa—add some word games to the mix. Here are a few that are fun for kids of all ages. 1The Letter Game This game can be played anywhere, with two or more people, and you don’t even need a pencil and paper. 2Scrabble Scramble My husband and I are serious Scrabble lovers, but a full-on game was too much for the family when our kids were younger. 3Memory Match This is a great way to reinforce school spelling words, which are usually categorized by attributes such as vowel sounds. 4Spelling Bee This is exactly what it sounds like and can be played anywhere. 5The Un-Spelling Game Here’s one that’s fun for families with older kids.
There is no such thing as a true synonym in English. Discuss! | About Words - Cambridge Dictionaries Online blog by Kate Woodford In the Cambridge Advanced Learner’s Dictionary the word ‘synonym’ is defined as ‘a word or phrase that has the same or nearly the same meaning as another word or phrase in the same language’. As you might expect, definitions for this word are broadly similar in other dictionaries and yet the italicized phrase ‘or nearly the same’ is often absent. This seems to me an omission. Many words in English have the same basic or overall meaning and yet are significantly different for one or more reasons. No one in the government seems to comprehend the scale of the problem. Or this: They have failed to comprehend the seriousness of the threat. It seems that we comprehend serious, difficult things – and the things that we comprehend are likely to be tricky situations rather than tricky subjects. In a previous post (Body shapes), I wrote about the various adjectives that we use to describe our figures. Like this: Like Loading...
Glosförhör - bara om vi lär oss - Mia Smith Glosläxornas vara eller inte vara debatteras hett bland språklärare. I det här inlägget vill jag inte lägga fokus på om, utan på hur, men inte på själva läxan, utan på hur den förhörs. Glosor förhörs på många olika sätt i skolan. Det klassiska är att eleven skriver ner orden var för sig, antingen som läraren säger dem eller som de står på ett papper eller i ett digitalt responsverktyg. Mina glosförhör sker nästan uteslutande på whiteboard-tavlan. När alla elever fått skriva en mening på tavlan tar nästa del vid. Bild: Mia Smith, skapad i Explain Everything Det viktiga i mitt upplägg är att det handlar om autentisk kommunikation, vi tar fram meningar man skulle kunna skriva själv, sätter ihop ord vi stött på förut till nya meningar, precis som det fungerar i verkliga livet. Sedan jag började använda den här metoden har många elever påpekat att det vill fortsätta på det här sättet, för de lär sig så mycket under tiden.
One way to introduce a new vocab set | A Hive of Activities This is a different way to introduce a new vocab set to introduce to your students. I learnt it from my tutor on my CELTA course. I used it recently with my 11-year-olds and it worked really well. I think it would work with older students and higher levels too. Start by asking your students to take a piece of paper and divide it into 3 sections: I knowI’m not sureI don’t know Then explain that you’re going to read some words out. Then read out the words slowly, repeating each one until everyone has written it down in one of the boxes. Now you can ask the students to work together in twos or threes to share their knowledge. Lastly, you can go through each one by eliciting what each word means and writing it on the board. Share this with other teachers: Like this: Like Loading...