What are your favourite and most efficient enabling language tools that you like to use in the classroom? The tools that liberate/empower the learner and make him/her at ease with English.

 

For instance, recently we �ve been covering agreement/disagreement in my class, I tried to teach them to defend their point of view and to accept or question another. They seemed to enjoy it, and like they really got the hang of it.

 

This week I �m thinking about teaching them metaphors and comparisons to make their language richer, something like "This experience was a real eye-opener" or "The sky in Brazil is beautiful like nowhere else" or "To do something like that would be like fighting wind with a sword". You get me.

 

What would you recommend?

 

Thanks in advance.

 

 

 

 

Another resource I used to use: PROVERBS

 

I used to give each of my stds one that I found related to them for whatever reason, something that had to do with their personality and we would say each at the begining of the class. In tht way by mid year they all knew each other �s and then I would give them a list and they had to choose their own, so we would say both proverbs before beginning the class.

You can do sth similar with similes if you teach them some clich�s and as they learn them you might also play games when they have to say each other �s similes/proverbs

 

Well, my experience was so exciting that I had to share it :) I miss those kids so much now!!! They �re not my stds anymore

 

BTW: MY PROVERB WAS "PATIENCE IS A VIRTUE" LOL!!!

My most important tool in teaching - laughter, surprise and stories!

I know you �re asking for topics, but I I �ve learned that these 3 things can turn any lesson into a priceless experience! If I can find a funny angle to a topic - it works! If it has an element of surprise - it works! If it has a moving story - it works! Some of my longterm sts (who are now teenagers and have been with me since preschool lessons), have figured this out already, and whenever we go through a successful introduction (using one of the 3 tactics), they just seem to sense it, look up at me and try to guess which part of English I �m trying to smuggle in (they call it smuggling), whether it �s conditionals, synonyms, word formation, passives, etc. And they don �t mind - they love it!

Creativity workshops are their favourite and most productive parts of the course - creative discussions or writing, based on sth we learned before. For instance, after a history unit, with my sts armed with tenses, time expressions, vocabulary about different parts of human history, a discussion about which time they would like to have lived in, and then pair writing about an imaginary time travel... Fantastic response and some real English in use... (My sts are sometimes closed off when they are given a topic directly about themselves, so I always find an imaginary twist - e. g. if they �re allowed to write sb else �s biography, they �ll do a much better job than if they have to write their own.)

Linguistically, they love stuff like oxymora, homophones, court language, confusing sentences, tongue twisters (try writing a tongue twister story with your sts) or words beginning with one and the same letter (again - try to have them write a story like that)...

I know this is not exactly what you �re looking for, but maybe it sends you in the direction you need, which may just be completely from the one I mention...

 

I agree with you about laughter, proverbs and surprise. Laughter is the key, as well as the surprise - I always try to create something new so they are alert with this crazy teacher all the time!...

 

I did too use proverbs at some point, I forgot about them, will start again.

 

I �m thinking of introducing comedy on Fridays - comedy videos, because - I don �t know if you agree with me - but when a person can understand humour in target language and laugh, this brings him/her to a different level, a higher level obviously, and when a person can make jokes in English - this takes him/her to a higher level still. 

 

So, this is the video I will probably show on Friday:

 

 

I chose it because there are no swear words (like in Robin Williams � or Dave Chapelle �s), he speaks quite slow, the topic itself is something everyone can understand. Clean fun I call it.

 

I will pre-teach vocab, of course, also - my students are Pre-Intermediate adults. Let me know what you think.

 

If the behavior had been good on friday they would sit as they wanted, with whoever they wanted (I dont know how you work with that but I usually decide where my stds sit) and te last period we would go outside toplay games, me included, running around the playground or playing statues or any other crazy games

 

Thats what I miss the most about teaching "littluns"