ELT MOOC on Pronunciation

Thanksgiving is just around the corner and I am thankful for online professional development. A great chance for English teachers to learn from from one another is just around the corner.

Starting in just two weeks, November 18th, and ending December 13th there are 24 different teachers are coming together to share different techniques regarding teaching pronunciation.

For example, my presentation, "Pronunciation and the Punchline" will be presenting on different ways to use jokes when teaching pronunciation and why humor (even corny humor) is a great tool to use in class.
 
The MOOC is free to attend and participants who complete at least 4 classes will receive a certificate of participation.
 
Check out the video below for more information.

For more information look into the link here and I hope to see you there.

I'd love to hear if you plan on attending or have any questions. You can tweet me @ESLCarissa, join my group on facebook or just check out my regular blog.

One week until the 34th ELT Carnival!

The 34th ELT Blog Carnival is about pronunciation and will be held here!

If we can understand it, should we still correct it?

How to participate?
There are three big ways you can participate!

1. Submit your post that you have written on pronunciation in the ELT field (EFL; ESL, ESP, EAP, etc.) send it my way.
2. Share this post so other people can get involved. The more submissions we have the more everyone can learn!  
3. Check out the finished product September 2nd and learn from all the other English Language Teachers. You can keep track of everything via #eltBlogCarnival on twitter!

To submit your blog you have three options: 

1. Fill out this form.
2. Tweet it to Carissa Peck (@eslcarissa)
3. Use the general ELT Blog Carnival submission form.

Please try to get all submissions in by August 31st!

First Day Introductions

Tomorrow the Foreign Language staff will be introduced to the incoming high school students at their orientation. We were told to make a quick introduction in the language that we teach so the students will get an idea of how this school expects them to learn different languages.

I don't just want to jump out and say, "Hi I am Carissa," but I was told that's basically what is expected (short and sweet). So I decided to change the introduction I usually give the first day of class which should still be under a minute!

 

Normally on the first day I draw a car on the board which is always fun since I am not an artist. I smile until finally someone says something, "What is that a car?"or "Why did you draw a car?" Then I smile, write car under the drawing and move on to the next word. "I am, They are, He....." someone usually shouts out is. As a last clue I usually draw a crude saw and -W. This one usually takes a bit longer, but someone will shout out, "SA." Then I underline CAR IS SA and tell them that is my name.

I made a few changes to the video above. Why? Well, I won't have a white board, or PowerPoint at the orientation so I needed something that I could use without anything else. I also knew I would be working with beginners and I didn't want to stump them all with SA. Plus, using an American flag has the bonus of letting them know where I am from. I plan on having the students who guess correctly stand up and cold the letters after so that is spells out my name at the end.

Why go through all this trouble?

• First off it is fun. 
• Secondly, it makes my name more memorable! Especially in Spanish speaking countries where Clarissa is a much more memorable name. 
• It also acts as a great ice breaker as I can usually get a few students to volunteer to give me their names this way. 
• Most importantly it gets the students used to participating and speaking in English from the first moment I start!

I'd love to know how you introduce your name the first day of class! Leave a comment!

You can read more from Carissa at http://eslcarissa.blogspot.mx/

News: INTRODUCING LISTENING SKILLS IN BASIC ENGLISH ONLINE COURSES (BEOC)

Claudia here again with a great article I found for ELT teachers. This article stresses the increasing importance of teaching listening skills to language learners from the beginning as well as providing quality materials that enable this skill to be developed. You can find the article via the link below:

http://newsmanager.commpartners.com/tesolcallis/issues/2013-07-16/11.html

Let us know what you think! Connect with us @C_LaCross

Bunny Hop your students into knowing directions

Don't pirate! Buy the real song for $0.99!

 We all know I am a HUGE fan of a TPR to help students remember things, feel less stress and enjoy class! This is an easy song to review directions, body parts and get kids moving!

The video below is less three minutes and goes over

1. Why I think this is great for ALL beginners (including adults)
2. An example of the dance with the adapted lyrics I tend to use
3. An example of the dance with the original lyrics

The lyrics essentially are, "Put your left foot forward. Put your right foot out. Do the bunny hop. Hop hop hop." I change them to, "First put out your right foot; then put out your left. Forwards and Backwards. Hop Hop Hop."

This version is great for ANY beginners! Adults will appreciate the classic and kids love the simplicity. The teenagers may be more interested in the hip hop version as hip hop may be a bit more their thing.

In review: If you think that your students need to learn/review words like: forward, backward, hop, left, right and foot. Then this is a simple activity. Also it is an easy activity to be combined with other bunny or spring activities:

• Sweet Little Bunny with a Fly Upon its Nose is a great song to review body parts, adjectives and animals.
• The five Easter Eggs fingerplay reviews emotions
• Teach occupations by dressing up a paper doll bunny and telling a story.

 Whether you use this on its own or with some other TPR activities I am sure your students will enjoy it!

Let us know what you thought! Tweet the writer at @ESLCarissa You can also keep track of this blog with Chris' twitter: @C_LaCross

You can read more from Carissa at http://eslcarissa.blogspot.mx/

Review Game! Have your students review with a snow fight!

I remember in high school one teacher, who I can't remember exactly...either an English or History teacher, had us push the desk and chairs to each side of the class making two "trenches." We balled up old quizzes, tests, and homework, and for about five minutes threw the paper balls back and forth at each other. I can't remember the point of the lesson, but I do remember it was lots of fun! So when Lee Adams told me about a review activity he played involving balled up paper I was hooked. He thinks he got it from The Accelerated Learning Handbook.

1. Basically each student gets a piece of scratch paper (be it homework that you accidentally photocopied with a typo and it thus is trash or any other one side free page). I often tell them they can use old math or chemistry assignments to get more of a cathartic relief. 
2. On the paper they legibly write a question in English from something that we covered (or that I have told them will be on the test). 
3. They each ball up the piece of paper and wait.
4. Once everyone is ready set a timer for 30 seconds (if you have an IWB or projector I suggest the bomb countdown). 
5. Let chaos break out as the students have 30 seconds to pelt the "snowballs" at one another (and probably the teacher too).
6. When the timer goes off they have to grab the "snowball" closest to them. 
7. The teacher takes turns calling on volunteers to read their question and come up with the answer.

 As always, I can think of a few alternatives

• Make the snowballs yourself. Now this is one less step for the students, but if you have specific things you want covered it may be better. Hand out the paper as though it were a one page quiz and then tell the students to ball it up! That will make them happy :-)
• Make it a competition. My teenagers LOVE competing against one another. So do like my high school teacher did. Divide the class into two groups. At the end if they answer their review question right, their team gets 10 points. If they don't get it right, let their team help them out and if as a team they are correct they get 5 points. (Let the other team steal after that for 5 points i f you wish)
• Code it! Give each student a different color paper (or save the planet and use scratch paper that you've put different symbols onto). Tell them that a blue (or smiley face) paper is vocabulary, a green (or star) is relative clauses, a red (or circle) is short story, etc. That way they are still writing the questions, but you can promise a variety of categories at least. 
• Use it for new vocabulary or grammar. Have them write a sentence with a blank for the voab word (or draw a picture of the vocabulary word) OR have them write an example of the new grammar and the student has to guess the grammar (or vice versa, they write the grammar topic and the student would need to give a sample sentence).

So there we go, a great way to get the blood pumping in your class!

If you are looking for another easy, no prep and fun game like Flyswatter.

Would you use this in your class? Would you change it first? What other ideas does it give you?

News: Using Advertisements in Class

Hello all, here is a very neat article by Nick Michelioudakis on the use of advertisements in language classes. You should check it out!

Using Advertisements in Class ‘Why rediscover America?’

But they won't know those words!

I often want to teach a movie, song, poem or article with the knowledge that students won't know some of the words. Often I'll just have them guess(I think this is a great skill), but if I know the vocabulary will be important to the unit is to follow my CELTA "road map" of how to teach vocabulary from meaning.

I have found it super helpful, so maybe others will find it a nice review and included some examples that work well for me. This works with ANY level you are teaching.

"Oh... so that's what handball is!"

Meaning- Tell a story, show pictures, use a song, use smells, bring in realia, bring in movie clips do anything you can to SHOW the meaning of the words you are going to work on (this works best if the words are all grouped somehow). With preschoolers maybe this means you are showing a video of Arthur the aardvark at school. With older students you are asking them about their weekend and hinting at all of the theme of your lesson.

Pre-Teaching Lexis- The words you have selected to teach should be words that you don't think they know, but give them some credit. Start the draw and tell but don't tell them what each thing is, have them guess. "Struggle" with a word and see if they can guess what it is. Play hang man. Scramble the word. Play password. Etc.

Text-  Finally introduce them to the text where they will see the words used. This can be a reading, or audio. They may want to circle the vocab words and see if it matches what they think it means. They can also listen to the story to make sure it makes sense.


Language Focus- Ask some concept check questions to see if they understand the questions. Have them do chants if they are younger or choruses if they are older and need the pronunciation help. If they have a word journal now is a good time to have them add to it.

Controlled Practice- This is when they have a gap fill or word to definition match, TPR, following of directions,  fix mistakes, answer specific questions (adding details), some simple pair games (more complicated ones are free practice), Songs

Free Practice- This is a LOT more fun. Have them draw the picture, make an rhyme,
make them  practice sentences and pictures,  answer open questions etc. (see more from Carissa here: http://eslcarissa.blogspot.mx/)

News: Too Many Balls!?

" I am utterly bewildered and overwhelmed. I am struggling my way around the book exhibition at an ELT conference. What a bombardment of books! ‘How do teachers even begin to choose?’ I ask myself. "


Too Many Balls!?

News: LTSIG Webinars

Hello All,

The LTSIG Webinar series started today with 'Teacher Development Online'. The Learning Technologies SIG holds regular online workshops (or 'webinars') which are open to the general public. These webinars take place in an online video conferencing platform (Adobe Connect) and last approximately one hour.

The webinars feature well-known and experienced practitioners talking about technology in English language teaching, and are of interest to all teachers. If you missed today's you can still join for the rest.

You don't need to sign up in advance. Simply go to the webpage 10-15 minutes before the webinar is due to start, and click on the link provided with the webinar description to join the video conferencing platform. Here is the link for more information: http://ltsig.org.uk/online-events.html

The series continues as follows:

Sunday 18 December 2011: Mobile Learning (with Caroline Moore)

Sunday 15 January 2012: Cool Activities with IWBs (with Barbara Gardner)

Sunday 19 February 2012: Implementing ICT in an Institution (with Lauren Brumfield)

Sunday 25 March 2012: Integrating Collaborative Projects with ICTs (with Shelly Terrell)

Sunday 15 April 2012: E-safety (with Carol Rainbow)

Sunday 20 May 2012 (tbc): Using Social Media with Learners (with Petra Pointer)

Useful Sites: ESL Sites

Hello all, Chris here. Today I have a selection of excellent ESL sites to share! Take a look at the following:

http://www.readwritethink.org/

http://www.openculture.com/

http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/

If you have any sites you would like to share with us, feel free to comment or send us an email: clteacherstoolbox@gmail.com

ESL/ELT/EFL: Teaching Resources

Hello all, Chris here,

today I have a large set of links for those teaching English. Included are some of the best sites for free materials as well as other important links such as the TESOL site. You can also find these links conveniently located in the ESL useful links section the right side of the blog. Although extensive, the list is never complete. If you have any sites you would like to share with us feel free to either leave a comment or send us an email. Enjoy!

• Aardvark's English Forum
• Activities for ESL Students
• California Distance Learning Project
• Camel's Nose - Useful ESL Links for Teachers and Students
• Children Only ESL-EFL
• Dave's ESL Cafe
• English Baby
• English Club
• English For All
• English Page
• English To Go
• ESL Focus
• ESL Galaxy
• ESL Games
• ESL Kid Stuff
• ESL Lab
• ESL Lesson Plans and Resources
• ESL Lessons
• ESL Monkeys
• ESL Partyland
• ESL PDFs
• ESL Teachers Board
• ETA Newsletter
• Interesting Things for ESL Students
• Internet TESL Journal Links
• IPA Fonts
• Language Links
• National TESOL Website
• One Stop English
• Owl Purdue ESL Handhouts
• The EFL/ESL Page
• To Learn English
• U.S. Deparment of Education
• Ultralingua Online Dictionary
• Ultralingua's Online Grammar Explanations
• University of Iowa Phonetics
• University of Victoria English Language Center Study Zone
• Useful ESL Links
• Using English
• Word Skills
• CATESOL
• Yahooligans