Clothes Vocabulary Review Activity

Here’s a quick idea for reviewing and uncovering clothes vocabulary and practising the second conditional. Brainstorm as many different types of clothes as possible starting with the head and working down. Write all this vocabulary on the board in columns labelled Head / Top / Bottom / Hands and Feet. You could use our clothes […]

10 Dictation Activities – Breathe New Life into an Old Staple

Dictation exercises are useful for promoting the noticing of new forms, developing hearing skills, presenting new language, and checking spelling. In a standard dictation activity, a shortish text is selected and then read slowly to the class who attempt to write it down verbatim. The dictation can be repeated as many times as needed. This […]

10 Outdoor Activities for a Sunny Day

Some days it feels just too hot to sit in the classroom. If you have a nice patch of ground nearby, why don’t you take your students outside and allow the change of scenery to stimulate their imaginations? Here are ten outdoor activities which need little or no preparation. Scavenger hunt Make a list of items for […]

Funny English Videos for Learning English

A page where I gather funny English video clips to bring some jollity to the classroom. One way to use videos like these is to divide the class into small groups and show each group a different video. Then have individuals form new groups with their counterparts who saw different videos. Students then tell each other […]

Describing Videos with Present Continuous

In the past, I’ve found it difficult to find satisfactory ways of practising the present continuous in a real-time situation. I find miming activities don’t always suit adult classrooms, and describing what is happening in pictures produces only a limited range of language. However, with the introduction of a large screen, there are a lot more […]

Word Match – A Minimal Pairs Activity for Aiding Pronunciation

The aim of this activity is to use minimal pairs to draw the attention of learners to problems they may have distinguishing and reproducing similar consonant and vowel sounds. Online Minimal Pairs Game Visit our partner site for an online minimal pairs activity. Minimal pairs are pairs of words that differ in only one phonological […]

Show and Tell – Unlock your Learner’s Stories

Show and Tell is one of those great activities that motors along under its own steam without needing much direction from the teacher. I really enjoy being able to sit back and listen to the students’ stories, jumping in when there are difficulties or adding appropriate vocabulary. If there are grammar points which need addressing […]

Who lives in a house like this?

Who lives in a house like this? is based on an old BBC TV show Through The Keyhole where the host walks around a celebrity’s house trying to establish their identity from his or her interior design choices. You can do this activity with a laptop and a projector or a smart screen. Or you […]

Present Simple Interviews

This is a fantastic activity for giving your students practice in asking and answering questions in the third person singular. How to Run the Present Simple Interviews Activity By following these steps, your students will get plenty of practice in using the third person singular form of the present simple while having fun and engaging […]