Skip to content
EFL Ideas EFL Ideas

Creative Resources for ESL/EFL Teachers

  • Home
  • Teacher T-shirts
  • ESL Speaking Topics
  • ESL Questions
  • ESL Discussions
  • TED Talks
  • Download
  • Sponsorship and Advertisement
  • Links
  • Contact
EFL Ideas
EFL Ideas

Creative Resources for ESL/EFL Teachers

English fun

7 Reasons Why Your Lessons Should Be Fun

Posted on October 1, 2016November 15, 2021 By albacker

English fun

Are language lessons or any lessons even supposed to be fun? It is all about learning, hard work, discipline, focus, determination. How can all that be fun?

Simple. You, the teacher, should love your job, enjoy working with people and bring life into the dull stereotypes of a boring lesson.

Why should you do that? Why bother? Isn’t the teacher’s job to teach and not to entertain? Ideally, the teacher should do both. Making your lesson fun can be a powerful tool. You can find the reasons why bellow.

Why English (and any other) lessons should be fun:

1. Building rapport.

Friendly and relaxed atmosphere makes it easier to establish rapport with your students. Fear can be a motivator but it should never be used in a classroom. By showing students that learning can be a fun, enjoyable activity, something that they may even look forward to, you will gain something priceless-their interest. And interest in the subject is the first step in a sucessful learning process.

2. Interest in the subject

English is generally considered as less boring school subject than the others, but let’s face it; it is still a school subject. It is graded, it requires studying rules, memorizing vocabulary, drilling grammar, etc. Where is the fun in that? It is important to make the studens realize that learning English can be fun and that it is not only a school subject.

3. Fun breaks the ice and promotes speaking

All the icebreaking activities are supposed to be fun to make the students feel relaxed. We want them to be relaxed, open, willing to share their ideas, to express themselves. Do we want them to feel that way only at the begining of the school year or a course?  Definitely not! Break the ice all year around.

4. Variability of your lessons

Listening, reading, speaking, writing. The four pillars of any language learning. All of them can be taught in an engaging way using a variety of materials. Teaching a language is much more than a coursebook and a dictionary. So much can be learnt outside the classroom, outside the cliché of read the text, fill in the gaps, answer the questions, learn the vocabulary. Learning a language can be more natural, spontaneus and entertaining activity.

5. All the great activities and resources

Simulations, role plays, group work, quizzes, games, drama, projects, presentations, competitions, videos, TED lectures, podcasts, worksheets, flashcards and many more. When utilized correctly they are not only a source of knowledge but they capture the students attention, foster creativity and contribute to a well balanced, engaging lesson.

6. Attention span 

We are all familiar with the attention span theories. Different psychologists and reaserches claim that the attention span can vary from 10  to 90 mintes depending on factors such as the age of the students, time of the day, emotion, enjoyment and motivation. We can’t influcence all the factors, but there are some that we can influnce, namely emotion, enjoyment and motivation. 

7. Motivation

Teacher is the director of the class and the leading actor. Teacher gives orders and motivates the rest of the cast to give their life performance. When in a classroom you are in a role. You are on stage. You have power over your students in more ways than you think. And with great power comes great responsibility. (comics are a great teaching resource as well  – The Oatmeal Grammar Comics for example)

Do you want to to bring more fun into your English lessons? Try these engaging activities activities.

Funny Conversation Starters: 60 Questions

10 Websites To Make Your Lessons More Engaging And Fun

Best English Games to Play in Your ESL Classroom

Balderdash: ESL Speaking Game

ESL Speaking Activity: Conversation Cards

ESL Travel Vocabulary Taboo Cards

Articles From the classroom Motivation activities and resourcesattention spancomicscommunicationengaging studentsfunself improvement

Post navigation

Next post

Related Posts

Articles ESL role play worksheet

ESL Role Play Worksheet: Travel/Holidays

Posted on March 22, 2017September 27, 2021

There is no such thing as enough role play activities and worksheets! I’ve recently gone over Travel vocabulary with my Intermediate and Upper Intermediate students and I love doing these speaking activities at the end of the lesson. In my previous article, I included my own version of the Taboo card game on the…

Read More
Articles

Holiday Is Over, Back To Work ESL Teacher!

Posted on August 25, 2017

It’s been a while since I posted an article, created a worksheet or did anything even resembling work. Why? I needed a reboot. I love my work, the creativity of it, the relationships with my students that it brings, BUT, in order to enjoy it all and to be able…

Read More
From the classroom apps to learn English

5 Apps To Learn English Without Knowing It

Posted on October 4, 2016November 22, 2019

There are 2.2 million apps in Android store and 2 million in Apple’s App store. I’m sure a huge number of those apps is useles, but you can also find there plenty of helpful, entertaining of educative apps. Here’s a simple infographic of 5 apps I’ve been using with my…

Read More

Comments (2)

  1. Reina Ramirez says:
    June 15, 2021 at 15:54

    Yes, it’s true! Fun lessons are much more effective, better remembered, and leave only positive emotions. From my experience, it better motivates students to put in more effort.

    Reply
    1. albacker says:
      June 16, 2021 at 9:30

      Hi Reina, thanks for your comment, I couldn’t agree more.

      Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

esl taboo card game
Storytelling Card Game
role plays english
Buy Now
ESL/EFL resources
Speaking Activities
english grammar exercises
Taboo Card Games

Awesome resource, thank you!

- MeanTeacher

Your role play worksheet is great!

- Everyday Business English

Some good ideas, especially with older students who are pretty quiet.

- Anthony
©2023 EFL Ideas | WordPress Theme by SuperbThemes
Go to mobile version