albacker, Author at EFL Ideas

Role play: Making Polite Requests

Very helpful role plays on polite requests.

At The Restaurant: ESL Pair Work and Role Play Lesson.

Not everyone can cook, but we all love food. It is a perfect conversation topic and even the shy students usually come out of their shells (seafood pun) when you ask them about their favourite food.

Food is everywhere now, popular TV shows made home cooking fashionable, food blogs with amazing photos will make you drool, social networks such as Instagram are filled with snaps of people’s breakfasts and tasting menus from five-star restaurants, artisan ice-cream and hipster baristas are everywhere, I’m starting to feel hungry just writing about it! Make sure to use this worksheet before lunch; otherwise, your students will eat you alive!

I used this activity many times with different age groups and levels. It works great with teenagers and adults, pre-intermediate, intermediate and upper intermediate levels. Just make sure to pre-teach the relevant vocabulary and some basic at the restaurant phrases. Your students will create their own restaurant menus and practice waiter/customer dialogues.

Download the free worksheet with Teacher’s notes here: Restaurant Menu Pair Work

ESL Role Play Worksheet: Travel/Holidays

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 topic of Travel/Holidays. This ESL role play worksheet contains 5 role-playing dialogues dealing with various issues you may experience during your holiday. Just cut the cards and you are ready to go.

ESL Role-play Worksheet: Travel

A1: You are a receptionist of a 5* hotel. You are very polite and you can deal with annoyed guests. Try to calm down the guest and solve any issues they have. Try to avoid calling the manager.

B1: You are a wealthy businessman staying at a 5* hotel. You are used to quality service and luxury, but this hotel doesn’t offer it. The room is too small, staff is rude, AC is noisy. You want to talk to the manager.

A2: You rent out a flat on Airbnb, and you have been a very popular host so far. Now you have guests who are unhappy about many things. They want to leave and a refund. Persuade them to stay.

B2: You have used Airbnb before and you never experienced any problems. This time you are very unhappy. The flat is far from the sea, far from the centre, it doesn’t have a balcony and hot water isn’t working.You want to leave and a full refund.

A3: You work in a travel agency. Help your clients to chose an ideal holiday. Ask about their budget, preferences, and expectations. Offer advice, suggest different options. Try to persuade them to try an active, adventurous holiday.

B3: You are planning a holiday. Visit a travel agency and ask for help. Describe your ideal holiday, express your wishes, and ask about all the details. You want to relax, sunbathe and read books.

A4: You are a waiter in a local restaurant in an exotic destination. You serve traditional food which your customers don’t know. Explain what the food contains, talk about the ingredients, preparation, texture, etc.

B4: You are on a holiday in an exotic destination. You want to try some traditional food in a local restaurant, but the menu is not in English. Ask the waiter for advice. Find as much about the food as you can.

A5: You sell traditional handmade products on a local market. Praise your products, explain how they are made, if they have any functions or serve only as a decoration. Set your price high and try to sell at best price.

B5: You are visiting a local market, looking for gifts for you and your family. You like handmade, eco-friendly products. Ask a lot of questions and haggle the price down.

Download the PDF>>>>>Role plays- Travel

3 Board Games You Can Use In The Classroom.

I love playing games. My students love playing games. You can learn a lot by playing games and it is so much fun. It is a total win-win and what is best, it doesn’t require any preparation. You just grab the game and off you go, revising vocabulary, improving communication skills, fostering team spirit and mostly, enjoying it. What’s not to like?

Here are some board games I use with my students and I also included a PDF worksheet of my own game that my students love to play. You will find it at the end of this article and you can download it for free. You’re welcome!

1. Scrabble

The classic which never fails. Best played in groups of four, kids, teenagers, adults love this game. Simple rules, competitiveness and lots of words! You can also find Scrabble app on the App Store or Google Play.

2. OrganATTACK

This is a new medical-themed card game which was created by Nick Seluk, the author of my favourite The Awkward Yeti webcomic. I liked the game so much that I even backed it on Kickstarter! It looks great, the organ cards are super cute and hilarious, the game itself is fun and easy to learn. Your aim is to remove your opponent’s organ before they remove yours. It is perfect for learning and revising medical-related vocabulary.

3. Taboo

Taboo is an excellent card game to learn and revise vocabulary, to practise speaking, train your brain to think fast and to be creative. The aim of the game is to explain given words, but without those words that you would most likely use because those are taboo – that means, you can’t use them. The simplicity of this game allows for endless variations and you can use it to teach any vocabulary you wish.

My version of the game covers Travel/Holidays, for Intermediate and Upper Intermediate students. Every word has 4 or 5 forbidden words and if it is too difficult to explain the word without using those, you can allow your students to use one or more of the forbidden words. Download the PDF version of the game for free here: Forbidden Words! Game. You can also try other topics such as:

Media/Entertainment Vocabulary Card Game Based on Taboo.

Business English Vocabulary Card Game | Forbidden Words

ESL Vocabulary Activity Based on Taboo: Food

ESL Vocabulary Activity. Forbidden Words: Health

Have fun!

Those Cute Little Pugs Used To Be Harlots.

These little fellows are adorable monkeys indeed. At least that was the meaning of the word in the 17th century, and it also meant harlot for some time. Miniature dog came to use only in the mid 18th century.

Grammar isn’t that boring as it may seem.

Do you want to cast spells like Harry Potter? You don’t even need a wand. All you need is proper grammar!

Second Conditional Comic

Past Simple Infographic

5 Apps To Learn English Without Knowing It

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 students of various ages and levels.

Other online resources:

Play and Learn! Kahoot: A Free Learning Platform.

10 Websites To Make Your Lessons More Engaging And Fun

7 Reasons Why Your Lessons Should Be 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)