TIPS FOR TEACHING ENGLISH

Language Tip

Liste, listen to or hear?

Use hear when you want to say tha sounds, music, etc. come to you ears. you can hear something without wanting to.

use listen to say that you pay attention to sounds or try to hear something.

use listen to when you want to say what it is that you are trying to hear.

Me or I

Me is used after "than", "as", or "be". It would sound very formal to use I. Sometimes me is used with another noun as the subject of a sentence, especially in informal English.
Jane and me wernt to the cinema. (informal).
Jane and I went to the cinema yesterday. (formal).

Travel, journey, or trip?

The noun travel is a general word which mean the activity of traveling. Air travel has become much cheaper. Use journey to talk about when you travel from one place to another.
A trip is a journey in which you visit a place for a short time to come back again.

Remind or remenber?

Ifb you remember a fact or something from the past, you keep it in mind.
I can't remember the name of the film.
When you remind someone to do something, you make them remember it. Can you remind me to phone Anna tomorrow?

Fish or fishes?

Fish is the usual plural of fish. I caught six fish in the river.
Fishes is sometimes used to talk about different types of fish.

All

You do no say "the" when you use all+ period time. All day, morning, week, year, summer.

Work or job?

Work is something you do to earn money. Remember that this noun is uncountable. She enjoys her work in the hospital.
Job is used to talk about the particular work activity which you do. Teaching must be an interesting job.

Tired of or tired from?

If you are tired something or of doing something, you are bored or annoyed by it. I'm tired of hearing his awful jokes. if you are tired from something, you want to rest because of it. I'm tired from the long journey.

Dramatic Activities

What do dramatic activities mean?

They are activities which give the student an opportunity to use his or her own personality in creating the material on which part of the language class is to be based. These activities draw on the natural ability of every person to imitate, mimic and express himself or herself through gesture.
Language is not purely an intellectual matter.
Our minds are attached to our bodies, and our bodies minds. The intellect rarely functions without an element of emotion, yet it is so often just this element that is lacking in teaching material.Some exercise about the non-verbal warming-up (it is a good idea to practice these exercises as an introductory for dramatic active)
Handsshakes

what to do

everyone walks freely about the room. The object is to shake hands with everyone in the room, without speaking, but with an appropriate facial expression. (instructions may be given which involve a change in expression. Each person you shake hands with is a very good friend, or you are at very formal reception, you do not know any of the people you meet.

Remarks
suitable for all levels.

This extremely simple activity has the virtue of getting the students on the move and making some sort of contact with everyone else in the room. The physical contact of the handshake is clearly of symbolic importance as a gesture of mutual goodwill. The eye contact established each time is no less important. This is a good starting exercise with grouups who are meeting for the first time.

Hand catching

What to do
In pairs, students stand facing each other. One person holds out both hands, about 25 cm apart. The other person tries to pass a hand vertically between his or her partner's hands without getting caught in the trap, which can of course close at any time. when a hand is caught, the partners reverse roles.
Remarks
Suitable for all levels.

This exercise gets rid of a lot nervous energy which could otherwise get in the way of the more sustained exercise. People of all ages play the game with great gusto and tend to forget themselves in it. It also rapidly establishes a relationship, partly physical, with another person.

Mirror hands

What to do

Students stand facing each other in pairs with their hands raised to shoulder height, palms facing outward, and as close as possible to their partners' without actually touching.

One the student is the leader, and begins to move both hands in a plane, always keeping the palms facing outward no matter in which direction that hands are moved. His or her partner has to follow as accurately as possible, as if in a mirror. Both student in each pair should have a turn at being “leader”.

Remarks
suitable for all levels
this exercise demands a very high degree of concentration. The need to anticipate someone else's body movement is analogous to the sort of anticipation demanded in verbal exchanges. The activity usually develops high degree of eye-contact between partners.

In some case it may be neccesary to stress that this is a cooperative not a competitive activity.

Hand touching
what to do
students stand facing each other in pairs with their hands raised to shoulder height and palms touching.

They are told to move their hands slowly in as many different ways as possible without losing palm contact.

After a few minutes, the pairs become threes and continue the exercise. After a few more minutes, the threes should become fours, still continuing the same exercise.

Remarks
suitable for all levels

here, too, a great deal of concentration is called for, as well as physical effort in case where students try out difficult and complex movements. The fact of being literally “in touch” with another person, or with other persons, in the carrying out of a cooperative movement important in developing the sense of reciprocal confidence needed for the more demanding linguistic exercise.

TIPS FOR TEACHING ENGLISH

Language Tip

viernes, 3 de junio de 2011

The Flatmates episode 14, from BBC Learning English

my pet