Wednesday, March 23, 2011

English Conversation Class Ideas

Speaking is one of the most difficult skills in English teaching. Because students can get so easily embarrassed or nervous, conversation exercises need to be mindful of just over numerous other activities. The most important thing to remember when running a course of conversation, is to always make the student feel as comfortable as possible. Give plenty of positive encouragement and not get caught up in correcting minor errors.

Role Play

Perhaps the year's most frequently taught speaking is the role play. This technique is useful in a class because it allows students to practice skills and words that should not normally be used in the classroom or in everyday situations. The idea behind the role play is simply to act. Two other students over to meet and pretend they are in a specific situation, as two tourists try to rent a hotel room, or someone who tries to make a good impression in a job interview .

Class Discussion

Class discussion is also useful when the conversation class teaching, but the trick is to choose a subject engaging. Selecting something that is in the interest of your students is key. Possible topics include: some countries, foods, cultures, laws, health, grammar and many others. Once you've chosen a topic, prepare specific questions about it to initiate and maintain discussion. For example, if your choice of bread. What is the bread? How can you do? Is white or brown better and why? How important is yeast? These types of questions help students reflect on the topic in detail and respond using the specialized vocabulary.
Bridging Gaps

The idea behind this exercise is that students have different information to match a number of categories. For example, categories could be: the films name, occupation, date of birth, hobbies and favorites. Each category contains information on at least five different people, but each student can have one third or one fourth of this information. The student must then ask my colleagues: "Who has a birthday on that date?" Or "What is John's favorite movie?" This encourages conversation in a small low pressure environment where students do not talk to the class.

Questionnaires

Questionnaires are just like they sound. They usually contain a list of questions centered around a different category such as sports or recreation. Students must then go around the room and ask questions to a number of his peers and then note the answers. It is a good exercise to combine speaking, listening and writing. When finished, each student can choose one interviewee and read his answers to the class.

Essay Writing Exercises

"Essay" The word comes from "exigere, the Latin word which means to test or hunt. This gives an overview of what teachers expect of high school and college newspapers. Tests are a means of assessment that allows teachers to assess a student's ability to critically examine and present their ideas on a given topic. Essay writing exercises should help students in both writing and critical analysis.

Pre-writing

Pre-writing exercises help students to formulate their concept and start the analysis of their ideas. Pre-writing is to choose a topic, generate ideas, gathering information, narrow your focus and organize your main ideas. Use brainstorming and pre-writing exercises emphasizing that. Give students a topic and ask them to write all the ideas they may imagine. This allows them to test their current knowledge and reflect on their subjects. So, let them make a plan that includes a thesis, at least three main points and supporting evidence.

Describing exercises help your students learn to structure their ideas into a coherent whole. They use a graphic organizer or a traditional pattern structure, each section of their plan should take account of paragraph structure, with a main point and sufficient development. It teaches them to think logically and will save them time when they write and revise their essays.

Thesis

A lot of student’s effort to write a thesis, as it involves analysis, synthesis and relationship. An excellent thesis is generally given in the introduction answers the unspecified question behind the subject of the essay. It gives the main argument, organizes ideas and provides the reader with a general guide for the test. Students need practice to properly convey this information in a succinct sentence or two.

Help your students to practice writing theses by providing a list of topics. Ask them to find ideas in silence on the subject, then write two or three arguments for each topic. Ask them to review their list of arguments, noting in the margin beside each argument if it contains their main argument, and briefly mentions their support points in the order they are to follow when writing the test. Collect these exercises and provide written comments, helping to identify theses have been more effective and why.
Introductions and Conclusions

The most essential parts of the test are the introduction and conclusion, as they connect readers to the subject. The introduction is the very important to make an impression to the readers to decide whether or not they continue to read. The conclusion that the last expression, determines the impression they leave with and whether or not it will control their thoughts and events. Because these items are so important, your students need to practice regularly and learn to integrate basic information with techniques that engage readers.

Take a topic that your students have already considered and outlined. Ask them to write several listings on the same subject using different LADES, or "hook" to attract the attention of their readers. They can experiment with statistics, questions, quotes, anecdotes and descriptions. Ask them to choose the introduction they think is most effective. Have them practice writing different conclusions for the same subject and choose which is most effective. Read some of their introductions and conclusions aloud and discuss what makes them effective and how they might be improved.

Revision

Students must learn to revise and edit their essays. It helps them improve their ideas, be sure to test them effectively treats the subject and eliminate grammatical errors or stylistic. Identify errors and weaknesses of his own test is more difficult than identifying someone else's test. Many textbooks and resource sites online to provide samples for testing students revise. Either give one of these sample tests to your students for them to revise, or cause to revise documents and test a classmate. After they reviewed the work and someone else's editing, publishing have their own practice.