Archive
Teaching English without a Course Book – Week 4
Teaching English without a Course Book – Week 2
Get a free copy of a new paid iPhone/iPad app that uses English Banana material!
Learn English with Exercises is the latest English language learning app from Creative Apps Lab. The app is packed with great exercises for practising English skills, including grammar, reading, vocabulary building, and communication skills. Better still, the app features many exercises from English Banana.com books, like Big Grammar Book!
The app costs $ 0.99 and can be downloaded from Apple App Store in any country worldwide. However, we have got hold of twenty free copies for readers of this blog! If you would like a special download code, please contact us and tell us why you enjoy learning with English Banana.com!
You can find out more about Learn English with Exercises app here:
You can order the app on iTunes here:
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/learn-english-with-exercises/id631926317
There is also a free starter version of the app, which you can get here:
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/learn-english-exercises-free/id631931046
Learn English with Exercises – new app
This fantastic new app was produced via our Free Copying Licence, which allows anybody to use English Banana.com material for their projects – including commercial projects like this one – absolutely free of charge. To read our Free Copying Licence, please click below. Maybe you could make use of it…?!
NEW from i to i – 20 Free Classroom Activities!
Whether it’s your first day in the classroom or your fiftieth – every ESL teacher is in need of a little helping hand every now and then.
Here are 20 free classroom activities from i-to-i which include classroom tips and accompanying handouts which you can photocopy for your lessons!
Get yours here!
FREE English Vocabulary and Pronunciation Workout! (Video of online lesson)
This is a recording of a free class I taught on WizIQ.com on 28.02.13: http://www.wiziq.com/online-class/1140564-free-english-vocabulary-and-pronunciation-workout You can download the free material that we used here: http://www.scribd.com/doc/127589616/Auto-Mode-3-Example
Auto Mode 3 – Practise vocabulary, grammar, and pronunciation skills together!
FREE English Class on the topic of “Clothes”! (VIDEO)
You are welcome to join us for this FREE pre-intermediate English language class on the topic of “Clothes”. It was a pleasure to teach this class last night in partnership with MySchoolo.com
NEW! Free Vocabulary Teaching Material: Talk a Lot – Railway Station – Discussion Words
FREE DOWNLOAD! Clear Alphabet Dictionary – Read and Write English as it Sounds!
Planning an English Class without a Course Book to Hold your Hand
New Free Teaching Manual! “You Are The Course Book”
Download our Latest Online Lesson as a Free MP3 File! “You are the Course Book!”
You can now download our latest free MP3 audio lesson, entitled “You are the Course Book!” It was a really fun session on WizIQ.com this week, so I hope that you will get a lot out of it. Any feedback is of course very welcome!
Check Out ESL Basics – a Really Helpful Resource Site!
Have you discovered ESL Basics yet? If you haven’t, you are in for a treat! It’s a remarkable resource site for ESL students and teachers featuring hundreds of short easy-to-watch videos on the following topics:
Vocabulary, US Citizenship, Idioms, Phrasal Verbs, and Tongue Twisters
If you are studying with Talk a Lot Intermediate, you will find the videos about idioms and phrasal verbs particularly relevant.
ESL Basics is the brainchild of Andrea Giordano, who stars in the short videos, and Josh Michael, who does all the technical wizardry. The site is an absolute boon for any student who is learning new vocabulary (which should be everyone, right?) and for teachers who can dip in and out of the site, for example using a short video to illustrate a new idiom or phrasal verb. You can even request a video on a particular word, phrase, or topic. How cool is that? Here is an example of a video by Andrea about the phrasal verb “to check out”:
ESL Basics on YouTube...
Andrea making a video for ESL Basics...
I asked Andrea for some comments about the site for this blog post. She told me:
“At ESL Basics, we believe that real-life context is a student’s best friend, not a list of terms to memorize. This is why our language instruction is surrounded by a conversation. ESL Basics fosters an environment where students aren’t just learning one word, they are acquiring language. ESL Basics is structured around a philosophy of context-driven lessons, videos, and usability. We are also committed to equipping English language teachers to host student-centered learning environments. I am an avid traveler, experienced teacher, and dynamic speaker who loves to see students and teachers meet their full potential. As well as at our home page, you can find ESL Basics at: youtube.com/eslbasics and facebook.com/eslbasics. “
If you love picking up new language – as well as new ideas for teaching – I would really recommend following Andrea on Twitter too: http://www.twitter.com/eslbasics
It seems that ESL Basics is one of those rare resourse sites that you don’t see very often – one that exists for the pleasure of being there and helping out other people. The joy of sharing the English language is wonderfully in evidence at ESL Basics! Why not CHECK IT OUT today? 
Silent b – Phonics – lamb, limb, climb
Ah – silent letters. They’re so quiet that we can’t even hear them! They’re so quiet that we could question whether we need them in the spelling at all… but that’s another post!
Talk a Lot Intermediate Book 2 – Unit 2 – Lesson 4
How I used the Love and Relationships Idioms in my lesson today
I wrote twenty idioms on the board which kind of told a story of a relationship from the beginning to the end:
Method (Pre-Int to Intermediate Level):
Pre-task: Elicit: what is an idiom? i.e. A fixed phrase with a meaning that isn’t clear from the words used in the phrase.
1. SS work in pairs. They discuss together which ones they know already.
2. Group feedback.
3. SS check ones they don’t know in the dictionary or online.
4. Group feedback. Go through the list in order. Give examples. Elicit examples from SS. Check that everyone understands each idiom.
5. SS work together to prepare a dialogue or performance that includes all 20 idioms. Give them around 15 mins. Make a cup of tea for yourself; have a break; er, I mean monitor SS… Dialogues could be set in the past, with SS talking about a past relationship, or in various scenes set throughout the course of a relationship; or discussing future foreseen problems that might arise in a present relationship… etc.
6. SS read out or act their dialogues/scenes. Give feedback. Solicit feedback from other groups. Make a note of errors.
7. Error correction on the board with the whole group.
8. Homework, or follow-on activity: find 10 more idioms or phrasal verbs on the topic of Love and Relationships, and write a sentence using each one.
Note: for higher levels, you could mix up the order and get them to put them into their own order to make a story of a relationship.
It worked well and passed the time nicely for about 50 minutes. SS seemed happy to be learning (a lot) of new idioms. Do let me know how you got on, if you used this lesson plan! Thanks
Membean for Students and Teachers (FREE VIDEO)
Extend Your Vocabulary Easily with Membean.com!
We’ve recently been trying out a brand new web service which aims to help you to extend your vocabulary. Membean is a really fun way to “lock in” new words – through a variety of methods.
We asked Membean Founder and CEO Ragav Satish to explain more about the goals of this valuable site:
“Membean is a unique web-based vocabulary learning environment that has its roots in research on human memory and learning. At Membean vocabulary comes to life through engaging video, rich imagery, interactive visualizations, quirky memory devices and unforgettable passages. Once a word is learned it must be maintained in the memory. This is where Membean’s unique Adaptive Reinforcement Engine comes in. Based on your interaction with the tool, it knows when to show you a new word, what questions to ask you and when you need to re-learn a word.” It really is fantastic! Here is an example of a word definition page, for the word “panache”:
The other great thing about Membean is that it really motivates you to learn – plus it is totally addictive! You can sign up for a free membership today, and find out what we mean!
