Warm-up activities. EFL class

Games and activities are an important part of almost every EFL classroom.  Games and activities create situations where students can use the target language of the lesson in a playful situation (a game) or in presentation or production (study or activation) exercises.  Games and activities allow opportunities to use language repeatedly and to build a habit from the structures provided.
Most EFL classes should start with a “warm-up” activity to help the students relax and settle into the class.  The warm-up is often a game, just to start things on a “fun” level.  Structured activities will be provided to students during the practice and production stages of the lesson as well, and if time allows a short language game may also be used at the very end of the class.
The basic idea is to let the class play, have a couple laughs and some fun right at the very beginning – work them very hard in the middle – and finish up the class with some fun.  Following this process, where the class begins and ends with anxiety-reducing activities or games, we should find the students more motivated for their next class.
Every experienced EFL teacher has several favorite games and activities that require minimal preparation – ready to go at any time.  These games and activities also come in handy should you be asked to teach a class for someone else – when you don’t know the students and have not had an opportunity to prepare.  Such surprises are not uncommon in the EFL teaching world.

News of the Future. The Voyager

March 13, 2025 - The latest efforts in getting in contact with the Voyager probes have not been successful and today it was officially announced that we have lost the contact with them forever. The last signal from Voyager 1 was received in November 2020 and from Voyager 2 in March 2020.

Voyager 1 was launched into space in September 1977 with the primary target to explore Jupiter and Saturn and their moons and rings. It is today the farthest human-made object from Earth, with a distance of about 22.6 billion kilometers from our Sun, or 150 times farther away from the Sun than Earth. Voyager 1 was also the first human object to enter interstellar space about 10 years ago.

Our beautifull planet would be more beautifull.........

Movies in an EFL class

Use dramatic scenes from movies and films as a basis for drama / dialogue practice. Famous, popular or memorable movie scenes work best. Have learners take the roles of characters in the movie scene and do the same lines as the original actors imitating accent, gestures, discourse, etc. Students can also put their own personal "spin" or "interpretation" on the scene and dialogue for added interest. Encourage the use of the local variety of English for added impact. Here are some famous line starting scene suggestions:
Dirty Harry - "Go ahead, make my day."
The Terminator: "I'll be back."
The Godfather, Don Corleone: "We're going to make him an offer he can't refuse."

You get the idea. Just expand to use the full scenes surrounding these famous lines. For maximum punch, have the learners get into "costume" as well as character.

Body language in an EFL class.

Body language is an important medium through which people communicate with each other. It refers to facial expressions, gestures, tones of voices and body movement, etc. that people use to express their thoughts and feelings in communication. As an important part of language, body language is often used when words fail to express the speaker’s ideas and when the speaker wished to save both time and trouble.

In the English as a Foreign Language classroom, body language plays an even more important role. It helps to cultivate students’ characters and inspire students’ motivation in study. Nowadays classroom teaching is the main form of school education and the teacher plays an active role in classroom teaching. As teachers are usually respected, what they say and do is likely to be imitated by students, sometimes subconsciously. What a teacher says and how he or she acts influences students greatly. In order to improve teaching efficiency, an English teacher can consciously use body language in the classroom to bring the class to life. In the course of a lesson, the use of body language by the teacher to explain things that could otherwise be explained in words help students use their imagination and visualize things. Body language, too, helps to improve the students artistic appreciation and moral character.

Brainstorming before speaking tasks

Brainstorming is an activity used to generate ideas in small groups. The purpose is to generate as many ideas as possible within a specified time-period. These ideas are not evaluated until the end and a wide range of ideas is often produced. Each idea produced does not need to be usable. Instead, initial ideas can be be viewed as a starting point for more workable ideas. The principle of brainstorming is that you need lots of ideas to get good ideas.

Music in EFL classroom.

The use of music in the classroom can make the entire learning process more enjoyable and can stimulate "right" brain learning. Six years ago researchers reported that people scored better on a standard IQ test after listening to Mozart. Other tests soon followed: Rats raised on Mozart run through mazes faster and more accurately. People with Alzheimer's disease function more normally if they listen to Mozart and the music even reduces the severity of epileptic seizures.

Using music to introduce an exercise is a great way to activate vocabulary and get students thinking in the right direction. Take a piece of music or song which you associate with a certain activity or place ("New York, New York" sung by Frank Sinatra) and play the first 30 seconds of the piece. You will be surprised at how quickly associations come to students' minds - many more than if you introduced the lesson by saying, "Today we are going to talk about New York City

Games in an EFL class

One useful strategy to encourage language acquisition is using language games. When using games in the classroom, it is beneficial for teachers to have a complete understanding of the definitions of games, which usually are defined as a form of play concerning rules, competition, and an element of fun. Teachers should also consider the advantages of games: the ability to capture students' attention; lower students' stress; and give students the chance for real communication. Lastly teachers need to assess how to use games appropriately in the classroom. It is important to choose an appropriate time and integrate them into the regular syllabus and curriculum. However, because of the limitations of the syllabus, games often cannot be used, as much as they should be. Therefore, it may be challenging for teachers to try to add some games in class in order to develop students' English proficiency of the target language.

Video in EFL class

Video has been proved to be an effective method in teaching English as a foreign/second language (EFL/ESL) for both young and adult learners. Video can be used in a variety of instructional settings—in classrooms, in distance learning sites where information is broadcast from a central point of learners who interact with the facilitator via video or computer, and in self-study and evaluation situations. It also can be used in teacher’s self and professional development or with students as a way of presenting content, initiating conversations, and providing illustrations for various concepts. Teachers and students can always create their own videotapes as content for the class or as a means to assess learners’ performance.

Technology in an English class

The use of technology in EFL/ESL classroom have many advantages. Firstly, it can increase student motivation and minimize learners’ pressure and fear. Next, it is used as a tool for recycling content and let the students work at their own pace. Then, it is directed to different learning styles and promote social development depending on the tool.
So technology offers powerful supports in ESL/EFL language teaching. All teachers should be the learner at the same time learning to use the new technology to help their teaching. The technology help the teachers achieve the teaching goals easily and the learners will develop their 4 skills of English in the same time.

Newspapers in an English class

Newspapers are a useful tool in the ELT classroom for improving reading skills and enhancing students' knowledge of current affairs. There is a danger of putting students off reading newspapers if articles are used in the same way as course books, with tedious comprehension activities. If used in a more inspiring way, newspapers can help students to develop not only reading skills but also writing, grammar, vocabulary and speaking skills

Poor teachers

Pay and conditions worldwide

As in most fields, the pay depends greatly on education, training, experience, seniority, and expertise. As with much expatriate work, employment conditions vary among countries, depending on the level of economic development and how much people want to live there. In relatively poor countries, even a low wage may equate to a comfortable middle class lifestyle.[8]

There is a danger of exploitation by employers. Spain in particular has encountered widespread criticism given the overwhelming number of small to medium businesses (including TEFL schools) which routinely dodge the teachers' social security contributions as a means of maximising profits. The result is that most teachers are entitled to less unemployment or sick pay than they would be entitled to if their salaries and contributions were declared in accordance with the law. Similar situations increase in countries with labor laws that may not apply to foreign employees, or which may be unenforced. An employer might ignore contract provisions, especially regarding working hours, working days, and end-of-contract payments. Difficulties faced by foreign teachers regarding language, culture, or simply limited time can make it difficult to demand pay and conditions that their contracts stipulate. Some disputes arise from cross-cultural misunderstandings. Teachers who can't adapt to living and working in a foreign country often leave after a few months.

Reading strategies

What’s the secret to teaching reading strategies?

The key to teaching reading strategies is to teach it without bringing it to the forefront of the lesson. It is recommended to teach the strategies (without naming them) only after the students accomplish some task based on the reading strategy. Students of Junior High school age are still too young to understand and remember the names of the strategies and it is pointless in lecturing and naming reading strategies. Once they have processed information, the teacher can mention the reading strategy in a by-the-way manner in terms of what they used and how it may help them in the future.

Read more at Suite101: How to Teach Reading Strategies: EFL/ESL Teaching Methods for Motivating Students to Read | Suite101.com http://www.suite101.com/content/how-to-teach-reading-strategies-a17034#ixzz1KfoRaui4