The running dictation is a good activity to do in class. You can do it in one-hour session and the main aims of this activity are to put practise your listening, writing and grammar skills, to play with your classmates and to test your memory as well. You can play it in class or with a group of friends. Depending on the text you choose, you can revise one or other content. This is a good activity to put into practise some basic competences too, the linguistic, cultural, learning to learn and knowledge and interaction with the world competences can be the most important one’s.
Try it! Divide your class into groups of 3 or 4 at maximum. Each member of the group has to have a pen and a paper. Take a table and put it in one corner of the class, as far away from the groups as possible. The teacher/another student who acts as a teacher sticks on the table 3, 4 or 5 copies of the same text, as many copies as groups. Each team nominates a runner. It is the runner’s job to make repeated journeys between their groups and a text. On each trip, the runner should attempt to remember (accurately) a chunk of language and then relay it to his or her group members who write it down. Everybody has to be a runner and a writer and there has to be a time to complete the activity (3,4 or 5 minutes…). When everyone finishes, each group compares their text with the original, the winner will be the group who has made less mistakes!
The Internet is an enormous collection of answers. The challenge is to find them! Start by doing a scavenger hunt, be yourself the teacher of your class and prepare an activity to your students. You will learn lots of interesting stuff.
What is a scavenger hunt?
A scavenger hunt is a web page with a number of questions and a list of web addresses to find the answers to those questions. At the end there is usually “the big question”. The answer to that is not found directly in any of the suggested web pages, so you have to read, understand, process and produce their own answer.
Scavenger hunts are very useful activities for a number of reasons: you and your classmates can research and learn a lot about a certain topic, you prepare your project reading real English, you practice different abilities in relation with the use of ICT, and you improve your reading comprehension and your written and/or oral production.
Try it! You can work in groups of 2 or 3 students. Choose a topic from the English culture you want to learn more about (Art, History, Sites and Monuments, Important people, Sports…). Look for information on the net. Then, try to do your own scavenger hunt. The next class, exchange your hunts with the rest of the groups and try to solve the other scavenger hunts. You will learn a lot of things and spend a good time.
Do you want to learn English and visit the UK for free? Now you can, virtually. The British Council has created a learning zone for learners in the Second Life virtual environment. Interactive LearnEnglish activities and quests based on UK culture are available for all registered Second Life residents.
Try it!Watch the video to get a general idea of what English Second Life is. You can register and know more about it here. Enjoy yourself and practise your English at the same time!
Halloween is an annual holiday celebrated on October 31. Do you know why are pumpkins, skeletons or ghosts associated with halloween? What does it mean the expression ‘trick or treat’? If you want to know more about this celebration click on here.
Try it! There are a lot of online activities about Halloween, as well as crafts to do. Click and enjoy Halloween! or if you like, do the Halloween’s quiz or watch and read one story about Halloween.
A comic strip is a sequence of cartoons that tells a story, often humorous.
Try it! The stripgenerator web page offers the possibility to create your own comic strip. Login in or register if you want to add strip to your strip gallery and allow other users to comment.
Try it! If you have any doubts in grammar, you can click on British Council grammar point. Scroll down to choose a grammar point or select a letter from the list to move more quickly. You can read brief explanations of common grammar points or play some grammar games.
If you like reading or watching films about superheroes now you have the opportunity to create your own one!
Try it! Click on the Hero Factory and choose the face, body, powers, abilities, name… of your superhero! When you finish, print your character or save it in your e-mail adress. Then, show your hero to the rest of the class and write a description explaining why is he/she special. You can follow these questions as a guide:
What super-powers does he/she have?
What adventures does he/she have?
What is his/her alter-ego like?
Does he/she have a side-kick?
Who is his/her arch enemy?
You can work all together with the rest of the class. Think about a problem in your class and design a superhero who can cope with it.
Try it! If you are an advanced learner click on the Spelling Bee the Game, choose a character and start practicing! But if you want to test yourself in an easier spelling game click on Spin and Spell game and choose a topic. Good luck!!
Find out how to build sentences and write into paragraphs.
Try it! Click on the BBC Skillswise and learn about how to organise your writings into paragraphs. Then you can practise what you have learnt clicking on the game or doing some of the paragraphs’ worksheets.
Grammar Ninja is a game made by high school students.
Try it! Click on the Grammar Ninja game and become a Grammar master. You can choose between different levels of difficulty. Remember! A good ninja must sharpen both the body and the mind, preferably together.
Try it! Divide your class into groups of 3 or 4 at maximum. Each member of the group has to have a pen and a paper. Take a table and put it in one corner of the class, as far away from the groups as possible. The teacher/another student who acts as a teacher sticks on the table 3, 4 or 5 copies of the same text, as many copies as groups. Each team nominates a runner. It is the runner’s job to make repeated journeys between their groups and a text. On each trip, the runner should attempt to remember (accurately) a chunk of language and then relay it to his or her group members who write it down. Everybody has to be a runner and a writer and there has to be a time to complete the activity (3,4 or 5 minutes…). When everyone finishes, each group compares their text with the original, the winner will be the group who has made less mistakes!
