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Reinforcement Activities For ESL Students

Though many ESL students manage a good level of English, they need to continue practicing the language through diferent activities that will allow them to reach their language goals. In this way, they will not only maintain fluency but also improve their reading, writing, speaking, and listening skills.

Firstly, most students need to reinforce mainly grammar where difficulties first appear. People tend to translate from their native language to their second language, and this is where some doubts come up because we know grammar is not the same in all languages. Students are not used to learning the second language as their native one; they tend to focus more on rules and a more structured way of learning. This causes the learning of the language to be incorporated slowly. Secondly, in many cases they need to improve their listening comprehension and oral skills.

ESL programs offer a wide range of activities to refresh and reinforce topics that have been covered all year long. These activities are available online, as well as in booklets or study guides to practice in the comfort of their homes.

When we talk about business English, where it might be essential for students to travel, and where they will have to speak to native speakers, attend business meetings, and close important deals, maintaining good fluency is extremely important. Business travelers have higher demands and need a constant language practice not only in class but with extra material and a great number of activities to do at home. Since some of the activities are done at home with the absence of a teacher, they should be clear, with detailed instructions and should be something they can do on their own and bring to class later for corrections.

You may see some examples below of diferent kinds of exercises which may be done in any level to reinforce any kind of topic or grammar point.

Grammar

1. Multiple choice: consists of choosing the best option
2. Fill in the blanks: is also a constructive activity where you have to complete with the correct tense.
3. Complete dialogs: complete a conversation, filling in the gaps with correct verb tenses, prepositions, auxiliaries.
4. Word order: consists of putting words in the right order to make a sentence.
5. Question writing: students will write a question for each of the statements.
6. Matching: it's an interesting activity where you'll have to match two halves to make a sentence.
7. Answer questions: about yourself (practice all tenses, past, simple present or anything else you wish or need to improve)
8. Change from infinitive to past tense: you'll see a list of verbs and you must change them to the past tense.

Reading

1. Students are given a title and pictures. They create a short story on what they think the story is about. Usually warm ups are short paragraphs.
2. Students read the story.
3. There are comprehension questions about the story.
4. Fill in the blanks with verb tenses.
5. Look up words in dictionary.
6. Write a summary about the story.

Writing

It is essential for students to have guided instructions.

1. Writing e-mails in English: you'll see a set of words and expressions that you will have to use and write an email.
2. Writing about your daily routines, where you'll practice simple present.
3. Writing a story in the past tense: state what happened; you have to use the vocabulary provided.
4. Role plays: a whole lot of fun as it also facilitates interaction and improves speaking skills. A situation is presented and students have to write the dialogs. They act them out afterwards.

Speaking and listening activities are available online, where you can practice pronunciation through repetition, for example.

If you enjoyed this article about an ESL programs, please feel free to post it to your site or blog and forward this link to your friends. Have a great day! Don't forget to visit our ESL blog. Learn English in the United States - http://www.englishlci.com/ Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Susan_Thomason

ESL and TEFL: Teaching Children Grammar through Games

One of the questions ESL and TEFL teachers are asking on forums the world over is: how can you teach grammar through games?

If you don’t want your class to glaze over with dictation, writing exercises and “Jimmy, would you please read paragraph 1,” then take heart! You’ll find you can teach everything you want with games, and the children remember it better to boot.

Here is a disarmingly simple game, which can be used for many purposes. Please note this particular game is for small groups of up to 20 children or so, and you need floor space. If you have more than 20 children, or no floor space then please see the bottom of the article for games suited to your needs.

The players stand round in a circle with one player standing in the middle. Each player has a picture of an item, or a word flash card, except for the player in the middle. Call out two of the picture card items or words. The two players holding these cards have to change places without the person in the middle grabbing one of their spots. If the person in the middle manages to slip into the spot in the circle then the one left standing goes in the middle. The new person in the middle hands their flash card to the child taking their place in the circle.

If someone is stuck in the middle for two turns say, "All Change!” When the players hear this they must all change places, which gives the person in the middle a very good chance of joining the circle. Once everyone has had one go ask your class to pass their picture to the right, and take the one handed to them from the left. You can give them another go with the new picture.

Notice that only 2 children move at any one time (aside from when you say “All Change), which makes it easy to keep control.

How could you use this game in your language teaching? Firstly, you can use it to reinforce new vocabulary, secondly, for revision, thirdly to help spelling by playing the game with word flashcards instead of pictures, and fourthly, to practise a grammatical structure.

Let us say you want to teach the conditional tense and you start with “I would like”. Hand out pictures of food that your pupils already know. Call out “I would like bananas and pie”. The pupil with the bananas tries to change places with the pupil holding the pie without the person in the middle taking one of the spots in the circle. Continue until everyone has had a go, repeating the target structure each time. With a class that learns quickly you can also introduce the rest of the declension (he and she would like, etc.). You are now ready to proceed to a speaking game where your pupils use the target structure, as they will have heard it repeatedly by now. You can follow the speaking game up with a writing game, and hey presto your children can understand, say, read and write the new target structure.

Now what better way is there to teach grammar than that? You are teaching grammar by absorption and repetition, which is the way we learn our native tongue, and for children it is by far the best way to go.

You can sign up free for games and ideas for all class sizes, from private lessons to large classes on

www.teachingenglishgames.com

About the author: Shelley Vernon, conscious of the vital role teachers can play in the lives of their pupils, promotes learning through encouragement and games. Sign up for free games and ideas on http://www.teachingenglishgames.com. Make your job easy and fun teaching English to children through games. Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Shelley_Vernon