TESOL Conference, Madrid March 2023 Kids and teenagers often walk into our classrooms engaged in lively debate and eager to share their opinions. However, once the lesson starts it can be hard to recreate this enthusiasm. The focus of this talk is on recapturing the communicative desire that exists outside the classroom and bringing it into the lesson. So, what are the topics that had learners so animated before we ruined it all by asking them to speak in English? My younger students are mostly interested in the here and now - what happened last night and what happened in their house/school/town, neither of which will be covered in the coursebook. Although they include important issues, the generic topics covered in text books such as the environment, crime and types of transport are rarely if ever the source of spontaneous debate. Of course students will talk about these things if you tell them to, but it feels like school and they may go through the motions of speaking and responding without wanting to offer more than the bare minimum or demonstrating any real interest in what their partner is saying. If we want real joyful communication, we should make space to talk about their world. ....So, how can we bring the here and now into our lessons? Keep it Local Pictures of local shops, schools and parks are an invaluable resource in the classroom. They turn abstract topics into something tangible that your students have personal experience of and opinions they genuinely want to share. Getting images from google maps street view. To take a screenshot On most modern browsers, just right click and it’ll give you the option. Failing that type “snipping” into your computer search bar and use the Microsoft Windows tool. To take a shot with no irritating labels Google “clean street view” and the name of your browser (firefox/edge/chrome, etc.) and you'll get a link to download a free extension. Once you've downloaded it, when you are in google maps, you will see an icon next to the search bar. Click it to take away the irritating labels. (see image) Activities Once you've got your images, there are lots of things you can do with them. Teach places in town and prepositions of place (next to, opposite, etc.) I gave adult learners images of every shop in our local high street and they had to work together to put them in order. We got loads of discussion along the way about which shops they went to and why. Make sets of restaurants, bars, parks, supermarkets, clothes shops, etc. and get them to compare and contrast or rank in order of preference. Most primary books have a unit about school near the beginning of the book. Obviously this is far more interesting with images of students' own school. Especially if they attend different places as this creates a genuine information gap. Create journeys using images of local streets. Give students images of 5 places (parks, streets, squares, etc.) and get them to locate them on a map. Students then tell a story in which they walked through these locations and something happened at each one. Generally, I use this with a specific function for example: First, I went to the square where Shakira was throwing eggs at Pique. Then I went to Calle Isilla where Messi was riding a tricycle. Or, First, I’m going to go to the square to play football with my friends. Then, I’m going to go to Calle Isilla to rob La Caixa bank. Because the sentences are tied to a journey around town they will be much more vivid and memorable. Students will be able to retell complex sequences of events and, more importantly, they will remember the language that was associated with it. Step 1 Students are given 5 images and work in pairs to find them places on a map (see right). Step 2 Each pair creates a story which includes all their places (in a logical order). AB CD EF GH pair 1 pair 2 pair 3 pair 4 Step 3 Students then change pairs and share their stories. AH BC DE FG Step 4 Students return to original pair and retell the story they’ve just heard. AB CD EF GH Repeat steps 2-3 students have shared all the stories, or it gets tedious. When the activity has finished, or in a subsequent class, show students the pictures. It will probably surprise you how much they remember and how much of the language is retained. Music Music is a wonderful source of real English that students are keen to learn. I check what’s in the charts (In Spain that’s Los40) and look for a catchy song with useful lyrics. The focus is always on a short section with a useful phrase or two. The idea is that students can drill the phrase and then hear it on the radio when they leave class. I tend to put the relevant section of the song (probably the chorus) on a Powerpoint and create a simple gapfill exercise like the one you can see on the left. Click here for a quick guide on creating gap fill exercises with disappearing boxes. Click here for a quick guide on inserting youtube videos in your PowerPoint (it's surprisingly simple!). The next step is to drill, so students practice "chanting" the language. I sometimes down the volume and students have to be in the right place when I turn it back up. Click on the Tips and Tricks image for a detailed post on why and how to use pop music tags in the classroom. Famous Faces Do you have Flashcards with famous people on them? If not, you and your students are really missing out. Give students a stack of card face down and get them to practice any given structure as they turn over each one. Bad Bunny has never sung well King Charles has never ridden a dinosaur Rosalia has never swum across the Atlantic You can also use them to play cards: Students each have 5 cards and have to lose theirs by comparing them to the previous card played: Bad Bunny King Charles is older than Bad Bunny Rosalia is more creative than King Charles or... Bad Bunny King Charles and Bad Bunny both have lots of money. Rosalia and King Charles both enjoy classical music. Here are some famous faces to get you started. I recommend you have them printed in colour and laminated because, if you have teenage students, you’ll probably end up using them a lot Computer Games These days the number of different platforms available (Disney, HBO, Netflix, etc.) means it can be tricky finding a movie or tv show that everyone has seen. But the kind of mobile-friendly games you can play for free are almost universally known by older kids and teens. I've made a separate post showing how you can tap into that enthusiasm in class. Basically, a PowerPoint that slowly reveals images from different computer games and students have to guess what it is. This is then used as a springboard to discussion: "Do you like it?", "How do you play it?", etc. Click here to see the activity. Sport Sporting events are often a source of interest to kids and teens, the trick is to know your audience. If half the members of a class know about an event, they can be paired with students who don't and there is a genuine information gap (the Real Madrid fan really wants to explain to their partner exactly why Vinicius' goal was fantastic). Of course, if less than half of your students are interested then you'd probably better talk about something else. Any major sporting event tends to be covered by teams of top photographers and you can almost guarantee they'll be some interesting images. I often ask students to describe the pictures as it tends to require a lot of vocabulary to describe position and postures. Option 1 Student A describes the image to student B who has to draw it without looking. Board some language they can use. I always make it clear that the goal is not art, but accuracy - stick men are great if their arms and legs are in the right postion! Option 2 Student A describes the image in as much detail as possible to student B. Then reveal a series of lexical items and student B gives their partner a point/poker chip for each one that they said. Obviously you can include things visible in the pictures, but I almost always include intensifiers like "incredibly" and linkers like "because". Students feel smug when they start to correctly predict these, when in fact I've tricked them into using the kind of complex sentences that I normally have to beg for. Once students have described an image from the event, this can then be a springboard to discussion. What happened? who played well/badly? was it a surprising result?, etc. Materials Here's a copy of my PowerPoint presentation (Click here), or download the pdf version below:

Activities based around a "butterfly effect" Liberty Mutual Insurance commercial. Ideal for sequencing activities and practising the past perfect. It also nudges students to appreciate the power of being nice to one another without having to be too cheesy about it. All instructions are to be used with this PowerPoint: (click here) Instructions Slide 2 Warmer: students discuss questions related to kindness and kharma in pairs. Slide 3 Show video up to 01:42 Slide 4 - Tell the students that you're going to give them these images and they will have to put them in order. - Ask them if they'd like to see the video again first (they will almost certainly say yes). Once they're ready, give students the images (print and cut out from slide 10) and get them to put them in order using the target language. They are like to cut corners whilst ordering the images, which is ok provided you insist that each pair/group goes through and retells the series of events once they have finishes. Slide 5 Use this to check/elicit each stage whole class. Slide 6 Collect in the images from the previous section and tell the class that they are now going to watch an even more complex sequence. Then play to 02:56 Slides 6 +7 Repeat the steps from slides 4 and 5 for the next sequence. The powerpoint includes a structure suitable for B2 students, but you can easily bring this up or down: A2: "After she saw the man saving the cat, she helped an old lady with her shopping." B1: "After she had seen the man saving the cat, she helped an old lady with her shopping." B2: "After she had seen the man saving the cat, she went on to help an old lady with her shopping." C1: "Having seen the man saving the cat, she went on to help an old lady with her shopping." Follow up Speaking Activity The students should have had plenty of practice with the target structure by now. You could take the opportunity to continue on the topic of kindness and what students could do to be excellent to one another other... But I think it's nice to let students reach their own conclusions without getting too preachy, so my follow up is tongue-in-cheek. Print and cut up the cards from slide 11 and give each pair one set. Then show the language on slide 9. Student A picks up a card and makes a suggestion: "Why don't we feed seeds to the pigeons in the square" Student B explains why it's not a great idea "Your idea of feeding the pigeons in the square sounds fantastic, but unfortunately some of them may have nut allergies."

A list of higher-level phrases which can be incorporated into the majority of speaking tasks. They constitute my main toolkit for Advanced speaking activities since they can be practised regularly and incorporated into everyday speech. Obviously, this is not a list of everything you need to know to be an Advanced English speaker, which would be the thousands of words built up over years of study (5-10 thousand for C1 level apparently). This is just a few phrases that can help give students that final push towards more polished speaking (a kit for showing off in exams). I've attached the list without the waffle at the bottom, but I'd recommend reading the post first for a couple of ideas of how and why to use them. Rationale Most of our conversations are about the everyday topics that matter to us: Food, family, hobbies, etc. Things which most pre-intermediate learners can feel perfectly comfortable discussing. As language skills progress, it is still these simple themes which most inspire communication, rather than abstract topics which necessitate advanced vocabulary. The problem is that without the right help, students can easily become stuck in a wheel, discussing the same topics year after year using language with which they are already familiar. To avoid the trap, learners can be made to incorporate new or challenging language in communicative tasks and continuously push their boundaries. This might mean lexical sets related to the topic at hand, which is great so long as you resist the temptation to teach ever-more obscure (and less useful) nouns. However, for me the biggest gains have come through incorporating functional lexical chunks which can be used in a variety of contexts. Imagine one learner studies concrete nouns such as “teaspoon”, “sieve” and “spatula” whilst a second is taught phrases such as “at the end of the day”, “give or take” and “sooner or later”. The second student will clearly find far more opportunities to show off (and practise) their newfound knowledge than the poor guy praying for an opportunity to get “teaspoon” into the conversation. Here I’ll share some of my top phrases in the following categories: Padding & Introducing ideas – natural phrases to buy time at the start of each utterance. Also, because English is a very subjective language it’s important to use a variety of phrases to differentiate personal views and speculation from objective facts (more than in most other languages). Responding to ideas – It takes two to tango and a good conversation means responding and adding to the ideas of the other person. Structural words and phrases – These encourage the speaker to develop their ideas and organise thoughts effectively. Quantifiers and comparatives – Surprisingly common phrases such as “precious little” and “an awful lot” are hardly ever given the attention they deserve in coursebooks. Idiomatic phrases – these sound great, but it’s important to focus on the ones that can easily be used in a conversation (“it’s raining cats and dogs” may be visual and easy to remember, but harder to get into the conversation than “a piece of cake”) Padding & Introducing Ideas. Native speakers often use padding phrases before expressing their ideas. These can prepare the reader for what is about to come (e.g. I am about to offer you a personal opinion) or just buy thinking time and avoid an awkward silence. Initially such phrases are just one more thing to think about for our students, but they eventually become natural crutches just as they are for us. They make English sound more authentic and polished and avoid clumsy eeeeeeeeerrrrrrrrrrrrrr’s. Let’s see it in action: What’s your favourite food? Student A: …. Pizza. Student B: Hhhmmm good question…. I don’t know… I guess for me it's probably pizza. Apparently, in one experiment, examiners were played two recordings which were identical except that in the second "well actually," was added to the beginning of several utterances. The first was assessed as being at B1 (intermediate) level, whilst the second was awarded B2 (upper intermediate) – a simple tweak for big gains! Here are the “padding phrases” I use most: I don’t know, to be honest, Well actually, Personally speaking, I would say For me I guess Let’s see As I see it, As far as I’m concerned, More advanced students can use a combination of them before each utterance: “Well, I don’t know to be honest, I guess personally speaking I would say dogs make great pets.” Agree and Disagree Actually, in English this is more like “agreeing or agreeing, then saying but…” Students need to be comfortable with 3 or 4 phrases for this – you can find lists of 20 on the internet, but there is little benefit to having more than a few. The most important part is justifying why you agree (or not) I know (just) what you mean Because…… I see (exactly) where you’re coming from What’s more, …….. I’m with you on that one And I’d also add……. I think that’s true up to a point Having said that…… Initially, I write these phrases on the board specifying that students must use them to respond to their partners ideas before they can move on with any of their own. As students become more comfortable with them I gradually erase parts until they are left with acronyms which will be used as simple prompts for the rest of the course. Structuring Ideas Nothing out of this world in this list, but it’s important to consistently push students to use linkers in order to ensure good discourse management. On the other hand Having said that Although/ whilst …. What’s more Despite And another thing is… Not only ……….. but also … What I mean is... I often give each student a linking word or phrase which they must use on a piece of paper. Their objective is to use the phrase without their partner figuring out what it is. In order to be successful, the speaker has to use the phrase in a natural (discrete) way and hide it in amongst a series of other linkers which aren't on their paper, thereby forming a number of complex phrases. Comparatives and Advanced Quantifiers These can often be incorporated into speaking activities, particulary given that many exam tasks revolve around comparing things or choosing between different options. A is nowhere near as adjective as B A is not nearly as adjective as B B is much/far more adjective than A Few/little, if any Every single one/time/day Precious few/An awful lot Give or take Second to none Idioms and Fairy Dust Students often enjoy learning idioms as they are colourful and fun, but all too often I invest a lot of class time on phrases like "steal the show" or "a sitting duck" which are tricky to get into a conversation and get forgotten through lack of practice. Here I’ve chosen phrases which replace common words or concepts and can easily be incorporated into a variety of contexts. Relax A great way to unwind… I wouldn’t I wouldn’t be caught dead…. I enjoy I get a kick out of … It’s easy A piece of cake I don’t understand I can’t get my head round… Stop/Give up Throw in the towel Busy A lot on my plate In the future Sooner or later Without thinking In the heat of the moment It's not all good A bit of a double-edged sword I tend to teach idioms like these with picture. Later in speaking tasks I can throw the pictures on the table and students have to use and then pick up as many as they can. Here is a powerpoint which I use to teach these idioms. I've learnt that it's better to pick a few and stick with them until students are comfortable using them, rather than learning lists of phrases without really mastering their use. Final Message Next time you approach a speaking task in class, give your students some of the phrases from one of these categories and insist they use them. As they progress give them bits of the phrases or just the first letters as a nudge. Gradually, after consistent pushing students come to use the phrases naturally with less prompting – they will now feel and sound like advanced English speakers! If you want more information about teaching Advanced English and the lexical approach, I recommend you check out some of the articles on Leo Selivan's Blog Leoxicon He has some great lesson plans too! Here is the list of phrases from this post

Video games are one of the things young students are often keen to talk about. What's more, they probably know more about them than you, which means plenty of opportunity for real communication. Instructions Below I've attached 2 PowerPoints with images of popular computer games. As you click on each slide the image will slowly be revealed. You can pause this process at any point by clicking the right mouse button. Students shout out the name of the game for points Once each game is revealed, learners talk in pairs and explain how the game is played. This is a great opportunity to review should/must/have to with lower levels. If students don't know how to play, get them to speculate "maybe you have to..." Resources The 2 PowerPoints are slightly different: Lower has short descriptions of how to play each game with missing verbs (kick, win, make, use, etc.). Higher has more challenging conversation questions such as "Why is it so popular?" or "How could this game be improved?"

Vocabulary to practice describing scenery and cities using famous Spanish landmarks. This is a simple activity in which students have to describe famous Spanish views incorporating useful chunks of language. I've found it effective in class because my students are interested in the places and have a genuine desire to describe them and guess where they are. Students work in pairs. Each slide has 3 Stages: Stage 1 an image with useful vocabulary below it. Student A looks at the image and describes it to their partner who looks away. Stage 2 the image without vocabulary. Student B sees the image their partner has described and tries to guess which phrases were previously displayed. Pairs then speculate as to where the picture was taken. Stage 3 the image with useful phrases and the name of the location. Reveal the answers, then get students to switch roles before you show the next image. The idea is that students use as much interesting vocabulary as possible in addtion to the phrases on display in order to make it more difficult for their partners to guess and to push them to practice using more adventurous lexis. Places in Spain Intermediate Powerpoint (online version)

Speaking activities based on the 21 pilots song. Talking about what we used to do as kids and what we wish were different about life today. Steps All the steps below refer to activities using the PowerPoint attached at the bottom of this post. 1. Play the first minute of the song below (also embedded on Slide 2 of the PowerPoint). "What is the song about about?" 2. Each of the white slides show lyrics from part of the song. Students predict the missing words (maybe show on mini whiteboards) then listen to check by clicking the speaker icon in the top left corner of each slide. When you click elsewhere on the slide, it will progressively reveal picture clues or the missing lyrics. 3. Each of the blue slides has discussion questions using language structures from the song. Get learners to discuss the questions in pairs, then write a couple of sentences using the target language In their notebooks as appropriate.

A funny advert with activities to review daily chores, with collocations like “cut the grass”, “wash the clothes”, “cook the dinner”, etc. Resources I’ve included two different PowerPoints: Option 1: Download the PowerPoint below with integrated video and animations (works great if you have an UpToDate Microsoft office package). Option 2: Alternatively, if you don't have office here is a more basic web-based version. Steps (slide numbers refer to Harvey does housework with video) Slide 2: Show the video 0:00-0:17 in which a couple is choosing their pet dog. Slide 3: Show the three options “Which would you choose?”. Explain that that Harvey (option 3) is a very special dog because he does lots of things to help in the house. Slide 4: Show them the chores. "Which of these things could a dog do?" Slide 5: Give students the pictures (Slide 10) to cut out and place in the table (Slide 11), then click on the images to review gluing them in place. Slide 6: When the tables are complete, show the rest of the advert and get students to number each chore as they see it on screen. Slide 7: Elicit the order of the tasks and use the slide to reveal. Slides 8 and 9: Review the vocabulary.

Rationale I use this activity over the course of 2 lessons to reinforce and help students become more comfortable with how to utilise the lining phrases and words they are supposed to recognise and be able to use in the First exam. It finishes with some of the students' work on the walls, which I find nice as it's often only primary age kids who have their stuff put up on display. Another benefit is that it means that they have these example sentences up as a reference. Later on in the term I can also go back and build on them, helping the students practise turning ideas into paragraphs. First Lesson Before the lesson I write out a number of incomplete sentences using the language I'd like to focus on on strips of paper. For my current First Exam Preparation Class I used: even if despite in spite of in case Although Even though However, As you can see in the first photo I sometimes finished the clause around the word and sometimes not. For mine, I wanted them to see the different structures that follow despite/in spite of. I also try to mix the type of sentences, some are light hearted and some are more like the kind of thing they might write in an essay. There are 9 in the photo because in this class I have 8 students. The rule for the activity is to create one half sentence for each student and one for yourself. During the lesson I hand out one strip to each student and keep one for myself. I ask the students to finish the sentence in any way they want, whilst I myself finish the sentence in front of me. Clarify that they should just write in normal sized handwriting. Once everyone has finished everyone passes their paper to the student to their left (or right, depending on which way you want to go round). Now everyone has a new piece of paper they do as before, finish the sentence in any way they want. Clarify that what they are writing follows from the original and they should just ignore what their friend has written. They can, of course, read it but it shouldn't influence what they themselves write. Repeat until everyone has written on every piece of paper. As you are part of the circle if you have time as the papers come across your desk try to correct anything that needs correcting but don't worry too much about this at this stage as you won't have enough time. Collect in the pieces of paper. They should look like they do in the second photo. Notes I normally use this as a warmer. Second Lesson Before the lesson As you can see in the second photo you now have your students work. This is when, with the luxury of time you don't have during the lesson, I have a look at what they have written in order to correct it and make a note of anything I now feel the need to go over specifically. During the lesson Hand out one strip to each student, ask them to read all of the sentences and put a star/smiley face/tick/whatever mark they wish next to their favourite or favourites. Pass and repeat. This means everyone gets to read everyone's sentences. Once they get back the sentence they started wish ask them to tally the scores and circle/select the winner. If their is a tie they have the power to pick which one (or just circle both). You collect them in. Each strip of paper should now look like that in the third photo. After the lesson On new, clean strips of paper write out the winning sentences and display them on the walls. If you want/have time the students can write them out, I did it myself in order to save time. Follow up Later in the academic year I am planning on going back to these sentences and use them as topic sentences and have the students build these into paragraphs. I'll do a blog post so watch this space! Advanced Exam Preparation Class I also did this with my Advanced Exam Preparation class after I noticed they weren't using many linking phrases in their writing. After doing this I noticed an improvement in their awareness of the importance of these types of phrases and how comfortable they were in using them. With my Advanced class I used: contribute to in light of the above, I believe Thanks to we should make every effort to could result in needless to say lead to In addition to Opinions differ about

A syllabus of useful phrases which young learners can learn from the hooks of famous pop songs. The Goal The motivation that led to this idea is probably more important than the activity itself, because it could lead to other equally effective activities in the future. Although the benefits of teaching functional phrases are widely accepted in principal, a breach remains between the theory and much of the young learner teaching material on offer. Language lessons for primary students tend to follow a fairly predictable route. They begin with colours and numbers, then animals and everyday objects such as stationery and household furniture. Why is this? Why are children usually taught how to say “It’s a yellow triangle” before “Where’s the bathroom?” and “There is a panda” before “I’m hungry”? Outside the classroom it seems unlikely that pandas and triangles will play a more significant role in day-to-day communication. The fact is that concrete objects such as yellow triangle and panda are easy to teach and assess because they are visual and can be elicited by simpy waving a picture. Learning words that are easy and quantifiable gives both students and their teacher a sense of achievement, which is no bad thing. However, a balance needs to be struck between what is easy to learn and what is functional and genuinely useful language in the real world. The majority of primary-aged course books which I have come across seem to be failing to strike that balance. Each unit of the books tends to commence with a list of concrete nouns to be taught and assessed. This is probably fine initially, but as learners move beyond the most common/useful everyday objects (pencil/car/dog, etc.), they continue to be bombarded with evermore obscure vocabulary sets which seem to be selected simply because they fit in with a particular topic and are easy to teach. Anyone who speaks a foreign language badly (for me it's French) knows that learning sets of concrete nouns is as easy as opening a menu, requiring little or no input from professional teachers. It's when you want to string words together in a coherent sentence that you need the help. My 8-year-old students are currently using a fairly typical coursebook which is excellent in many respects. However, the vocabulary goals in one unit are: Creeper, Beak, Toucan, Sloth, Branch, Anaconda, Pool, Jaguar, Anteater And in another: Jail, Sheriff, Robber, Wagon, Handcuffs, Barrel, Pistol, Saddle, Rope What my students need is communicative competence using functional phrases to make requests, express feelings and ideas. What they have is a flashcard with a picture of a jungle vine on it. Of course, teachers can use this vocabulary as a vehicle to drill practical chunks: “Can I have a creeper?” “Ooooh, what a lovely saddle!” “My barrel is better than your rope”. But the star of the show and the focus of students' attention is the creeper on the flashcard, not the genuinely useful language we are building around it. This doesn’t feel right, so I think we need to find ways to shift the focus onto whole chunks of functional language and make them more memorable for young learners. Unfortunately, whilst this is not a novel objective, there seems to be a sparcity of activities to get us there, so: The mission: To make functional phrases as memorable and teachable as physical objects by associating them with something tangible. Using Music. For useful phrases to be as memorable as physical objects they need to be anchored to something concrete (something you can see, hear, smell or touch) and songs are an excellent vehicle for the following reasons: It’s delivered with a catchy (memorable) rhythm. – (audio tag) Learners can associate the phrase with an image of the singer. – (visual tag) Students hear the language in context. The class can hear/drill it repeatedly without boredom. There is a focus on the sound of the language and pronunciation. It’s likely to be encountered outside the classroom, reinforcing learning. Students are motivated to learn because it’s impactful and fun. Let me be clear, this isn’t about playing entire songs. It’s about finding pop songs which deliver a useful phrase in a catchy, repetitive hook and focusing exclusively on that hook. Listen, repeat, chant and learn. Each term I have 10-12 useful phrases which become one of my principal learning goals to be taught, practised and assessed. They don't necessarily cover every communicative need in a logical order but I'm convinced that these complete phrases are considerably more useful than the assorted nouns presented by the coursebook. After the first month, I was thrilled to find 8-year-old students regularly using chunks like "it doesn't matter" and "What do you mean?" in context. Procedure At the bottom of the post I've attached the powerpoints which I used for the first 2 terms. Content Each PowerPoint begins with a contents page listing the songs and key vocabulary, click on the slide number to jump to the relevant slide. There is a review slide with all of the phrases together (click on each image to play it). On each song slide there is a hyper link to the contents pages in the bottom right. Introduce the phrase Start by playing the relevant part of the song (embedded YouTube clip, top right) and elicit the target language. Then click anywhere on the slide to reveal the text and have students listen again/sing along. Drill and chant Drill the target phrase (usually the text in white) so that students are able to replicate the sound and rhythm (think about how it really sounds in the song, not how it's written). Then replay the song and get students to sing/chant/shout the phrase, lowering the volume each time it comes up: Wyclef Jean: I got fifty Bentley's in the West Indies Students: It doesn't matter! Wyclef Jean: I got a pocket full of cheese and a garden full of trees Students: It doesn't matter! Wyclef Jean: I just won the bingo bought a crib in Rio Students: It doesn't matter! My kids don’t know/care what Wyclef is on about but ………….. It doesn't matter! The important thing is that they are repeatedly shouting out and learning a really useful piece of language. Every week or so we add another couple of chunks, but keep on going back through previous ones to help it stick (they all have their favourites and often vote for the ones they want to do) Reinforce and practice. Each chunk is linked to an image of the singer on slide 3. Elicit the phrases by pointing to each artist and click on them to check (see picture 2, above). I have pictures for my target phrases on the board so I can point and elicit them in class. The images can also be used as flashcards (attached below) which can be used in all the same ways we use coursebook flashcards. The only difference is that now, instead of playing with “saddle” and “wagon” my students are now focused on practical phrases that will help them to communicate effectively. Next step I will build up another couple of term's worth of songs and I'm sure you can think of others. However, it's not the activity but the overriding goal which is important. The songs will eventually run out of steam, but a focus on the objective of making functional phrases tangible, could lead to a rich vein of ideas. Resources FlashCards to Print PowerPoint (online version) - you may find the "hard copy" attached below runs more smoothly

Vocabulary activity using a the popular song. It's catchy and the lyrics tell a story. It's a handy intro to get students talking about what used to be. Instructions Tell students you're going to share a problem with them, then read the text in slide 1 in a conversational style (it appears line by line as you click through) – Anyone know what’s coming next? (Play music on slide by clicking the speaker for a clue). Slide 2 shows the next few lines and plays the song automatically, then pauses before the chorus line Anyone know what’s coming next? - click to reveal and play the chorus. Slide 3 repeats the lyrics from slide 1. Students guess/remember the mising words in pairs. Click on the speaker to listen. Click elsewhere on the slide to reveal each word one-by-one. Slide 4 FCE Use of English part 2 style activity - students should be able to figure out most of the missing words from context. Click the speaker to listen, elsewhere on the slide to reveal the missing words. Slide 5 is like 3, but trickier. With both slides 4+5 you could try shadowing (get students to sing/chant the lyrics as you turn the volume down, then turn it back up towards the end to see if the students have managed to maintain the right tempo)

Set up Start the class by having a discussion about the most irritating celebrity in Spain/your country. Try and a reach a group consensus. Put the name of the celebrity at the top of the board and leave it there for the duration of the lesson. 1. Lead in to the activity by asking the students which they prefer; being at school or being on holiday and why. 2. Elicit hotel by asking them 'Where do you stay when you are on holiday?' 3. In pairs or small groups have them talk about the most important facilities and services that a hotel should have/offer. Feedback as a class and record some of the ideas on the board. 4. Tell them that in pairs they are now going to design a hotel but with a twist, they must try and make their hotel as horrible as they can, in fact it must be 'The Worst Hotel in the World'. They must describe/choose/write: The name of the hotel The facilities The services A description of the hotel The location The rules The staff The cost Make sure that both students in each pair are making notes as they go along. 6. Go through a description of a swimming pool as a class so they have an example to work from. 'The swimming pool has nuclear waste in it as well as dead animals. It is also where the hotel's drinking water comes from' is good but 'The swimming pool is dirty' is too unimaginative. Writing 7. Allow them enough time to get a decent description of their hotel down. I’d say depending on the class level/level of interest anything from 10 to 20 minutes. Make sure that both students in each pair are making notes as they go along. Listening 8. Then tell them that the celebrity whose name is on the board is going on holiday and they are in charge of choosing the hotel. Each pair comes up and reads the description of their hotel. Each person reads once so the other students get to listen twice. The other students take notes. So by the end each student will have notes about all the different hotels. Speaking 9. After everyone has spoken they go back into their original pairs and talk to their partner about which hotel they want to send the celebrity to and why. This functions like part 3 of the speaking. Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of each hotel and make a choice. 10. Feedback, each pair tells the class which hotel they want to send the celebrity to and why. Tally the votes and announce the winning hotel which the celebrity will be sent to! Notes Students are always talking about their favourites or designing dream holidays or saying where they would go if they could go anywhere but I find the twist with this activity to be engaging and it activates different descriptive vocabulary. The students become very creative. 'Other people are allowed to smoke in your room' is my personal favourite. Depending on your relationship with the class you could always use yourself as the 'celebrity' that is going on holiday. The lesson plan above takes about 75 minutes and I did it with classes of 8 or 10 students so they had 4 or 5 hotels to discuss.

A Creative Way to Review For & Since There are several ways to do this activity, depending on the level of support you feel your students will need. Tell the students you want them to guess who you are. If you feel they need the support you could show them the options on slide 2. Then read the sentences on slide 3. Again, if you feel they will need the support then show them the slides. Manage the guesswork however you see fit. I usually get them to talk in pairs and I always give them phrases to use, such as: I reckon he's... I've got it! He must be... I've got no idea. Could he be a/an...? Finally, either have one person from each pair give their answer or have them write and reveal on mini whiteboards. Again, if you feel they need the support show them the slide with the different options. Slide 4. A pirate! Massive congratulations to those who guessed correctly! Now, tell them you're going to give them a person and they need to write 4 sentences to explain who they are. Take them through the remaining slides that show them the process and then hand out a character to each person. First have them think of the four things they have. Then have them create a sentence for each object using for & since. Obviously, if they want or need to they could do this in pairs or groups. Fast finishers or stronger groups can add extra details like on the slides but it is not necessary. Then, take it in turns to read out sentences and have the others guess who each person is. If you want you can gamify it and give out points. Again, if they need support have the slide with the different options up. Homework option: Create a poster with the information on. Higher levels even the character's backstory as to how they accumulated these things.