Site Search | American English

PBS Kids

Format(s): Website

PBS Kids helps to educate young learners in creative and fun ways. The educational content is aimed at children, with many interactive games and activities to aid in learning.

Story Theater

In: English Teaching Forum 2005, Volume 43, Number 1 Format(s): Text

This article introduces an interactive and engaging classroom activity entitled Story Theater. The goal of this activity is to provide students with a text to read aloud as they act out the storyline using props and special effects. The purpose of Story Theater is to aid fluency and memorization and to provide students with a chance to use the language and their imaginations. This activity can be used with all ages and all English proficiency levels. The author includes examples of effective Story Theater lessons.

Listening to Diverse English Voices through Podcasts

In: English Teaching Forum 2023, Volume 61, Number 2 Format(s): Text

Authors Tabitha Kidwell and Hanung Triyoko explain how they introduced their students to diverse English voices from around the world by making use of freely available podcasts. The article includes descriptions of pre-listening, while-listening, and post-listening activities, a detailed sample lesson, and suggestions for free apps and podcasts from global contexts.

Amplifying Voice and Choice in the EFL Classroom

In: American English Webinars Format(s): Text, Video

This session, “Amplifying Voice and Choice in the EFL Classroom,” explained several student voice strategies, and will prepare participants to select or adapt the strategies to suit their teaching contexts, students, and teaching styles!

The Children's Response: TPR and Beyond

In: English Teaching Forum 2005, Volume 43, Number 1 Format(s): Text

This article describes a technique called The Children’s Response, which can be used to teach young EFL learners. The technique is based on Total Physical Response (TPR), which actively involves children from kindergarten to beyond third grade. The article offers three lessons that provide practice with the form and function of the present and past tense as well as prepositions and imperative commands.

Channelling Children's Energy Through Vocabulary Activities

In: English Teaching Forum 2006, Volume 44, Number 2 Format(s): Text

In this article, the author shares vocabulary development activities for young learners. These activities channel students' energy and make learning more effective and fun. The author stresses the importance of giving young learners a good language-learning experience, and the challenges of teaching young learners who are not literate in their L1. The author describes six activities that allow learners to laugh, to move, and to make noise while learning vocabulary.

Lesson Plan: A Day at the Fair

In: English Teaching Forum 2007, Volume 45, Number 3 Format(s): Text

This issue’s lesson plan, “A Day at the Fair” follows the feature article on state and county fairs. After reading a summary of the article, learners are asked to list things they might experience with their senses at a fair. The terms may be used in a role play. Group members select roles and make decisions about how to spend a day at the fair according to the preferences on their cards. The lesson concludes with a reflection on decisions made during the role play.

Animating Your Instruction: Using Comics and Graphic Novels in the English Language Classroom

In: American English Webinars Format(s): Text, Video

"Animating Your Instruction: Using Comics and Graphic Novels in the English Language Classroom" explores the popularity of illustrated stories among teachers and students alike and offers suggestions on how to use them to “animate” your classes.

Information Gap in Communicative Classrooms

In: English Teaching Forum 2001, Volume 39, Number 4 Format(s): Text

The author argues that exchanges in the classroom must go beyond display questions and should be based on the information gap that occurs when one speaker does not know in advance what the other is going to say. The author provides examples of information gap activities to promote a communicative classroom. Activity types include practical situations, guessing games, role plays, opinion gap activities, and reasoning gap activities. The author argues that these activities have real communicative value.

Department of Education Literacy Information and Communication System