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1. Question Practice: The Personal-Assistant Mock Job Interview

   In: English Teaching Forum 2024, Volume 62, Number 2 Format(s): Text

   Would you like to give your students practice in generating and asking questions—and finding creative ways to answer them? Author Terence McLean describes a job-interview activity that is light-hearted and fun, yet gives students serious language practice, motivates them, and requires them to think creatively and critically. The activity also helps students prepare for the real-life job interviews they will have in the future.

2. The Vocabulary Wheel: A Low-Resource Activity for Enhancing Vocabulary Acquisition and Retention

   In: English Teaching Forum 2024, Volume 62, Number 2 Format(s): Text

   This article, by Anestin Lum Chi, offers detailed instructions for making vocabulary wheels and using them in various ways for extended practice with targeted vocabulary. Students can make and use the wheels, and the wheels can be customized and saved for future classes. The wheels are ideal for all language levels and for all contexts, including those with limited resources. No internet connectivity is required.

3. Going Beyond “The Lighter Side” Puzzles for English Language Practice

   In: English Teaching Forum 2024, Volume 62, Number 2 Format(s): Text

   Author Tom Glass describes multiple ways that teachers can use and adapt “The Lighter Side” puzzles, found in all issues of English Teaching Forum, to give students extended language practice by solving puzzles and creating new puzzles of their own. The article includes examples from puzzles that teachers can find and download (for free) on the American English website.

4. The Line Between Questions, Responses, and Readers

   In: English Teaching Forum 2024, Volume 62, Number 1 Format(s): Text

   This article uses the Stephen Crane story “The Open Boat” (freely available on the American English website) as an anchor text to demonstrate how teachers can apply Raphael’s Question-Answer Relationship (QAR) technique to a text that students might be assigned to read. The article includes numerous examples and tips that teachers can use to adapt the technique to other texts as a way to enhance student engagement and interest in reading.

5. Let Them Play: Board Games for Language Practice

   In: English Teaching Forum 2024, Volume 62, Number 1 Format(s): Text

   Authors Kevin McCaughey and Rick Rosenberg demonstrate techniques for using board games to stimulate student-centered language practice that is flexible, productive, engaging, and fun. The article includes tips for efficient game play and for using games with a variety of levels and class sizes. The authors show that playing board games for language practice can be educational AND entertaining.

6. Tutorials: A Way of Building Community in the Classroom

   In: English Teaching Forum 2003, Volume 41, Number 1 Format(s): Text

   These authors from Singapore and Macao discuss the benefits of developing a sense of community in the classroom, which they say can build an environment of trust and mutual confidence with Chinese students. The authors recommend using individual and group tutorials. Although some teachers think tutorials are too much work, the authors claim it is worthwhile. These tutorials are developed with an informal structure and encourage a free flow of conversation. The article gives examples of how tutorials are used in the ESL classroom.

7. Fishing—A Sport for All Seasons

   In: English Teaching Forum 2011, Volume 49, Number 2 Format(s): Text

   Fishing is the feature lesson topic for this issue. Catching fish with hooks is known as angling, which is why fishermen are typically called anglers. Americans fish in urban and rural settings and enjoy many different kinds of fishing including bass fishing, fly fishing and ice fishing. The article discusses recent trends in fishing, including high-tech tools such as GPS devices.

8. The Lighter Side: Fishy Fun

   In: English Teaching Forum 2011, Volume 49, Number 2 Format(s): Text

   There are two games. The first has five tongue twisters, each word missing a letter which the student must complete. The second game is a matching game, but the words are missing letters which the student must fill in before he/she completes the match. The games help with vocabulary and spelling.

9. Classroom Activities

   In: English Teaching Forum 2011, Volume 49, Number 3 Format(s): Text

   This section presents three stand-alone language-learning activities for different level classrooms. The interactive activities focus on skills that familiarize students with simple sentence structures, present tense, grammar review through group work and games, a vocabulary review, and an activity to help students understand the concept of metaphors and use them in their writing.

10. Developing Voice by Composing Haiku: A Social-Expressivist Approach for Teaching Haiku Writing in EFL Contexts

    In: English Teaching Forum 2010, Volume 48, Number 1 Format(s): Text

    This article discusses Haiku as a simple way to use poetry to help students develop voice and audience in their writing. The author gives an explanation and example of Haiku and gives step-by-step instructions for how Haiku may be taught, from interpretation to composition to publication.

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