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1. The Lighter Side: A Jumble Garden Activity

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

   This activity, called Jumble Garden, requires students to unscramble letters to make words. The definitions of the 14 scrambled words are provided to aid the students in unscrambling the letters.

2. Noun Compounds and Compressed Definitions

   In: English Teaching Forum 2003, Volume 41, Number 3 Format(s): Text

   This article discusses the difficulty of understanding noun compounds in professional texts in science and technology, business, medicine, law, and other areas of English for Specific Purposes (ESP). It provides techniques and activities to teach students how to decode noun compounds to see the link between definitions, which are usually familiar, and noun compounds, which are usually not familiar. These strategies can help students overcome this difficulty in reading advanced and specialized texts.

3. The Mediational Role of Language Teachers in Sociocultural Theory

   In: English Teaching Forum 2003, Volume 41, Number 3 Format(s): Text

   This article describes a sociocultural view of interaction, in which teachers construct knowledge with learners. Language is a mediating factor in cognitive development. The article discusses Vygotsky and the Zone of Proximal Development. According to Vygotsky, students are capable of doing more with guidance and support than they can alone. This principle leads instructors to scaffold material just beyond the leaner’s level. When teachers and students have meaningful interaction, learning is enhanced.

4. Lesson Plan: A Letter from Miami: A Telenovela

   In: English Teaching Forum 2008, Volume 46, Number 3 Format(s): Text

   This lesson plan contains four activities that can prepare students for the final activity of creating a video or a play. There are also two optional activities to help students learn grammar, and a fact sheet about Miami.

5. The Use of Ethics in the EFL Classroom

   In: English Teaching Forum 2004, Volume 42, Issue 4 Format(s): Text

   If students are not meeting their goals, it may be that the reason is non-linguistic. Motivation is an important factor that teachers need to consider. The writer argues that carefully chosen ethics cases can motivate timid students to speak out by removing their fear of making mistakes and by encouraging them to talk about heart-felt beliefs. Since ethics cases may not have clear right and wrong answers, this sets them apart from other discussion topics. Debate will foster critical thinking skills.

6. Plays for Reading

   Format(s): Text

   Plays for Reading uses drama as a vehicle for students to practice reading, listening, and speaking. Students become actors interpreting the written text, and the English classroom becomes a rehearsal hall with the focus placed upon putting on a play.

7. Vocabulary Strategy Work for Advanced Learners of English

   In: English Teaching Forum 2005, Volume 43, Number 2 Format(s): Text

   This article provides several activities designed to teach strategies for learning vocabulary. The author explains why it is important to teach strategies and offers ways for students to work on strategies, from preparation to experimenting with different methods, to evaluation of the instruction. Examples are given of cognitive, memory, and metacognitive strategies that encourage students to be responsible for their own learning of vocabulary.

8. Classroom Activities

   In: English Teaching Forum 2013, Volume 51, Number 2 Format(s): Text

   This section presents two stand-alone language-learning activities related to cars.

9. Folger Shakespeare Library

   Format(s): Website

   Home to the world's largest and finest collection of Shakespeare materials and to major collections of other rare Renaissance books, manuscripts, and works of art, the Folger serves a wide audience of researchers, visitors, teachers, students, families, and theater- and concert-goers.

10. Picture This

    In: Activate Games for Learning American English: Picture This Format(s): Text

    Picture This cards are a set of cards that can be used for a variety of conversation and word games in English classes. Picture This cards stimulate conversation through a series of thematically related questions and interesting images that engage students.

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