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1. 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.

2. Lesson Plan: Baseball Stories, Cards,and Interviews

   In: English Teaching Forum 2010, Volume 48, Number 3 Format(s): Text

   This lesson plan offers an opportunity for students to practice their language skills and learn more about the sport of baseball. There are three activities (that will take at least one class period each) aimed at a variety of levels. Students create baseball cards of themselves and flash cards about the sport, and participate in interview role-plays as famous baseball players. Extension activities are included.

3. Teacher Resources

   In: English Teaching Forum 2004, Volume 42, Issue 1 Format(s): Text

   In this special section of Forum, four commercial publications are presented. Topics include techniques to help middle school students with reading, student involvement and choice; an introduction to the concept of genre (of interest to ESL teachers, writing teachers, etc., including genre-based assessment and the importance of audience in writing); the use of literature circles with elementary learners to foster discussion and love of literature; and a book of EFL methodology.

4. Classroom Techniques: - What a Feeling!

   In: English Teaching Forum 2005, Volume 43, Number 3 Format(s): Text

   This article argues for the use of collaborative writing through poems in the ESL classroom. This activity gives students the motivation to express their creativity while improving teamwork skills that are important outside of the classroom. The author describes how collaborative poetry is introduced and carried out, gives examples of student poems, and suggests how the activity can be used with other genres as well.

5. NASCAR: An American Sport and Pastime

   In: English Teaching Forum 2005, Volume 43, Number 4 Format(s): Text

   This article, written for students, is about NASCAR, a popular auto racing sport in the United States. It offers the history of the sport, interesting pictures, and a piece on the importance of a pit crew. There is also a profile of Jeff Gordon, a popular and winning driver. Also included are a list of NASCAR vocabulary and websites of interest, an overview of the sport and its rules, and information on three legendary drivers.

6. Getting the Most Out of the Dictionary

   In: English Teaching Forum 2012, Volume 50, Number 4 Format(s): Text

   Inspired by questions from language teachers, this discussion of dictionaries (reprinted from 1974) explores their utility in determining pronunciation, meaning, and points of grammar and makes recommendations about the kind of dictionaries teachers should use with their students.

7. Authentic Video in the Beginning ESOL Classroom: Using a Full-Length Feature Film for Listening and Speaking Strategy Practice

   In: English Teaching Forum 2004, Volume 42, Issue 1 Format(s): Text

   Using film in the classroom can be effective with beginning English learners. A full-length film offers continuous context to discuss humor, culture, and language functions, real-life communication with images and non-verbal cues, increased retention due to activating the right hemisphere of the brain, and the lowering of students’ affective filters. The authors include a lesson based on their experience teaching listening and speaking skills using the movie “What about Bob.” Assessment techniques and potential problems are considered.

8. An Integrated Skills Lesson Plan for "A Postcard from America" by Robert Olen Butler

   In: English Teaching Forum 2004, Volume 42, Issue 1 Format(s): Text

   This lesson plan is based on the feature article, “Postcards from America” by Robert Olen Butler. It is appropriate for high intermediate to advanced students. The lesson integrates the four skills and has five parts: Preparing to Read, Reading the Text, Understanding the Text, Making Connections Beyond the Text, and Integrating Language Skills. The lesson includes group discussion of comprehension questions, scanning for vocabulary, and using the dictionary.

9. From da Vinci to Recumbent... Velocity and the Velocipede

   In: English Teaching Forum 2001, Volume 39, Number 3 Format(s): Text

   This reading on bicycles is appropriate for intermediate to advanced students. The author traces the history of the bicycle back to the nineteenth century and describes major innovations in the technological development of bikes. Modern bicycle technology and impacts are also discussed. The article presents the etymology of the word bicycle and then offers translations into other languages, illustrating that in many cases a relationship to the root of the original word remains. Additional websites of interest are also included for further reading or follow up activities.

10. Using Guided, Corpus-Aided Discovery to Generate Active Learning

    In: English Teaching Forum 2008, Volume 46, Number 4 Format(s): Text

    This article shows how English teachers can provide careful guidance for students to use a corpus to research, discover, and reflect on the grammatical and sociolinguistic aspects of English. The author introduces the idea of using a corpus in teaching English and offers several important online resources for English language corpora. The author provides a rationale for corpus-based teaching and gives two examples of how to guide students in exploring linguistic features of English.

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