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1. Lesson Plan: Create Your Own Sporting Event

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

   This lesson plan, for intermediate learners, has students use their knowledge of sports, build their sports vocabulary, practice sport-related verbs, and create a written and visual presentation of a sporting event they create. The author provides a list of activities for individual, small group, and whole class work.

2. Twenty Ideas for Using Mobile Phones in the Language Classroom

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

   Educators need to learn how best to use the increasingly popular mobile phone technology to support learning in the language classroom. This author outlines the benefits as well as potential problems and solutions of mobile phone use, giving twenty practical ideas for classroom activities, such as using a voice recorder to capture conversations outside the classroom.

3. 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.

4. Using Progressive I-Can Statements to Promote Learner Confidence in Writing

   In: English Teaching Forum 2010, Volume 48, Number 4 Format(s): Text

   Language learners may sometimes feel shy and unsure of their abilities and may not be able to see what they are able to do. The authors found that writing I-can statements (e.g., I can write the names of foods in English) can be a good way to build confidence. Students use their I-can records to assess their own progress. The authors offer a starting point for teachers by presenting ideas for tasks such as copying words, writing signs, and writing about the weekend.

5. Lesson Plan: Athletes, Actions, and Adjectives

   In: English Teaching Forum 2010, Volume 48, Number 4 Format(s): Text

   People who are very familiar with American football and those completely unfamiliar with it can benefit from the interactive, communicative activities presented in this lesson plan. Students can analyze examples from the NFL and create their own team names, team logos, and player descriptions. Ideas for teaching adjectives and body parts are also provided. In the spirit of the game, the plan features quick, lively group activities, all under 50 minutes each.

6. Lesson Plan: Exploring Michigan

   In: English Teaching Forum 2009, Volume 47, Number 4 Format(s): Text

   The lesson plan “Exploring Michigan” provides information on things to see and do in Michigan. It has three parts: a warm-up, the main activities that cover the four skills, and follow-up activities to further practice the content of main activities. The lesson aims to practice expressions of preference and persuasion. At the same time, the learners plan things to do on a trip to Michigan while creating and presenting an itinerary for a trip to Michigan, and then for a visit to their own country.

7. Spot the Problem! (reprinted from Teaching Pragmatics)

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

   This lesson plan considers pragmatic violations of openings, closings, and requests. These humorous role plays involve continuing a conversation when one person is trying to end it, being overly direct, and providing an overly informative answer to the greeting “How are you?” Textbooks may lack complete openings and closings, so it is worthwhile to spend time on post-openings and pre-closings. Politeness in English may be problematic for EFL learners because of the lack of grammatical forms that mark it.

8. The Communicative Approach: Addressing Frequent Failure

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

   The author found that student and teacher beliefs about error correction support a teacher-centered classroom environment. However, the notion of interlanguage suggests that language is acquired through trial and error in communicative settings. Too much correction means decreased confidence and less time for students to use the language. The author proposes that teachers reduce the amount of time they talk. Teachers need to learn more about the benefits and techniques of a communicative approach and ways to adapt material.

9. 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.

10. Reciprocal Teaching: A Useful Tool in Increasing Student-Talking Time

    In: English Teaching Forum 2004, Volume 42, Issue 2 Format(s): Text

    Reciprocal Teaching (RT) can be used to increase student talk time and improve communicative competence. This strategy uses paraphrasing, reported speech, question formation and concept-checking to promote dialogue. As students move from short responses toward longer conversations (or language for transactional purposes), their fluency and retention increase. These “long turns” provide important practice. The author also emphasizes the importance of prompts for lower-level students. The article includes examples of each strategy as well as several axioms of reciprocal teaching.

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