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1. Teaching Jazz Chants to Young Learners

   Format(s): Text, Video

   Teaching Jazz Chants to Young Learners is a video-based teacher training resource available on DVD that presents one compelling technique for teaching English pronunciation, intonation, and sentence stress: the jazz chant.

2. Student-Centered Speaking Activities to Increase Fluency and Accuracy

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

   This session, "Student-Centered Speaking Activities to Increase Fluency and Accuracy," focuses on activities that participants can use in teaching speaking in multi-level classes with students of all ages.

3. Activate: Games for Learning American English

   Format(s): Text

   Are you looking for fun, meaningful activities to use in your classroom? Check out these board games! Game themes require students to produce certain types of expressions, so they practice a variety of vocabulary, grammatical patterns, and functional meanings.

4. Motivating Students by Modifying Evaluation Methods

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

   This author identifies three key elements to student assessment—overly critical correcting, expectations, and competitive scoring—that prevent success in the ESL environment, based on the typical Chinese educational structure. The article discusses several techniques, mostly learner-centered, that a teacher can use to provide effective assessments while also creating an environment of trust, confidence, and fairness, where a student feels safe to take risks.

5. Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes

   In: Sing Out Loud Children's Songs Format(s): MP3, Text, Image / Poster / Maps

   This song in the Sing Out Loud Children's Songs collection is a classic tune using body parts and movement. Poster included.

6. Literacy Memoirs

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

   This article discusses the use of literacy memoirs to help students become motivated to write. This can give students the chance for reflection on their literacy skills while also improving their writing in English. The author explains how a literacy memoir workshop can work in a process writing classroom, giving a sample schedule and examples of student memoirs.

7. Classroom Techniques: - Nonstop Writing

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

   This article offers Nonstop Writing as a classroom activity to help students overcome the anxiety that can come with composition in a second language. Nonstop Writing is defined as timed, ungraded writing on an assigned topic. The author describes how to carry out and use this activity.

8. Nurturing Emotional Intelligence through Literature

   In: English Teaching Forum 2001, Volume 39, Number 1 Format(s): Text

   This article discusses the use of literature in a language class as a way to develop emotional intelligence in children. The author suggests that literature can be motivating and can provide a low-anxiety context for children to learn English. Several response activities are suggested to develop language skills and nurture emotional intelligence. These activities include scripting, detecting feelings in text, a feeling hunt, creating a positive language dictionary, diary entries, and letters to characters.

9. Laugh and Learn: Thinking Over the "Funny Teacher" Myth

   In: English Teaching Forum 2001, Volume 39, Number 1 Format(s): Text

   The author in this article presents laughter and fun as an important part of a language classroom. The author suggests that when you laugh you learn better. Humor is introduced as a way to increase motivation and decrease anxiety. The author defines the “funny teacher” as a serious professional who uses humor to provide students with an enjoyable journey through learning. Activities are suggested for increasing fun and learning in the language classroom.

10. Deep Impact Storytelling

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

    The authors discuss the importance of storytelling for giving a course depth. They outline ways to help teachers deepen the impact of storytelling through language and thinking activities that include shadowing, summarizing, student retelling, action logging, and creating newsletters. The authors include a story split into assigned readings and sequenced homework and classroom activities. They found that using these activities increases student comprehension, negotiation of meaning, and feelings of community.

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