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1. Amazing Animals

   In: English Teaching Forum 2007, Volume 45, Number 2 Format(s): Text

   “Animals” is a three-part lesson plan for young learners with a zoo animal theme. The first lesson is full of activities to describe animals, with Simon Says, guessing games, and learning stations. The second lesson is about desert animals, but other types of animals could be chosen depending on student interest. This lesson teaches prepositions of place. The final lesson, using the Language Experience Approach, leads up to a trip to the zoo (real or virtual). The class constructs a story of their experience and reads it together. Animal flashcards are included.

2. 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.

3. An Integrated Skills Lesson Plan for "Maps and Legends" by Michael Chabon

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

   This lesson plan is based on the article “Maps and Legends” by novelist Michael Chabon and is for high intermediate to advance students. The lesson includes group and pair work. Students discuss the neighborhood where they grew up. They read the text and identify unfamiliar words, then answer comprehension questions in writing or discussion groups. Post-reading activities include scanning, inferring meaning from context, dictionary practice, and discussion questions. The lesson ends with questions to make connections beyond the text and project ideas.

4. Classroom Activities

   In: English Teaching Forum 2012, Volume 50, Number 2 Format(s): Text

   Three stand-alone language-learning activities related to the theme of spring.

5. Labor Day

   In: Celebrate! Holidays in the U.S.A. Format(s): Text

   Labor Day was established as a holiday for workers, both as a tribute to their contributions to the nation, and as a means of bringing more public awareness to their struggles.

6. Speakers and Task Type: Increasing Awareness of Factors Involved in Speech Act Production

   In: Teaching Pragmatics Format(s): Text

   The goal of this article is to increase awareness of the factors that affect the linguistic realization of speech acts in American English.

7. Story 4: Love, Music, and Language

   In: Why English? Comics for the Classroom Format(s): Text

   The stories in Why English? Comics for the Classroom – written by teenagers and young adults – will appeal to learners of all ages. These stories provide an enjoyable opportunity to increase vocabulary, reading comprehension, listening, speaking, and writing.

8. 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.

9. Creating a Storytelling Classroom for a Storytelling World

   In: English Teaching Forum 2012, Volume 50, Number 3 Format(s): Text

   This article explores the value of storytelling in English language learning. Strong emphasis is placed on the role that stories of personal experience play in human interaction and how these natural conversations foster a better language learning experience. The author outlines a four-step approach to help students develop conversational skills as storytellers, including techniques for improving fluency and honing listening skills.

10. Bear Fights: An Ursine Introduction to Debating in the EFL Classroom

    In: English Teaching Forum 2023, Volume 61, Number 2 Format(s): Text

    Author Charlie Taylor describes a simple yet clever technique to introduce students to “debating” in a fun, creative way. Read the article to learn how “bears with superpowers” can help your students learn and practice basic principles of debating.   

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