Contents

News and views

• Translation technology – are new tools going to put us out of a job?
• False friends – what’s the best way to teach them and what should we avoid?

Exercise of the month

Warmer – It’s not a box!

Step 1: Start by presenting your group with a box and ask them, ‘What is it?’, to which they will probably respond, ‘It’s a box!’

Step 2: Reply, ‘No! It’s not a box,’ and give the box a new purpose. You might flip it over and hit it and say, ‘It’s a drum!’

Step 3: After you have modeled what you expect them to do and say, you pass the box around the circle, letting each child have a turn at coming up with an idea.

Step 4:  Teach new words if no one in the group can say it in English. As the box gets passed from child to child, encourage them to ask and answer questions.

Note: This game doesn’t just encourage language production, it also stimulates imagination, creativity and divergent thinking. It provides a wonderful opportunity for emergent language to take center stage. The target vocabulary is anything that the children come up with while playing the game, making the language learned in this lesson more personal and, therefore, more memorable. 

Interview

Lindsay Clandfield talks about his book English for the Zombie Apocalypse, what not to do in the classroom, the continued importance of roleplays, and his podcast, TEFL Commute.

Q&A

1. Can critical thinking be taught at lower levels?
2. I’m interested in teaching one-to-one lessons online. What’s the best way to get started?*
3. Tell us about an embarrassing moment you had to deal with in the classroom.

*See: Teaching online by Cecilia Nobre.