All articles by Jim Scrivener – Page 2

  • Photo of children speaking to each other in a classroom.
    Article

    Skills: teaching phonics: sounds and symbols

    Phonemes can be difficult for learners and teachers. Here are a few ideas that could help teachers as well as learners become more comfortable when working with phonemes.

  • Photo of a teacher preparing a class, ideally with a laptop and a headset.
    Article

    Skills: the same old song

    Songs are a popular resource with teachers and learners alike – but, when it comes to exploiting them in class, why on earth does it always seem to be gap-fills? Here are a few alternative ideas.

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    Skills: longer reads

    Students who do a lot of extensive reading in English seem to make substantial progress. Here are some general ideas for starting to use longer texts.

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    One-to-one methodology: Six practical tips for longer lessons

    Jim Scrivener offers six useful teaching tips to prevent 'teacher burnout' during longer one-to-one classes.

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    Imaginative materials: yummy yummy yummy!

    An interesting way to teach basic food vocabulary at lower levels is to also include some colloquial expressions such as ‘Yummy!’ ‘I’m starving!’ and ‘Yuk!' Once students know a dialogue you can easily substitute words to practise the names of different foods.

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    Imaginative materials: Texting

    Do you get annoyed when your students concentrate on using their mobile phones to text each other rather than focusing on the lesson? Here are five ideas for exploiting text messaging in class.

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    Imaginative materials: pets

    Pets and other animals play an important role in many learners' lives. Here are some ideas for exploiting the theme.

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    Imaginative materials: teaching with simple props: string

    Some props don't immediately suggest themselves as useful teaching aids. For example, what could one possibly do with a bag of clothes pegs and a piece of string? Mmm…

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    Imaginative materials: teaching with newspapers

    Teachers rarely have access to whole class sets of newspapers. Here are six ideas for things you can do using a single copy of a newspaper.

  • Photo of children trying to solve a puzzle.
    Article

    Imaginative materials: treasure hunting

    How could you create an exciting treasure hunt puzzle for your students? Here are ideas for two kinds of game – a basic chain of clues and letterboxing.

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    Grammar: reviewing the present simple

    Present simple for habits and routines is a frequently taught item. Here are some new ways of teaching these familiar items.

  • Photo of the English articles. They could be written on a book or on a board.
    Article

    Grammar: an 'A' or 'The'

    Choosing the correct article - “a” “an” “the” or Ø (zero article) – is, for many students, an ongoing problem all the way from beginner to advanced classes. Here are a few quick ideas for practising them at lower levels.

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    Skills: graded readers

    Reading a novel is essentially a private, personal activity – but it can still provide useful classroom work . Here are some ideas for working with graded readers in class.

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    General: using translation

    There is a great deal of useful awareness-raising when learners compare English with their own tongue. Here are four great translation games - and they don’t even require you to speak the other language!

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    General: making things last

    Ever run out of things to do five minutes before the end of class? There are some fairly simple tricks for usefully extending an activity – so that things just beautifully fall into place.

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    General: pairing and grouping students

    With current teaching methodology teachers are constantly needing to get students into pairs or small groups. A bit of variety can sometimes raise a smile and can also help you to mix up groupings a little.

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    General: planning lessons

    Remember, a plan is not a route-map of what must happen in class, it is only your informed setting-up of some possibilities. Here are a few ideas for alternative plans:

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    General: setting homework

    Tired of setting the usual homework tasks? Here are 18 unusual ideas for "homedo" tasks.

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    Skills: Glorious gap-fills

    There seem to be an awful lot of gap-fill exercises in course books nowadays. And sometimes they can be rather dreary for students and teacher alike. Well, you could try some of these ideas.

  • Photo of children having a party.
    Article

    Imaginative materials: teaching with party games

    In many parts of the world the end of the year is the season for parties. And in class, the last lesson of the year often has a party atmosphere. So, to help things go with a swing, here are three classic party games adapted to be a little more ...