Job Discussion Forums

bradwelljackson · Joined: 29 Aug 2004 Posts: 75 Location: Shakhty, Russia

I've been assigned to do a "Fun English" class, and I was hoping I could share my ideas with you. So far, we've got classes for making a sandwich, nursery rhymes, dances, Western holiday/festival costumes, shopping, and asking directions.
What other ideas do you have for a class that is simply supposed to be fun, and where we don't even focus primarily on teaching a lot of English. This class will be for young kids (average age maybe 7), and it will be in China.
Thank you in advance for any ideas. Maybe we can make this a FAQ page (I didn't see one that specifically dealt with this).

DebMer · Posted: Tue Jan 10, 2012 5:22 pm Post subject:

I think certain TV shows or movies can provide a springboard. In my adult ESL class we were reading the story of the Hatfields and the McCoys, the famous feuding families in West Virginia and Kentucky in the late 1800's. This led us eventually to a discussion about the 1960's TV series, The Beverly Hillbillies, which led us to a discussion about the contrast between urban and rural life. It was totally unplanned and a great class.

The story came from a book out of the Sandra Heyer True Stories series, by the way: one of my favorite tools for conversation in the classroom.

Board and games would be fun for your class.

Idiomatic expressions and uses.

Creative writing/story-telling in English? You give a story starter (along the lines of "It was a dark and stormy night...." for example), and they add to it either individually or each student contributes in turn.

The game of "telephone" where one person chooses a phrase and whispers it to another, and so on. By the end of the line, the phrase is hopelessly garbled and hilarious.

A list of traditional children's games and their rules can be found on Wikipedia.

DebMer · Posted: Wed Jan 11, 2012 7:40 am Post subject:

Memorize songs and poetry.

Act out short scenes from a play.

Take turns reading aloud.

Role play real life situations, like how to introduce yourself to a new friend, how to invite a friend over to your house, how to make a phone call.

coledavis · Joined: 21 Jun 2003 Posts: 1838

For lower levels, who are unsure or new to directions (left, right, etc), you can play variations of blind man's buff. Kids and teenagers like this. Maybe the teacher is blindfolded first and the students have to tell you how to get out of the room and to the front door, enjoying seeing you bump into everything. Then they take turns. Time enjoyably spent and people really do get to improve their directions by having to use them in realtime.

Glenski · Joined: 15 Jan 2003 Posts: 12844 Location: Hokkaido, JAPAN

Go to a Genki English web site or one of the ETJ Yahoo discussion forums (there is one on Activities) for more advice.

bradwelljackson · Joined: 29 Aug 2004 Posts: 75 Location: Shakhty, Russia

Thank you all for your input : )
Glenski - what is "Yahoo ETJ" Where can I find it on Yahoo?

riverboat · Joined: 22 May 2009 Posts: 117 Location: Paris, France

Desert Island Survival - they have to imagine that their plane has crashed on a desert island. They have a big worksheet with pictures of loads of different items on it (rope, knife, water, antibiotics, sunglasses, sun-lotion etc) and have to decide on 10 of them that they think would give them the best chances of survival on the island. I don't know if their English would be up to the discussion part, but it could be a good way to learn the names of various items.

That said, I have no experience of working with 7 year olds...I don't know if the concept could be a little too mature...