 ACTIONS SPEAK LOUDER THAN WORDS: Try teaching and LEARNING GRAMMAR with fun repetitive songs - my experience is that even beginners can learn more complicated grammatical structures when they are used repetitively in a song. I added some prepositions and collocations to my originally simpler song. Try it out for yourselves - you'll be surprised!! You can download the song below: Have fun with it and learn! Susan
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 Repetitive NURSERY RHYMES with their easy rhythmic tunes and well-known NURSERY TALES lend themselves to SINGING and ACTING: two activities which children love doing!! Many years ago I ADAPTED three NURSERY TALES in increasing difficulty to RECYCLE the most important LANGUAGE we had learnt during the school year. Children loved it and parents enjoyed watching their children's progress. HAVING FUN was another key element to making sure they learnt EXPRESSIONS IN A MEANINGFUL CONTEXT. NURSERY RHYMES can also be ACTED OUT whilst they are being SUNG to consolidate their meaning and enable children to pronounce somewhat complicated sentences to PAVE THEIR WAY TO FLUENCY... GOLDILOCKS is the second in order of difficulty of the three to download with the pronunciation guide as well to help children practise alone at home. (See previous post dated 9th July 2015 for the easier LITTLE RED RIDING HOOD). In those days children had no other way of practising autonomously. Nowadays I prefer to RECORD AUDIOS of the pronunciations for them TO LISTEN TO REPEATEDLY all collected in a Dropbox folder for easy access. Try these out! Hope you have fun with it! Susan
 Many language students tend to dedicate a long time studying rules and doing written exercises yet not many manage to apply them in spontaneous conversation. Despite exposure to texts and listening activities, unless they practise speaking intensively few are talented enough to be able to express themselves orally without sounding unnatural. For this reason I am trying to create useful songs and chants which incorporate repeating collocations, prepositions, phrasal verbs combined with movements to allow students to embed and practise their oral expression in a fun way and lasting manner without feeling bored or embarassed. I believe in 'learning by doing' and practising speaking can never be enough! The following song is about a pupil's DAILY ROUTINE: Download the VIDEO below to see the movements connected to the EXPRESSIONS in the simple song! (Unfortunately I could not upload the Video with subtitles due to 34MB size - I will gladly email it to you on request.) Try it out and have fun! Susan
 I have been setting expressions to music and rhythmic chants for decades with excellent results. Distinguishing when to use the different sets of PRONOUNS and POSSESSIVE ADJECTIVES are always a problem in my classes - students just don’t seem able to distinguish them - so I have invented this chant in the hope of fixing these expressions forever!!  Chants are a very repetitive way of embedding expressions in the brain so that they become second-nature and just 'sound right' without having to resort to learning grammar rules and translating from one's own language with the inevitable often horrific results. Taking turns when playing games – many students don’t know when it’s their turn and the others like to ‘wake them up’ but telling them so: I insist they use English, thereby practicing their pronouns at the same time! Here is another chant for them to remember the expression. You can download the worksheets to the chants below. Hope it's useful! Susan
 Chants are a very repetitive way of embedding expressions in the brain so that they become second-nature and just 'sound right' without having to resort to learning grammar rules and translating from one's own language with the inevitable often horrific results. I have been setting expressions to music and rhythmic chants for decades with excellent results. LISTEN TO ME. and GO TO are two expressions which are constantly wrong in my classes - students just cannot remember to use the preposition with these verbs - so I have invented this chant in the hope of fixing these expressions forever!! You can download the worksheets to the song below. Hope it's useful! Susan 
Actions can be practiced easily with a fun miming game.
I like to introduce more complicated actions like “popping a slice of toast into the toaster” by providing two teams with a list of less commonly known expressions in a fun miming game. In this manner whilst they are trying to guess what the action represents, they are continuously scanning the various new expressions on the list thereby fixing them in their memory and using them to find out if the action corresponds. In fact, as the game progresses they become faster and faster proving that they are learning the expressions at the same time. There are a few rules to follow: 1. Each team receives the same lists (but I usually give three different sheets to each team – one per person – so that everybody is involved in the search since not everyone in each team has the same sheet and so they cannot ‘sleep’ as they have to contribute if their teammates haven’t got the expression they are looking for). 2. The person who is going to mime picks an expression (you have previously cut the expressions into strips) out of a bag. 3. The person miming does so for their own team so that they are forced to do it well. The team members ask: "Are you ....ing?" Answer: "Yes, I am. / No, I'm not." 4. If the team guesses the first time they gain 3 points, if they guess the second time they get 2 points and if they guess the third time they only get one point. 5. If they still haven’t guessed the opposite time gets to try for one point. 6. If they don’t guess the original team has a go for one point and they alternate until one team wins the point. 7. Then the opposing team starts miming again for three points… The game is always very popular and fun as well as being effective. You can download the worksheets below. Feel free to delete or translate the Italian into another language. Hope you have fun with it! Susan 
Combining movements to rhythmic chants in order to memorize words and meanings in a FUN way without having to translate has always been popular with children and adults. I invented the DIRECTIONS CHANT for teenagers decades ago and many of my former students still remember them.
Download the VIDEO below to see the movements connected to the DIRECTIONS in the rhythmic CHANT! Try it out and have fun! Susan  GRAMMAR ONE Jennifer Seidl Oxford Univ. Press Children and adults alike have always benefited from combining movements to rhythmic chants in order to memorize words and meanings in a FUN way without having to translate. I have been teaching a PREPOSITION CHANT that I invented for children and decades later I meet former students who still remember them with pleasure.
 Repetitive NURSERY RHYMES with their easy rhythmic tunes and well-known NURSERY TALES lend themselves to SINGING and ACTING: two activities which children love doing!! Many years ago I ADAPTED three NURSERY TALES in increasing difficulty to RECYCLE the most important LANGUAGE we had learnt during the school year. Children loved it and parents enjoyed watching their children's progress. HAVING FUN was another key element to making sure they learnt EXPRESSIONS IN A MEANINGFUL CONTEXT. NURSERY RHYMES can also be ACTED OUT whilst they are being SUNG to consolidate their meaning and enable children to pronounce somewhat complicated sentences to PAVE THEIR WAY TO FLUENCY... Below is the easiest of the three to download with the pronunciation guide as well to help children practise alone at home. In those days children had no other way of practising autonomously. Nowadays I prefer to RECORD AUDIOS of the pronunciations for them TO LISTEN TO REPEATEDLY all collected in a Dropbox folder for easy access. Try it out! Hope you have fun with it! Susan
DO / DOES: INTENSE 3rd PERSON PRACTICE in the Simple Present – a fun game in an engaging context19/6/2015  Despite exam time and last minute end of year activities there are those who are already planning ahead for the new school year and others thinking of summer camp activities to do with their English language students. Even many of my better students have not all grasped using the 's' in the 3rd person singular despite knowing the rule - as always, it has to be practised so that it becomes natural. The following game does just that: It’s the TV SURVEY PART 1: Setting up the game 1. Tell the students to copy the table you will draw on the board onto a piece of paper turned horizontally. (See template to download.) 2. In the first column write the CATEGORY of a TV programme: e.g. CARTOONS 3. In the second column write the NAME of a TV programme: e.g. Tom & Jerry (they can write their own favourite programme here). 4. Ask a student: Do you like .....CARTOONS....? 5. Boy: Yes, I do. / No, I don't. (depending on his preference) 6. Teacher asks another student whilst indicating the first student: Does he like .....CARTOONS....? 7. Student: Yes, he does. / No, he doesn't. (depending on his preference) 8. Now write the next CATEGORY of a TV programme: e.g. DOCUMENTARIES 9. In the second column write the NAME of a TV programme: e.g. NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC (they can write their own favourite programme here). 10. Ask a student: Do you like .....DOCUMENTARIES....? 11. Girl: Yes, I do. / No, I don't. (depending on her preference) 12. Teacher asks another student whilst indicating the first student: Does she like .....CARTOONS....? 13. Student: Yes, she does. / No, she doesn't. (depending on her preference) 14. This phase of completing the table with all the categories and questions should not be drawn out too long - it's the setting up phase for the actual game. PART 2: INTERVIEWING A FRIEND - Pairwork 1. Each student should interview the classmate next to him & mark, in a third column called FRIEND, a tick or cross depending on the friend's preferences by asking: a. Do you like .....CARTOONS....? b. Classmate: Yes, I do. / No, I don't. (depending on his preference) PART 3: THE ACTUAL GAME - here comes the fun part! 1. The class is divided into teams A & B. 2. One team member has 30 seconds to speak about his partner by looking at the ticks & crosses in front of him. 3. He says: She likes... / She doesn't like... as quickly as possible & gains one point for each correctly pronounced sentence. a. The teacher silently counts the points as the student speaks, making sure not to count any such as 'He like...' or 'He don't likes...', which inevitably slip in. 4. The teams take turns until the end of the lesson when the winning team is announced. 5. The aim of this final activity is to give the students intensive practise in pronouncing the third person at speed so as to fix it in their minds, loosen the muscles in their mouths and help it to become second nature. Hope you have fun with it! Susan   Practising the pronunciation of REGULAR VERBS in the SIMPLE PAST is often underestimated due to the fact that everyone concentrates on learning the irregular verbs, deeming regular verbs to be easy. It is only when students read aloud in class that this necessity becomes apparent, often making my very long hair stand on end! As a result many years ago I made up this Simple Past REGULAR VERBS Pronunciation Game which you can download below. 1. First of all I refresh the students' memory by dividing the blackboard into three and distinguishing between the three pronunciations as on the photocopy. 2. We practise all together as I write some examples of verbs in three columns on the board. 3. Depending on the level of the students, I then leave it on the board to consult or rub it off. 4. Now it's time to divide the class into two teams and distribute one set of verbs to one team and a different set of verbs to the other team. NO WRITING is allowed as this is an oral skill to be practised. 5. The first team starts by each reading just one verb in turn until someone makes a mistake. 6. Then the other team reads theirs, just one verb per person until someone makes a mistake. 7. Then the first team STARTS FROM THE BEGINNING OF THE LIST again, but this time with another person reading so as NOT to always have the same people reading the same identical verbs as before. 8. The game proceeds taking turns, ALWAYS STARTING FROM THE TOP OF THE LIST AGAIN, until one team manages to read their list completely with making a mistake! 9. All this repetition helps them to fix the pronunciation in their minds and be more aware of it. 10. If there is time at the end of the lesson we also read "The Story of Willy the Kid" taken from the age-old Streamline Departures, filling in the gaps and pronouncing the verbs correctly (see download). There is also a very nice audio* of it to listen to and we even act it out time-permitting. * LISTEN TO AUDIO https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IxXou87go7Q Hope you have fun with it! Susan
A BOY DOES NOTHING - Alesha Dixon
Songs always bring a breath of fresh air into the classroom and are greeted with joy. I usually try to choose songs, which are not only clear and fairly easy to understand but have meaningful content for language learners such as grammar, phrasal verbs or vocabulary pertinent to what we are studying.
For beginners/elementary students studying the Present Simple Tense I find that THE BOY DOES NOTHING – Alesha Dixon is rather fast and has difficult vocabulary but repetitively stresses the third person singular with a very catchy tune so that the very few gaps they have to fill in with easy words while listening can be easily managed. When checking their comprehension with the words they filled in, I ask them to spell the words so they can practise that too before I write the words on the board. All in all a fun consolidation activity. You can download the worksheets to the song below. Feel free to delete or translate the Italian into another language. Can anyone suggest any other songs for practising the Present Simple Tense? Hope you have fun with it! Susan
If you have problems downloading these files (they work for me but apparently not for everyone) please contact me at Susan@speaklanguagesandtraveltheworld.com - thank you!
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AuthorMy name is Susan Brodar, born in London into a multilingual family and brought up bilingual English / Italian. Archives
December 2018
 
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