Surveys Writing/Reading Activity: Student surveys   Grammar: Simple present for habitual action   Procedure: Students work in small groups in class, each group creating one survey. (If your school has a computer lab, now’s the time to use it.) to practice the simple present for habitual action. Surveys should include boxes to check which say "always," "sometimes," "rarely," "never." Students then construct sentences (10-15 sentences per survey) around an assigned topic.     Some topics for the simple present are: entertainment, hobbies, music, family, food, sports, and English. As the students are working in small groups, you assist with the writing where necessary. Once the surveys are in final form, you collect and check them. Then, make multiple copies for the next class meeting. Pass out the surveys so that every student gets a copy of every survey. Give the students enough time to respond to all the surveys. Encourage them to ask their classmates who wrote the surveys for clarifications. Once the students have responded to all the surveys, they should meet with their groups again to tally the responses. Each group then gives a short presentation of the results to the whole class.     Source: www.eslpartyland.com January 19, 2005 Advanced Dialogue: Waiting for a Friend Waiting     (husband and wife waiting at 'Joe's Bar and Grill' - later waiter)     Husband: We've been waiting for more than 30 minutes!   Wife: Terry, are you sure you read the directions correctly?     Husband: Do you think I made a mistake?! I'm sure he said Joe's Bar and Grill.   Wife: I wish you had brought the directions with you.     Husband: Well if you hadn't lost them, I would have brought them!   Wife: Now, now, let's not get into that. I told you I put them on the shelf in the hall.     Husband: It's no use worrying about that now. Anyway, what will we be doing this time tomorrow? I'm so excited about getting away on holiday.   Wife: So am I. Just think, this time tomorrow we'll be lying on the beach soaking up the sun.     Husband: No, I'll be sitting at the bar enjoying my Gin and Tonic and reading a good book.   Wife: It's going to be wonderful, isn't it? It's been so long since we last got away.     Husband: Yes ... I wish he were here. I'm getting hungry!   Wife: Why don't you ask that man for help.     Husband: OK (goes up to the man behind the counter) Excuse me, we've been waiting for over a half an hour for a friend. Have you seen anyone looking for somebody?   Waiter: No, I'm afraid I haven't.     Husband: I just don't understand. Our friend is never late.   Waiter: Well, maybe he's at Joe's Pub.     Husband: Joe's Pub?   Waiter: Yes, there's also a Joe's Pub in town. People mix us up all the time!     Husband: Do you think you could give a ring and see if he's there?   Waiter: Certainly, no problem. What's his name?     Husband: Alex.   Waiter: (telephoning) Yes, this is Joe's Bar and Grill. Is there an Alex waiting there? .... (he waits for the other person to ask for Alex) Yes, great. Thanks. Good bye.     Husband: He's there, isn't he?   Waiter: Yes, he's there and he's been waiting for half an hour.     Husband: Oh, no! He's at Joe's Pub! Is there a taxi nearby?   Waiter: Yes, on the corner opposite the church.     Husband: Let's go!   Wife: I wish you had brought those directions!     ------     Multiple Choice Questions     1. The husband _____     forgot the directions.   would have brought the directions if she hadn't lost them.   never had the directions.     2. What will they be doing tomorrow at this time?     Having dinner with their friends.   Be on holiday.   Be at work.     3. How long have they been waiting?     Not long   For more than a half an hour   For a few minutes     4. Their friend is:     often late.   sometimes late.   never late.     5. Where's their friend?     At Joe's Pub   At Joe's Bar and Grill   At Joe's house     6. Where are they?     At Joe's Pub   At Joe's Bar and Grill   At Joe's house       Waiting     (husband and wife waiting at 'Joe's Bar and Grill' - later waiter)     Husband: We've been waiting for more than 30 minutes!   Wife: Terry, are you sure you read the directions correctly?     Husband: Do you think I made a mistake?! I'm sure he said Joe's Bar and Grill.   Wife: I wish you had brought the directions with you.     Husband: Well if you hadn't lost them, I would have brought them!   Wife: Now, now, let's not get into that. I told you I put them on the shelf in the hall.     Husband: It's no use worrying about that now. Anyway, what will be doing this time tomorrow? I'm so excited about getting away on holiday.   Wife: So am I. Just think, this time tomorrow we'll be lying on the beach soaking up the sun.     Husband: No, I'll be sitting at the bar enjoying my Gin and Tonic and reading a good book.   Wife: It's going to be wonderful, isn't it? It's been so long since we last got away.     Husband: Yes ... I wish he were here. I'm getting hungry!   Wife: Why don't you ask that man for help.     Husband: OK (goes up to the man behind the counter) Excuse me, we've been waiting for over a half an hour for a friend. Have you seen anyone looking for somebody?   Waiter: No, I'm afraid I haven't.     Husband: I just don't understand our friend is never late.   Waiter: Well, maybe he's at Joe's Pub.     Husband: Joe's Pub?   Waiter: Yes, there's also a Joe's Pub in town. People mix us up all the time!     Husband: Do you think you could give a ring and see if he's there?   Waiter: Certainly, no problem. What's his name?     Husband: Alex.   Waiter: (telephoning) Yes, this is Joe's Bar and Grill. Is there an Alex waiting there? .... (he waits for the other person to ask for Alex) Yes, great. Thanks. Good bye.     Husband: He's there, isn't he?   Waiter: Yes, he's there and he's been waiting for half an hour.     Husband: Oh, no! He's at Joe's Pub! Is there a taxi nearby?   Waiter: Yes, on the corner opposite the church.     Husband: Let's go!   Wife: I wish you had brought those directions!     ------     Multiple Choice Questions     1. The husband _____     forgot the directions.   would have brought the directions if she hadn't lost them.   never had the directions.     2. What will they be doing tomorrow at this time?     Having dinner with their friends.   Be on holiday.   Be at work.     3. How long have they been waiting?     Not long   For more than a half an hour   For a few minutes     4. Their friend is:     often late.   sometimes late.   never late.     5. Where's their friend?     At Joe's Pub   At Joe's Bar and Grill   At Joe's house     6. Where are they?     At Joe's Pub   At Joe's Bar and Grill   At Joe's house     Waiting     (husband and wife waiting at 'Joe's Bar and Grill' - later waiter)     Husband: We've been waiting for more than 30 minutes!   Wife: Terry, are you sure you read the directions correctly?     Husband: Do you think I made a mistake?! I'm sure he said Joe's Bar and Grill.   Wife: I wish you had brought the directions with you.     Husband: Well if you hadn't lost them, I would have brought them!   Wife: Now, now, let's not get into that. I told you I put them on the shelf in the hall.     Husband: It's no use worrying about that now. Anyway, what will be doing this time tomorrow? I'm so excited about getting away on holiday.   Wife: So am I. Just think, this time tomorrow we'll be lying on the beach soaking up the sun.     Husband: No, I'll be sitting at the bar enjoying my Gin and Tonic and reading a good book.   Wife: It's going to be wonderful, isn't it? It's been so long since we last got away.     Husband: Yes ... I wish he were here. I'm getting hungry!   Wife: Why don't you ask that man for help.     Husband: OK (goes up to the man behind the counter) Excuse me, we've been waiting for over a half an hour for a friend. Have you seen anyone looking for somebody?   Waiter: No, I'm afraid I haven't.     Husband: I just don't understand our friend is never late.   Waiter: Well, maybe he's at Joe's Pub.     Husband: Joe's Pub?   Waiter: Yes, there's also a Joe's Pub in town. People mix us up all the time!     Husband: Do you think you could give a ring and see if he's there?   Waiter: Certainly, no problem. What's his name?     Husband: Alex.   Waiter: (telephoning) Yes, this is Joe's Bar and Grill. Is there an Alex waiting there? .... (he waits for the other person to ask for Alex) Yes, great. Thanks. Good bye.     Husband: He's there, isn't he?   Waiter: Yes, he's there and he's been waiting for half an hour.     Husband: Oh, no! He's at Joe's Pub! Is there a taxi nearby?   Waiter: Yes, on the corner opposite the church.     Husband: Let's go!   Wife: I wish you had brought those directions!     ------     Multiple Choice Questions     1. The husband _____     forgot the directions.   would have brought the directions if she hadn't lost them.   never had the directions.     2. What will they be doing tomorrow at this time?     Having dinner with their friends.   Be on holiday.   Be at work.     3. How long have they been waiting?     Not long   For more than a half an hour   For a few minutes     4. Their friend is:     often late.   sometimes late.   never late.     5. Where's their friend?     At Joe's Pub   At Joe's Bar and Grill   At Joe's house     6. Where are they?     At Joe's Pub   At Joe's Bar and Grill   At Joe's house     From Kenneth Beare,   Your Guide to English as 2nd Language.     Source: http://esl.miningco.com/od/advancedreadingskills/a/d_waiting.htm   January 16, 2005 A Fun Reading Comprehension Activity     Many EFL teachers are familiar with the type of reading comprehension exercise in which students are required to read the passage and then answer a set of multiple-choice questions. No matter how hard you may try to make this type of reading fun and comprehensible to the learners by brainstorming activities or drawing flowers on the board, you know that, after a while, you may end up with a boring reading class in which your students are not 'reading for comprehension', not 'enjoying themselves', not 'learning new words in context', not 'practicing their grammar', and not 'involved in a communicative and interactive learning activity'. Does all of this sound familiar. If so, you can achieve all of the above and maybe more with this very simple, easy-to-prepare activity.     Preparation   Find an interesting text, which you think may appeal to most of your students such as a joke from a magazine, a brochure about Disneyland, or anything that is colorful and fun. Then, type that passage on a page using large margins so that the text itself is not spread from one end to the other but rather it is squeezed up into a thin column.   Make enough copies to go around and then grab a pair of scissors as you go to class.     In Class   After you tell your students you want them to read a passage and probably after a few groans and long faces here and there, in front of the whole class - now comes the fun part- take out the papers and the scissors. Even the sight of the scissors will signal to the students that they will be doing something different that day. Then, cut along a line so that the last one or two words at the end of each line are cut off.   Hand out the papers and ask the students to read the text and try to find the missing word(s) for about five minutes. You can tell them to work in pairs or groups and discuss it. They will engage in a true communicative negotiation while they are attempting to prove to the others that what they have come up with as the answer is correct. After you let them work for a while, you will hear the words they have found. You will be amazed to find out how creative they may become when they shout out words that are not the originals but are quite correct as alternatives.     Let's see what kind of language skills all this involves.     First, they will be reading for comprehension.   Second, they will have to think of words/phrases, which calls for both their passive and active vocabulary stocks.   Third, they will also have to practice their spelling.   Fourth, they will absolutely use their grammar knowledge since they will need to know the parts of speech to guess the words.   Fifth, they will practice speaking and listening while they are discussing in pairs and will have the opportunity to learn the different ways that others reason things.     Level   Perhaps the second best point about this activity, other than the fact that you combine very different skills of language learning within one simple task, may be that you can easily adapt it to the needs of different levels.   If you have beginners, you may pick up an easy passage and you cut out only one word or maybe half off the end of the lines. With more proficient learners, not only will you choose more advanced texts but also you may leave out more words or perhaps half of the sentences, which will bring more challenge and require more creativity as well as a much better command of the language.       Options   A writing component may be added. If you also cut out the last two or three sentences at the end of the passage, you may assign the students to complete the rest at home using their imagination. You may do this activity for 10 minutes at the end of the class time which allows you to finish up with something fun and wholesome or you may spend one complete class hour on it for a full-length reading class.     Conclusion   As with all language learning tasks out there, you must give it a try in your classes before you make the necessary changes according to the specific needs and attitudes of your own students.     From: Mehmet Ali Akgün   makgun [at] indiana.edu   Personal Info   Mehmet Ali Akgün has taught EFL in Turkey and is currently in the Ph.D. program in Language Education at Indiana University, Bloomington.     Source: http://iteslj.org/Lessons/Akgun-ReadingComp.html January 15, 2005 The Newspaper Scavenger Hunt   The newspaper scavenger hunt is a good reading exercise which familiarizes students with the format of local English newspapers. It is also a fun way to practice scanning and skimming reading skills. Additionally, students will become aware of important news events.     When making a scavenger hunt, decide on the level of difficulty that you want your students to encounter, and choose appropriately. You might also take into consideration which news events or sections of the newspaper are of interest to your students, as well as any possible follow up activities to the scavenger hunt. Scavenger hunts can also be made with novels, short stories, phone books, and many other texts. The following is an example of a scavenger hunt made with The Japan Times.     Easy Level   1. How much is the newspaper?   2. What are the names of the comic strips?     3. What is the weather forecast for today in Tokyo?     4. What sports are shown in photographs?     5. What is the name of an author who is "singing like a caged bird?"     6. What is the name of the world`s longest suspension bridge?       A Little More Difficult Level   7. Who will marry in Barcelona?   8. How much are llama vests selling for in Vermont?     9. What is causing forests to loose public support?     10. What TV program is on at 8:54 on channel 5 in Nagoya?     11. Why are Singaporeans eating birds` nest soup?       More Difficult   12. How much beef did Nebraska export to South Korea last year?   13. What percent of schools in Japan have access to the internet?     14. What is your opinion of a speech made by an Australian at the United Nations?     15. Paraphrase the main idea of the explanation given by the Ministry of Education to explain why children do not think for themselves?     From: Greg Goodmacher   source: goodgreg-kwassui.ac.jp   Kwassui College (Nagasaki, Japan)       --------------------------------------------------------------------------------   The Internet TESL Journal, Vol. III, No. 11, November 1997   http://iteslj.org/ January 15, 2005 Teaching the English Newspaper Effectively Many Japanese students would like to read English newspapers, but they find it too difficult, in part because they do not know enough about the conventions of newspapers and newspaper articles. Since the early 1980s, I have been teaching students how to read newspapers. As a result of the lessons students became interested in reading newspapers and could learn to read them independently using a dictionary.     For this series of lessons, I developed materials to introduce English newspapers and exercises to help students understand newspapers (Kitao & Kitao, 1989; Kitao & Kitao, 1991; Kitao & Kitao, 1992). The following is a list of basic areas I cover in these lessons and a review test that I devised to help students identify the concepts they had been learning.     Importance of Reading English Newspapers   English Newspapers Available in Japan   Organization of English Newspapers   news stories   feature stories   business section   news stories   feature stories   the stock market report   exchange rates for foreign currency   sports section   news stories   feature stories   columns   editorials   Ietters to the editor   reviews   schedules   cultural events   other   comics   classified advertisements   weather reports   Headlines   one- or two-sentence summaries of the article   deletion of short words (articles, "be" verbs, etc.)   verb tenses (different from ordinary use)   abbreviations   short words instead of common longer words   Organization of News Stories   bylines, credit lines, and datelines   arrangement of news articles (inverted pyramid)   leads   Grammar of Newspaper Articles   shorter sentences   omitting relative clauses   using more noun phrases   avoiding using "of" forms and prepositional phrases   Specifying the Source of Information   Objective; Avoiding Writer's Opinions     --------------------------------------------------------------------------------   The following is the review exercises which students do using any copy of an English newspaper, which is included in the teacher's manual of our textbooks.     REVIEW EXERCISES   Year_____Dept._____Number_______ Name_________________   Use a copy of an English newspaper and answer the following questions. If the question is not applicable (for example, if the type of article asked about in the question does not appear on that day). write "NA."     How many pages are there?     How many pages are taken up by news, business, sports, TV and radio schedules, and feature stories?     What is on each page?   -   -   -   -   -   -   -   -   -   -   -   -     What is the most important news story? Where is it? How many columns does it take? What percentage of the page does it take up? Does it have a photo?     What is the second most important news story? Where is it? How many columns does it take? What percentage of the page does it take up? Does it have a photo?     How many news articles are there on the front page? How many of them are domestic news? international news?     Classify the news articles on the front page according to dateline, credit line. and whether they have a byline.   dateline   credit line   with byline / without byline     Where is the index? What page do you find news articles on? business news? radio and TV schedules? sports news?     Where do you find editorials? columns? feature stories? information about the stock market?     Is the editorial reprinted from another newspaper? If so, from what newspaper? When was it originally published?     On what page do you find reviews? What is being reviewed? Is the reviewer Japanese or non-Japanese?     On what page do you find TV and radio schedules? What else do you see on that page?     On what page(s) do you find comics? How many are there?     On what page(s) do you find classified ads? How many are there? What are they about?     On what page(s) do you find letters to the editor? How many are there? Were they written by Japanese or non-Japanese people? If any of the letters were written by non-Japanese people, can you tell what country the writer came from?     On what page(s) do you find reprints of articles? How many are there? What are they about? What publications are they from?     Where do you find international news articles? domestic news articles? How many of each are there?     What are the three largest headlines, in order of size?   a.   b.   c.     Look for examples of headlines with the following characteristics, and fill in the chart with the page number, the headline, and the headline rewritten as a regular sentence.   a. "and" omitted and replaced with a comma     b. a "be" verb omitted     c. a pronoun omitted     d. an article omitted     e. a simple present tense verb that refers to a past event     f. an -ing form of the verb     g. "to" and a verb     h. a past participle used for the passive voice     i. three headlines with abbreviations for names of countries or regions     j. an abbreviation with an apostrophe     k. an abbreviation with a period     1. the name of a capital city used to refer to the government of that country     m. three other abbreviations     n. three short words often used in headlines           Page                Headline                       Regular Sentence   a.     b.     c.     d.     e.     f.     g.     h.     i.     j.     k.     l.     m.     n.     Find three wire services, besides American and Japanese ones. What are they?   a.     b.     c.     Find three articles with bylines. Who wrote the articles?        headline                                         author   a.     b.     c.     Find three articles with datelines outside of Japan and the US. Where did the articles come from? What were the dates?        headline                           place               date   a.     b.     c.     Find leads with the following information:   a. what, who, where, and when     b. what, who, where, and why     c. what, who, where, and how     Find one sentence where a relative pronoun is avoided by putting the noun phrase before the noun it modifies.     Find a sentence where a noun or noun phrase has been substituted for the name of a person or organization, in order to give more information about that person or organization.   a.     b.     Find two examples of sentences where "of" is avoided.   a.     b.     Find a direct and an indirect quote.   a.     b.     How many feature stories are there? Choose five feature articles, and fill out the following chart.      Headline            Topic                  Author(s)   a.     b.     c.     d.     e.       How many sports news or sports feature stories are there? Choose four sports stories and fill out the following chart.       Headline        News or Sport        Japanese or feature?      international?   a.     b.     c.     d.       Where can you find an editorial? What is the topic? Is the topic of local, national, or international interest? What is the editor's position on that issue?     Fill out the chart below with information about the columns that appear in the paper.         Page            Column            Headline          Topic          Author     a.     b.     c.     d.       List the articles on the business page. How many of these are international?     What is the selling price of the yen against the dollar?     What was the Dow Jones average?     How many classified ads do you find? What are they?     Are there any foreign movies or other foreign programs on TV in the Kansai area? What are they? What channel are they on?     What subject is the advice column about? Is the person giving advice Japanese or non-Japanese? What is the advice given?     What topics do you find digests for (news, business, etc.)? How many individual stories are there in each digest?     What else do you find in this newspaper?       --------------------------------------------------------------------------------     List of References   Kitao, K., & Kitao, S. K. (1989). Reading English newspapers. Tokyo: Kirihara Shoten.     Kitao, K., & Kitao, S. K. (1991). Hajimete yomu eiji shinbun [Reading English newspapers for the first time]. Tokyo: Kirihara Shote     Kenji Kitao   Doshisha University (Kyoto, Japan)   k.kitao [at] lancaster.ac.uk   This is an excerpt from "Culture and Communication" (1995) Kyoto: Yamaguchi Shooten.     Writer:   Kenji Kitao received his MA and PhD in TESOL from the University of Kansas. He is a professor at Doshisha University. He is co-author of "Intercultural Communication: Between Japan and the United States", "Hajimete no CAI", "Computer Riyo no Gaikokugo Kyoiku", and numerous English language textbooks.   Source:   Kitao, K., Kitao, S. K., Headrick Miller, J. Carpenter, J. W., & Rinner C. (Eds.). (1995). "Culture and communication". Kyoto: Yamaguchi Shoten. pp. 291-298. ISBN 4-8411-0787-8 C3082     ----------------------------------------------------------------------------     Source: http://iteslj.org/Lessons/Kitao-Newspaper.html January 15, 2005 Encouraging students to read Intermediate +     Every day give your students a short article which might be of interest to them. This will encourage your students to read by simply being more motivating than a text from your coursebook. Simply place the article onto the students’ chairs, say once a week, and give them all some sort of running task, for example, summarising the article for the whole class. It takes a bit of getting to know your students, but this time should pay off as they become better readers.   August 18, 2003 Different newspapers- different perspectives Another useful exercise is to compare the ways in which the same news item is reported in different newspapers- e.g. the Times, the Mail / Express and the Sun / Mirror. Students can answer context questions to gain an impression of what each paper considers important, and look at how much coverage is given, the sort of pictures used, the words and phrases (neutral, sensational, etc), number of phrasal verbs and idiomatic expressions, etc (The list is endless, depending on level).     Katherine Musson, Eastbourne, UK April 11, 2003 Reading - Newspapers Following on from passives [see Grammar Ideas – ed.], you could look at the way newspaper headlines are written, and students could expand the keywords into sentences.   Another thing that works well is to cut an assortment of words from a newspaper and to get the students to work in pairs and use the words to form three different headlines. They then write these headlines on the board. The other students choose a headline that interests them and ask questions "Why, when where, what happened?" etc. and the headline writers explain their story.     Katherine Musson, Eastbourne, UK April 11, 2003 CHOPPED TEXTS level: any, depending on the text. You chop up a text and get the students to put the sections in the right order. However, what can be more difficult is to chop up several texts and mix them up. If you have a word processor, you could make sure all the sections look the same, so that students don’t cheat by matching the cut edges (which often happens!) You could do this before giving your students normal reading comprehension questions, or select and cut the text up in such a way that the text tests a certain structure point. An obvious example would be linking words an expressions. A good source for texts is the Internet, for example news sites. April 11, 2003 NEWSPAPER HUNT level: intermediate + For this you’ll need a few copies of two or three English Language newspapers. Alternatively, you could use three English language websites. Basically you need a newspaper per small group/pair of students. Start with a little pre-teaching of newspaper vocabulary and brainstorming the recent news that might be in the newspaper. Then distribute the newspapers and ask the class to find out what the main stories are, what news is where and so on. This should familiarise the students with the paper. The students task is then to write a certain number of questions for the rest o the group, based on anything in the newspaper, advertisements, articles, editorial;s, anything. The groups then swap papers and answer the questions.     Variations   You can ask the students to only use the front ten pages, or to specify on which page the other group will find the answer to the question. April 11, 2003