RESOURCES: GENERAL CONVERSATION : FOOD

This is a topic that most people have an opinion on. Here's a topic that will not only get your students to talk, but will also make you very, very hungry.
We have included a few of world renown dishes in the material, which will make your mouth watery, a quiz on how much you know about foo. Your students will talk about the restaurants they usually visit (their "usuals"). You will get a chance to talk about English food, yes, English food. We'll see how water has become a fashionable item and, of course, we can't go on talking about food without talking about a great cook, Jamie Oliver.
As you can see a really complete overview that will make your students talk and talk about something everybody likes in this country, eating, and eating a lot.
Please leave your comment on how the class went and what you did to improve the dynamics of the material.
You can download the material here.

TEACHER'S TRAINING SESSION 04/02/2011. WE ALL NEED TO GO!

It was about time we had another TTS. So SAT & SET has finally set a date for the first TTS of the year, which will be on Friday, February 4th, 2011. (only Madrid. For Barcelona dates, check with Lissette in our Barcelona offices)

We will be talking about:
1. Is there any other way to introduce grammar, listenings and writing in our classes?
2. What else can I do besides the "usual" stuff?

The main aim of any TTS is to first, share our experience as teachers and second to see if there's anything that can help me improve my classes from other teachers.

So don't miss out on the TTS scheduled for this week. We hope to see you all.

NEW COMPUTER FOR TEACHERS (MADRID)

Finally! We know it took a struggle, but we have a new computer at the teacher's workstation. It's got all the necessary software to make your life a lot easier.
It includes a couple of USB ports to print out whatever material you may have planned for your classes on a pen drive and shortly the computer will include a section on "Listenings" where you will be able to store all the listenings that correspond to the material you're using.

Please make good use of it. If there's any problem with it, please don't hesitate to contact Rohit. He is the only guy in the SAT & SET staff, wearing a tie.

Please don't forget to make your comment.

RESOURCES: MOVIES

Light, camera, action... Movies have proved to be a good source for English learning. Colloquial and fixed phrases flood movies and these are useful in order to make our student's oral expression more natural and accurate.

Here's an activity you can do with your students.

What you'll need is a:

- Laptop computer with internet access

- The worksheet (with instructions and answers)

- Good memory to remember this wonderful BLOG (if not, write it down somewhere for God's sake)

- A group of willing students

Don't forget to download the worksheet from DOWNLOADS SAT & SET. Enjoy!

Here are the links to the excerpts:

EXCERPT 1: (Watch from 1:25-3:57)
EXCERPT 2: (Watch from start to end)
EXCERPT 3: (Warch from start to end)

The song:



THE EXTRA!
Guess who the little girl is:


Guess who one of the blonde boys is:


Guess who this girl is:


Enjoy!

RESOURCES: BOARD GAMES FOR PRESENT PERFECT VS PAST SIMPLE (INTERMEDIATE/UPPER INT)

We all know how difficult it is for our EFL students to distinguish between the use of the Past Simple and the Present Perfect in English, especially because in their native language (Spanish) the "Pretérito Perfecto Compuesto" (which is the Present Perfect) engulfs more details than just a moment of the past which we bring closer to the present so that the event in question doesn't sound as if it were completed long ago in time.

If your students struggle between these two tenses, then this board game provided by ESL Galaxy (http://www.esl-galaxy.com/) might help you in your task of making it clear to students and how these tenses can be activated in their oral expression.

All you need is:

- A dice

- Some tokens from any other board game (better if in different colours)

- Some willing students

All you need to do is follow the instructions as each student rolls the dice.

Don't forget to check out the DOWNLOADS SAT & SET website to download the board game and please don't forget to comment on your experience on this very same post.

RESOURCES: SONGS

How can songs help in our EFL classroom?

Songs have been part of the human experience for as long as we can remember. As a great showman once stated, adults sing at religious services, bars, in the shower, and listening to the car radio. Songs have become an integral part of our language experience, and if used in coordination with a language lesson they can be of great value. Fortunately, with the expanding prevalence of the Internet and specifically the World Wide Web into both the classrooms and lives of students, access to music and lyrics has been made easier.

there is also a linguistic reason for using songs in the classroom. Some songs are excellent examples of colloquial English, that is, the language of informal conversation. A song such as "My Best Was Never Good Enough" by Bruce Springsteen is a prime example of a song that demonstrates colloquial language use. This song is full of phrases like "Every cloud has a silver lining." and "Every dog has his day. " Of course, the majority of language most ESL students will encounter is in fact informal. Using songs can prepare students for the genuine language they will be faced with.


Finally, two studies investigated the prevalence of pop music in the lives of EFL students. Both studies found that music is often the major source of English outside of the classroom. The exposure to authentic English is an important factor in promoting language learning. It relates directly to both the affective filter and automaticity. If students are exposed to songs which they enjoy, more learning is likely to occur since they may seek out the music outside of the classroom. The repetitive style of songs then helps to promote automatization of colloquial language.

So if there's ever an occassion where you can't get your students to learn something the usual way, try using a song instead, you might be surprised.

Tell us any experience with the use of songs that you've gone through that you found particulalrly revealing or interesting.
Check out our brand new DOWNLOADS WEBSITE, and click on DOWNLOADS to download the worksheets for songs and you can watch the video clip right below.
Please don't forget to comment.

10 THINGS I NEED TO DO AS AN EFL TEACHER

1. I have to find out what an ESL/EFL teacher is. Check it out here.
2. Once I have that figured out I need to know how to make my classes interesting and worhtwhile. We'll take a look at this part later.
3. Shorts, swim suits, flip-flops are suitable to go the beach, not to visit multinationals and executives and expect to teach them English. Sadly enough, our appearance does matter.

4. If I have students with different levels in class, you can always mention it to the DOS (Dep. of Studies) and see if something can be done about it. If nothing can be done you can always adapt by providing different material to the students and leveraging conversation by eliciting answers and introducing vocabulary useful in all levels.

5. If you have to teach for an hour, you teach for an hour. You start and end your lessons always on time. If a student's late, as "punishment" you can ask him to tell a story or a joke to the rest of the class.

6. Students feel motivated when we mix different learning areas in our lessons. A little bit of listening, a little of reading, some grammar, some vocabulary and all of this activated in coversation practice.

7. We to correct the mistakes of our students as soon as we can. Some teachers prefer interrupting students and some like correcting after the student has finished. See which one suits you and each student.

8. If your students spend the whole of your class time talking, that's very good, but don't make these classes take place too often, forgetting about the other areas. Your students will appreciate it if you review grammar and vocabulary in class daily.

9. As a fun activity introduce a song or a TV show extract and let the students complete a filling the blank exercise or some questions. Here's an example. Video and worksheet.

10. Remember that whatever you do in class needs to have an aim. There should be a purpose in all you do.