But what about activities such as role play, which require interaction? Giving up on doing them would be a shame as they’re a perfect way for ESL teachers to ease students’ transition into using English in real-world situations.
One possible way of including them in a one-to-one class would be by dividing the roles (teacher: employer, student: employee) and recording the role play using a mobile phone. Once it’s finished, you can listen to the recording together and analyse the mistakes (one time you may want to focus on pronunciation, another time on grammar). Make it more memorable by letting your student try and identify their own mistakes first.
Apart from being fun and motivating, group activities appeal to many ESL instructors because they broaden the world of the classroom and allow students to rehearse situations they’re likely to experience in the outside world. Implementing this ‘real-life’ context in our one-to-one classes is also possible (and extremely important!). Here is how to do it:
If your student is quite confident, you could ask them to make phone calls to real places and put into practice what they’ve learnt (this could include making an enquiry about a hotel room, feeding times at the zoo, or even asking a restaurant about their menu). Do it during your class and note down their mistakes while they speak.
If they don’t feel ready to talk to strangers yet, switch off your Zoom video and simulate a phone call. It’ll be less stressful, but at the same time, more challenging than what they’re used to.
If your student has friends or relatives who speak English, you could ask them to record an interview/conversation with them as homework (putting into practice the language you worked on in class), then listen to the recording together and comment on strengths and weaknesses.
Occasionally, you may want to arrange a ‘surprise call’ and ask a fellow teacher to join your Zoom meeting and talk to your student for a few minutes. Choose a topic beforehand (e.g. ask your student to prepare a few questions about the guest’s job, or make it a debate) and then take a back seat in the conversation and take notes. Afterwards, let your student reflect on the task, ask them how they felt, what caused problems and give them advice. This could be a great activity to help your student understand different accents, parts of speech (ums, ahhs and other fillers), and just hear English being used naturally.
Experimenting with new ideas and adding variety to your one-to-one classes is always worth it, but don’t forget that being sensitive to your student’s needs and their personal preferences is far more important. Reduce your teacher talk and create opportunities for them to speak English as much as possible. At the same time, choose your activities carefully, prioritising a relaxed environment in which your student feels comfortable and confident enough to produce the language.
With access to hundreds of ESL Brains lesson plans, you have the tools to provide an extraordinary learning experience to your students. Make sure you always find the lessons you need making the most of the website features.
Click Lesson Plans on the top of the page. This is where you can see lessons grouped by Level, Category and Subscription plan. Choose one of the options there or select ‘See all lessons’ to get to the main search page.
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Not sure what you’re looking for? No problem! Scroll down the homepage to find Topics and click ‘See all topics’. These will give you some lesson inspiration. Use topics like Cinema or Sports to find a lesson your students might be interested in. If you feel they need to practise some linguistic area, you will also find topics like Phrasal Verbs or Conditional Sentences. You can also choose lessons with a specific type of task, like Games and Role Plays or Debates.
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Hi, I have a question. Considering I have an A2 student, is there a recomended order for classes? Something like a Coursebook table of contents so that I don’t have to keep looking for what to do next?
ESL LessonsHello! At this point, there’re no recommended flow of lessons or ready-to-use courses for a given level. We’re thinking about creating such courses, but for now you must decide yourself what your student’s needs are and select the lesson order yourself.
Remembering irregular verb forms, and using them, is not an easy task. While memorizing long columns of verbs might be useful, many students don’t like the idea of learning things by heart. Some even loathe it. And those who decide to take up the challenge will still need to practise the verbs in the classroom. And then practise some more. Here are some ways of working with irregular verbs that will help your students remember them once and for all.
This activity is much more fun than simply eliciting irregular verb forms. Use it instead of asking ‘What’s the Past Simple form of run?’-type of questions, as it will introduce extra challenge and excitement. It will also make your students think in English.
Ask students to come up with words or phrases that fit each of the situations. They should write them down in random order. When they are ready, make sure they can’t see the situations any more (cover the list or stop sharing the screen). Then, in pairs or groups, ask students to guess which answer belongs to which situation by recalling what the situations were. The guessing part will go like this:
To help your students practise Past Simple forms more freely, ask them to tell stories. Tasks based around stories can vary in length and challenge, so it is probably best to start with easier, more controlled activities.
One of the ESL Brains lessons that deals with irregular verbs is the pre-intermediate lesson Kindness means everything. Your students will create a story based on an animated video. The lesson, however, mostly offers controlled practice of Past Simple. So after using it with your students, provide them with more free speaking practice, which you can do in two ways:
Use other animated videos (like this one or this one) and ask students to tell the stories using their own words. Play the videos in parts and ask students to tell each other the parts in pairs. They can then repeat the whole story after they’ve watched the entire video. You can provide students with some irregular verbs or leave the choice of verbs up to them if you think they are ready for it.
Come up with words or pictures of characters or objects and ask students to tell a story using them. The funnier the words, the better. See what story your students come up with using the following words: eyebrow, Christmas tree, cloud, disgusting, uncomfortable chair, architecture student. If they struggle with ideas, give them some prompts, e.g. ‘Why was the uncomfortable chair a problem?’, ‘Whose Christmas tree was it?’ They will get better at it with the second and the third stories.
