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New ESL PowerPoint: Grammar Exercises

8/24/2015

Let’s face it – grammar isn’t the most fun to teach. Your students aren’t excited about it, and you probably aren’t either. That’s why this grammar exercises PowerPoint will help you. Take a look:

ESL Grammar Lessons that Work

As you can see, it’s a gap-fill exercise. What I really like about it, however, are the articles.

Yeah…articles.

That’s what I call those words like “to” “of” at” and other ones like it. You can see them at the top of that slide, and students need to shout out the answer.

The trick is to make it fun. Try dividing your class into teams or small groups and having them shout out the answer or raise their hands. You can put a point system in place and really kill some time. Oh, and students learn grammar too, see:

ESL Grammar Exercises PPT

Fun Grammar PowerPoint for Students

There are lots of ideas with this grammar exercises PowerPoint. It’s 27-slides and with a little copy/paste work and some sentence structures from your book you can make it a lot longer.

It’s $0.99 and I’m sure you’ll improve some English with it…maybe even your own. Get your copy today!

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Hilarious New ESL Action Verbs PowerPoint

8/6/2014

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$0.99

I’ve got a great new ESL PowerPoint for you and I just can’t wait to share it.

It’s about action verbs, and all of these ones are using the progressive tense…or happening now. That means all the words end in “-ing,” which is called a gerund.

But don’t bore the pants off your students with that nonsense. Instead show them these 30 fun pictures that will have them laughing and talking…now!

The Action Verbs PPT starts off simply, with some common verbs and pictures, like drinking…and driving:

After you do that for awhile it might be time to pull over and take a walk, or perhaps go hiking, or if you’re in a part of the world like New Zealand, trekking:

Who knows who you’re going to meet out there, and there’s a good chance they could be a real screwball. That could lead to fighting:

Now, some ESL training centers or schools might not want you to show images like that, perhaps because it makes feel like getting sick:

I just have to throw back my head and laugh to that because I know these words are helpful and used everyday.

In fact, I’m laughing all the way to the bank:

Well, I’m not, but it sounded good. Maybe I will be when you pay $0.99 to get this fun ESL Action Verbs PowerPoint for your own class.

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ESL Adjectives & ESL Verbs Handouts

3/1/2014

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When I taught ESL I did a lot with grammar. To do that I needed lists of words.

So what did I do? Usually I’d type something into Google and get a list that looked about like this:

Of course the lists I got usually weren’t in a nice format like this, and easy to download and print. You can see this one above stretches into 2 pages, but I fixed that for the download below.

Yeah, that’s right, I’m giving you this cool list for free! And I’m also giving you one that’s got 100 ESL Adjectives as well.

Why? Well, because these have been sitting in my “Not Used” folder collecting dust. Perhaps you can find some use for them.

What did I do when I was a teacher? I always had a folder that had lists like this in it, which I carried to class in my ESL teacher’s backpack.

If there was a lull in class, or if I suddenly needed some words for something, this would be easy to pull out and use.

Hopefully you can get some use out of this 100 Common ESL Verbs List and 100 Common ESL Adjectives List.

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Your Very First ESL Lesson: All About You

2/4/2014

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I’ve just released another ESL teaching English book, my 5th.

This book is called Teaching English: 25 ESL PowerPoint Ideas That Get Students Talking.

You can buy it right now on Amazon or Smashwords for $3.99 and it’ll be available on iTunes, Barnes & Noble, Kobo and many other retailers in another week.

So what’s this book about? Well, anyone visiting this site has surely read about some of the wonderful ESL PPTs that are here, and this book talks about 25 of them.

What’s more, there are links to 10 of the ESL PowerPoints, and you can get those for free right here on the site.

Well, if I can get them for free, then why bother buying the book?

It’s a good question, and I figure this way you have all of the information in one place and don’t have to look through the nearly 150 blog posts I have on this site.

There are also many free ESL PowerPoints in the book that aren’t on this site, like the following one about your very first ESL lesson.

That’s right, remember way back when you gave that lousy affair? I mean, if yours was anything like mine, it was rubbish!

That’s why when I went to China my second year abroad I was prepared, and had a great introductory lesson.

You can download the ESL Introductory Lesson that I used (16.5 MB), as well as a template (462 KB) for Your First ESL Lesson right here, both for free!

And here is the chapter from the book:

aLL aBOUT yOU

When you first start teaching ESL you’re going to want to tell your students a bit about you. I did this my first year, and it was just awful. I didn’t even have a PPT, I did it with a crappy Word document!

By the time my second year rolled around I’d learned my lesson, and had a great introductory ESL PowerPoint prepared that told my students all about me, but a whole lot more as well.

You can get this PPT free on my site, and I’ve even made a cool template for you so that you can stick your pictures in there and then just change the text around. That should save you a lot of time, which when you’re just starting out in your new country, you’ll want more of to do fun things, not worry about class.

Let’s go through several of the Introductory Lesson’s slides and see how it can help you.

lAYING dOWN THE LAW

I had a tough time teaching my first year in China. This was partly because my students were young and partly because I had 50 of them in a class. But it was also partly due to my own inexperience and inability to be tough and firm.

I didn’t make that mistake my second year, and the very first slide of this Introductory PPT lays down the rules.

You can see that there are 6 basic rules there, and I had the students read these out loud. In the next slide I went even further.

Here are 6 things I expected from my students. These were grade 7, 8 and 9 students so there were really no excuses for them messing around all the time. And they loved that last point when it came up.

I had a lot more respect from them that year, and I can’t help but think it’s because I was upfront about what I expected, both from them and from myself.

INTRODUCING YOURSELF

After that you’re going to want to introduce yourself. The best way to do this is to talk with the students, but having some basic information for others to read is great.

All students learn differently. Some learn by listening to you talk, others by reading, and still others by watching or doing. Few learn the same way so you have to give them options.

This slide is good because it presents basic info that you or they can read. My students really got a lot of laughs out of the height and weight measurements too.

You’re going to want to talk a bit about your family, and showing pictures is great. Most people in China are quite slim, so if you can get some ‘bigger’ pictures like that of my dad you’ll certainly have some things to talk about for a few minutes.

After that it’s good to talk about where you’re from. I give some basic information and then talk a bit.

See, with your introductory lesson you’re probably going to be doing most of the talking. This isn’t a bad thing. Students are nervous, you’re nervous – it’s good to break the ice. And the more you can make them laugh with your words or pictures, the easier that’ll be.

sHOWING WHERE YOU'RE FROM

In this PPT I have about 5 or 6 pictures of my home state and I suggest you do the same with wherever you’re from.

I like to do full-pictures on most slides, but these half-shots are great because you can add some easy text in there. There are lots of options, and the more pictures you do the more time you’ll kill. Your students will start to get bored, however, if you do too many.

HIGHLIGHTING YOUR EXPERIENCE

If you have previous teaching experience I’d highlight it. I did this PPT my second year teaching ESL so I had quite a few pictures to show my new students of my old students.

If you have pictures of friends back home or jobs you did, these are also good things to put in. And remember, the sillier, or perhaps more embarrassing, the better. Here’s a real doozy from English Week my first year:

sHARING YOUR INTERESTS

Your students will be interested in what you like to do, so you’re going to want to include quite a few slides about that. If you’ve travelled a bit you’ll also want to include information about that.

What’s so great about this Introductory Lesson is that you’ll get a ton of ideas for your later lessons. See, when you get a good reaction from some of your pictures or some of the things you say, make a mental note of that.

Obviously your students are interested when that happens, and that’s the first step in making a good ESL Lesson. I can’t tell you how many times I had bad days because I made lessons on things that I thought were cool but bored them.

The more pictures you show the better. I won’t bore you with all of mine here, but you can see what I did if you check out this PPT on my website.

I did this lesson only one year, my last year in public schools, and it worked well. I got a full week out of it, then did it a bunch the next week with classes I hadn’t had yet. I had it prepared before I even got back to China, so I had lots of time to explore my new area.

I urge you to make your own Introductory Lesson like this one, as your students will love learning about you and it’ll give them an idea of what the PowerPoints in your class are going to be like all year long.

So what are you waiting for? Buy Teaching English today for 24 more awesome ESL PowerPoints!

These PPTs of course work great if you have a big monitor in the room like this one.

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Do You Want Free ESL Jeopardy Games?

1/30/2014

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My ESL students loved playing PowerPoint Jeopardy.

I did it for 5 years, going from simple games to more complex versions. All of these games used an easy Jeopardy PowerPoint Template that you can get online for free. After that you just have to plug your info into 6 different categories.

Today we’ll run through one of the last ESL Jeopardy games I made when I was teaching ESL in China.

This game was for a class of low-level students aged 11 to 13. For many teachers not in China this would be a level you’d find with younger students.

The game was made for students using EF (English First) training center books. That’s why you’ll see that middle category with a picture of some characters – this is the EF story for teens.

Here are the 6 categories I have for this game:

Pictures;
Grammar;
TB (EF Trailblazers Story);
Vocabulary;
Spelling;
World Cities.

This is the standard format I follow with most of my games, except that I usually switch out that last category to something a little different each time. I can keep all those categories the same because this is a template – all I need to do is plug in the appropriate words from the students’ book that week.

I also only use one screen, the one you see above. What that means is I don’t go up to the $1,000 questions. I used to make games that long but found these 30 clues were more than enough for one class, especially when we only play for 20 minutes.

Here are what a few slides look like in the ESL Jeopardy categories.

ESL Jeopardy Pictures Category

Pictures are one of the best ways to get younger and lower-level students talking. Nearly every game will have pictures like this.

This parrot is a pretty easy one, and is a $300 clue. It was a word my students had been studying as we did an animal unit earlier.

Here’s the $400 clue, which most students get wrong. They’ll usually say desert, which I guess could be correct, but we mentioned something with Mars a week or so earlier.

I like to throw fun things in there that make the students groan when they see the answer. It makes it fun for everyone, but especially you. And when you do the same game 5 times you have to be entertained.

ESL Jeopardy Grammar Category

Grammar is a great category, one most students can’t pronounce, and therefore stay away from for most of the game. When they do choose it, however, they find these are some of the easiest questions.

This is the $100 clue and you can see it’s quite easy. I always leave the answer slide blank as the answer could really be anything.

Below is what the $500 clue looks like, which for this level is a little more difficult. I would expect an answer like: “I have a book. I have an elephant.”

Sometimes with this, and with most questions, I’ll let the team give the answer or talk about it so that one person can give it. Usually the class will be divided into two halves. Sometimes if one team doesn’t know I’ll give it over to the other. I never take away points for wrong answers.

ESL Jeopardy TB Story Category

I like to put things into the game that students can find in their book.

Most ESL books will have some kind of story throughout the chapters. This could be similar characters or places or even a theme. Use this to make your games more fun and force students to recall old things.

Here are two slides from this category to give you an idea of what you can do with your ESL student book.

That’s a picture I got from the book and most students don’t remember this short passage about a pen-pal. Some of them might remember seeing the picture, however, so they’ll start to flip through.

These clues are fun to put a time limit on, allowing the other team to guess if the current team can’t find the answer. Always put the page number there in case they don’t find it, and they know you’re not lying.

ESL Jeopardy Vocabulary Category

Vocabulary words are a must for your ESL Jeopardy games. Typically you’ll have a large list of words in the back of the student book. Simply go through and find what works and what doesn’t.

This is another question where I’ll leave the answer slide blank. Here I just want the student to give me a few household items they know, preferably in a sentence. In fact, if they give you a sentence without being asked you might want to give them an extra $100.

It’s always a good idea to put a picture onto your answer slide when you’re doing vocabulary. You want these kids to learn this stuff, and an image only cements those English words into their head more.

This last one is really something that might fit better into the grammar category. I like it because it forces students to say a lot. Here’s a typical answer I’ll accept:

“I always brush my teeth. I usually watch TV. I sometimes go to Hong Kong. I hardly ever eat pizza. I never go to the girl’s WC.”

ESL Jeopardy Spelling Category

Honestly, this is probably one of the worst categories in the game, and let me tell you why.

You have to write out these words before class. If you forget to do it you’re screwed.

I’ve tried shutting the large computer monitor off and then scrolling down to see the answers, but it usually doesn’t work – the students see. I also make so many of these games and have them for set classes that I forget the answers.

If you don’t remember to write down the words you choose, have a book handy or just give out a tough word off the top of your head.

This is also a good category to let the other team have a go at it if one team misses the answer.

ESL Jeopardy World Cities Category

This is another fun picture category that students always love. I start out real easy and always try to have a $500 clue that no one will get.

The London clue is $200 or $300, pretty easy. Students like it a lot and the other team gets angry when it’s something easy. Of course they’re never like that when it’s their turn!

This last one is the $500 clue and hardly anyone in my classes knew it. Act fast because all your students will know Rio come the 2016 Summer Olympics.

I’m Giving These Away for Free…If

Well, you can see that this game is pretty long and pretty fun for students. I’d usually do this at the end of the class, starting when I had about 30 to 40 minutes left. Students liked it, but if I did it too much they got tired of it. Like most ESL activities you need to do keep it fresh, and that requires some planning before.

I can’t sell these games. Well, maybe I could, but I don’t know. First, I’m using this template that I got somewhere else. Second, I can’t sell something with EF pictures in it. Finally, some of those pictures in other categories might be questionable as well.

So that all means that I’ve got to give these PPTs away for free! That’s right, you can have this one for free, and if there’s enough interest I’ll put more on the site.

But that means you have to comment on this post if you’re interested. Just say something like where you’re teaching and how good or bad your classes are.

If enough people do that (10+) I’ll put this game and more out for free – I have about 25 to 30 of them!

Until then, happy teaching!

ESL Jeopardy Game 1 - (Low Level, High)
ESL Jeopardy Game 2 - (Mid Level, Mid)

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Welcome to Your ESL Teaching Adventure!

9/1/2013

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It’s the start of another September, and that means kids around the world are heading back to school. If you’re reading this then there’s a good chance you’re teaching some of those kids as an ESL teacher. No matter where you are in the world or what language your students speak regularly, you’ll find that teaching ESL can be quite challenging.

When I was an ESL teacher, a job I had for 5 years, I always felt that training was never that good. When I first started I didn’t know what to do, and I felt that what I’d been told to do didn’t work too well.

That’s why I made this site, to give you an idea of what you can do in class right now, today. Here are a few easy things to get started:

Student Interviews: Type up about 10 to 20 pieces of paper with things on them. These can be dog, cat, milk, hotdog, TV, teacher, basketball player…whatever. Put your students into pairs and give each pair a piece of paper. They have to decide which student is that thing, and the other has to interview them. Try 5 easy questions to get started. What do you like? Where do you live? What did you do this morning? What do you like to eat? How old are you?

Catch Mistakes: A really simple game or activity you can do right on your first day of class involves the students’ books. Divide the class into teams, maybe 2 to 4. Students will have to select one person from their team, and you will give them a sentence to read from the book. If they read it, they get one point. If another group catches them make a mistake, however (either with pronunciation, grammar, or a missed word) that team will get one point. Students can only read once, so the best person in each group can’t keep going.

Timed Rows: This game is pretty good if you’re teaching ESL in public schools. Students will usually have their desks in long rows, and there’ll be about 5 to 6 of these rows. Either go up or down the row and have a student say a vocabulary word from their book or a list you’ve prepared. The person next to or behind them will then have to say the next word, or even the same word. You’ll time them with a stopwatch to see how long it takes for all the students to say a word. The row that goes the fastest wins.

Hopefully some of those ideas will help you get through your first week or two of teaching ESL. I spent my first week teaching ESL in China, and let me tell you, it was tough. Check out the other great ESL articles on this site, and make sure you take a look at the free files on the English Rocks page. There’re a lot of free ESL resources on this site, so please take advantage of them!

And don’t be afraid to comment on any of these posts. There are thousands of ESL teachers just like you visiting this site each month, if more people share what works and what doesn’t, everyone’ll benefit!

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ESL Games with Dice

3/25/2013

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I love using dice in the ESL classroom, and my students love it too. There’s nothing worse than doing the same old boring grammar, pronunciation, and sentence-building activities and exercises over and over again with little if no variation.

That’s why the last time I came back from the US to China I had a small bag of dice in my suitcase. Now, you can get a lot of 6-sided dice with no problem in China; people gamble on all the beer and whore streets with them all the time. But you may have some troubles getting dice that have more sides, like 10-sided and my favorite, 20-sided dice. Read More...

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Teaching Colors to Young ESL Students

3/17/2013

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Today I had a class of extremely young and low level ESL students, the first time in a while. I was really worried about their behavior, but it was surprisingly fine. And their language skills weren’t that bad either. After all, they could tell me their names when I asked.

The unit that we were doing in the book consisted of colors and numbers, boring fare for any ESL teacher. Well, what was I to do? Not much but roll up my sleeves and get to it.

I quickly came up with a few quick ESL games and ESL activities that I knew would work from experience with even younger learners. All three were really good for teaching colors and numbers and I hope you can get some traction out of them as well.

Dice Roll: The first thing that I came up with on the spot was a ball throw. I put numbers 1 to 6 up on the board and...Read More.

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New ESL PowerPoint: Grammar Exercises

Hilarious New ESL Action Verbs PowerPoint

ESL Adjectives & ESL Verbs Handouts

Your Very First ESL Lesson: All About You

aLL aBOUT yOU

lAYING dOWN THE LAW

INTRODUCING YOURSELF

sHOWING WHERE YOU'RE FROM

HIGHLIGHTING YOUR EXPERIENCE

sHARING YOUR INTERESTS

Do You Want Free ESL Jeopardy Games?

ESL Jeopardy Pictures Category

ESL Jeopardy Grammar Category

ESL Jeopardy TB Story Category

ESL Jeopardy Vocabulary Category

ESL Jeopardy Spelling Category

ESL Jeopardy World Cities Category

I’m Giving These Away for Free…If

Welcome to Your ESL Teaching Adventure!

ESL Games with Dice

Teaching Colors to Young ESL Students

Greg Strandberg

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