danielmartin67

working with song lyrics: true or false

I am not a great fan of gap-filling tasks to go with songs. If what we are intending is to test understanding or train students’ ears, songs do not make the best listening material, as syllables are sometimes oddly lengthened to best suit the phrases. In addition, one has to deal with the actual “backgroundContinue reading “working with song lyrics: true or false”

making students pronounce “-ed”

As a veteran English teacher I still struggle to understand what makes pronunciation of regular -ed difficult for Spanish speakers. I am not sure if this equally applies to speakers of other languages but it makes my ears bleed when a student reads or says “called” (phonemically transcripted as ” ‘kɔ:lɛd “). Why is that?Continue reading “making students pronounce “-ed””

categories game with skeleton texts

Here is a vocabulary-slash-writing activity that is based on the popular game Scattergories. In the unlikely case that you are not familiar with the game itself or the nature of it, play the short video below. And here is how the activity unfolds. Write this on the board (or display on a screen) for theContinue reading “categories game with skeleton texts”

feeling good

Last week I made a wonderful new discovery while I was looking for podcasts to listen to for my daily commute to school. I’m not sure how I stumbled upon it but this is of little matter here. The podcast series in question is BBC Radio 4’s Soul Music, a series of programmes which averageContinue reading “feeling good”

the opposites game

What’s the opposite of “cold”? What’s the opposite of “expensive”? What’s the opposite of “buy”? What’s the opposite of “boy”? Many adjectives and verbs, and even some nouns, have clear opposites but what’s the opposite of “gun”?

The Beatles treasure hunt

This time I am going to make an exception and write about an original and fun-filled activity that does require a fair amount of preparation. Yes, it deviates from the zero or minimal preparation nature of the activities that I blog about but it’s already created for you to try it out and decide ifContinue reading “The Beatles treasure hunt”