Doubts on English training

[soumya g p]

Dear Sirs
Will you suggest me some warming up activities that can be used before entering into grammar sessions. And I prefer some non-traditional activities one to the traditional ones. Can I have an access on grammar worksheets from your site.

Regards
Soumya

[Tdol]

They're all here and accessible: ESL Teacher Resources - UsingEnglish.com
Also, try here Lesson Plans and Worksheets - ESL Web Directory - UsingEnglish.com

[MaryTeacher]

Hi-

Here is an activity that I used frequently, with students of all levels:

Write words that can be used to make questions on index cards (you can choose verbs, or nouns, for example: do/go/birthday/country etc). Give each student a card. Then they have to move around and find a partner. They then ask the partner a question using the word they have been given. The partner asks his/her question, then they exchange cards and find a new partner.

I liked this activity because it could be used in so many ways. Students can be asked to use a specific grammar structure in the questions. Or you can focus on conversation strategies: students have to greet each other, then ask their question in an appropriate way. You can have each student generate a follow up question based on the response he/she gets from the partner.

It works with multi-level classes too. The lower level students can give short answers, and the higher level students can be encouraged to create a conversation.

At the end of the activity you can get the whole group back together by asking individual students to ask the question to someone in the group. (I used a soft ball: the questioner would have to toss the ball to the person who was to answer the question.)

You can keep your cards once they are made, and you have a ready made activity that can be used many times. It's also great when you are substitute teaching.

I hope my explanation was clear!

Take care,
Mary