It's game time!!!

Let's play mimics!!!














A pratical game in which students have fun trying to express themselves using a lot of vocabulary in any category choosen by the teacher. For these activity let's combine verbs and adverbs of manner. Suitable for intermediate students on.

Step-by-step:

1- ask the students to write on pieces of paper different verbs expressing action or movement(walk, go, drive, sleep...).
2- Fold the pieces of paper, and put them in a bag or box.
3- Now, ask them to right different adverbs of manner (slowly, carefully, silently...) and put these on another box.
4- Divide the class into 3 or 4 groups and one of the students have to come to the front and play mimics. His/Her group have to guess the sentence that he/she is trying to make.
5- Students have to make complete sentences following the correct position of the verb and adverb.

Attention: You have to bear in mind that some students are very shy and may not want to go to the front and try to make mimics. Try to encourage all of them to participate, but if you feel that some of them will not feel comfortable with it, let them play only as guessers.

Music time!!!

Accidentally in Love Lyrics:

http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/countingcrows/accidentallyinlove.html

This is a fun activity with music and video. The students should be intermediate, and have learnt the comparative form of the adjetives. With this activity, the students will be able to find the adjectives in the comparative form and learn a little more of vacabulary

1- Put the students in groups of 3 or 4
2- Ask them if they have watched the 3 movies of Shrek and which they liked best.
3- Which song or songs do they remember from the movies. It's likely they some of them will remember a song by Counting Crows called "Accidentally in love" but they may not remember the name. In this case, ask them to sing a part of the song.
4- Play the video clip once and ask them to pay attention to the scenes and try to figure out what is going on.
5- Ask them if they remember in which of the three movies they have seem a similar situation.
6- Give them the lyrics and ask them to find all the adjectives used in the comparative form in the song and underline them. (longer, faster, closer, higher, lighter, tighter, brighter)
7 - Ask the students to figure out the meanings of these adjectives.
8- Play the song again and ask them to sing everybody together, the best singer will get a strawberry ice.

Informática Aplicada ao Ensino de Língua Inglesa: a procura por autonomia e colaboração.

Computers have revolucionized the teaching of English and others subjects in many schools and course thoroughout the world. As for the English learning, it makes some activities a lot easier, since you can use computers to play songs, show images and flash cards, power point activities, games and other stuff that makes the visual learners have a better acquisition of the language. As it is becoming so popular in Brazil, several English courses are acquiring computers and E-boards (interactive white boards connect to a projector, making the screen a lot bigger) to make English classes more attractive and fun, increase the interaction among students and make the class more independent on teachers. Some resources like Youtube, Orkut, Podcasts and several other websites can contribute a lot for a fun and modern class. Students are acquiring their own laptops, because they are becoming a lot cheaper. Nowadays, you can get a new laptop for less than R$800. Who knows if one day, teachers will not be needed to English Class, and will be replaced by computers. We hope not, because they will never be able to transfer to the students the passion we have and the passion they need to learn English as we did.

The 21st century English Teacher

Why does learning English have to be so harsh? Why do students have to sacrifice themselves to learn something they don't want to? Why do some English Teacher still think that knowledge is everything they need to be teachers?

The answer to these questions, my fellow reader, is found in old-fashioned English teaching. Speaking English is not part of knowledge, like you learn Geography or Maths, it is an ability just like you learn riding a bike, playing soccer and other activities. People who play soccer well, or play the guitar like professionals, learnt how to do it because they enjoyed what they were doing. Some of them were born with a natural talent to some activities, as others had to train harder to become what they've become. Learning English is just like that, people learn it when they learn to like it, to enjoy it, to feel the passion for it. And that, my fellas, is the mission of an English Teacher. Not to speak properly, to conjugate the irregular verbs in the Past or stop using "because" in questions instead of "why"but simply transfer to them the love and passion we teachers have for it. By doing so, we will help them in their firsts steps like babies learning to walk, after that they can walk by their own free to walk, run or jump wherever they want to go. That's what 21st century teachers have to do.