Page 360 - Teaching English as a Foreign Language for Dummies 2009

Chapter 23: Ten Ways to Liven Up an English Lesson
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Move Around
A kinaesthetic learner is someone who learns by actions and movement. Although some people just seemed to be wired that way (you know, the fidgeters who are always asking when the next break is), almost everyone benefits by getting out of the chair and shaking off the cobwebs from time to time.
Try to adapt your activities so that they become more physical. Whenever possible, get students to:
✓ Change seats
✓ Stand up
✓ Do pair work (even back to back) ✓ Act things out
Play a Game
Most students, even serious business types are up for a challenge in the form of a game, puzzle or quiz. It makes sense to have an armoury of these at your disposal to use as warmers at the beginning of a lesson, coolers at the end or just to break things up when the atmosphere has become rather flat. Another approach is to see how you can turn your existing lesson material into something more competitive or entertaining by pitting teams against each other, setting time limits and awarding points.
The games and puzzles we native speakers play are often easy to adapt for classroom use. All the children’s games below require speaking in simple statements and no props at all.
✓ Simon says: In this game one person gives orders such as ‘Simon says touch your toes’. However, you don’t follow the order unless the speaker first says ‘Simon says’. If you forget and follow the order anyway, you are out of the game.
✓ I spy: This popular game in one in which players take it in turns to secretly identify something in the room and the letter that the object begins with, for example ‘L’ for lamp. You then say, ‘I spy with my little eye something beginning with . . . L!’ Then all the other players have to guess what the thing beginning with L is.