16 May 2014 / by Radmila Gurkova

ESL activity lab. Creating functional beginners material - I play!

The purpose of this piece of ESL activity belonging to our activities section for beginners is to introduce the verb 'play'. The previous ESL activity included the verb 'like' as well as 'play' so we removed the verb to like in order to simplify the activity. We introduced 4 Sports which all add something different to the ESL activity - Tennis, the same word used in Spanish, so the Student is comfortable, Football - the most popular Sport in Spain, but introduced to also practice pronunciation as the pronounciation of this word is different. Basketball - because a common error is just saying 'Basket' like the Sport in Spain. Finally Rugby, an increasingly popular Sport in Spain. We are introducing the Sports through positive and negative sentences, the use of questions, and also third person, so we have more layers to the activity rather than just introducing Sports and the verb 'play', but at the same time we are not overloading the student with new structures and vocabulary so we are not confusing the student. We believe with this ESL activity we have found the right balance of content for the student.

Here's our ESL activity for beginner students.























Title: I PLAY!
Objective:
(short)
Introduce the verb to play, using third person, positive, negative sentences and questions, and introduce various sports to students
Intro: Teacher starts by saying: "I play football", and introduces the first attachment (a picture of football player)
Activity: 1. Introduce attachments with words:I PLAY FOOTBALL
I PLAY BASKETBALL
I PLAY TENNIS
I PLAY RUGBY

2. Introduce Positive and Negative sentences with words:

I PLAY FOOTBALL, I DO NOT PLAY TENNIS
I PLAY BASKETBALL, I DO NOT PLAY RUGBY

3. Introduce questions:

WHAT DO YOU PLAY?
I PLAY FOOTBALL
I PLAY BASKETBALL
I PLAY TENNIS
I PLAY RUGBY

4. Introduce third person

WHAT DOES HE PLAY?
HE PLAYS FOOTBALL
HE PLAYS BASKETBALL
WHAT DOES SHE PLAY?
SHE PLAYS BASKETBALL
SHE PLAYS FOOTBALL
Wrap up: Teacher asks what do you play?

17

February 2012
Friday Fun: The History of English #7
by Radmila Gurkova
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c7W7UgFxri8 The history of English series now reaches the first dictionaries. This shows an attempt to control and record the English language by writing the meanings of words in a rather large book. However, as the video demonstrates 'English is a very rich language' and there are always new words being intro...

16

February 2012
January Monthly Quiz
by Radmila Gurkova
You can now test your knowledge with our January Monthly Quiz ...

10

February 2012
Choosing to be homeless..?
by Radmila Gurkova
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KvvjDOtS2sw Becky Blanton was Homeless  - but of her own volition – for one year. She is a journalist but decided, after her father died, to hide from the world, travel and become homeless. She had camped her whole life so thought driving off into the sunset with her dog and cat, in a Chevy van w...

10

February 2012
Language - the endangered species
by Radmila Gurkova
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=McF3CoVHbYM There are 6,500 languages in the world and 3,500 are “endangered”! How many languages can you think of? Every two weeks a unique language dies when the last speakers pass away. Mark Turin is an anthropologist working on language death as an academic linguist and has been living within a...

10

February 2012
When do we add 'ly' ending?
by Radmila Gurkova
Do you know when to add -ly to a word? For example, He walks slow or he walks slowly? Adverbs modify adjectives, verbs, and other adver...

10

February 2012
They eventually learnt English....
by Radmila Gurkova
Adverbs of time: already, still, yet, finally, eventually, soon, last, just We normally use eventually before ver...

10

February 2012
I ALSO agree with you!
by Radmila Gurkova
Also is use...

10

February 2012
I had never seen so many students in one class...
by Radmila Gurkova
PAST Perfect Tense USE: We use the past participle to talk about actions in the p...

10

February 2012
Friday Fun: The History of English #6
by Radmila Gurkova
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ES3qDORQjAA&feature=youtu.be The history of the English language continues with this video that looks at the British Empire and it's effect on the world. Do you know any of the phrases that are mentioned in this video? ...

04

February 2012
Kids really brought their imagination…
by Radmila Gurkova
Kids really brought their imagination… Bring shows movement toward the speaker Can you take me a bottle of water? Incorrect Can you bring me a bottle of water? Correct Bring ----> toward speaker A common mistake for English learning is Bring and Take. They ...