Free ESL/EFL resources from the US Govt

Hello,

I keep running across great material through my Master's course.

Case in point, the US State Department's Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs produces material for ESL/EFL teachers. It's probably on par with the British Council's work in this area.

They publish a quarterly magazine called "English Teaching Forum" which is chock full of instant communicative lessons. I think they were trying to blend contemporary SLA research and applied linguistics into teacher-friendly formats.

You can order a subscription free or download past issues for free online:
http://exchanges.state.gov/englishteaching/forum-journal.html

It's a little American-centric at times, but still very interesting.

Enjoy the lessons!

Cheers,
Maurice
Voice One Oy
www.voiceone.fi

Brilliant activity resource book for busy teachers

I stumbled across this book while browsing through my favorite bookshop (Amazon.co.uk). What a fantastic book! This book has quickly become one of my favorites. And I say this having a massive library of EFL books at my disposal.

It offers you an extensive and diverse array of communicative activities under four main subject headings: Conversation, Functions, Grammar and Vocabulary. The activities vary from pair work, group work, debates, role plays, brainstorming, and group discussions. Each activity offers anywhere from 5 to 60+ minutes of classroom work. Make your life easier, get this book today!

Enjoy the book!

Cheers,
Maurice
Voice One
www.voiceone.fi

CNBC Business of Innovation: The Future of Work

This week I am posting a video discussion from the excellent program The Business of Innovation with Maria Bartiromo on CNBC. This video deals with the future of work and includes some really amazing guests including among others: James Surowiecki, author of The Wisdom of Crowds; Dwayne Spadlin, CEO of Innocentive; Bruce Bueno De Mesquita, author of The Predictioneer's Game; and Michael Dukakis, former Democratic Governor of Massachusetts.

You can watch the video here or download it for free in iTunes.


The discussion activity can be found here:

Future of Work Video

Enjoy the lesson!

Cheers,
Maurice
www.voiceone.fi

Breaking the Bank - The US Financial Meltdown of 2008

Level: Upper Intermediate to Advanced students

Well, it's been one year since the financial meltdown. If you have banking students as I do, I think it's really worth presenting them with an activity on the collapse of Lehman Brothers.

I'm a bit of a news junkie so I tend to follow links to new and varied sources. The PBS documentary news series - Frontline - is certainly among the best and one of my favorites. They have 83 full-hour documentaries available online. (I've watched at least 20 of them already) The episode regarding the meltdown is called Breaking the Bank which you can find here:

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/breakingthebank/view/


You can get the PBS teacher's guide with discussion questions here:

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/teach/meltdown/meltdown.pdf

Tip: I will sometimes ask students to watch videos for homework and sometimes show them videos in class. You need to gauge whether you think they will actually do the homework or not. Many of my business students are very busy people so it is understandable if they don't manage the time outside of class. However, without putting too much of a point on it, you should always try to encourage them to do more outside of class to expand their contact time with the second language. (And then again, it's often a nice change of pace for students to get to watch the occasional video in class.)

Enjoy the lesson!

Cheers,
Maurice
www.voiceone.fi

Weird Hotel Signs

I adapted this activity from a very funny book called "Broken English Spoken Perfectly" by Stewart Clark. (Edda UK, 2005) The book is a collection of very humorous, often embarassing, English mistakes found in public spaces.  Students will have a good laugh trying to understand and correct these.

You will need to explain some words such as cock (In this case, it should be faucet (AE) or tap (BE). Cock (aka stopcock or stopper) is a precise word used by scientists or chemists for the valve to control liquid flow in lab equipment.)

Weird Hotel Signs


Enjoy the lesson!

Cheers,

Maurice
www.voiceone.fi