324 Part V: What Kind of Class Will I Have?
Pair or group the students up and get them to explain their own stories. Even
if they have to mime to each other they will still enjoy breaking the ice.
Ask the students to reorganise themselves in order of their birthdays (not
age). Now they get a chance to meet someone else.
Guess the numbers
This one is not suitable for beginners because it involves asking questions.
Write some numbers or facts on the board which relate to your life and get
the students to guess what they mean. I sometimes write the number of siblings
in my family or the year I began teaching. You can only answer yes or no to
the students’ questions. Now they can play the same game in pairs/groups.
Names and actions
Try this memory game with a twist with the students in a circle.
Have everyone think of a unique action or gesture – maybe stamping your
left foot. So first of all you say your name and perform your action. The next
person has to say your name, stamp their foot, say their name and perform
their own action. This continues around the circle until the last person has a
nightmare of names and funny moves to recall. It really gets people laughing.
Managing learning
After breaking the ice you need to get on with the day to day business of
teaching your class English.
Speakers of European languages have a distinct advantage over other
students because of the similarities in structure, vocabulary and culture
between their tongue and English. Even amongst European languages there is
the potential for some students to grasp a concept almost immediately while
others take a little longer.
Take the word ‘television’. Although the concept is not at all difficult for the
German speaker, the other nationalities barely have to translate.
✓ Czech: televize
✓ Dutch: televisie
✓ German: Fernsehen
✓ Italian: televisione
