ESL Jobs Forum

[lali]

I'm on a refresher course and need to teach something to my peers on the course. I'm thinking about teaching the present continuous. Any ideas, suggestions, material on the best way I could teach it. I don't want to just give them exercise after exercise. I would like to have the students actively using it.

[btownsend]

Hello,

This lends itself to an activity lesson and that's always a good idea because physical involvement is integral to "whole-brain" learning. Have a list of actions for students to mime. Have each student mime the action in front of the class and get the group to shout out he/she's ----ing. Next divide into groups of three or four and have the groups mime something more complicated involving several actions: have the group shout out each action until they arrive at the final stage, for example: they're making an omelette; changing a wheel.

Hope this helps!
_________________
Brenda Townsend Hall, Ph.D.
www.esl-school.com

[fischeredward]

Here's a start regarding the subject matter for present continous. Perhaps someone else can devise actual implementation using groups as Dr. Brenda suggests in an earlier reply. Mime is always useful since body language can become an adjunct to straight verbal communication:

Everyone is familiar with their own bodies and senses. The heart is beating, the heart beats, the ears are hearing, the ears hear, tongues taste, noses smell/breathe/snore, eyes see, etc. Fingers are touching, feet/legs are walking/running/dancing.

Body parts and functions relate to first person experiences that just about anyone can identify with. After the students leave the classroom they are reminded about what they've learned with every breath they take.