Tips for Teaching ESL to Intermediate Students

by: Robert McKenzie | Total views: 15 | Word Count: 547 | View PDF

Learning a new language is never easy even if you are an intermediate student. For non-native speakers, English may sound so foreign that teachers have to resort to different techniques in order for students to comprehend the lessons. Aside from the standard classroom lectures, teachers could try using other ESL activities, ESL Curriculum and ESL games to make the lessons more interesting. Here are some tips on how teachers can improve English lessons for intermediate students of English as second language:

• Use card games. There are a variety of card games that are suitable for intermediate students. Teachers could use a set of matching cards that contain opposite words or phrasal verbs. For instance, the “Opposites” card set could include words like rough, smooth, shallow, deep, brave, cowardly, enormous, tiny, relaxed, messy and so on. With this game, the students would be able to increase their vocabulary and recognize opposites. While the “Phrasal Verbs” card set could include words like put off, postpone, hold on, wait, carry on, continue and many more. With this game, the students would be able to increase their verb vocabulary and be able to match phrasal verbs with synonyms.

• Use miming games. With this game, each student has to take turns in miming each part of the word. Then the other students would try to guess each constituent of the word. For example, with the word “basketball”, the student has to try to elicit “basket” and then “ball” but cannot mime the whole word by acting as if playing the actual basketball game. This miming game is fun and at the same time very useful in sentence construction and vocabulary recall.

• Use quiz games. Quiz games are ideal for intermediate and advanced students. This includes a set of questions about four general knowledge categories like geography, science, music and sports. The students have to be divided into groups and each group needs to have a quizmaster who would ask the questions to the other group mates, while the rest would try to answer all the questions. Some sample questions are:

For science, “which planet is third from the sun?” The answer is Mars.
For geography, “what is the largest continent?” The answer is Asia.
For sports, “what nationality is the tennis player Roger Federer?” The answer is Swiss.
For music, “how many instruments are there in a string quartet?” The answer is four.

Quiz games like this would be able to help students practice their pronunciation of English words as well as develop their vocabulary and general knowledge too. This is actually a fun way to learn a new language.

• Use word games. There are various word games like crossword, missing word, multiple choice and spelling games that would help develop and test the students vocabulary, grammar, idioms and general knowledge. Being able to answer such challenging questions would also, in effect, improve their self-confidence. Word games can be done either individually or by groups, but group activities are generally much more fun to do.

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About the Author

Robert McKenzie is a teacher and writer. Visit his website for more information about ESL Activities

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