Language Activities for Teenagers

Seth Lindstromberg

An ice-breaker
It is a short activity specifically for use with learners who
do not yet know each other well.
The most obvious purposes of an ice-breaker are to help
people learn each others names and to help students begin
to get acquainted with each other.
A typical ice-breaker will also fulfil most of the aims of
warm up, break and/or closer.
Finally, an ice-breaker will generally enable you to see each
student in action before you embark on other work. This can
be invaluable as a means of getting early notice of learners
likely to need special attention for one reason or another.

A warm-up
is a brief activity to do at the beginning of a lesson for any of the
following reasons:
to get your students attention
to review and recycle previous learning
to help your students get in the mood to work with others
to cheer them up or wake them up if they seem tired or bored
to calm them down if they are over-excited
to introduce the theme of work to follow
to create a buffer period during which latecomers can be
absorbed relatively easily, to make students want to come on time
to encourage a positive attitude towards English
and to help build a feeling of group solidarity

A break
is a brief change of pace or change of
focus activity for the middle of a lesson in
order to signal the boundary between the
two quite different units of work, to
revive learners concentration if it flags
after a long period of doing the same sort
of work, or to change the mood of a class
for one reason or another.

A closer
is a brief activity to do just before the end of a lesson:
to review and summarise what has been covered earlier in
the lesson
to send your students out of class in a good mood
to exercise skills or work on aspects of language that have
been neglected in the lesson so far
to give our students something useful and interesting to do
if they have finished your main activities sooner than you
expected
to provide a sense of closure

Motivating low-proficiency,
poorly motivated students
Two types of low-proficiency students:
1. Some are weak in English because they may
have been learning for a shorter time than their
classmates; or perhaps they have come from
another school where they received insufficient
opportunity to progress or did not get enough
encouragement.
The great majority of students in this group need
lots of attention, but they have a good chance of
catching up if they get adequate attention.

 2. These are students who are weak in

English largely because their motivation is
low.
They attach little importance to all the
reasons for learning that we teachers and
their better motivated classmates can see:
reasons such as gaining knowledge for
qualifications and career, experiencing the
fascination of discovery, and making ones
parents and teachers happy.

 What is it that can make a lesson

interesting for 11 16 year olds, even
ones with low motivation?

1.

A variety is important. A lesson of 45

minutes should consist of at least three
perhaps four to six distinct
components. In some lessons, these
components may be the different stages
of a single overall activity which is long
but varied. In others, they may belong to
two or more separate activities.

2. Activities, and steps that make them

up, should have clearly understood
and achievable goals. Ideally, there
should also be a tangible or at least
observable outcome: a student text,
for example, or a performance.

3. Activities with game-like elements are

usually very good for generating interest.
Such elements include: a degree of
competition (1) and (2) a goal which is
about something other than getting the
language right. One example of this kind
of goal is identifying as may differences
between two pictures as possible within a
short time limit; another is solving a
brainteaser.

4.

A major means of maintaining

interest is use of activities which
require and encourage students to
use the target language for
communication
of
interesting
messages.

5.

Extensive use of non-language

stimuli such as pictures, objects,
mime, music and sound effects is
crucial if your class includes poorly
motivated students.

6. Almost anything you can do to make

classwork personally relevant will help.
If, for instance, you want students to
speak about an object, let it be one that
is special to them for some reason an
object, perhaps, that has sentimental
value or one they use in connection with a
pastime they enjoy.

7. It is always wise to try to discover

what topics are of current interest
to the age group you are teaching
and try to include them, somehow,
in your lessons.

8. Periodic opportunity to move about,

or at least stand and move, is highly
beneficial to students in this age
range and can contribute to keeping
interest up.

9. Humour is important too. Of course,

there is no recipe for this. But if
you create the right sort of
atmosphere and show your sense of
humour as often as you can, more
humour will come from your
students.

10. Finally, occasional surprises can

help keep students interested and
paying attention.