Ideas and Activities To Keep Learners Awake In Class!

How to Keep Language Lessons Engaging

Importance of Engagement in Language Learning

• Learning a language can be mentally exhausting, especially at lower levels. Stimulation, variety, and fun are essential for maintaining learner engagement.

• Three key ingredients to keep lessons lively include puzzles, friendly competition, and varied pacing within lessons.

Introduction to Activities

• Jo Conga introduces herself as an experienced English language teacher with 35 years of experience and offers resources on her website emttraining.com.

• She encourages viewers to like and subscribe for more teaching tips and activities shared weekly.

Activity Ideas for Engaging Lessons

1. Memory Game (Kim's Game)

• Show learners a list of words for two minutes; they then reconstruct the list from memory in pairs or breakout rooms.

• This activity enhances spelling skills; adding a challenge by awarding points for correct sentences using each word increases engagement.

2. First Letter Questions

• Learners write personal questions using only the first letter of each word (e.g., "Do you like bananas?" becomes "D Y L B?").

• Partners must decipher the question and respond before swapping roles; this can also be done in small groups for increased interaction.

3. Fast Five Activity

• In pairs, learners have 30 seconds to list five unique items from a chosen category (e.g., animals or food).

• Points are awarded for unique answers that differ from other teams' responses; this activity works well both physically and online with shared documents.

Conclusion

• These three engaging activities aim to keep learners awake, thinking critically, and enjoying their learning experience while practicing language skills.