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Common TESOL Activities

The document describes some of the most common activities used in TESOL classrooms. It discusses information gap activities, where students share information to fill gaps and complete tasks. A classic example is the jigsaw activity, where students form new groups to share what they learned from different text sections. Cloze passages are also described, where students listen to audio and fill in missing words. Journaling is explained as a way for students to communicate at their own level and explore ideas through writing prompts. Dictation is presented as an activity where students write down what the teacher says to practice listening skills.

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263 views

Common TESOL Activities

The document describes some of the most common activities used in TESOL classrooms. It discusses information gap activities, where students share information to fill gaps and complete tasks. A classic example is the jigsaw activity, where students form new groups to share what they learned from different text sections. Cloze passages are also described, where students listen to audio and fill in missing words. Journaling is explained as a way for students to communicate at their own level and explore ideas through writing prompts. Dictation is presented as an activity where students write down what the teacher says to practice listening skills.

Uploaded by

chgarcia03
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Part I: Common TESOL Activities

The most common TESOL activities in the modern classroom are quite different from
those of a generation ago. As the communicative approach has grown in both research and
pedagogical approach, teachers have continued to discover ways to make the classroom a
place of excitement and learning.
The following activities were chosen not only because they are common to the field, but
because they elicit the kinds of language production that communicative teachers are
looking for. These activities tend to cross over the range of student possibilities, meaning
that activities can be adapted for all students, from beginning to advanced, and from
children to adults. This does not mean that every activity is necessarily an appropriate
activity in the context that you find yourself. However, by reading through these activities,
you are encouraged to explore how you might use and modify at least some of these
activities so that you are more successful in your English classroom.

100 TESOL Activities for Teachers

Top Ten TESOL Activities


1. Information Gap
Information gap is a term used to describe a variety of language activities with one common
feature. In essence, an information gap activity uses as its premise the idea that one
person or group of people has information that others do not have. Thus, the point of an
information gap activity is to have people interact with each other in an attempt to find all
the missing information. For example, imagine that one student has a map with all of
the rivers labeled, but all the mountains are unlabeled. Another student has a map with
all of the mountains labeled, but not the rivers. A teacher could invite students to share
information with each other in pairs with only one simple rule: students with the river
map are not allowed to look at the mountain map, and students with the mountain map
are not allowed to look at the river map. They must complete their maps with both rivers
and mountains by talking with each other and asking questions. This kind of information
sharing is referred to as information gap, and has become a common TESOL technique all
over the world.
Here is another simple example. A teacher assigns 10 questions on a piece of paper to
student A. Student B is not allowed to view this paper. In contrast, student B is given an
article that contains all of the answers to the 10 questions, but student A is not allowed to
view the article. Thus, for students to successfully answer all the questions, Student A must
ask Student B the questions, and Student B must report those answers to Student A.
Throughout this manual, you will find variations on information gap in order to stimulate
conversation. For example, particular information gap activities are:
Im Looking for Someone Who
Interaction Lines
Back to Back Information Gap
Headbands
Reading with Half the Words
2. Classic Jigsaw
Jigsaw is a common TESOL reading activity. There are many variations, but in a classic
jigsaw, a teacher divides a classroom into four groups (A, B, C, and D). A reading is also
divided into four, with one part for each group (so group A reads Part A). The students in
each group must read and take notes on each part of the reading. After each group has
finished reading the assigned section, students form new groups, with one member from
each original group represented (meaning a member of A, B, C, and D all sit down together).
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ShANE DiXON

Students now report information to the members of the new group, and every student
should take notes on each section of the reading. This gives students a chance to serve both
as a reader, a speaker, and a listener, which naturally encourages interaction. Generally,
teachers provide questions that the final group must answer, and should monitor each
group to provide guidance and answer questions.
3. Cloze Passage Exercise

pg.
66

The word cloze is TESOL jargon meaning fill in the blank or missing information.
A cloze passage generally has missing words or phrases in the form of a space
(___________________). Students listen to an audio clip, either recorded or spoken, and
attempt to fill in the blank with the missing information. The cloze passage is a popular
TESOL activity because it gives students an opportunity to listen to a popular song,
conversation, or topic that uses authentic language students can identify with.
Teachers often hand out a sheet or use an overhead with some of the words removed or
altered. The students then listen to the audio and attempt to complete the missing words.
A word bank may be provided, and the audio is generally listened to more than one time.
Students are then asked to offer the answers that they heard, either individually or in
groups. Students in advanced levels can even create cloze passages themselves and, for
example, share favorite songs. See page 33 for an example cloze passage.
4. Journals
Journals are certainly not exclusive to TESOL teachers, but are a powerful way to allow
students to communicate at their own speed and comfort, and in a creative and original
way. A journal can allow students to express their own opinions, daily habits, lifestyle,
tastes and preferences, and so forth. Journals are particularly successful at helping students
open up to language as a real opportunity to share ideas, engage in critical thinking, or
demonstrate a particular language function (For example, if you wanted learners to use the
past tense, you could use the prompt, Write about a past experience that).
Journals are often collected regularly (once a day, twice a week, once a week), and while
there is a variety of debate on the matter, a number of teachers find that journals are a time
to allow students to explore their ideas rather than to express ideas perfectly. In this light,
journals are sometimes not graded in terms of grammatical accuracy, but rather in terms
of content. Conversely, other teachers use journals as a way of measuring language output,
and students are given writing prompts that reflect accuracy as well as content (Example:
Write a paragraph that uses the past perfect. Use vocabulary from the following list.) Those
who focus on form should have explicit instructions.
5. Dictation
Dictation may or may not seem like a communicative activity. Dictation can simply mean,
Write down exactly what I say, and for some teachers, this may seem like an audiolingual
or rote-memorization technique. However, dictation activities are often still used today to
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