Tricky Plural Nouns

Our teaching theme on Sprout English this week is all about the pronunciation of plural nouns. As Tanya pointed out in her recent post, plural endings are tricky. My own son, who is a seven-year-old native English speaker, has difficulty with plural endings. He often ends up tongue-tied when trying to pluralize words that end in “th” (/θ/), such as “months”, or “st” as in “nest”. His tendency is to change the /θ/ to /f/, which is easier to say, or to give the word an /Iz/ ending (nestIZ) rather than the trickier /s/ ending. Helping him work on his pronunciation when the problem comes up (without making a big deal out of it) is my current approach as a parent.

As a teacher, it can be difficult to find time to work one-on-one with kids who are having pronunciation problems. Finding games that the whole class can play is a great way to help individuals without making them feel uncomfortable. One game that can be adapted in a variety of ways is the traditional memory game “In My Suitcase”. In this game, students sit in a circle and take turns adding items (orally) to an invisible suitcase.

I am going on a holiday. In my suitcase I will bring…an alligator.

The second person repeats the first item and adds a second item with the next letter in the alphabet:  (more…)

Are you looking for some fun games to keep your young learners interested in English? This week’s Spotlight features a set of playing cards with animal names and pictures. Tanya has already shared some fun card games to play with Sprout English’s card sets. Here’s another fun game that you can play to introduce or practice using “would”. This game is also useful for practicing comparative adjectives.

How to Play “Animal Battle: Who Would Win?”

This game is similar to “War”, the card game of chance where players face off and try to collect all of the highest cards from their opponents. The difference between “War” and “Animal Battle” is that Sprout’s playing cards have no numbers! Students have to decide who would win in each battle. They have to use comparative adjectives to win the cards. At the end of the session, one student in the class will be declared “King or Queen of the Jungle”.

1. Print 
Print a few sets of Animal Playing Cards from Sprout’s Games Room and divide your class into pairs. (This game could also be done in groups of four where students work as one pair against another pair.) If there is an extra student, ask for a volunteer to be a park ranger. The teacher must also be a park ranger (referee). (more…)

Are you looking for a fun, yet educational, game to play with your English learners on Valentine’s Day? Here’s a Valentine’s-inspired activity for practicing gerunds!

How to Play “Love, Like, Live Without, Loathe”

1) Review
Review the differences between “love” and “like” and review how to use these before a gerund:

• I like eating chocolate.
• I like eating peanut butter.
• I love mixing chocolate and peanut butter.

2) Introduce Vocabulary
Teach your students two more words and expressions: to be able to “live without” (to not need or to not like a lot), and to “loathe” (to really dislike).

• I can live without vegetables.
• I loathe broccoli. (more…)

This week’s Spotlight feature is from our Discovery Center, and it’s all about Food Allergies. Are you doing a unit on Food in your classroom this year? You’ll probably want to teach your students some songs to help them learn all of the basic vocabulary. I’m sure you’ll also read some stories and play some games. Here are some fun and educational videos you may want to use during your unit on Food.

1. Do You Like Broccoli Ice Cream? (song)

Introduce how to express food preferences.
Do you like…? Yes I do. No I don’t.
(more…)

This week’s Spotlight features a lesson plan from our Conversation Station. This section is full of dialogues for English language learners to read, listen to, and practice.

It is useful for learners to practice conversations using ready-made dialogues, and it’s also useful to use authentic dialogues once in while. You can invite speakers into your classroom, or find authentic dialogues on podcasts and videos. We had our own dialogue at Red River Press this week, and we thought students and teachers might find a few different uses for it. Be sure to download the useful document that we are talking about!

What follows is a conversation I had with Red River Press’s editor, Tanya Trusler. You can play this listening file for your class, and see if they can understand the gist.

Possible Follow-up Questions (more…)

“When students say they want to change the world, listen.” ~ Angela Maeirs

Are you doing a unit on Jobs this year in your classroom? Will you be asking your students to talk to you about what they want “to be” when they grow up? What can you as a teacher (or parent) do to support your students’ goals and dreams? Is it your job to encourage kids to have something to “fall back on”, or should you be doing everything in your power to support kids’ passions no matter how wild and wacky their ideas may be?

Here is a video (below) and an article that may help you rethink how you talk to kids about jobs and careers. And check out this TED Talk about fostering creative confidence. (more…)

Who’s the Best?

The Winter Olympics is coming up in Sochi, Russia (Feb 7–23). Are you prepared to be inspired? My own kids always end up competing more when the Olympics is on. They want to jump the highest, sing the loudest, skate the fastest, and stay up the latest. There are usually several different venues at our house. (Paper snowboarding, anyone?) Does this happen in your classroom? Don’t be surprised if the Olympics inspires your students to aim a little higher! (Who sharpened their pencil the longest?)

Reviewing Superlatives

With the Olympics only a few weeks away, it’s the perfect time of year to practice superlatives with your students. It is also a fantastic time to try this week’s Spotlight lesson plan, Achievements and Records. In this lesson, students practice using the simple past tense in conjunction with superlative adjectives. After you’ve tried this lesson plan (or if you’ve recently introduced superlative adjectives with Tanya’s handy chart), try this fun review activity, and consider holding a “superlative-inspired” Student Olympics at your school.

First, brainstorm all of the Winter Olympic sports. Here is the full list in case your students miss any: (more…)

Spotlight Spin-Off

Have you tried Sprout English’s Spotlight lesson this week? In this week’s featured lesson, Andy sets three goals for the future. The new year is the perfect time for practicing the future tense. Play this future tense guessing game after trying this week’s lesson with your students.

1. Reread the story “Andy” from Sprout English’s Library.
2. Review the use and structure of “be going to” + base verb.
3. Have each student take out a pen and a scrap piece of paper.
4. Tell each student to write out three goals for 2014. They should follow the same format as Andy for expressing their future goals (be going to + base verb):

First, I’m going to learn Italian. After that, I’m going to make Italian friends! Finally, I’m going to find an Italian girlfriend!

(more…)

Dear ESL Parents,

Happy New Year! We hope you and your child(ren) enjoyed a nice break from school! Is your family ready to start the new year on the right foot? To get off on the right foot means to make a successful start. Here are some tips for making a successful start to 2014:

1. Set language-learning goals for the whole family. (more…)

Beyond the ABCs

alphabet (noun): It’s time to learn the alphabet. You must know your ABCs by the end of this week.
alphabetical (adjective): The attendance list is in alphabetical order. Find your name and check it off.
alphabetize (verb): Please alphabetize the list of resources you used in your report.

Are your young students or children learning how to alphabetize words or lists? Knowing how to put words and lists in alphabetical order is very useful! After all, we don’t always have a handy “search” field available when we want to find something. Knowing how to alphabetize will help your kids:

• find words in a print dictionary
• find numbers in a phone book
• find CDs in a store
• find books in a library

Teaching Students How to Alphabetize

1. Teach the alphabet.
2. Review the alphabet.
3. Show students how to group a list of words by first letter. (Here is a fun video on alphabetizing that you can show. Or, use the video to see a demonstration of how to teach a lesson on alphabetizing.)
4. Show students how to sort the alphabetized groups by second letter (in alphabetical order), third letter (and more if necessary). Explain what to do when two or more words have the same second letter.
5. Teach students to ignore articles (a, an, the) in titles when alphabetizing lists (such as book or movie titles).
6. Talk about when it’s useful to put things in alphabetical order. (For example: attendance lists.) Talk about the difference between alphabetical order and numerical order.
7. When you are sure your students know how to alphabetize, show them how to do it quickly on a computer (using “sort” or an online tool, such as Alphabetizer).

Alphabetizing Activities

Alphabetizing doesn’t have to be boring! It can be fun! Why not practice alphabetizing with a theme, such as Christmas? (Adjust these activities to whichever theme you are using.) Here are some activities you can try in December:

Alphabetize the Ornaments (more…)