Thursday, March 26, 2015

New: Job Satisfaction Vocabulary Activity, Glossary and Discussion Questions

New today on roadtogrammar.com is a Business English vocabulary activity on the topic of job satisfaction. This activity allows students to practise 27 words and is smartphone-friendly. It comes with a glossary and discussion questions.

Activity URL: www.roadtogrammar.com/businessenglish/biz4
Glossary: www.roadtogrammar.com/businessenglish/biz4/glossary.html
Discussion questions: www.roadtogrammar.com/businessenglish/biz4/discussion.html



Wednesday, March 11, 2015

ESL Teaching Resources: Holidays

A new mini-unit has been added to the site, on the topic of 'holidays'. It can be done online or downloaded as a pdf. It is free for teachers to use and distribute with their classes.

The topic begins with a warm-up discussion, and then there is a short quiz to test the students' knowledge of holidays around the world. This is followed by a reading activity on the Indian festival of Diwali. Next, there is a grammar activity, which is a review of the passive voice used in the present simple tense. The examples covered in the grammar section will come up in the listening section, which is on Chinese New Year. The follow-up activities are a class presentation or a writing activity.

The online materials have been designed to work nicely on a smartboard. Students can access the materials on their smartphones, too, including the quizzes and the listening audio. Alternatively, the unit can be downloaded in pdf format, printed out and distributed. (The teacher will still need to log in for the listening clip.)

URL: http://roadtogrammar.com/units/holidays/

Screenshots:




Sunday, March 01, 2015

Something for teachers to think about when asking questions

 Questions must be guided by definite aims. They should be asked:

-- to test a student's preparation (Find out if students did their homework.)

-- arouse interest (Bring them into the lesson by motivating them.)

-- to develop insights (Cause them to see new relationships.)

-- to develop ideals, attitudes and appreciations (Ask questions that cause students to get more than knowledge in the classroom.)

-- to strengthen learning (Review and summarize what is taught.)

-- to stimulate critical thinking (Develop a questioning attitude.)

-- to test achievement of objectives (Check to see if what has been taught "sank in.")

Business English Listening Activities

I have just uploaded a new listening section on Road to Grammar's business English page. It features 20 short conversations suitable for...