Techniques that work
Spend 5-10 minutes perusing the lessons and techniques on http://iteslj.org/. Are there any techniques you could use in your class? Now think about techniques and methods that you already use in class? What do you do that might benefit other teachers? Have you developed a game or classroom activity? Maybe, you’ve written an entire lesson plan or project, which was not taken from a published source. Write about it.
The techniques on Vocabulary Teaching, Effectve Methodologies was one I think I could use in class. I have in a way or another used similar techniques my own way.
Other similar techniques to writing are relating certain words to a specific situation students have had, have or will have, i.e. relating it to their own experience and giving a concrete example of it.
As about a similar activity, I have done an activity with a song and then did a jigsaw activity to learn the new vocabulary and discuss the meaning they could guess and finally learning the real meaning of new words. I found it helpful, practical.
Excellent point, Lavdim! Anytime you can connect English in the classroom to students experience, you help students learn new words and model how the word can be used.
Out of the techniques I saw I can mention two that I have used, but still am interested on how I could make them more effective and one thing I can do in the future.
The first one is using realia in the EFL classroom. I have practiced this with children classes, and it works very well in having students understand and memorize vocabulary that is highly cultural. The article gives some tips on how to use realia effectively.
The second one is using games in the classroom. I have tried this with children classes too, I wonder how it can work with adults and how the teacher can choose the right games for adult classes and their level of English.
Finally, what I want to try in my EFL classes is teaching study skills. Very often I feel that meny students struggle with studying English because they do not know how to study for ex. grammar or vocabulary.
I read the lesson plan on bringing Gatsby into the EFL classroom, and I find the idea of introducing a literary work into an EFL class very interesting. I have used similar techniques with my students, but with shorter extracts from famous novels, which were read by the students in class. After the reading, students were required to answer questions related to the extract.
I found the methodologies of teaching vocabulary very useful and practical. The methods that I use more often are synonyms and antonyms of the new word. Synonyms and antonyms help students to enrich their vocabulary and provide alternative words instantly in various contexts. I might as well do some kinds of word games, such as crossword puzzles.