Get MOVING in EFL (aka YAY for TPR)

Throughout this blog I discuss different ways to use TPR in the your English class. Essentially TPR (Total physical response) is a technique which is often used with EFL students. Students are taught to associate an action with a word or phrase.

Asher's book

HISTORY 1965 James Asher basically said, "Hey! I am sure that we can get students to actually move around and have less stress in class." What he came up with was having students move to show comprehension. You can check out more TPR World or language impact for more background information.


Even though the basis for TPR in EFL started over 30 years ago there is still a bounty of current research being done to support using actions with language teaching. One of my favorites to direct people to is an article published by New Scientist in January of 2012 which discusses a study where 20 students enrolled in a 6 day course to learn a fake language. Half of the content was taught using traditional (spoken and written) techniques and the other half was taught with each word having a body movement. The students did better at learning the information that was taught with motions! Keep in mind that this worked for all words, not just words with a clear motion. That is to say, this technique worked as well for actions like run as it did for words like however or rather. The study goes onto cite functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) scans as well which seem to show that the actions help by creating a more "complex representation of the word that makes it more easily retrieved." You can read the actual study via the onine library if that interests you.


Now that you know a bit of what it is, let's check out how to use it:

Poor Joe, he has no....

Games

• Simon Says- Usually body parts and actions but you could get specific with adjectives. "Simon says jump up and down quickly."
• Charades- Usually this is done when a student is given a word and they have to act it out. Great with verbs, but don't be afraid to do this with nouns or adjectives. You can make it more complicated by giving them an entire sentence!
• Oh No Poor Joe- If you play with students covering the part that's missing this is great TPR for body parts.

Make a fortune teller!

Activities

• Make a box with your students! Directions (Top, Bottom, Left, Right, Middle), Actions (Kick, Throw, Fold, Unfold, Meet) Nouns (Invitation, Door) Adjectives (Locked, Unlocked)
• Make a fortune teller. Locations (Center, Corner, Left, Right) Actions (Cur, Flip, Fold, Unfold) 
• Tell a story while they draw or act it out Draw and Tell story.

Songs
Find a song (or make one for your EFL class)

• Traditional Kids Somgs (Great for younger EFL students)

• Teddy Bear Teddy Bear- Directions (Turn Around) Actions (Touch, Jump) 
• Hokey Pokey- Body Parts (All!) Actions (Put your)
• Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes- Body Parts (Head, Shoulders, Knees, Toes, Eyes, Ears, Mouth, Nose)
• Songs I've adjusted to use with my EFL students:
• Sweet Little Bunny For Animals, Body Parts, and Adjectives
• Open them Shut them For Opposites, or Verbs- 
• Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes with Clothes! Clothing (Hat, Jacket, Trousers, Shoes, Glasses, Ear Muffs, Scarf, Glove)
• Macerena I change this to teach prepositions (Above, Above, Below, Below,  Across, Across, Atop, Atop, Beside, Beside, Down, Down, Around, Around)
• Songs which I use, "as is" to practice the words they use.

The video has 15 songs you can use (but probably not at once)! 

• Bounce, Rock, Roll, Skate- Actions (Bounce, Rock, Roll, Skate)
• Cha Cha Slide Directions (Left, Right, Back, On, Low, Top), Verbs (Turn, Slide, Criss-Cross, Clap, Stomp, Reverse, Freeze, Hop), Numbers (One, Two, Five), Body Parts (Hands, Knees, Foot), Adverbs (Again)
• Cupid Shuffle Directions (Right, Left) Verbs (Kick)
• Da Dip- Actions (Dip) Possessive Pronoun (My, Your)
• Dancing in Heaven- Adjectives (Slow, Quick)
• Do the BartMan- Actions (Move, Shake, Sitting) Directions (Front to back, To the side) Body Parts (Hips) 
• Harlem Shake- Actions (Move) Directions (Left, Right) Adjectives (Fast)
• Hoedown Throwdown- Actions (Glide, Jump, Pop, Lean, Lock, Shake, Shuffle, Stick )  Adjectives (Polka Dot, Zig zag) Nouns (Hawk, Sky) Body Parts (Hands, Head, Hips, One Footed, Toe) Directions (180 twist, Diagonal, In, Left, On, Side to side)
• Locomotion Directions (Up, Back), Body Parts (Hips), Actions (Swing, Jump)
• Mambo #5-Actions (Jump, Move, Put, Clap) Body Parts (Hands)
• Men in Black- Actions (Bounce, Freeze, Slide, Walk) Body Parts (Neck)
• Peppermint Twist Directions: (Round, Up, Down) Actions (Jump, Kick)
• Stanky Leg- Actions (Bounce,Drop, Lean, Shake, Show, Slide, Snap, Stick, Stop, Switch, Wipe) Body Parts (Feet, Fingers, Leg, Shoulders) Adjectives (Low,  Right ) Clothing (Socks)
• The Bunny Hop Directions (Left, Right, Forward, Out) Body Parts (Foot), Actions (Put, Hop) I add a "Backwards and a forwards hop hop hop" to get a bit more vocab. 
• The Time Warp  Directions (Left, Right), Body Parts (Hands, Hips, Knees, Pelvis), Verbs- (Jump, Step, Thrust)
• The Superman Tons of verbs / commands (Sleep, Wave, Hitch a ride, Sneeze, Walk, Swim, Ski, Spray, Blow your Horn, Ring the Bell, Kiss, Comb your Hair, Give a wave, Bend your Knees, Faster, Louder)
• Usher's UTurn Directions (Put your hands up, Circle) Verbs (Bend, Bounce, Get down) Body Parts (Hands, Knees) 
• YMCA- Letters (Y, M, C, A)

FingerPlays 

• A family of pumpkins- Family Members (Mom, Dad, Brother, Sister, Baby) 
• Five Easter Eggs - Emotions (Angry, Happy, Sad, Scared, Sleepy)
• Itsy Bitsy Spider - Animals (Spider), Prepositions (Up, Down, Out), Actions (Went, Washed, Dried), Weather (Sun, Rain)
•  Open them Shut them (for this and that)- Great for almost any category: Adjectives, Verbs, etc.

This list already seems a bit long so for now I am stopping, but if you have any other songs, games, or activities you think embrace the spirit of TPR be sure to leave it in the comments!

Opposites Origami (added pictures!)

I've posted a few different ways I like to use origami in an EFL class (or pretty much any primary class). This is a fun one for primary students and I have found that it can be adapted to work with opposites quite well! (You could also do this with shapes, adjectives, rooms in the house etc.)

I posted about it a while ago at this link: http://eslcarissa.blogspot.com/2012/06/organized-opposites-orgami.html but some people had asked for a video. All the videos I've tried just haven't been very clear :( But I am still working on it.

Here is a graphic with pictures that may help.

Cootie Catcher - Speaking Activity

Step 16

Do you struggle getting your students to talk? This is a great activity that can be used for most vocabulary and grammar you want to practice. The example here was done with colors, and fruits. At the end you'll see one done with weather and emotions (so probably A1 or A2 on the CEFR scale). You can make this more complex for higher level students as well!

You can also use this to have students review listening (you verbally give directions and they have to listen and follow them). Depending on the age level and whether they have made these before, this takes between 5 to 20 minutes.


Follow steps 1-15 from the last post (or check out the video on this post).

Step 17 Draw the points

From there follow these directions (you can click on the pictures to make them bigger). NOTE: These are the simplified directions; with higher level students, feel free to omit what you feel can go unsaid:

16. Unfold the paper; it should look like the photo on the upper left (the colors have been added to make the creases stand out).

17. Have your students locate the 8 small triangles in the middle.
Each triangle will get one drawing.  Either a sad face, a happy face, a bomb, or star. There should be 3 sad faces, 3 happy faces, one bomb and one star in total. 

Step 21 draw a category

18. Fold the four bigger triangles to the center (making a square).

19. Flip the paper over.

20. Have your students find the four squares.

21. In each square have them draw one ________ (whatever you want them to practice: countries, toys, prepositions, school supplies, etc.). In this case fruits.

Step 24 Draw a different category

22. Flip the paper over again.

23. Have them find the 8 triangles.

24. Draw (or write) 8 different things. In this case colors.

Now your students are ready to play!

Rules of the game

Question 1

General Rules

1. ONLY ENGLISH may be spoken! Students found speaking a language other than English will lose all of their points.
2. Students should speak in grammatically correct COMPLETE sentences to play. If their partner catches a mistake they may say, "Can you repeat that?" or, "Come again?" or anything else they have learned so that their partner can restate the sentence.

How to Play

1. Find a partner
2. Ask the partner a question (For lower levels, "Do you like fruit?" For higher levels, "If you could ban one of these four fruits from the world which would it be?")

   

   Question 2

3. Listen to your partners answer, (For lower levels, "Yes, I like apples." For higher levels, "Oranges should be banned because they take forever to peel!")
4. Move the cootie catcher the number of syllables/ letters their answer has (app-les: two syllables, or a-p-p-l-e-s: 6 letters)
5. Ask them another question, (Again lower level, "What's best?" Higher level, "What color do you think is overused today?")
6. Listen to their answer (Lower level, "Yellow is best" Higher level, "Yellow is used far too much because companies think it makes us hungry. Think about it, Burger King, McDonald's, they all use yellow")
7. Open the

   

   Final Answer

   triangle flap to find a happy face, sad face, bomb or star.
8. Switch partners and repeat.
9. Find a new partner and repeat

SCORING

• A smiley face is worth 1 point
• A sad face is worth -1 point
• A bomb means you lose all your points
• A star means you get 5 points

The purpose of the game is to get 10 points!

SCORING VARIATIONS

Template

• I used to put the 6 faces, star and bomb on a piece of paper. Students cut them out and then put them on the cootie catcher. This made sure they got the number of each correct.
• Make a different scoring system (maybe the star is worth two and a sun is wroth 5)
• Make the goal to talk to everyone in the class, not get points (in this case it is usually better with higher level students as you can practice telling fortunes or giving proverbs instead of getting points).

OTHER VARIATIONS

• When I did something like this with my really little ones (3 years old) I pre-folded all of them.
• Give them a pre-printed cootie catcher to start. When they have the folds "pre-written" on a piece of paper they tend to fold faster. For example the template to the right could be used to review emotions and the weather.
• Often to start the class we brainstorm as much of the relevant vocabulary as we can think of drawing pictures on the board. This gives them a visual to look at later when they are designing their cootie catcher.
• Bring magazines in and have them put pictures of celebrities on it. This can work with questions like, "If you had to become a celebrity which one would you become?" or just, "Who do you like?"
• It can help to draw a sample on the board, but you risk students copying it directly so I like to draw it with some blanks (like above) to encourage creativity.
• If you make them generic enough this is a great filler game. Just plug in whatever new grammar topic you learned and have them use it at the end of class. For example: If you just learned relative phrases ask, "What do you think is Paris Hilton's favorite weather?" "Paris Hilton, who loves to tan, likes it sunny."

Would you ever use cootie catchers in class? How do you use cootie catchers in class?

Cootie Catcher / Fortune Teller Video How to

For those of you who may have had problems following the blog, here's a video essentially the same as the post here.

Now that you've made a cootie catcher how will you use it in class? I'd love to hear your ideas, but if you can't think of any check out: this post for a fun game using cootie catchers as speaking practice!

Cootie Catchers and Fortune Tellers- Listening Activity (A step by step guide on how-to make a cootie catcher)

1. Any piece of paper

2. Even recycled paper

Making a cootie catcher or a fortune teller can be a fun activity for an EFL class to practice many grammar points and vocabulary.

This is also a great activity because it can use recycled paper (and who doesn't have tons of old worksheets, lesson plans and memos that are begging to be recycled?)!

You may remember making these when you were younger. Since students may already know how to do this to make this a really effective listening activity don't tell them what you are going to do, just walk them through the steps.

2. Fold a triangle

3. Cut off the extra paper

 1. You'll need a piece of paper. It can be any size, but your standard 8.5 by 11 seems to be fine. If it is too big or too small it becomes a bit cumbersome to make and play with. If you are giving them a square piece of paper then you can go straight to step 4 skipping steps 2 and 3.

2. To make a perfect (or almost perfect) square instruct your students to "Take the bottom right corner and fold it to the upper left. Make sure that the sides are ever. This means the corner won't match the other corner. That's OK" A perfect square makes things easier, but "nearly perfect" squares will be fine.

4. Unfold the paper

5. Fold another triangle.

3. "Take your scissors and cut off the extra paper that is not covered by your triangle"

4."Unfold the paper" This should now be a perfect square with a crease going from the bottom left to the upper right. I marked the crease with pink so you can see it more easily.

5.  "Now take the bottom left corner and fold it to meet the upper right corner." If your students did steps 2-4 correctly the corners should match perfectly, if not that's OK. Some students who are perfectionists may want to re-cut and fold their paper now. If you have time allow it, otherwise insist it will be fine and move to step 6.

6. Unfold the paper.

7. Fold a corner to the center

6. "Unfold the paper." Now your creases should have made a big X on the paper. The second crease has been highlighted in orange to make it clearer.

7. "Now we can see where the lines meet in the middle. Take the bottom right corner and fold it to the middle." With younger students I go around and put a big dot in the middle so they can find it without a problem.

8.  "Now take the bottom left corner and fold it to the middle." By now your students get it and steps 9 and 10 are a snap.

8. Fold a 2nd corner

9. Fold a 3rd corner

9. "Take another corner and fold it to the center." If you want to be specific walk them through the corners "upper right, upper left, etc." again, but at this point it usually isn't needed.

10. "Take the last corner and fold it to the center." In a perfect world if you have done everything right then all of the triangles should meet in the center without overlapping or seeing the lower layer. That's the ideal to be aiming for. However, if that doesn't happen it will be fine.

11. "Now we have a square so flip it over and do the same thing."

10. All the corners!

11. Flip it over.

12. "Take the bottom right corner and fold it to the center."

13- 15.  "Fold all of the corners to the middle." This is a little harder that the last few steps since the paper is thicker now and a bit more difficult to fold. Be sure to get them to fold it well. Creases make it easier later.

16. "Fold the paper in half vertically so that all of the triangles are on the inside and you can see squares"

12. Fold to the center.

13. Fold to the center

17. "Unfold and fold it in half again this time horizontally"


18. This part takes a little finesse. At this point the best you can do is try to explain and then help the students that are struggling. "Put your fingers inside the squares" Some people do this differently. I've always had each finger get its own compartment except for the pinky which shares with the ring finger. It's easier to do this with their dominant hand.

19. "Now, spread your fingers out and get the paper to open a bit" This part can be tricky, but once students see others doing it they can usually find a method that works for them. If not, assign helpers.

14. Fold to the center.

15. Fold to the center.

20. "Enjoy making the paper move" Especially with younger students making the paper open and close is a tough motor skill. Have them practice and enjoy their handmade toy.

So there you go how to make a cootie catcher in 20 easy-ish steps! I have done this project with students as young as 5 years old. They struggled a bit with nice creases and I had to re-do some of them, but overall they did pretty well. My high school students realized what we were doing right away and whipped through this in about 10 minutes.

16. Fold in half

17. Fold in half again

I advise that you fold along with the students so they have an example.

I also suggest that you go around as they are folding to be sure everyone is on task. It is easy to rescue one mishap, but if you miss it when it happened it can be hard to figure out where they went wrong.

As you can see this activity can be adjusted to use more ordinal numbers, transition words, etc. I kept it simple by mainly using directions (left, right center) and shape words they should know.

18. Put your fingers inside

19. Pop the squares!

 What to do now? If you want to go straight into another activity, check out the Cootie Catcher Speaking activity for several variations appropriate for ever English level.

If you only had enough time for this activity today tell your students to put their names on it and save it for later.

This is one of the items I can be found making at banks when there are rowdy children. After, we use them as puppets. You could do this too in your class and decorate the "face" to tell a story.

Optional: My creature!

20. Practice moving

If you are studying body parts tell them to add, "12 eyes, 3 ears and 2 noses" to their creature and see what they end up creating. To the right you can see my 6 eyed, two tongued, purple haired creature (with a green nose of course).

Below you can see a few more professional options. If you'd like a creature prettier than my creature on the right, check out the Fortune Wookiee! If your students are still into story time read them Arthur and the Cootie catcher. This is a great story about not believing everything they hear (and then they can make their own), or (just to prove I am not crazy) there's a book designed to teach vocabulary using cootie catchers!

The possibilities are endless and I'd love to know how you use them in class!

15+ different Vocabulary Methods (How to teach words)

A key to learning any new language is new vocabulary! There are so many ways to

GAMES:

• SNOWBALL FIGHT Get students to have a blast throwing around paper in class and then answering vocabulary questions! http://eslcarissa.blogspot.com/2012/12/fight-fight-playful-way-to-have.html
• Get students to improve their vocabulary by really thinking about what word someone is trying to get you to guess with rhymes! http://eslcarissa.blogspot.com/2012/11/i-am-thinking-of-word-that-rhymes-with.html
• Make reviewing vocabulary words more fun by throwing hangman into the mix. Like the snowball fight, this game plays on students love for throwing things. http://eslcarissa.blogspot.com/2012/10/alternate-hangman-hangman-you-knew-and.html
• Using pictures, homophones, antonyms, or definitions you can play Flyswatter. You can also get students to run around, which helps with excess energy. http://eslcarissa.blogspot.com/2012/09/flyswatter.html
• When you want students to practice vocabulary get them to create ink pinks. By using these rhymes they are using other vocab and showing they really understand the word http://eslcarissa.blogspot.com/2012/07/rhyming-word-game.html
• Battleship is what I usually use to repeat grammar. However, it can also be used for vocabulary. Simply make each box a vocabulary word, or arrange the columns and rows by categories. http://eslcarissa.blogspot.com/2012/06/battleship-game-differentiated-for-efl.html 
•  (NEW Added June 2013) Pumpernickel is another no prep game where students try to guess the verb another student is thinking of by replacing the verb with pumpernickel. For example, "Do you pumpernickel every day?" http://eslcarissa.blogspot.com/2013/05/pumpernickel-another-word-guessing-games.html 
• (NEW Added June 2013) Feed the baby is awesome for beginning EFL students. Think of it as a specified Simon Says. One student volunteers to be the baby (or the teacher starts). The baby says: "Broccoli" The parents (students) decide if it is edible or not edible. If it is edible they clap twice. If it is inedible they cover their mouth. While obviously great for food this can be adapted for other categories.  http://eslcarissa.blogspot.mx/2013/06/baby-shower-games-in-efl-class.html
• (Added June 2013) Remember making fortune tellers when you were younger? Change it into a game! My EFL students love playing so much they'll forget they are learning. http://eslcarissa.blogspot.mx/2013/05/cootie-catcher-speaking-activity.html
• (Added November 2013) Have you ever used Quizlet? You can make word lists and your students can play the automatically generated games to study on their own. http://eslcarissa.blogspot.com/2013/11/quizlet-for-at-home-studying.html
• (Added May 2014) Have you ever played Jenga? I bet you have! You can also use Jenga to review vocabulary words http://eslcarissa.blogspot.com/2014/05/jenga-in-classroom.html 
• (Added June 2014) This is a GREAT version of Pictionary that required NO DRAWING! Intrigued? Check it out! http://eslcarissa.blogspot.com/2014/06/artistically-challenged-pictionary.html

ACTIVITIES

• Try using a dictogloss with vocabulary. It gets students to practice listening, reading and writing PLUS they can hear new vocabulary http://eslcarissa.blogspot.com/2012/09/5-fun-ways-to-use-dictagloss-in-efl.html
• These are the basic steps one has to take to teach any words (you can combine these with any of the methods here) http://eslcarissa.blogspot.com/2012/08/basic-steps-of-teaching-any-lexis.html
• This activity can be a basic way to reinforce vocabulary words..and it usually ends up being really funny! All it takes is a piece of paper and the ability to write and fold. Make sure to set a time limit! http://eslcarissa.blogspot.com/2012/06/write-fold-pass-draw-fold-pass-repeat.html
• Have your students use word journals to get different collocations, idioms, etc. in addition to the definition http://eslcarissa.blogspot.com/2011/03/nelson-arditto.html
• Tell a story! Students respond well to stories, so put one together using different vocabulary words. http://eslcarissa.blogspot.com/2011/03/occupations.html
• Start a blog. Have students send in pictures using their cell phones or e-mails of their vocabulary words http://eslcarissa.blogspot.com/2010/08/part-ii-day-1.html
• To get a bit more complicated than just telling a story tell a draw and tell story. Then see if students can make their own using vocabulary words  http://eslcarissa.blogspot.com/2012/06/tell-and-draw-stories.html 
• Use songs! Students will get them stuck in their heads and never forget.  http://eslcarissa.blogspot.com/2012/06/not-another-cloze-how-else-to-use-songs.html
• Use TPR. There's a reason "Simon Says" and "Head Shoulder Knees and Toes" are so popular! Associate a motion with a word and it should stick with your students longer. http://eslcarissa.blogspot.mx/2012/10/this-or-that-these-or-those.html
• (Added June 2013) To review names of items in a house have them make their own house. This is an easy origami craft http://eslcarissa.blogspot.mx/2013/06/house-learning-rooms.html
• (Added October 2013) Decorate your class AND give your students a little help remembering tricky vocabulary words  http://eslcarissa.blogspot.mx/2013/10/vocabulary-mobiles.html
• (Added March 2014) This is a fun activity to help students grow their vocabulary in a visually pleasing way :) http://eslcarissa.blogspot.com/2014/03/get-students-using-different-words.html 
• (Added February 2015) This activity has students form small groups and make dialogues to show they understand words. They need to listen to other students, guess defintions from context, and finally tell a story! http://eslcarissa.blogspot.mx/2015/02/vocabulary-group-work.html

ALTERNATE QUIZZES

• Instead of multiple choice offer some quizzes that are a bit different than traditional vocabulary quizzes http://eslcarissa.blogspot.com/2012/09/vocab-quizzes.html