[grouchomarxist]

Hi folks,
want to pick yr brains on any activities you could suggest for a group of about 40 adult learners whose proficiency and comprehension skills are akin to those of 9th graders'.

I propose to split them into groups of 5 or 6.

grouchomarxist

[clivehawkins]

How about this?

Within their groups they do mini interviews, finding out basic information about each other eg where they live, number of kids, number of times married, any unusual free time activities, favourite tv show etc. Then, staying in their groups, you choose one member of any gropu to stand up and say "One of us plays baseball", or "One of us has got four kids", "Two of us live in the same street" etc, and the other groups have to guess which person it is. (they only have 5 or 6 to choose from, so it's not too hard. In any case, it's just a bit of fun to break the ice.

If anything unusual or interesting comes out of it, you can extend the activity by inviting the other groups to ask supplementary questions to that person.

Other than that there are 'Find somebody who . .' activities, 'What's your favourite . . ?' questions etc.

Hope that helps

[grouchomarxist]

Hi Clive,
Thanks a lot! The activity sounds great to me and I'm sure it'll be great fun. Hope to give it a try tomorrow. Will share the experience with the 'board'.

best

[melati_indonesia]

Hi there,

This activity is not originally mine but it always works really well both for beginner levels and higher levels. It is a 'get to know activity' .

a. There are two sessions for the activity. One concentrates on the 'get to know your teacher' and the second one 'get to know your classmates'
b. Make up a text about yourself. The text should contain false information about you. At the bottom is the example of text.
c. Put the students into smaller groups of 2/3 depending on the size of the class.
d. Post the text on the whiteboard.
e. Do the running dictation activity.
f. Spelling and grammatical errors check.
g. Students have to ask WH Questions to get the right information about the teacher based on the text. to make it more interesting the students may make non-related-text questions. give more points if you like the questions.
h. Review making questions in English or auxiliary usage.

Example of the text:

Hi, my name is Julia Roberts. I was born in Surabaya. I like travelling. After I graduated, I worked as a hand-soap sales girl. My second job was a secretary in a multi media company in Bali. Before I joined IALF, I worked at Maspion as the plant manager. I have been teaching at IALF since 2003. I enjoy working here because the job is more boring than working at Maspion. I am married and I have got two children, Andy and William. My husband’s name is David, he is from Argentina. We live in Villa Valencia Surabaya. I went to Australia two months ago to teach Indonesian for kangaroos. I love Australia.

have fun

[simes]

I also like "find the lie." The students say two truths and one non-truth about themselves. Then people vote on which statement is not true, and why they think so. People have revealed some wonderful facts about themselves this way!

[grouchomarxist]

Thanks folks,
sorry for being slothful in getting back to you. Tried out all the activities you suggested--worked out great in the end.
Thanks again,
grouchomarxist

[Eric18]

You weren't slothful; you were busy teaching a class that is too large!

In smaller classes, you can just break students into pairs, and hand out a solid interview sheet with a few unexpected questions (Who chose your name? What's your favorite word or phrase in English?). Then students introduce their partners, and you take notes on "good mistakes" to review after the introductions end. But that's impossible with such a large class.

Good luck. Be gentle with yourself. Teaching an English class that large poses significant challenges.