María Teresa Victoria - Emotional intelligence speaking activities for ESL classrooms

Encourage students to read out loud the dates on the calendar for pronunciation practice before they eat their chocolates!. The result is quite spectacular as the tags will grow in number day after day and will surprise everyone that gets closer to read wishes like “a wallet” but also “health”, or “happiness” and “peace”.

All I want for Christmas

7. Circles

Rather than an activity itself “Circles” presents an attitude in the classroom. My educational philosophy is based on mutual respect on a teacher- students basis and on a student-student basis as well. The teacher that acts as the person guiding the rest of the group to learn a foreign language and a diversity of cultural issues has my total admiration.

How this shows in the classroom begins with the position everyone takes in the group. I always ask my students to get used to sitting in a circle where they can feel equal and comfortable, to learn, make mistakes, or ask a “silly” question, which will definitely have an answer.

The circle is powerful for several reasons:

–no physical barriers interfere

–everyone faces one another

–students can make eye contact

–everybody feels on the same level

–positive atmosphere stays within the circle

Rather than students “assigning” seats to themselves and/ or their favourite classmates thus keeping closed and fixed mini circles within the group, I much more prefer moving them around regularly so they learn how to cooperate and work together in a respectful and helpful manner. It upsets me to hear students feel left out by others. I find it utterly disrespectful.

Particularly I like to have students sit in circles during Monologues and Dialogues as everyone has the chance to watch their classmates, and give opinions and encouragement in a nonjudgmental environment. The feeling of belonging and significance makes sense here.

8. Emotional response

Music can really evoke emotions. You can actually change your students mood by just playing the right music. Perhaps something lively for after lunch lessons or end- of-day sessions. Or maybe some easy- listening after recess for younger pupils.

I like to play music for a “breath of fresh air” after grammar activities which are normally the hardest, or sometimes after intensive reading comprehension exercises. I would recommend that you have a playlist handy. You can do this by choosing your best soundtrack or preferably ask the students which is their favourite “song of the moment” or their favourite “song of all time”. They feel more connected when it is a song of their choice but make sure they are present the day you play their song!. Also they can add to the listening task a little bit of conversation practice by telling their classmates more about the song (why they picked it up, what they like about it -lyrics, music, story, any particular piece- or something about the singer, the songwriter, etc).

What I normally do is ask the group during the first weeks to send me a link to their favourite songs in YouTube. Then take the time slowly and patiently to download the songs, label them with their names on it, and keep them in a safe place ready to use anytime!

You don’t necessarily need to make much preparation in advance. Just play the video impromptu and use the songs as fillers in-between tasks. Songs can be extraordinary listening tasks to learn the new vocabulary and expressions on the video clip, or just as a listening for pleasure exercise as some videos are real masterpieces! Like Perfect by Ed Sheeran, which a student suggested and everybody loved. Turn the lights off and the volume up for greater impact!

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