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Here is an activity that I designed and used with my beginner level university prep school students. Before listening to the song, we talked about personalities, boarded some adjectives, and suggeted some opposites of these adjectives. Then I gave out the handouts and we went over the words together and talked about the new vocabulary together. I explained the students that they are going to listen the song, and try to fill in the blanks using the words on the right. It is important to tell the students that these words are not the opposites or antonyms of the adjectives given in the song, but there are just contradictions or some kind of relationship between them. The students also choose from the multile choice options or guess what the singer is going to say before listening to the song. Before listening to the song, I asked the students to work in pairs or small group and try to fill in blanks. As a discussion, the students were told to justify their choices. There are also some useful spoken English expressions and collocations in the song such as 'giving a high five, flicking a cigarette' which you might focus on after listening to the song. As a post-listening activity, the students can be asked to write their own versions of the song, describing their own personalities.

"Spoken Word is writing that is meant to be read out loud. Some examples of spoken word you might be familiar with are stories, poems, monologues, slam poetry, rap and even stand-up comedy. Spoken word is written on a page but performed for an audience and since it is performed, this poetry demonstrates a heavy use of rhythm, improvisation, rhymes, word play, and slang. It is more animated than more traditional forms of poetry. When writing a spoken word piece use words and phrases that project onto the minds of the listeners like vivid images, sounds, actions and other sensations. If your poem is rich with imagery, your listeners will see, smell, feel and maybe even taste what you're telling them. Here are some spoken word poems from our Power Poets."

This is from a song workshop I gave some time ago. Take care with the copyright! Songs can be exploited in many ways: The Cloze or gap fill, A-B activities, Dictation, Translation, Jigsaw-listening, Composing, Writing, Pronunciation, Vocabulary, Listening Song Posters

Critical Thinking - Worksheet which can be used with a lot of texts to develop students' ability to look at texts critically. Discoveries - This is a speaking and reading activity surrounding the theme of discoveries. Estee Lauder - a business diva - Reading activity in which students read and talk about beauty Famous women - Speaking and reading activity in which students read and discuss famous, influential women. Hetty Green - Reading and vocabulary lesson in which students read about an infamous person and answer questions along with learning useful words connected to money. Listen and respond - Teacher reads to the students and the students fill in the missing information. New York, New York - Quiz in which students have to research the Internet to find out answers to questions about New York. People who change history - Rosa Parks - Reading and speaking activity in which students discuss human issues. Reading about Einstein - This is a full lesson plan for reading skills about Einstein. Reading Race - This is a reading activity which practices students scanning skills.

"the spoken word has been an outlet for people to release their views outside the academic and institutional domains of the university and academic or small press. The spoken word and its most popular offshoot, slam poetry, evolved into the present day soap-box for people, especially younger ones, to express their views, emotions, life experiences or information to audiences. The views of spoken word artists encompass frank commentary on religion, politics, sex and gender, often taboo subjects in the world of contemporary academic poetry. Spoken word is used to inform or make an audience conscious of some human aspect pertaining to life*"

Do you live or teach in London? Do you have students who are planning a visit to London? Here, a few members of the London Language Experience team behind our fantastic cinematic listening series A ghost's guide to London, Luke and James Vyner and Ben Lambert (the voice of Lord Jeffrey, the Ghost of London), share a list of their top 50 not-to-be-missed places in London. OK, we LOVE London, there's no hiding it. It's unique, exceptional, scary and exciting all at once and there's so much to do. When you're new in town and trying to decide where to go first, it can be pretty overwhelming and, like most big cities, you can never see everything. It's easy to be drawn to the big tourist attractions and, whilst you can have fantastic experiences in these historic and fascinating places, you won't get to see much of the real London - the London that hides down the myriad of backstreets and alleyways, the London you've always wanted to find, the London that us Londoners experience every day. So, with that in mind, here are our top 50 favourite places to go to in London.

Today, my body was a TV'd massacre. Today, my body was a TV'd massacre that had to fit into sound-bites and word limits. Today, my body was a TV'd massacre that had to fit into sound-bites and word limits filled enough with statistics to counter measured response. And I perfected my English and I learned my UN resolutions. But still, he asked me, Ms. Ziadah, don't you think that everything would be resolved if you would just stop teaching so much hatred to your children? Pause. I look inside of me for strength to be patient but patience is not at the tip of my tongue as the bombs drop over Gaza. Patience has just escaped me. Pause. Smile. We teach life, sir. Rafeef, remember to smile. Pause. We teach life, sir. We Palestinians teach life after they have occupied the last sky. We teach life after they have built their settlements and apartheid walls, after the last skies. We teach life, sir. But today, my body was a TV'd massacre made to fit into sound-bites and word limits. And just give us a story, a human story. You see, this is not political. We just want to tell people about you and your people so give us a human story. Don't mention that word "apartheid" and "occupation". This is not political. You have to help me as a journalist to help you tell your story which is not a political story. Today, my body was a TV'd massacre. How about you give us a story of a woman in Gaza who needs medication? How about you? Do you have enough bone-broken limbs to cover the sun? Hand me over your dead and give me the list of their names in one thousand two hundred word limits. Today, my body was a TV'd massacre that had to fit into sound-bites and word limits and move those that are desensitized to terrorist blood. But they felt sorry. They felt sorry for the cattle over Gaza. So, I give them UN resolutions and statistics and we condemn and we deplore and we reject. And these are not two equal sides: occupier and occupied. And a hundred dead, two hundred dead, and a thousand de

The commencement ceremony affirms each student's search for knowledge. It often includes a graduation speech which seeks to put their recent hard (or not so hard)  work into the context of their future. Many of us hear one or two commencement addresses as graduates or listen to a handful as spectators. Yet -- as we graduate from one year to another, one relationship to another, one experience to another -- we always are learning. Though these myriad departures and arrivals of everyday existence are seldom met with ceremony, words traditionally reserved for momentous occasions may ring true and inspirational at any hour. That's why we created this unique archive of commencement addresses, selecting an eclectic menu of twenty nine extraordinary speeches from the thousands that we have reviewed since beginning work on this initiative in 1989. Though some of these wonderful remarks were given decades ago, we believe they are as relevant and important, perhaps increasingly so, as the more current speeches. Thus we encourage you to read them all, recognizing and celebrating your own constant commencement into tomorrow, finding ways to place it firmly within the context of progress for all humankind. Minnesota Public Radio show on commencement speeches, June 2011   - Tony Balis

How do teachers who are constantly called to fix technical glitches or spend all their non-teaching periods keeping a record of furniture, writing receipts or updating student data, be able to plan and prepare new pedagogical strategies, classroom activities or even upgrade their personal professional development? How does one find the time and more importantly the energy to meet students, counsel if needed, advise, coach, train, or mentor when the greater part of the time is spent on these "other" duties? This definitely is not anything new. For decades teachers have been crying out to anyone who was willing to listen about workload that was not related to their profession, and about the unnecessary filling of forms, the preparing of redundant and overlapping files.

"With all its accents and dialects, the English language naturally includes variation in sound. But sometimes people just flat out mispronounce words.  Take a look at these 11 examples. We bolded the emphasized syllable and included links for audio (click the word to listen). While some words have multiple acceptable pronunciations, the audio links include the standard pronunciation. The true pronunciations might surprise you."

"Supports or changes in the classroom (called accommodations) help most students with LD. Common accommodations are listed in the "Tips for Teachers" section below. Accessible instructional materials (AIM) are among the most helpful to students whose LD affects their ability to read and process printed language. Thanks to IDEA 2004, there are numerous places to turn now for AIMs. We've listed one central source in the "Resources Especially for Teachers" section. Assistive technology can also help many students work around their learning disabilities. Assistive technology can range from "low-tech" equipment such as tape recorders to "high-tech" tools such as reading machines (which read books aloud) and voice recognition systems (which allow the student to "write" by talking to the computer). To learn more about AT for students who have learning disabilities, visit LD Online's Technology section, at: http://www.ldonline.org/indepth/technology"

According to Wikipedia, "collocation is defined as a sequence of words or terms which co-occur more often than would be expected by chance." While language learners can build knowledge of collocations through extensive reading and listening, this is not something that we can do effectively by design in the classroom. Here are a few things for teachers to keep in mind when they consider teaching collocations.

Can also use this as a dictoglass (read everything) + comprehension (give out the text with gaps) combo activity. It's good to test their listening skills as well as help with their vocab. Use self-correction so that they can pay close attention to their own writing. The text: "You really have to get very old before you realize you're old. I'm in my middle fifties and I don't feel old yet. However, sometimes I look back at my childhood and __1__ things to the way life is for __2__ kids. Some things have certainly changed. One area of change is television. Some changes have been improvements. Some changes, on the other hand, have been __3__. When I started school, most people didn't have a television; TV was just beginning to get __4__. My father decided to go all out and buy a 16 inch black and white Motorola set. I still remember watching the Lone Ranger save people from the __5__ guys on that awesome electronic machine. That was exciting! Now, __6__ have larger pictures in full color. The pictures are clearer and the sound is much more realistic. The new high definition sets are made to rival __7__ screens. The variety and quantity of programming has __8__ greatly. There are hundreds of channels and more shows than one person could ever watch. There are many fine entertainment and educational __9__. There's also a lot of garbage, stuff that most parents don't want their kids exposed to. Overall, we have more choices, and that is good. I wonder what __10__ will be like when today's kids are my age."

Although preparation is time-consuming, it is worthwhile.  Once the work has been done, you will have ready-made lessons which you can use again and again. Instructions by Bibi Baxter for creating worksheets for use with songs:- Listening exercises (scroll to next box)- Sequencing Exercises- Further Practice- Relevant Pedagogic Articles- Ready-made Worksheets for you to buy- The Beatles: Worksheets for you to make  (assistance & ideas)

English teachers are always being asked to bring songs to class. Although all the input students might have is considered enriching, the fill-in-the-blank exercises seem boring for them and for us as well. In addition, it's very difficult to please students with our song choices.  The aim of this project is to make them think about the songs they listen to and choose one of them to bring to class with the following: a. A copy of the lyrics b. Picture of the singer or group c. A short background of the artist(s) d. Some exercises to be used in class e. The CD with the song (Adapted from Murphey, Tim. Music&Song.Oxford University Press, 1992)

Including the online English multiple - choice questions at level A, B, C, TOEFL, reading comprehension, grammar, vocabulary, speaking and listening tests,...