'Current English' Board

Danny Villeneuve

OBJECTIVES:

• To encourage students' interest in English
• To provide interesting and appropriate input outside of class

EXPLANATION:

I keep a board of English phrases with Japanese language explanations (from this book), as well as a list of the top movies/music in North America. For the movies I list the Japanese release dates as well. I try and use articles from BBC's ESL site too, but finding ones that are simple enough to be understood is difficult. I also put up proverbs/colloquial expressions with basic English explanations too.

I think this creates an easy, accessable English area, which helps to encourage out-of-class interest. By having varying skill levels, it allows different years/skill levels to challenge themselves, and by tying it to entertainment (pop culture is an excellent Trojan horse for generating English), it makes it eye-catching and often ties it into the interest most students have in popular movies/music (keep in mind their ages and get anything remotely questionable cleared first!).

I also have posted when I'm (usually) at the school, with a reminder to see me if anyone wants extra help/Eiken prep help, etc.