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Imagine you are entering your class and see your students are scrolling their phones, some of them are snoozing at their desks…well, these kinds of circumstances are not a new thing for teachers, right? If so, don’t worry, it’s not (always!) your accountability. Your students need some warmer activities. Warmers are a vital part of teaching English as a foreign language. As you are an ESL teacher with TEFL online course, hence, your warmer activities need to be something that will get them into the English mode.

This write-up contains some enjoyable ESL warmers for your language learners to help them break the ice.

Vocab Circle

Begin with a random student, ask for a word starting with A. Then round around the room, proceeding through the alphabet. Select one part of speech (like noun, verb, adjective, adverb) or lexical group (like sports, countries, colours, animals) and change this each time when you play the game. With your advanced students, you may also ask for compound answers, and if the answer is of an intermediate level then you may ask for something more advanced.

For example:

Teacher: OK, what’s next? G?

Student: Good!

Teacher: Well, that’s nice but why don’t we go up a level. What about... Gratifying?

If a student gets stuck, other classmates can help, or you can make suggestions!

English Operetta

Well, it is renowned for its joyful music with snappy lyrics. In English operetta, the words fit in with the elementary rhythm of the music, supporting many of the principle rhythm patterns of English. Here, a language is being emphasized in the sound rather than in the individual words. You can use the chorus from the popular songs as well.

You can take them through the lyrics and elucidate the meaning. Let your learners practice each line numerous times, each time more quickly. Finally, have them try to sing along out loud with the recording.

                                                                           (Ref: https://allesl.com/esl-activities/)

Quick Questions

Write a list of two or three questions on the board. Make sure these words introduce the theme of the lesson. For example, if you are going to talk about novels, you could write: What’s your favourite novel? What was the last novel you read? What kind of novel do you select? etc. Give your students 5-10 minutes to discuss the questions, have students report back to the class. If you’re looking for ideas, then you may search on Pinterest or on Google as well. A lot of resources are available in handy card sets with extra exercises.

Would You Rather?

Write would you rather…? question on the board or prepare it earlier on your communicating whiteboard. Put your students into pairs or small groups. Each of your student in the group must make a choice between the choices and they can discuss it in groups. Start with the normal choices at first. Gradually make them more difficult and more interesting as you follow. Make sure you plan an engaging and enjoyable would you rather…?

Using Logic Puzzles

Well, the logic puzzles are very easy to set up in your classroom. They need very little groundwork and lots of languages will be shaped. Generally, everyone loves logic puzzles and it gets students speaking and thinking in English. Using different types of logic puzzles and logic problems is a very effective TEFL warmer or speaking activity for language learners.

There are hundreds, perhaps thousands of such warmer activities that you can play with your students. We really hope you find these suggestions accommodating so that your morning classes get off to an active and positive start! The TEFL online course prepares the 21st-century ESL/ESL teaching professionals by including a number of warmer ideas and suggestions.

EFL games are being used to test vocabulary, practice communicating, learn tenses - the list is never-ending.