TEFL: MIMING

Miming is used in almost every English language class, if only as a warmer or when a teacher is trying to explain or elicit language. However, the positive elements of waking people up with movement, making them aware the use of gestures for communication, an easy activity for students who have difficulty speaking etc. can be brought into all kinds of other parts of the class too. Below are 15 ideas on how to use mime for different language points and otQuotations or proverbs: Make little quotation marks with your fingers at the start of the mimeFilm titles: pretend to crank and old cameraNumber of words: Hold up like number of fingers Word you're working on: Hold up like number of fingers.Individual syllable, (if you must): Lay the number of fingers across your forearm. Length of word: Make little or big sign like you're measuring a fish. Sounds like: Cup one hand behind an ear. Longer version of...: Pretend to stretch a piece of elastic. ‘On the nose’ (i.e., someone has made a correct guess): point at your nose with one hand, while pointing at the person with your other hand.Think: Make the ‘crazy’ signal, i.e. point to your head and wave your finger in a circle. Close: Frantically fan yourself to keep the answers coming.Stop, work on something else: Palms out waving at teammates, while shaking head

http://www.tefl.net/forums/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=2282&view=unread
http://www.teflgames.com/hotseat.html
Please, Mr Crocodile! This game is useful for practising clothes vocabulary. Again, choose one student who comes to the front and faces away from the class. The others stand up and say ‘Please, Mr Crocodile, can I sit down?’ The crocodile answers by saying, for example, ‘Only if you have blue trousers’. All the students with blue trousers can then sit down. The students then ask again ‘Please, Mr Crocodile, can I sit down?’ The crocodile answers by saying something else, for example ‘Only if you have a white shirt’. The game continues like this until there are only a few students left. [1]

Where’s the button? I use this game to practise adjectives to do with heat. You will need to pre-teach the necessary vocabulary. Bring one student to the front, facing away from the rest of the class. The other students have to hide a button somewhere in the classroom. The student at the front then turns round and begins to walk around the classroom. The others have to say if he or she is getting nearer to the button or not. They call out words like freezing, very cold, cold, warm, hot, very hot as the student gets nearer and nearer. When he or she finds the button, they call out ‘Boiling hot’.

Red light/green light This game was very successful when I tested it out in China. It is useful for practising the present continuous. One student is the ‘Traffic Light’ and stands at the front with their back to the rest of the class. The Traffic Light calls out ‘Green light’ and all the students have to start miming an activity (running, swimming, eating, etc). The Traffic Light then calls out ‘Red light’ and turns around quickly. The other students have to stop their mimes immediately; if the Traffic Light sees anyone still miming and can identify what action they are doing, then that student is out and has to sit down. So, for example, if the Traffic Light turns round and sees someone miming eating and says ‘Lee, you are eating’, then Lee is out and sits down. If the Traffic Light is wrong, then they rejoin the class and the person who was wrongly accused becomes the Traffic Light. Whoever is now the Traffic Light then turns round and calls out ‘Green light’ again and the students all start miming a different activity.

Cat and mouse I have ended up doing many variations on this game, which I never played when I was young but read about on a site with children’s playground games. You need a big class sitting close to each other for it to work well (it is very successful in China where the students sit in rows).

Two students come to the front. One is the ‘Cat Instructor’ and the other the ‘Mouse Instructor’ Give a picture of a cat to a student at the back of the class and a picture of a mouse to a student at the front. The cat has to chase the mouse around the class. The Cat Instructor gives instructions on where to move the cat, for example ‘Cat left’, ‘Cat right’, ‘Cat back’, ‘Cat forward’. The student who has the cat picture must listen and pass it to the correct student according to the instructions. The Mouse Instructor does the same, giving instructions about where the mouse should go to avoid getting near the cat. The result is that the two instructors are shouting out loads of instructions and the pictures are being passed around by the students. If the cat gets within one student of the mouse (ie behind, in front of or next to) then the mouse has been caught. You need to insist that the rest of the class is quiet so that all students can hear the instructions!

The above activities are a taster of some of the ways that I have adapted playground games. The games themselves in their original form, along with many others, can be found at two different websites. I am sure you will find lots of ways of adapting some of them to your own classes: http://homepage.eircom.net/~seaghan/play/games.htm Just click on the name of any game that interests you and the instructions will come up on the right. www.gameskidsplay.net/ This very useful site has an incredible array of games that I have still not got through completely!

www.eduplace.com/tales/ Here is a fun site you can use if you have computers in the classroom. The site makes ‘Wacky web stories’. Students simply fill in the answers to the questions and click on a button. The site then creates stories from their answers. Get the students to print out their answers or read them out to the class to find the best one – lots of fun and no preparation!
http://www.etprofessional.com/content/view/65/50/
http://www.esl-galaxy.com/speaking.html