Exercise and Languages

Movement is so important. Teaching foreign languages gives us lots of opportunities to get exercise and language teaching into the same activity.

Language immersion.

One of my very favorite activities is called Batuka. If you’re not familiar with it, it’s sort of like Zumba but in Spanish. You can find it on YouTube. They have all these great songs and fun movements. They are great brain breaks and they’re immersive and fun. There are many things in other languages as well. Go to YouTube, one of the largest search engines in the world, and you will find yoga in French and all sorts of exercise tutorials and can do something similar in your class.

You could also search cultural dances. Again, Spanish is very easy. There are salsa tutorials, merengue, Sevillanas. But any culture will have similar dance tutorials.

Movement in the classroom.

Good old fashioned Simon Says. What a great way to teach commands. You start by being the leader and then once the students have it, they become the leaders. Creating an exercise video. I love this because it’s so much fun. Especially if you have things like leotards and leg warmers sticking around in your house or can find them at a thrift store. Students write a script and produce an exercise video correctly using command forms and vocabulary in their target language.

Walk and talk.

Another one that requires no prep is walk and talk. As a class, sit down and you can either brainstorm topics. For a more advanced class, you can actually create a handout of things to talk about on the walk. It’s exactly as it sounds. We walk and we talk.

For a lower-level class, I love to make a list of nature words. Students check them off, doodle or take photos of what they find.

Walk and travel.

As a language lover, I love to listen to courses and books on my phone. Pimsleur is wonderful for this!

I have also done stints abroad, studying in the morning and exploring in the afternoon. I spent an amazing 5 weeks in Paris in 2018.

Virtual walks. They seem to be everywhere now. A great chance to walk and see a new place from home. I love the walks through cities around the world. They are abundant on Youtube.

Looking for more ways to learn languages anytime, anywhere? https://reallifelanguage.lpages.co/learn-languages-25-ways-to-learn-every-day/