Before we get started, I just want to say that most activities for languages can be adapted to any level. If it’s designed for beginners, it’s obviously the word and phrase level. Adapt the same activity to the intermediate level by having the input be longer and having them produce output of sentences becoming paragraphs. Advanced is longer paragraphs becoming extended discourse.
Centers
Centers are commonplace in elementary school classrooms. They provide opportunities that are student-centered, foster lots of engagement, and can be used to learn anything.
From my years in elementary school, it was one of my favorite things to bring back to secondary language teaching. Centers provide lots of opportunities to master vocab and grammar. With a bit of initial prep, they can provide great opportunities for students to master anything that you’re teaching. You’re available to answer questions, problem solve and facilitate the activities.
A few ideas that work with any set of grammar or vocabulary that you’re doing:
Pictionary
Charades
Hangman
Draw What I Say
Organize your centers based on how much time students have available to spend in each center and how many different activities you want them to do. So for a class of 90 minutes, you might have four or five different centers for students to rotate through.
Nature Walk
We discussed this here. Please find a link to the description and an activity to adapt to your classes. 5 Weeks of Paper
Doodles
Tips to Learn a New Language: Doodles, Sketches and Drawings
One of my favorite tips to learn a new language that I love to share is the power of doodling. I consider it a powerful form of journaling.
Journaling daily will have a great impact on your fluency. Keep some form of a personal journal for your studies. It can be part of the task notebook, communication journal or something separate. Do whatever you need to develop the language that you want to learn.
Consider using themed vocabulary from a traditional textbook or a workbook of themed vocabulary. While it is not time spent on authentic communication with another person in the target language, it can be a great way to get some input and build skills during time that would otherwise not be spent in the target language.
You can do some very fun journal entries using themed vocabulary lists. Here are a few of my favorites:
A salad: Draw a salad. Using a themed vocabulary list, label all of the fruits and vegetables you included. Next, use the visual to write about your salad in as much detail as possible.
My Body/My Face: Sketch out a person. Label everything that you can. Use the illustration as a prompt to write about yourself.
A Person Made of Food: This is a fun one that requires some thought and engagement in vocabulary. Basically, you create a person made of drawings (or clip art) of foods. You then create a key using the names of the body and face parts and the food vocabulary you used to represent the face and body. You then use your creation as a prompt to write as detailed a description as possible. This also gives you an opportunity to learn about different types of foods from the target culture.
Portrait: Draw a picture of yourself, or another person. Label everything you can. Next, write as much as you can about the person.
Where I Live: This is quite self-explanatory. Sketch out where you live. Label everything you can. Write about where you live.
Variation: Do the same, but for your dream house or where someone else lives.
Likes and Dislikes: I love this for basic lists of vocabulary. You can categorize activities, classes, places in the world, foods, drinks, artists, music genres, books- anything you can imagine.
Schedules: Write out your daily schedule, a school schedule, a train schedule, or a movie schedule.
Dates: Write out important dates. These can be holidays, important dates in your life, important dates in the culture of the target language, or birthdays of family and friends.
An Alien (or Monster): Design your alien or monster. Describe this creation in as much detail as possible.
My Garden: Take a photo, or sketch your yard or garden. Label all of the items that you included. Write about what you see, talk about what you do there, and anything you would like to do there in the future.
My Family: I particularly like this one as one can keep this short and simple by only including immediate family, or it can be turned into an informative, extended project. Using photos or drawings, create a family tree. Write about each person, as well as their relationship to you. Including extended family can serve as cause to learn advanced vocabulary to talk about family, as well as a context to work in the past tense.
Nature: Draw or get photos of beautiful scenes of nature. These can become great stimuli for learning and using descriptive words and vocabulary for talking about nature and geography. It can become a cultural experience when the photos come from the target culture.
My School: This topic has so many possibilities. You can talk about any school that you have attended. The classes you took, liked and disliked make for rich stimuli for writing and vocabulary development. The people you interact with, or have interacted with in the past, can be writing topics.
This list is in no way exhaustive. The purpose is to get you thinking about how you can get working with the written word in your target language easily and in an enjoyable way.
Be sure to be consistent in how often you work in your journal. Set a period of time and write. Don’t stop to look up words you don’t know. The gaps are your built-in tests. Tests are there to see what you know and what you don’t know. Use your results to move forward.
I hope you have fun with these simple tips to learn a new language!
Teaching World Languages: 20 Zero-or-no Prep Activities
One of my very favorite things about teaching world languages is that while you need to be really structured and focused on the skills you’re teaching, you also get a lot of opportunities to have a lot of fun. The time that we spend in the target language is absolutely critical. For most students, the only time they get in the target language they’re learning is in your class so you’ve got to maximize every second.
These 20 no prep activities are great to use when you find yourself with some extra time, you want to stay in the target language, have some fun, but don’t have a whole lot of time to prepare something. These activities can also be adapted for teaching world languages at all levels.
Charades
This basically involves one person or group of people acting out a vocabulary word or a situation and others guessing what it is in the target language. Great fun. Cut up slips of recycled paper and hand to teams to act out and guess.
Pictionary
A great way to learn vocabulary. Someone illustrates a word and someone else guesses it.
Draw What I Say
Exactly what it sounds like. Another version of Pictionary that serves as great listening comprehension that you can do as the leader, or you can have your students do in small groups. I have small whiteboards, but paper, or anything else you can draw on, works well, too.
Post-Its
Post-Its are one of my very favorite tools for no prep world language teaching activities. Use Post-Its in a little competition where you set a timer, and a team has to label everything they can find in a classroom.
Organize writing activities. Everyone in a group writes down a different part of a story. Put it all together. Stick the notes on the board and tell the story.
Use big Post-Its to create a 4-part illustrated story. Have the group present. It then becomes an oral presentation or speaking activity aided by their visual prompts.
Scattergories
This is fun. Beginners will need a lot more support than more advanced learners (as in all the activities), but you can still play this with almost absolute beginners if they’ve got access to a textbook or other tool to find vocabulary. Essentially, you give the theme and a time. Groups brainstorm to find as many things as they can that go into that category. For beginners, an example might be vegetables. And within that time the group wants to write down as many vegetables as they can in the target language.
Cranium
My understanding of this game is that it’s basically charades and Pictionary with the use of props. Basically, whatever concept or vocabulary they want to illustrate or they want people to guess, they can use any of those things. They can use drawings, visuals, props or actions.
Recording
Recording is a fantastic way to measure your own progress and your fluency, and it’s just as great to do with your students, especially done on a fairly regular basis. They will have something tangible to hear how much they’ve learned and progressed. They might listen in September, and feel terribly embarrassed. Record every week, and soon they will hear the huge progress they made. You can use this to record conversations. They can even record themselves. Reading a dialogue with a classmate is a great way to document fluency. They can even record voice messages to each other and send them to one another.
Reading Cart
Dr. Stephen Krashen is a huge proponent of reading to learn languages. It’s an amazing resource. I even wrote an article. Here’s a link for some really specific ways to use it.
Dr. Krashen talks about having a reading cart in your classroom. It can have anything- it doesn’t have to be just academic. You can have your textbooks, textbooks from other levels, magazines, realia, scrap books, comics- anything that would interest the student. Give them time to peruse through the reading and just read for pleasure. It’s a great way to teach world languages with no prep.
Newspapers
You can also put newspapers on this reading cart. As they’re pretty complex, students who are so inclined to read the newspapers might have the skills to do this on their own. However, less-advanced students can make a tiny, simple newspaper. They can report news about something that happened in their community, or even create a small story. They can even report about events in the school. For example, divide your class up into three groups. One group can talk about sports, the other one can talk about what social events are going on and another group might want to talk about what’s going on in the arts department. But keep it simple. In journalism, they teach you to write like a fourth grader. Everyone does a little block of text on a Google doc for their part, find a photo and you (or the students) put it all together in Publisher.
Surveys
Surveys are one of my very favorite tools for all levels of languages. They’re very easy to make. Open up any online document or word processing program if you have the ability to project from your computer. If not, no worries- you can take just a piece of butcher paper or one of those big sticky Post-It notes and make it there. Either way you want to use: think columns, rows and tables. For example, one survey might be what eye color everyone has. You would take a piece of paper or document, and you would divide it into three columns. Then you’d have essentially two rows. You’d list everyone’s name. You’d be asking them the questions and compiling the results right in front of them.
You can do this with anything. How many people are in a family, favorite activities, or favorite foods. The possibilities are endless. It makes for a great interactive experience. You can also add Language Experience Activities. Essentially, they’re speaking and you get to write down the correct answers. It stays entirely communicative. You’re completely communicating with the students in a real authentic context and you’re able to give them lots of comprehensible input, correct them, as they communicate real information about themselves.
The first time you do these surveys you don’t need to do any prep- it is being created as you teach. You just need to think about what you’re going to talk about and how many columns and rows you’re going to have. You can basically build it right in front of the students and use it and then you’ve got it forever.
Bells
I have these little hotel desk bells, but really anything that makes a sound will work. Essentially, if you’ve got a bit of time, you can use these in a couple of ways. Let’s say that you’ve got ten minutes left of class. This is a great way for students to be interactive with vocabulary. Let’s say that you just started a unit and you want them practicing their vocabulary. While I love flashcards, you can actually have them connect with one other person in class. They can ask each other about all the new vocabulary in their book. You ring the bell and they have to talk to someone else. Great way to incorporate movement and build community.
In an intermediate class, they have to ask at least five questions about a certain topic or a certain theme. It gets even more rich when it’s more advanced. You ring the bell and they have to do this with someone else. You can even combine this with your survey. If you’ve got a survey that you’ve done online you can then print it out, make copies and hand it out. Ring the bell to speak to someone new.
Journals and Fluency Writing
These are two of my very favorite activities as both a learner and teacher of languages. Regular writing is a great way to build your language skills at every single level. Fluency journals can be done about any topic.
You can either have them turn them into you daily, or maybe turn them into you once a week. For absolute beginners, you can even do some labeling activities. Even a few months into a language class, they can do quite a bit of independent writing. You might set the timer for six, seven or eight minutes, and have them write about a variety of topics. Their family, their school, their daily routine, their favorite foods, for example. It could be anything.
Think about what this looks like for intermediate or advanced learners. It can be something far richer. Perhaps the weirdest dream you ever had, the worst day of your life or the best day of your life. What would the world be like if Hernan Cortes had never gone to what’s now in Mexico? You think about the range of activities and the communicative richness. It’s similar to the recording activities we talked about where you do them on a regular basis. You really see tremendous growth. One of the things in particular I like about the fluency writing again, apart from being no prep, there are lots of opportunities to help them fill in the gaps. They might go to their textbook- or whatever resource you want to use- and then they fill in the gaps. It’s a great way to do self-assessment. You’ll see their vocabulary and writing grow exponentially.
Cards
Use any type of card, but I’m thinking index cards are often best. You can make flash cards. We might do it with different languages on each side.
Another way that I love to use language flash cards as a teacher, is to have just the picture or just the picture on one and the word on another one. After they have made the cards, they can play Concentration (they turn them over and match pairs). Play a game like Pass It, where they sit in a circle with the cards that they made that have the pictures of their vocabulary on it and they pass it around to music. When it stops, they have to say what the word is. You can even get a fun Hot Potato on Amazon. You literally press it and pass it around. Whoever’s got the Hot Potato has to answer a question, or a series of questions. In this case, it could be the cards they made and you show them.
Cards for More Advanced Activities
You can have people use the card to write a letter. You can have people use the cards to write out some really advanced situations for activities like Charades or Pictionary. You can also have them write out situations. A fun activity is to use a card and to write a letter outlining a problem. Let them have fun with the problem. We put them in a hat, we pull them out, we read the problems and everybody gives advice.
Using those same cards, as you collect them, you can play a game like Fly Swatter. This is super fun for beginners. Take your cards and put them in a circle. The students, you put the cards in the center. Have them touch the pictures that you say. Add on as they’re learning. Even if you don’t use Fly Swatters, play Touch It, which is basically the same game. It’s really interactive and it’s really fun.
Those cards that we talked about before you can choose to make pairs. Picture on one card or drawing, target language equivalent on the other. Those then become pairs. Those same cards that you used for Concentration, you can use to play Go Fish. Shuffle them up. Everyone starts with seven. Put the extra ones in the middle. Say in the target language the equivalent of Do you have?, Yes I have…, I don’t have…. If you don’t, go fish.
Photos
Visuals are the language teacher’s best friend. They help us communicate so much. A picture says a thousand words couldn’t be more true. They are such a useful tool. You don’t have to use translation. You can use these photos to make cards or have your students make cards. You can also print them out and do great TPR activities like Fly Swatter or Touch It. Whatever your vocabulary is, you can print them out. Do fun TPR quizzes where they start by identifying. You might choose six or eight pictures. Then you can move into another version where they’re reading and maybe matching the word. I even saw somebody end the activity with writing the word. This goes with our natural order of language: listening, speaking, reading, and writing comes last.
You can also use these photos to do fun presentations about trips, whether they be real, wish trips, dream trips or bucket lists. You can use Fishbole to create some great narrated presentations. They have to write someone else a letter in class talking about all the things they saw in a certain place, all the things they did, using an image they found glued to an index card.
Whatever theme you’re doing, you can print out pictures and make it a little fun race where students are having to identify, write down or label as many things in the scene as they can. Rich and fun. You can also show them lots of ways to use different vocabulary tools.
Two sites with photos completely free online.
Play
Play is a hugely important component of learning. This is where you might take a day, or half a day of your class, to do nothing but play games in the target language. Guess Who? is a great game you can play in the target language where you’re having to guess the mystery person all in the target language. You can even have games as centers, where students can go around and move through different games.
Another way that I like to present the word play is this as in drama, a seriously useful tool for learning and teaching languages. We know so many of our materials have plays in them, right? They’re basically dialogues. At a restaurant or a hotel. That’s great. Students can work in small groups. They rehearse and perform that tiny little two-minute play by the end.
For really advanced learners, you can have them take a short story, or write something from their life, and do reader’s theater. All that input and that repetition and practice- you’ll see astounding results. The person who does the work-in this case our actor/writers- does the learning.
The Can Do Game
I love the Can Do statements. If you’re unfamiliar with them, here’s the link. Essentially, they illustrate many different tasks that people can do as they’re moving in the stages towards fluency in a language. It’s absolutely amazing. You need to judge the level your students are at, of course, before playing this. Write these tasks down on a piece of paper, or even cut them up for the document. Fold the papers up and have people pull out of a bag. They do those tasks. You might even want to start with letting them read through and practice in groups, and then play the game. It’s a very valid assessment for real life.
Interactive Reading
Back to the reading cart. Sometimes it’s not as easy for students to read on their own, and especially not in a foreign language, but it’s an amazing way to build vocabulary.
Get something for them to read. For example, they might read in groups. As they read, they create 10 questions and answers from the text. When they go back and read again with the larger group, they’re going to ask each other those questions. You can have them change their reading into a reader’s theater, too. They might also list 10 facts, for example, or create a storyboard from the activities.
Error Corrections
This is always a sticky point. On one hand, we want to teach students to do things correctly and let them know they’re making a mistake. On the other hand, it’s really important for people to be allowed to make errors to hit fluency in another language. Moving through errors is a critical component of learning a language to fluency. You have to fail to succeed. You have to fail forward. How to do it can be a little bit tricky.
One of my very favorite activities is to do an error correction game. You might want to write down errors from observing and listening to an activity, or just write down common errors. These could be from their writing, homework assignments or speaking.
Write down those errors and the students have to correct them. They find them really fun. You get to do a lot of in-context grammar correction. You can even make this a game. You can incorporate numbers or money. They’ve got points that they’re earning from when they get right or losing for whatever they get wrong.
3 Truths and a Lie
Students create sentences about three things that are true and one lie. For example, a beginner might say I like oranges, I like cucumbers, I like green beans– whatever it is that you’re studying. Whatever they say has to have three truths and a lie. They share and everyone tries to identify the lie. This activity is very fun, and can become very complex and advanced for students at higher proficiency levels.
Projects
Below are some projects. They are designed for Spanish classes, but can be easily adapted to any language.
LA FAMILIA
El libro de familia
The student created a book featuring five members of their family.
The student included a drawing of each person.
The student told us the names of each family member, as well as wrote three sentences to describe each person. The student told us where each person was from.
Alternatively, the student created a slide to represent each person in their family. The slide was narrated using https://www.fishbole.io/ based on the topics above.
Vocabulario útil
la madre
(la mamá) mother
el padre
(el papá) father
los padres parents
el padrastro step-father
la madrastra step-mother
el hijo son
la hija daughter
los hijos children (offspring)
el hermano brother
la hermana sister
los hermanos siblings
el hermanastro stepbrother
la hermanastra step-sister
los hermanastros step-siblings
el tío uncle
la tía aunt
los tíos aunt and uncle
el primo cousin (male)
la prima cousin (female)
los primos cousins
el abuelo grandfather
la abuela grandmother
los abuelos grandparents
el nieto grandson
la nieta granddaughter
los nietos grandchildren
el perro dog
el gato cat
los gemelos twins (both boys, or 1 boy & 1 girl)
las gemelas twins (both girls)
los trillizos triplets (all boys, or mixed boys & girls)
las trillizas triplets (all girls)
El árbol genealógico
The student made a family tree covering three generations of their family.
The student labeled each branch of their “tree” with the relationship that person has to them.
Alternatively, create a slide for each and narrate using https://www.fishbole.io/.
Vocabulario útil
la madre
(la mamá) mother
el padre
(el papá) father
los padres parents
el padrastro step-father
la madrastra step-mother
el hijo son
la hija daughter
los hijos children (offspring)
el hermano brother
la hermana sister
los hermanos siblings
el hermanastro stepbrother
la hermanastra step-sister
los hermanastros step-siblings
el tío uncle
la tía aunt
los tíos aunt and uncle
el primo cousin (male)
la prima cousin (female)
los primos cousins
el abuelo grandfather
la abuela grandmother
los abuelos grandparents
el nieto grandson
la nieta granddaughter
los nietos grandchildren
el perro dog
el gato cat
los gemelos twins (both boys, or 1 boy & 1 girl)
las gemelas twins (both girls)
los trillizos triplets (all boys, or mixed boys & girls)
las trillizas triplets (all girls)
Éste/Ésta es … .This is my….
Él/ella se llama…He/she is named…
Es de …He/she is from…
Dramatización- La Familia
The student played the part of a member of a family.
The student created a slide representing themselves on a collaborative Google slide.
The student used Fishbole to introduce their relatives to the other family.
The student spoke the target language the entire time.
Vocabulario útil
la madre
(la mamá) mother
el padre
(el papá) father
los padres parents
el padrastro step-father
la madrastra step-mother
el hijo son
la hija daughter
los hijos children (offspring)
el hermano brother
la hermana sister
los hermanos siblings
el hermanastro step-brother
la hermanastra step-sister
los hermanastros step-siblings
el tío uncle
la tía aunt
los tíos aunt and uncle
el primo cousin (male)
la prima cousin (female)
los primos cousins
el abuelo grandfather
la abuela grandmother
los abuelos grandparents
el nieto grandson
la nieta granddaughter
los nietos grandchildren
el perro dog
el gato cat
los gemelos twins (both boys, or 1 boy & 1 girl)
las gemelas twins (both girls)
los trillizos triplets (all boys, or mixed boys & girls)
las trillizas triplets (all girls)
Me llamo… My name is…
Éste/Ésta es….This is my….
Ellos/ellas son mis…They are my…
Él/ella se llama…He/she is named…
Dramatización-La Familia B
Do this live. Students memorize and perform introducing their family to the class.
Vocabulario útil
la madre
(la mamá) mother
el padre
(el papá) father
los padres parents
el padrastro step-father
la madrastra step-mother
el hijo son
la hija daughter
los hijos children (offspring)
el hermano brother
la hermana sister
los hermanos siblings
el hermanastro step-brother
la hermanastra step-sister
los hermanastros step-siblings
el tío uncle
la tía aunt
los tíos aunt and uncle
el primo cousin (male)
la prima cousin (female)
los primos cousins
el abuelo grandfather
la abuela grandmother
los abuelos grandparents
el nieto grandson
la nieta granddaughter
los nietos grandchildren
el perro dog
el gato cat
los gemelos twins (both boys, or 1 boy & 1 girl)
las gemelas twins (both girls)
los trillizos triplets (all boys, or mixed boys & girls)
las trillizas triplets (all girls)
Me llamo… My name is…
Éste/Ésta es….This is my….
Ellos/ellas son mis…They are my…
Él/ella se llama…He/she is named…
Encuesta-La Familia
Offer the survey via Google to your students.
IMPORTANT-MAKE A COPY
This can be used in your face-to-face classroom, too. The visuals from the results are great speaking prompts.
Family Riddles
Las Compras
In this activity, students will go “shopping” for you. They must visit the following stores listed at the web address and link to items from those stores. You can assign this in groups (recommended). Each group will share a document and copy links to the items in it. The first group to accurately find your items wins.
I need your help. Please work with your group and do my shopping.
Use the online supermarkets below. Find and paste each item below with your group. Each accurate “purchase” is one point for your team.
Supermercados en línea:
Mi lista de compras
Necesito….
la naranja
la banana
la fresa
la uva
el limón
la piña
la manzana
el tomate
la toronja
la ciruela
el melón
la sandia
la cebolla
el apio
la lechuga
el pepino
los guisantes
la zanahoria
la patata
Masa para tamales
el repollo
los rábanos
los frijoles
los huevos
el bistec
el queso blanco
el jamón
la chuleta de cerdo
el pollo
la carne de res
el atún
pavo para mi almuerzo
los camarones
la langosta
el pan
unas hamburguesas
el panqueque
el pastel de cereza
el helado
las galletas
la leche
el jugo de naranja tropicana
el té
la crema
el café- Starbucks en Casa
el yogur estilo griego
la Coca-Cola
Una ensalada
The student drew a salad using ten of the new vocabulary words.
The student labeled the words correctly.
The student wrote a sentence describing what the salad contains.
Alternatively, a Google Slide was used and narrated using https://www.fishbole.io/.
el brócoli broccoli
el repollo (la col) cabbage
las coles pequeñas (bruselas) brussel sprouts
la lechuga lettuce
la espinaca spinach
el apio celery
la alcachofa artichoke
el maíz corn
los chícharos/los guisantes peas
los ejotes/las habichuelas string beans
la cebolla onion
el espárragos asparagus
el tomate tomato
el pepino cucumber
el pimiento pepper
la patata potato (Spain)
el ajo garlic
el rábano radish
la cebolla onion
la zanahoria carrot
los champiñones mushrooms
el camote sweet potato
el calabacín zucchini
el aguacate avocado
el perejil parsley
los cebollinos chives
la calabaza pumpkin (squash)
las zanahorias carrots
el coliflor cauliflower
la berenjena eggplant
los hongos mushrooms
los olivos/las aceitunas olives
jicama jicama
Una Persona de Comida
The student made a person out of at least ten body parts.
The student used foods to make the drawing or picture of the person.
The student labeled the body parts using the name of the food they used and the name of the body part in the target language.
Alternatively, this can be created on Google Draw.
el aguacate avocado
la frambuesa raspberry
la fresa strawberry
el limón lemon
el melocóton peach
la manzana apple
el plátano banana
la pera pear
la piña pineapple
la uva grape
las verduras vegetables
el ajo garlic
el aceite de oliva olive oil
el vinagre vinegar
la salsa sauce
la mayonesa mayonnaise
la sal salt
la pimienta pepper
la mermelada jam
la miel honey
la mantequilla de cacahuete peanut butter
la leche milk
el queso cheese
la mantequilla butter
la nata cream
el yogur yogurt
el helado ice-cream
las bebidas drinks
el agua water
la cebolla onion
el champiñon mushroom
las setas mushrooms
el guisante pea
la lechuga lettuce
el maís corn
las patatas potatoes
el pimiento pepper
el tomate tomato
la zanahoria carrot
el guiso stew
la sopa soup
el caldo soup/ broth
el café con leche coffee with milk
el té tea
el batido milkshake
el zumo juice
el jugo juice
el refresco soft drink
la gaseosa lemonade
la limonada lemonade
el chocolate caliente hot chocolate
el pescado fish
el atún tuna
el bacalao cod
las gambas prawns
los calamares squid
el pulpo octopus
el salmón salmon
los mariscos seafood
el cangrejo crab
La Carta
The student created a menu based on what they learned from the handouts, or from additional research.
The student named their restaurant.
The student included all required categories.
The student turned the menu in via Google Docs.
Primeros= Starters
Segundos=Mains
Bebidas=Drinks
Postres=Desserts
El restaurante
Option A. The student opened their restaurant. This can simply be an email address where students will receive an online “order” from another student and the teacher is copied.
The student was also a customer in another restaurant by placing an order in the form of an email.
Option B. The student wrote a dialogue between a customer and someone working in a restaurant.
Option C. Do the dialogue with a classmate and turn in the recording.
Me gustaría= I would like
Por favor=Please
Primero= First
Segundo=Second, main
Para beber= to drink
De postre=For dessert
¿Cuánto es?=How much is it?
El mercado dialogue
The student bought and sold goods at the market.
Alternatively, the student shopped online and found specific items.
Two options to complete this assignment:
- Write a dialogue of at least 15 lines using the language below to buy and sell at a market.
- Do the dialogue with a classmate and turn in the recording.
Buenas tardes
Buenos días
Buenas noches
Hola
Señor
Señora
Señorita
Me gustaría comprar……..- I would like to buy……..
¿Cuánto cuesta(n)?= How much does it(they) cost?
Cuesta(n)…..= It/they costs/cost….
¿A qué precio es/son…? What price is/are..?
¡Uf! Es mucho…. Oh! That’s a lot!
¿No me lo puede dar por…? Can’t you give it to me for…?
¿Me vende esto por…? Can you sell this to me for….?
Es un buen precio. Muy bien. It’s a good price. OK.
Por favor= Please
Gracias= Thank you
De nada= You’re welcome
¿Qué desea Ud.? What would you like?
Lo siento= I am sorry
¿Cómo paga?= How are you paying?
Con tarjeta de crédito.= credit card
En efectivo= Cash
Cheque personal= personal check
Cupón de regalo. = gift check
Cheque de viajero.= traveler’s check
¿Qué talla usa?= What is your size?
Adiós
Hasta luego.
Mi ropa
Watch the video presentation:
The student described at least six items that they are wearing.
The student did not speak English.
The student used correct noun/adjective agreement.
The student recorded themselves talking about what they are wearing.
Alternatively, the student created a presentation in Google slides. They recorded their narration in https://www.fishbole.io/
Vocabulario útil
la ropa
los zapatos
la blusa
el sombrero
los pantalones
el cinturón
el suéter
la falda
el traje
el abrigo
las sandalias
rojo
gris
verde
amarillo
la camisa
los calcetines
la chaqueta
la bufanda
los guantes
los tenis
la corbata
los jeans
el traje de baño
el vestido
las botas
anaranjado
marrón
blanco
azul
¡Qué Pinteresante!
Weather Project
A 20 points
The student made a picture for each season.
The student included the months that belong to that season.
The student wrote the weather for that season.
B 17 points
The student included all required elements, but made a
couple of errors.
C 15 points
The student included all required elements, but made a
few errors.
D 12 points
Missing elements or many errors.
Comments:
Weather Report Project
A 20 points
The student gave a weather report in the target language.
They mentioned three types of weather in the target language. T
hey did not speak English.
B 17 points
The student fulfilled all the requirements of an A presentation but with
some errors.
C 15 points
The student fulfilled all the requirements of an A presentation, but with more than several errors.
D 13 points
Missing required elements and/or numerous errors.
Comments:
What time is it?
A 20 points
The student chose five different times of the day.
The student included a picture of the activity they normally do at that time.
B 17
All required elements included, but with
one or two errors.
C 15
All required elements included, but with more than a
couple of errors.
D 12
Numerous errors and/or missing
elements.
Comments:
16
Dream House
20 points
The student drew their dream
house.
The student labeled the rooms.
The student decorated the house and labeled
the furniture.
The student wrote two sentences describing the
house.
The student wrote eight sentences describing what
the house has.
The student handed in a project that was neat and
legible.
17 points
All elements of an A, with one or two errors.
15 points
All elements of an A, with more than one or two errors.
12 points or below
Missing elements and/or numerous errors.
Comments:
Happy Birthday
The student created a dramatization of six scenes in which a birthday is celebrated.
The drama that the student created is in the form of a video, storyboard, recording, poster or short play.
The drama includes the following elements:
*A greeting.
*At least one person asking another when their birthday is.
*At least one person answering that question.
*Happy birthday wishes.
*Thank you.
*An example of taking leave.
17 points
All the elements of an A are included, with
one or two errors.
15 points
All the elements of an A are included, with more than one or two errors.
12 points
Missing elements and/or numerous errors.
Comments:
18
At the Doctor’s Office Dramatization
A 18-20 points
The student participated in two dialogues (one as patient and
one as doctor).
The patient and doctor greeted each other and asked each
other how they were.
The patient and doctor told each other what their names
were.
The student asked and answered what hurts, and the
doctor gave advice.
The student did not use notes.
The student did not speak English.
B 15-17 points
All elements of an A with one or two errors.
C 12-14 points
All elements of an A with more than one or two errors.
D 12 or below
Missing elements and/or numerous errors.
Comments:
Hot Seat
This activity comes straight from acting. When some actors are learning a part, they research every bit of the character’s life to play the role in a very believable way. This project is not as exhaustive, but is meant to give students some knowledge about athletes from the Spanish- speaking world and to build language proficiency.
Step 1: Have students select a famous person from he target language. You might cut up the names below and put them in a hat. My students always come up with athletes I have never heard of as well. It is always interesting to learn something new. They should be interested in this person because they will play that role in the Hot Seat.
Step 2: The students research these people. Using their research, they answer the questions in the first person. I normally tell them that Wikipedia is a good place to start as there are cited sources with links at the bottom.
Step 3: The students now practice asking and answering these questions.
Step 4: The students take turns in the Hot Seat. The student plays the role of their person in the Hot Seat while the class asks the questions. They must answer in the first person without notes.
Step 5: I sometimes require the students to write summaries of the presentations.
I also award extra credit for dressing up as their person or bringing in a product from the culture of their person.
They have to memorize. They have to be able to answer all that question. For example, what’s your name? Where were you born? Who are your friends? Who are your enemies? What are you famous for?
You might have pieces of paper and everybody picks a different country or a different city or a different place. There’s lots of different configurations that you can make of this and they’re all together. If you taught Japanese, for example, everybody might be from a different place in Japan, and they’ve all come together to this one place for a party.
Guest Speakers
Shopping Activities
We discussed this in two other contexts here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1UbjVB6MM90RGKc-M0ixYxL1osxPvuOObzCTVoqXB_fA/edit?usp=sharing
Here is this activity in Spanish:
Buenas tardes
Buenos días
Buenas noches
Hola
Señor
Señora
Señorita
Me gustaría comprar……..- I would like to buy……..
¿Cuánto cuesta(n)?= How much does it(they) cost?
Cuesta(n)…..= It/they costs/cost….
¿A qué precio es/son…? What price is/are..?
¡Uf! Es mucho…. Oh! That’s a lot!
¿No me lo puede dar por…? Can’t you give it to me for…?
¿Me vende esto por…? Can you sell this to me for….?
Es un buen precio. Muy bien. It’s a good price. OK.
Por favor= Please
Gracias= Thank you
De nada= You’re welcome
¿Qué desea Ud.? What would you like?
Lo siento= I am sorry
¿Cómo paga?= How are you paying?
Con tarjeta de crédito.= credit card
En efectivo= Cash
Cheque personal= personal check
Cupón de regalo. = gift check
Cheque de viajero.= traveler’s check
¿Qué talla usa?= What is your size?
Adiós
Hasta luego.
See/use/adapt to your language.
Art and Artists
We discussed some projects using art and artists.
The next activity is a fun research project. Pick someone from your target language. Give everybody some choices, a list of choices of artists, and some basic biographical information that they have to be able to research and find. For beginners, give them a simple list of 5-7 questions with the sentence starter/chunks they need to complete the presentation.Keep it simple.
They put this all in a Google slide, including a couple of examples. We would go through the slide shows doing quick presentations. They are short, recycle lots of beginning and grammar and require a look into culture.
Vision Boards
For years now, people have been really into vision boards. Regardless of what you or your community might think of spirituality, they can be a really fun project in a foreign language class, particularly a French and Spanish class. Let me tell you a little bit how it works if you aren’t already familiar with these.
Basically, you have images and pictures. You then have a board. This can be a cardboard folder- a piece of poster board, a big piece of paper- whatever. This doesn’t even have to be an actual physical board. It can be an electronic board of some form. Those are certainly easy to make nowadays.
Images that are interesting or pleasing of what people see in their future are what you’re going to put all over this board, you can phrase it any way you want. People may not feel very comfortable that this comes from this big spiritual movement, but regardless of whether you’re spiritual or not this is a fun activity.
I would pick around 10-20 images from different categories. For example, my future health, my future job, my future home, my future social life, trips I’d like to take, things I’d like to have, books I’d like to read, people I’d like to meet, languages I’d like to learn, could all be themes- you get the picture. Any prompts that fit into your class are going to work really nicely. I think when people make vision boards for themselves, they tend to use more images. However, as we are teaching foreign languages and not art, we don’t want to spend too much time on that.
You can cut and glue them all over the board (or do your electronic board- there are apps). I would have the students label their different categories. Places I’d like to go, things I’d like to see, things I’d like to do, trips I’d like to take, etc. Also on that board, I might take small post-its, or white paper and tape them on as labels. Have some requirements of different things that the actual nouns that they label, nouns and adjectives on that board that fit well for practice in your class.
After they’ve completed is where I would bring the writing and speaking into it. Keep it really simple. If you’ve got a group of beginners, you might have them just write simple sentences about each one of their wishes. Or for absolute beginners, have them write down the different nouns. Things I want, things I like, etc.. When you’re getting into more advanced groups, subjunctives, this is a great activity for the subjunctive, have them write about what their hopes are. You’re going to use the subjunctive here (important in French and Spanish), or what their wishes are and what they want to have. Another way to use this is to have them write all about their future. You can even do this in a lower level class with the future, before you’ve done the future tense by using those constructions, I’m going to, I want to.
After they’ve written, everyone can share and it becomes an oral presentation. Everyone can sit around in a circle and talk about whatever their board prompted. One thing I have loved as a foreign language teacher is that we can do anything in our classes and it’s so easy to make it relevant and communicative.
You can have them prepare these well beforehand or have on hand a bag of magazine cutouts. You might even want to ask for donations from recycling and a couple of times a year when you’re recycling your stuff, you can cut out pages that seem interesting or appropriate for school and stick them all in a bag. This way they’re not searching through for images they want and can get started easily. This bag of images can be used in so many different ways as well. You can use them in projects to talk about descriptions and body parts where you might cut out ten different body parts from ten different images in a magazine, and eventually becomes this composite Frankenstein-type character. They then have to describe it. They can make their own pretend family books or pretend family trees also with these images.
Fashion Show
Fashion Show. One student models and the other one presents in the target language what they’re wearing. If they are intermediate, you could have them do much longer descriptions and more elaborate outfits. You could also have them write about what everyone wears. For an advanced level task, I go to a target language magazine online and show them some examples of coverage of the fashion weeks in TL countries. The students have to then write about what they saw and read and write a critique about what they think of the whole idea.
A way to extend this activity is to make this into a research project.
Consider different periods of time or different people from history. Have them find a primary source that demonstrates the criteria that you gave. They put it all in one slideshow, which would serve as the model and they describe what those people were wearing. It’s a great way to get some culture in there. It can be any period of time or anywhere in the world. It might be traditional outfits, different countries, different periods of time, et cetera.
Different stores could be another theme, which I think is a fun way to do modern culture.
Another research project theme is food.
Everybody can find dishes from a certain country. Perhaps in the Francophone, or continent. Make a class cookbook. Everybody talks a little bit out one dish from a certain place or whatever the criteria may be. Then maybe you can narrow it down. As a class you decide if it is doable to make a certain dish.
I live in a place where I can easily find ready-made Spanish foods. And it’s really simple for me just when I’m at the supermarket, I can pick up a few little things and then make it into a taste test. I put them all out on a table. It’s almost like a little buffet and they get to try all these different foods. Using a piece of paper and a clipboard, they have to say what they like and what they don’t like. Then we talk about it. There’s lots of different ways that that can do this in a way that saves, , will save, save your sanity, some nice change of pace that isn’t, isn’t terribly difficult to do.
Coffee Talk
We discussed this here. 5 More Weeks of Fun
Some Q & A communicative activities for your Coffee Talk sessions. See/adapt/keep:
Students can take some time to plan out some of the things that they can talk about. They often can say more than they think they can, but they can’t do it perfectly. They need a little bit of preparation. Can we ask each other how we’re doing, what our names are? Can we say what we did last weekend? Take a good amount of time to do that, then let them talk.
I like to record this after we get comfortable with the process. Save their recordings and then hear their progress. If you’re in the novice or the intermediate level, they make really fast progress. This is a nice opportunity to incorporate some of those target language foods as well. Getting people comfortable with just sitting around, and chatting.
Buzzers
We discussed this also here: 5 More Weeks of Fun
Some activities to use these with to gamify:
Q and A
Translations
Verb Conjugations
They might write 15 questions they’ll give to you. You vet these questions and ask them. This involves a lot of listening and interaction. At the Advanced level, this just goes a bit deeper.
Post-it Notes
This is a super useful tool for any language teacher or learner. We discussed them here: 5 More Weeks of Fun
Some labeling activities:
Clothing
Body Parts
Things in a classroom
Numbers
Descriptions
Things in a painting
Unknown vocabulary
Things in a backpack
If you’re familiar with Flash Sticks, they have a little system where they use different colors for different types of grammar. While this has been discontinued, there’s an app that is FAB!!
Students, write questions of whatever you’re reviewing. Take the questions and put them all up. Jeopardy style, and use different colors to categorize different activities or different types of questions.
Cheat Sheet/Post it/Index Card
Give them one of these. Tell them that on the test, they can use everything that is on it. It’s one of those little tricks that gets them studying really intently. I’d really like to dig a bit deeper into the research on handwriting. It’s a really great review activity.
Deep Study that Looks Like Play
Teaching a Foreign Language: Using Play for the Rough Spots
I LOVE teaching foreign languages! With that said, it requires a lot of planning, and is not always considered the easiest of subjects. Any time I can infuse some games to get over the rough spots, bringing the words and phrases we are studying to life makes the atmosphere lighter in the room. It gets them practicing without even knowing it. Here are a few games that I use to get through some of the rough spots.
Tic-tac-toe. If you are unfamiliar with Dr. Rassias, he was an amazing leader in teaching foreign languages. He made learning fun and engaging. His activities with comprehensible input (a sort of early TPRS with lots of visuals) gets people speaking fast and accurately.
While Dr. Rassias did not invent the game, he had a great take on it. Put students in pairs. They identify vocabulary or verbs. Give them a list. They get X and O’s. The winner is obviously just like traditional tic-tac-toe. You can also do your tic-tac-toe with complex structure translations. They get it right, they get the X and the O. I like to infuse culture here with making my X’s and O’s cultural (i.e. frijoles or shapes in the TL). A very fun way to get through a rough spot.
Who Am I? This game is great for practicing new verb tenses. In this game, you can write on the forehead of the glasses. This is a fun way to ask and answer questions. You can even write a question on one pair of glasses, and the answer on the other. Students get moving around and practicing the new verb tense.
Hear and Circle. Anytime you have structures that are really difficult, I love to do Hear and Circle.
Teaching most grammar through comprehensible input is an effective and easy way to begin any new tense or structure. I never lead with grammar. After presenting structures and you hear some production from the students, the time is perfect. When the students start asking how something is formed, you know they are ready for the mini-lesson.
With that said, I like to introduce my most complex structures this way. I find that advanced and upper-intermediate students need some direct translation. After a quick presentation, they can quickly master something difficult leading with this method. Regardless of what anyone says about translations, I believe it makes a lot of the difficult grammar instruction we have seen in many books become relevant. I write phrases all over in the target language and English. I say one phrase in one language, and they circle the corresponding phrase in the target language. They get feedback right away. It is a tool I am happy to have for teaching a foreign language.
For these more advanced learners, I do longer sentences. They then have the handout to then create their own language. For example, if I’m teaching some if… then structures, the students will have a whole paper full of examples that they have engaged with. They can then take this to write their own poems. I love teaching some If..then structures. I have them create a Si yo fuera… presentation or poem. They might research and present as though they were from the TL country. They can talk about what they would eat if they were from that place, or what time they would go to school.
Dress Up. Dressing up is one of the easiest ways to get students over some of the rough spots of learning a new language. They can become this new person who speaks a new language.
Fashion Show. One student models and the other one presents in the target language what they’re wearing. If they are intermediate, you could have them do much longer descriptions and more elaborate outfits. You could also have them write about what everyone wears. For an advanced level task, I go to a target language magazine online and show them some examples of coverage of the fashion weeks in TL countries. The students have to then write about what they saw and read and write a critique about what they think of the whole idea.
Family Dress Up. I love to have students dress up like a family to learn this new vocabulary. I divide my students all up into different families, each one playing a role.
They then dress up. Think bibs for the babies, fake moustaches, etc. They have to introduce each family member and how that person is related to them. For an intermediate task, we do the same thing, but then we have a party. The different families have to introduce themselves to the other families. For an advanced tass, I have students get a photo of someone in their family. We use VoiceThread to narrate a story about life in the family.
When fun and laughter can be infused, it lowers everyone’s filter, making languages easier and more fun for everyone.
Sound effects. These are fun and can be found easily online. Beginners, you might play some sound effects that represent different times of the day.
For example, they might listen to a rooster and know to say in the target language, good morning or an alarm clock. You might play different kinds of weather and they have to guess the season, the target language or what the weather’s like. Intermediate can make a little playlist to tell a story. Advanced students can make a soundtrack of their life and tell you about it in the target language.
Netflix for Language Learners
Class Movie
Basically, you’ll narrate, or maybe a very advanced student or your advanced level class will actually narrate something, and people are going to act it out. You’re going to narrate something in the target language and other people are acting it out.
The reverse of this is to have people acting it out, they imagine something and you or an advanced student narrates. It really is so much fun.
Another version is that each student makes a slide on a collaborative Google Doc. You narrate (download as PowerPoint, Keynote or us a Google add-on). Export as a movie. You now have a class movie.
A more advanced version:
Give everybody a different role. They write pair people up. One group might decide the beginning. You break up the criteria. It doesn’t need to be long to be effective, but it can be. This might be something that you do really in just one day or even part of a day.
Another group might be in charge of saying three things that happened in the morning. Another group might be in charge of three things that happened in the afternoon. Another group has three things that happened in the evening. Another group does the ending.
Screenplay
We discussed it here: 5 More Weeks of Fun
A simple version for beginners is to script out short form videos. These are great because they can provide input. Then, the students can make their own. Some examples:
A Tour of My House https://youtu.be/SNrapwhvnI0
El fin de semana pasado https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GXM-z7cXgKs
Las últimas vacaciones ¿Qué hiciste durante las últimas vacaciones?
Cities Italian to talk about cities
Family Family in Italian
Italian fridge Peek inside an Italian refrigerator
In making short form videos of the, the possibilities are endless. A tool that’s been really great is Flipgrid. When I say short form, I’m not necessarily talking about the kind of videos that you would put on Reels or TikTok.
Make a topic and then everybody makes their own. You can provide input and they create output.
There’s a lot of engagement, but short form videos can be simple. A biography, an autobiography. A short little research project. It can be recorded as a short slideshow. Everybody has to give a one minute review of a grammar point that you learned.
The possibilities are endless.
Looking for some ready-made resources? https://real-life-language.teachable.com/p/immersive-beginning-spanish-lessons