Product Description

Five Minute Activities is a collection of over 100 ideas for the foreign language classroom, all of which can be used effectively with little or no preparation. The collection offers a convenient reference for established activities and an introduction to a large number of new ones. The activities can vary pace and content, provide transitions, and otherwise contribute to the "well-orchestrated" lesson; give an opportunity for brief review and practice of vocabulary or grammar; help students and teacher to get to know each other; and offer extra material when a teacher has to fill in for a colleague at short notice. Though many of the activities are enjoyable and game-like, they are not mere "fillers" but genuine language-learning procedures, whose use can contribute significantly to the learning value of lessons and to the interest and enjoyment of students. The activities can be used at various levels of proficiency.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #104377 in Books
• Published on: 1992-03-27
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 117 pages

Review
'The activities can be used at any level and adapted to any teaching situation. I would therefore definitely recommend this book to EVERYONE.' Standpoints

Customer Reviews

English for EFL purposes?
Five-minute Activities contains over 130 ideas for the foreign language classroom in its 100 pages. I read this book from cover to cover, and was pleased to be able to make many notes for my future lessons. Some of the activities are actually quite common, and perhaps most teachers would be aware of them, but there were many good ones that I'd never come across, including a few gems. Some are literally five-minute fillers, while others are worthy of spending maybe a whole lesson on. If I had to make a tentative criticism, it'd be that many of the suggestions have students generating language that would never be heard beyond the walls of an EFL classroom. For example, "A pencil is thinner than an elephant." I have mixed feelings about whether this is such a bad thing or not. On the one hand, students can practice structurally correct forms of language and learn whilst having fun. On the other hand, Five-minute Activities doesn't really present them with many opportunities to practise for situations in the real world, which may, of course, not be as fun. Also, I felt that there was a bias for activities that focused on self-disclosure, or competing to be the best in the class. Great, perhaps, for European or South American students of English, but not quite so good for students at my secondary school here in Japan. Overall, I'm pleased to have this book for reference, and I'd recommend it to most of my colleagues, even if some of the suggestions reminded me of what it used to be like as a pupil at a British elementary school.

A must for all ESL teachers!
I bought this book a few years ago on a trip to Hong Kong, and it has greatly improved my teaching. This is a book of short activities that can be used to open or close a class, or to provide a little variety. The range of ideas is great. I have found students very responsive to the activities in this book, and would recommend it to any teacher who is having experiencing boredom or frustration with their classes.

Extremely good for all levels, a teacher's pet!
I've had a copy of this book since 1995. I keep it in my bag of things for class as it helps to fill in those odd minutes of leftover time.

Here in China I find the activities can be used for much longer than 5 minutes.

I highly recommend it. Money well spent.