Despite the enormous popularity of video games, young learners still love to play board games with family and friends. Designing a game for others to play can double the fun. And it can add engaging learning opportunities to a course on any subject, including English as a Second language. Why are games so engaging? Most
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Translation Card Game
English has borrowed 60% of its vocabulary from French over the centuries. Some words have entered English almost unchanged. Some loanwords are unrecognizable. Some words look the same in both languages but are used in different ways. False Cognates These “false-friends” or “faux-amis” are often referred to as false-cognates, from the Latin co for “together” and
Read on »Free Go Fish Card Game
Play this card game in groups of three or four. Shuffle and deal six cards each. Players take turns asking “Do you have any _____?” to complete books of the same rank. The player with the most books at the end of the game is the winner. For complete playing instructions, see How to Play
Read on »Postcards for Pen Pals — Free Download
Postcards are great. The colourful picture on the front can surprise, inform, and inspire. The stamp on the back can form part of a collection. There is just enough room to write a few well-chosen sentences. Messages are short and focused. The beginnings and endings are formulaic. Good Pedagogy Indeed, the skills you learn from
Read on »Card Game and Grammar Rules for Sports, Games and Exercise
Do we say “I do skiing,” or “I play ski” or just “I ski?” Incorrect: I play skiing. I do skiing during the winter. I like ski. Correct: I ski. I like skiing. I ski during the winter.Rule: “Ski” is a verb. It is not the name of a game, so conjugate it as
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ESL Textbooks Check out our award-winning Actively Engaged series of textbooks for CEGEP ESL from BokomaruPublications.com. On June 8th, 2017, Nicholas Walker, the creator of the Virtual Writing Tutor, was awarded the TESL Canada Innovation Award in Niagara, Canada for his Actively Engaged series of books. On June 6th, 2019, he received the AQPC Mention d’Honneur for teaching excellence
Read on »Free Error Correction Card Game
Research has revealed that some of the strongest influences on student learning include reciprocal teaching, cooperative learning, and computer-assisted instruction (Hattie, 2009). ESL teachers can make excellent use of all three of these powerful pedagogical levers at once by having students play a simple card game, like this one in Actively Engaged Online (Walker, 2015) from
Read on »Free Grammar Checker Visual Style Guide
Get your free grammar checker style guide here. It’s free! Share it on social media or print it for your students. Learn grammar rules, punctuation tips, compare tenses, identify false cognates, and see examples of 50 of the most common errors learners make on the Virtual Writing Tutor grammar checker.
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