Adult Fun

[observador]

I am looking for some light-hearted, but grown-up ESL resources. (I don't mean "Adult"!)
I have a bunch of very serious lawyers who are keen to improve their English and we are having several sesions of two hour lessons, but I want to break it up with something fun in the middle. This might stop them running off and speaking Spanish to their secretaries. Any ideas? Most fun ESL stuff seems to be for kids and I don't want to insult my class's intelligence.

[RebeccaG]

Wow!! ha ha ha! The title of your post is certainly misleading! I thought I was going to have to do some editing here! 

I specialize in teaching adults and have all kinds of tricks up my sleeve...

What level are your students? How conversational are they? This will help in recommending things to do...

Rebecca

[observador]

Their level is good enough for easy conversation, with a reasonable grasp on grammar, but lacking that naturalness that comes with a deeper knowledge. I break the lessons into several parts including phrasal verbs and periphrasals, idioms and general conversational expressions. All of them could go to an English speaking counrty and manage without too much trouble. The problem comes when they hear a phrase they don't quite understand - and English is full of those. Getting people to learn by rote is not my way, although I know one Spanish lady who could carry out a long conversation in nothing but idioms. She has learnt thousands of them, it seems!
I try to vary the pattern of the session. Start with general conversation, then introduce what I want them to learn that session - typically variations on a theme of how one word or expression can be used in different ways. We do have some fun, but there is a general lull about halfway and I wannt to break away from the "Instruction-practise" cycle and just do something, maybe even a little competetive, to give their brains a rest, without them reverting to Spanish.
Good title wasn't it? Gets me a quick reply!!

[observador]

Good title wasn't it? Gets me a quick reply!!

But no further ideas, it seems. It's been a year!! Good grief.

I still have my class of lawyers, but the two hour sessions have been replaced by regular hourly ones, so no need for a fun intermission. Towards the end of the academic year I have been experimenting with strip cartoons to demonstrate idioms, phrasal verbs etc. Does anyone have experience in doing this? I don't mean to seem sexist, but this seems more popular with female students than male. I have no idea why.

My original title has proved itself. I got a new student some months back simply because she said the sound of laughter coming from the room where I teach intrigued her. Learning should not always be serious.

[RebeccaG]

Guilty as charged!

Although, with all the other users on this site, I don't know why no one else jumped in with suggestions.

To be honest Observador, I don't use comic strips in class and I see that as a much more heads down activity and I like to see my students using English (i.e. speaking) actively.

With my adult classes, I also prepare a class on small talk...that very important social tool...especially in business relationships. This would be a perfect activity for your lawyers. If you are interested, PM me and I will send you the full lesson outline on small talk. However one of the highlights is a speaking activity where the students simulate that they are on a long train ride (I usually use the Madrid to Paris route).

Each student is given a stack of cards that have words printed on them. The object of the activity is that they must correctly use the word or phrase on each their cards in the context of a natural conversation. The person who first uses up all their cards is the winner. Of course you, as the teacher, must be the referee and decide if the use of the phrase was natural or not.

This activity works great for all levels of speakers because you can create different sets of cards to challenge the students’ levels. For example, for lower level conversations, perhaps you want to focus on the use of “short answers” (i.e. “yes, I do”, “no, I haven’t” etc..). For more conversational speakers you can add random phrases such as “I don’t like anchovies on my pizza” or “I love techno music”. And of course for advanced levels you can add in idiomatic expressions that they must use within the context of a natural conversation (with random strangers on a long train ride).

It’s a fun activity and my students really enjoy it. However, they must be reminded that the objective of the game is to be the first to use all of their cards in a natural conversation and not simply to run through all of their words sticking them in a conversation in a non-sensical way.

Anyway, do share with us how you use comic strips in your classes!