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Mystery Caller
Staff at a Scottish safari park were shocked to discover a chimpanzee was the mystery caller who had kept phoning their mobile phones. (Animals, mobile phones, sequencing, writing a postcard, compound nouns.)
Elementary
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Reviving a Lost Art
France's Sorbonne University has launched a degree course in professional letter writing because a generation addicted to brief e-mails and mobile phone text messaging has forgotten how to write letters. (Methods of communication, writing letters, history, use of 'as'.)
Intermediate
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Prepositions - to and for
Larama in Brazil says her students have a problem using these prepositions correctly and asked Anna to try and simplify things.
Intermediate
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Sharon's Game
An active and interesting way to review vocabulary, grammar or even general knowledge from previous lessons. Note: Pushing, stealing the other team's pen, and erasing the other team's answer is subject to penalty!
Intermediate
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Verbs + to
Anna offers Tricia from Australia some advice and exercises to help her Japanese students.
Intermediate
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What time is it?
This simple warmer allows students to focus on question and statement intonation as well as structures for asking for and giving the time.
Elementary
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Sue them!
Does your boss plague you with irritating phone calls at home? You'd be well within your rights to sue, says Britain's Institute of Management. (Business, conditions of employment, rights and responsibilities,writing an application letter, employment agency role play, use of 'even'.)
Upper-Intermediate
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Finders Keepers?
A 22-year-old who describes himself as poor but honest became a hero when he found and returned a plastic bag crammed with $203,000 that had fallen off the back of an armored car the night before. (Honesty, finding money, sequencing, the past perfect.)
Intermediate
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A Helping Hand
A blind Colombian man accompanied by his faithful dog was led to safety by his female boss down 70 flights of a narrow staircase of a tower of the World Trade Center after it was hit by a hijacked plane. (Helping someone, seeing eye dogs, Sequencing, prepositions of place.)
Pre-Intermediate
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I'm Going To Take a Vacation
This variation on an old party game is a good warmer for the beginning of a new session when the teacher and students do not know each other's names yet.
Pre-Intermediate
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Confusables - Make and do
Anna helps Patricia and Laurie from the UK with the infamous confusables "make" and "do".
Intermediate
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Tennis Love
Tennis chiefs could be forced to take action soon as the top women players continue to bring dogs to tournaments. (Sport, pets, summarizing.)
Intermediate
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The Show Must Go On... Please!
A world-renowned Hungarian pianist broke off his recital at Edinburgh's high-brow International Arts Festival until a cacophony of mobile phones, beeping watches and coughing faded away. (Music, entertainment, ballet, public noise, mobile phones, prefixes and suffixes, 'might as well have + past particle of verb'.)
Intermediate to Upper-Intermediate
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A Global Issue
"Landmines take or wreck three lives an hour, every hour, every day of every year. We have to come together now to try to stop that," Sir Paul McCartney said on launching Adopt-A-Minefield UK, a new charity raising funds for mine clearance and landmine survivors. (Landmine clearance, global problems, vegetarians, the passive.)
Intermediate
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Lord of the Ring
Two stories of amazing finds: A man searched and found his wedding ring more than a year after it slipped off his finger and sank to the sea floor and another ring was eaten by a fish that was eaten by a fish that was eaten by a shark. And then what happened? ... Do the lesson and find out. (Losing and finding things, love stories, first conditional and if and when, relative pronouns.)
Pre-Intermediate
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Double Negatives
Julie from France asks why you can sometimes use two negatives in one sentence so Anna explains ...
Intermediate
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Famous People Flash Cards
This variation on the Famous People warmer comes from Denmark. Carmen says she uses it with beginner groups. "It helps everyone laugh and this in turn helps the group relax".
Elementary to Pre-Intermediate
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Powerful Choices
Wind power, an abundant, clean and affordable alternative to coal, could become a leading source of U.S. electricity with the right political support and investment, researchers said. (Sources of power, electricity, the environment, summarizing, countable and uncountable nouns.)
Upper-Intermediate
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A Dog's Bark
A dog's bark stopped 180 Brazilian prisoners from escaping. (Animals, prison escape, word order for questions, 'to' used to give the purpose of an action.)
Elementary
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Passive and get
Alison in The U.K wrote and asked for tips on teaching the passive using 'get'. Anna suggests the following ...
Intermediate
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Cartoon creations
Using a cartoon on a popular topic, students learn to work out missing text by looking at other contextual clues.
Pre-Intermediate
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Who Wears the Trousers
Max tells us the history of the words used to describe different kinds of trousers.
Intermediate
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Family of Ducks
Two duck stories. Tina Chen is very busy. She is mother for 16 ducklings in her 12th floor apartment. When a family of ducklings fell down a Vancouver sewer grate their mother asked a police officer for help. (Amazing true stories, ordering events, questions, headlines, using 'so' and 'because'.)
Elementary
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Put a cork in it?
Portuguese cork producers are worried that more and more wine bottles will use plastic seals. At stake, they say, is not only a billion-dollar industry but the mainstay of many farmers in Portugal's south, where ancient cork trees also prevent desertification and are a refuge for bird life. (Business, the environment, Portugal, the present perfect, for and since.)
Advanced
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Criss-Crossed Lovers
A man missed his girlfriend so much he flew 11,000 miles back to Britain from Australia to propose to her, only to find she wasn't there. She had flown from Britain to Australia! They even sat in the same airport lounge in Singapore at the same time... and didn't see each other. (Love, coincidences, being impulsive, Non-defining clauses, use of "think about" and "think of".)
Intermediate
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Phrasal verbs
Laurie from the USA asks Anna about the English phenomenon called "Phrasal Verbs". Here is Anna's reply.
Intermediate
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And the Answer is ......
Galina from Russia says this is a great warmer to use when English-speaking people visit the classroom; that it makes students listen really hard.
Intermediate
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Just Grin and Bear it
The intersection of Grinn Drive and Barret Road has been declared the funniest intersection in the USA. (Idiomatic expressions, verbs that describe movements or body language, onomatopoeia, nursery rhymes, use of 'so' and 'because'.)
Intermediate
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Purple Ketchup in Bid for Kids
Ketchup maker H.J. Heinz Co. is making purple ketchup to appeal to children. (Business, colors, the passive.)
Pre-Intermediate
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Conversation-in-a-box
Here's a warmer for mixed-ability classes.
Intermediate
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A unique .....
A teacher from Singapore poses a unique question.
Intermediate
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Winning Millions
This lesson is about shy people who when they learned they had won millions of dollars in a lottery jackpot, walked away. I know what I would do! (Lottery, money, Canada, luck, present perfect)
Intermediate
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True... or not?
This lesson is about a portable lie detector for sale in Korea. You can use it over the phone!
(Technology, Korea)
Intermediate to Upper-Intermediate
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Transgenic Mosquitoes
European scientists have created the world's first genetically modified malaria mosquito that could one day help to rid the world of the disease that kills an estimated 2.7 million people each year. (Genetic engineering, health, malaria, prefixes)
Upper-Intermediate
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Town Warns Drivers: Get a Grip While on Phone
This lesson looks at how motorists using cellular phones must now keep both hands on the steering wheel. (Cell phones, driving laws, accidents, technology, to + infinitive to show purpose)
Intermediate
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Tough as Nails
A group of women in Hong Kong refused to evacuate a burning office tower until their nails were perfect! (Danger, fashion and beauty, fire, Hong Kong, verbs followed by to + infinitive)
Intermediate
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Tipping
This happy story is about a waitress who thought her dream of going back to school had come true thanks to a generous stranger's $10,000 tip. She may still get her wish even though her British benefactor may be a deadbeat. (luck, money, education, credit cards, punctuation)
Intermediate
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The Newest President
In 2008 the Security Council has five new members including Libya. (United Nations, Security Council, Ban Ki-Moon and his achievements to date, defining and non-defining relative clauses, gap filling, Internet research, reading for specific information, split readings.)
Upper-Intermediate
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The Snail Game
A useful card game to review and recall verb forms.
Intermediate
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The Itch
Researchers in Arizona have identified nerve cells believed to be responsible for itchy sensations. The discovery may lead the way to better treatments for itching. (Science, the brain, new cures)
Upper-Intermediate
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The "Babel" Machine
This is about the emergence of so-called "machine translation", which has raised hopes among some --and strong doubts among others -- that computers will one day make human interpreters obsolete. (Translation, computers, technology, interpreters, language, the -ing forms, gerunds, verbs, adjectives)
Upper-Intermediate
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Tech Workers in the U.S.
Demand for U.S. technical workers fell 44 percent in the past year. What's happening? Do the lesson and find out. (Employment, computer and technical jobs, relative pronouns)
Intermediate
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T V Dinners
Children who eat lunch when they are watching TV take in more calories and children in families who usually watch television during meals eat less fruit and fewer vegetables. They also eat more pizza, snack food and caffeine-laced drinks. (TV watching, food, diet, children, family, health.)
Elementary
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Switch Off Your Phone!
Modern Etiquette: Ringing in good mobile phone manners! Modern technology may have provided us with mobile phones and the convenience of instant communication, but it's also created a lot more ways to irritate or offend. This lesson also looks at mobile phone misuse by politicians and doctors. (Laws, crime, technology, scanning paragraphs for topics, word order)
Upper-Intermediate
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Stunt Animals
As an employee looking after stunt animals on movie sets, this woman was called upon to even protect a cockroach! (Hollywood, animal protection, movies, articles)
Advanced
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Smokers Denied Transplants
Surgeons at the Alfred Hospital in Australia are demanding that smokers stop the habit before undergoing major heart and lung surgery. The reported ban has raised a storm of controversy in Australia. (Health, ethics, smoking, responsibility, 'verb+that+clause sentences')
Upper-Intermediate
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Smell That Stamp
It is hoped that high-tech ink scented with violets can draw young people back to letter writing, a pastime losing followers in the age of e-mail. Well, there is always hope. (Korea, technology, email, comparative adjectives)
Intermediate
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Slow Down
An anti-speeding device which uses space satellite signals and cuts the fuel supply to cars breaking speed limits could save thousands of lives on Britain's roads. (Car speeding, new technology, satellites, police, conditional sentences)
Intermediate
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See You In Court
A longtime fan, disgruntled with the play his favourite hockey team, has sued the club's owner for breach of contract. (Sport, law suits, suing, money, cause and effect)
Intermediate
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Skunks and yogurt
Skunks jam their heads in to these containers as they are looking for yogurt and then get trapped and die but will the company responsible help?(Environment, packaging, animals, advertising, '-ing' forms)
Upper-Intermediate
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