Imane Nejjar ENS - Rabat Language Activities for Bored Teenagers.

Imane Nejjar

ENS - Rabat

Language Activities for Bored Teenagers

What is a teenager?

Give orally a short definition of a teenager.

A teenager is ...

What is a teenager?

What is a teenager?

Teenagers experiment in social relationships, different clothes, hairstyles , way of walking, talking...

They like to spend time with their peers at school, on the streets ...

They are obsessed about music or sport or movie stars ...

They can have dramatic mood swings ...

What is a teenager?

They look tough on the outside but they usually feel insecure on the inside.

They can think deeply about some issues, but see others in black and white.

They share an array of ever-changing diverse, and usually perplexing qualities.

Teenagers can be ...

awkward, bored, cynical, defiant …

“I'm selfish, impatient

& a little insecure. I

make mistakes, I'm

out of control & at

times hard to handle.

I am who I am; your

approval isn't

needed.”

(Author Unknown)

Characteristics

of a Middle

School

Teenage

Student

A middle school adolescent ...

shows preference for active over passive experiences

is interested in interacting with peers during learning activities

is more motivated when the learning experiences are varied both in content and methodology

prefers light and funny activities but with a clear learning value

can be quickly bored if not challenged and engaged

Ways to Reach ‘Bored’ Teenage Students…

Teaching young adolescent students can be very challenging to middle school teachers.

One efficient way for middle school EFL teachers to motivate bored teenagers is through using Language Activities and Games.

Ways to Reach ‘Bored’ teenage Students…

There are many language activities and games that an EFL teacher can make use of to motivate young adolescents and to maximize their learning:o Tongue twisterso Jokeso Riddleso Puzzleso Stories …

These activities can be used as:Ice-breakersWarm-upsBreaksFillersClosures

Tongue Twisters (1)

 Sam’s silly sister Sara sunbathed on sandy Santa Sabina sea shore.

A big black bug bit a big black bear, made the big black bear bleed blood.

She sells sea shells by the sea shore. The shells she sells are surely seashells.

Riddles (2)

What goes round the house and in the house but never touches the house?

What is it that you can keep after giving it to someone else?

What walks all day on its head? What gets wet when drying? What comes once in a minute, twice in a

moment, but never in a thousand years?

From letters to grammar (4)

Listen to the letters

Think of a grammatical and meaningful phrase that uses each letter as the first letter of a word. The order of the letters is not important.

Examples: A, D, I, F = A day in France, Fried dates are incredible, Fatine ate Doha’s ice-cream

Question-Question (5)

A: Hi Sanaa, how are you?B: What did you say?A: How are you?’B: Do you really care?A: Do you think I don’t care?B: Do you?A: Does it matter?B: Does anything matter?!

Alphabet dialog (6)

Create a paired dialogue so that each line begins with the next letter of the alphabet

For example:1 Ahmed, how are you?2 Bad, really bad!3 Come on, it can’t be that bad!4 Do you think I’m joking?

Mixed double sentences (7)

Class is divided into 2 teams A & B

Each team tries to nominate words they think belong to their sentences

Pizza a is to writing spicy email funny eating and hot a Christ I friend a yummy am .

A : __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ B: __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __

Portrait Poems (8)

An autobiographical poem is personal—it reveals something about the person writing it. Below is a simple plan to write your own autobiographical poem. Just follow the steps and—before you know it—it’s done.I am (first name)

Son/Daughter of (brother/sister of...)Who needs , , Who loves , , Who sees , , Who hates , , Who fears , , Who dreams of , , …Resident of (City/town/country)(last name)

Thank you for your

time!

Imane Nejjar ENS- Rabat