Today’s post is dedicated to Six Things, Lindsay Clandfield’s blogging eduventure which will be drawing to close at the end of the year.

What six things couldn’t you live without as an EFL tacher?

I’m still full of the joys of ACEIA, and in Jeremy Harmer’s opening plenary he asked an intriguing question, “What is fluency?”  There was a great response from one participant, “It’s speaking without thinking,” which made people laugh a fair bit.

But, in all honesty, what is fluency?

I’m feeling a bit random today and, inspired by my partner’s blog Translator’s Words, I’m interested in hearing what your favourite word in the teaching world is.

I quite like morphology – I like the way we can change words and also it reminds me of after-school TV from my youth.

I love activites which give students scope to introduce their own ideas, activities which make them “think outside the box” and for which there are no wrong answers.  I played a game this evening with my FCE class which I’ve played before with lower levels and all students find it just as difficult.

Show students a picture and ask them to write a sentence about it, but say that they can’t include a certain letter.  Make sure it’s a letter which immediately springs to mind when you first look at the picture; for example, if there’s a picture of someone swimming, say the forbidden letter is “s”.

What activities do you use to get students thinking outside the box?

I’m sure you all know by now that I’m a HUGE fan of professional development and believe that we should all get as much as possible (without overdoing it).  It will soon be the next ACEIA conference in Sevilla, which is a day-long event with the opportunity of seeing five talks from some great speakers, on a wide variety of topics.

I love days like these, filled to the brim with input, though it does leave you feeling rather drained and overwhelmed with information.  When I think back to all the development sessions which I’ve been to at previous conferences, there’s one thing which sticks in my mind…Mario Rinvolucri’s TPR activity to practise irregular verbs – a whole hall of English teachers touching their toes, tummies and heads as they chanted, “Begin, began, begun.”

What one image most sticks in your mind of all the development sessions you’ve attended?