Learning a foreign language can be an exciting and rewarding experience for students. It can open up new opportunities and provide them with a better understanding of different cultures. To make the learning process more enjoyable, many foreign language schools offer a variety of activities for their students. One popular activity is storytelling.
This is a great way to introduce students to the culture of the target language. The teacher can tell a classic story about an animal character who always gets into trouble, makes his friends pay for the problems, and then always finds a way out of that mess. To make the story more engaging, the teacher can use a picture book to help tell it. It is also important to tell the story as dramatically as possible.
Enrichment activities are another great way to help students learn a foreign language. These activities provide students with an opportunity to practice speaking and understanding the target language in class. They also help improve listening comprehension as they are often repetitive in nature. Examples of enrichment activities include asking students to ask their partner the time, telling their partner the time, solving riddles such as “what is black and white and can be read everywhere?”, and solving mathematical problems such as “how much is 123 plus 456?”.
Another popular activity is creating folktales. The teacher can share a couple of folktales from the culture of the target language and then ask students to create their own folktale to share. This activity encourages creativity and helps students become more familiar with the culture of the target language. Games are also a great way to motivate students while learning a foreign language.
Popular games include Twister, Price is Right, and Aerobics Video in Spanish. Twister involves placing hands or feet on four colored dots on a plastic mat while Price is Right involves groups discussing what they think is the right price for items such as clothing, e-books, watches, etc. Aerobics Video in Spanish involves forming a circle and each person leading a movement (aerobic or not) for 8 to 16 times before passing it on to another person. Other activities include obtaining exchange rates from international banks, decorating classrooms with posters, playing “find the colors”, continuing stories, writing one-sentence remarks about people, making contrasts, comparisons, and superlatives, and describing people in detail according to information provided.
All of these activities are great ways for students to learn a foreign language in an enjoyable way. As an expert in foreign language education, I highly recommend that students take advantage of all these activities when studying at a foreign language school. Not only will they have fun while learning but they will also gain valuable knowledge about different cultures and languages that will stay with them for life.
