Vocabulary: Acting out verbs and prepositions

I have found the best way to keep younger students engaged in any lesson is to get them out of their seats, actively participating in the teaching/learning process. I teach English to very low level speakers(age 7-11)and I find that having them act out the word after you have works quite well for verbs and prepositions of place.

1) Verbs
- Obviously jump, swim, eat, drink, etc. can be personified and understood easily. Introduce the lexis to the students through acting out the verbs while they mimic your body movements and say the target words.
- Then play a game where you divide the class into 2 teams, calling up one student from each team to the front of the class. You then say one of the target words and have act it our or switch it around and act out the verb and elicit the response from each student, giving a point on the board to whoever get the answer right first.

This also works very well with prepositions of place. Using a pen and a chair, illustrate under, on, above, etc. After you show them what "under" is, call up each student and have him/her say the preposition while having them physically hold it in the correct position. Follow with the same game above.

Henry Bryson
Florida Boy in Buriram, Thailand