• Home
  • Login
  • Registration
  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • RSS
ESLarticle.com
Tweet
  • Home
  • Articles
  • Blog
  • Members
  • Add Article

Top Categories

Teaching 509
Other 210
Classroom Management 138
Career Development 135
Learning Methodology 121
Study Skills 90
E-Learning/CALL 87
English Language Learning (ELL) 78
Teaching English as a Foreign Language (TEFL) 77
Teaching Methodology 76
English Language Teaching (ELT) 73
English as a Second Language (ESL) 64
Teach in Shanghai
Home / Articles / English as a Second Language (ESL) / View Article

Publishing

  • Articles
  • Add Article
  • Articles Archive
  • Latest Articles
  • Popular Articles

Latest Articles

Jan 5, 2019

Metacognition in Reading Competency

As related to the reading process, metacognition can be defined as contemplation concerning one's own thinking processes or knowledge of one's own...

Jan 5, 2019

Mass Media Literacy Reflections for Language Instructions

"You cannot teach a man anything, you can only help him find it within himself." Galileo Galilei Mass media forms thrive today. As development...

Nov 30, 2018

Ideas for the First Class with New Learners

~~The first class with new learners can be an anxious one for all concerned – teacher as well as learners. Below are some tips to make that first...

Nov 19, 2018

10 Amazing Hacks for English Learners

10 Amazing Hacks for English Learners It is estimated that there are over a billion English speakers in the world, including native speakers,...

Nov 15, 2018

Building Reading and Writing Knowledge with Very Young Children at Hom

Education Today, December 2013 Building Reading and Writing Knowledge with Very Young Children at Home  Timothy G. Weih University of Northern...

Popular Articles

1126754 Views

5 Creative Ways to Decorate Your Classroom Bulletin Board This Winter

Back to school, fall leaves, Thanksgiving and Christmas all easily lend themselves to great decorating themes, but what to do when those are over...

365700 Views

Three Unique Ideas To Make Your Bulletin Board More Useful

Bulletin boards have long been existent in campuses. They have proven to be such versatile and useful aids in both the learning and teaching...

132515 Views

History of the Chalkboard

Walk into just about any classroom and you will find one: A dark green board on the wall, lined with pieces of chalk and felt erasers. Chalkboards,...

62781 Views

Report Card Comments

For a small minority, writing report cards isn't a big deal. But most teachers generally dread report card writing time. Completing the comment...

41288 Views

The Most Useful American Business Words

The Most Useful American Business Words: Here's a list that will come in handy for any student enrolled in an English as a Second Language (ESL)...


Using Circle Time in ESL Classrooms

by Shannon Tani

Sep 4, 2008 English as a Second Language (ESL) 9229 Views

_notregistered/art_277_1afc085526~.jpg

Many ESL teachers may not be familiar with the idea of circle time. It is a part of lesson, usually the first thing that you do, where the concepts are repeated on a daily (or weekly) basis. It's generally used in preschool or early elementary school classes, but it can be quite effective for use in the ESL classroom.

Having a daily (or weekly) circle time can help build confidence in new ESL speakers. Since the concepts are repeated frequently, the students quickly learn the correct answers. When used at the beginning of the lesson, it helps the students feel more comfortable getting into "English speaking mode" and ready to move on to more unfamiliar topics.

Circle time activities should be short and easy. There should be a few different concepts that you cover and the entire time should take no more than 15 minutes. Circle Time Ideas for ESL Students

1. Short Conversation. Short conversation entails asking students a few quick, easy questions. Some examples are:

* What's your name?
* How are you?
* How old are you?
* What food do you like? (animal, fruit, color, etc.)

By providing a couple of possible answers, the students can easily pick up on what they are being asked. For example, I might say, "What animal do you like? Dog? Cat? Snake?" Make sure that students are answering in full sentences. As students get older, they may be able to ask questions of other students.

2. ABCs. This is also a good time to review ABCs. You can sing the ABC song, or focus on one letter. If you focus on one letter, make sure that they understand the sound that it makes. See how many words they can think of that start with that letter. An easy way to do this is to have them look around the classroom. They'll notice many words that they know just by looking around.

3. Days of the Week. Review the days of the week. You can sing a song that does this. Then ask them, "What day is today?", "What day was yesterday?" and "What day will tomorrow be?"

4. Months of the Year. Review the months of the year. You also can sing a song for this. You can ask them what month it is now. Kids also like to know what month their birthday is in.

5. Counting. Counting can sometimes be time consuming, but it's worth it to go over it every now and then.

6. Weather. Go over the different types of weather (sunny, cloudy, rainy, snowy, etc.). Ask the students what the weather is like today.

Obviously, you probably don't have enough time to go over each of these ideas during every circle time, but you can easily pick two or three to do in every lesson.

Article source: http://eslarticle.com/pub/english-as-a-second-language-esl/277-using-circle-time-in-esl-classrooms.html

  • General Information
  • Pictures
Author Info

Author Name: Shannon Tani

About Author: Shannon Tani has many years of experience teaching ESL preschool in Japan. She writes and maintains http://www.teach-esl-to-kids.com which is a resource for helping ESL teachers of (very) young learners.

General

Pictures:

Most Recent Articles

  • Oct 6, 2018 Developing English As a Second Language by Shannon Tani
  • Jul 11, 2018 Tips to Make ESL Learning Fun! by Shannon Tani
  • Apr 10, 2018 Consider this: Ideas for ESL Teachers. by Shannon Tani
  • Apr 9, 2018 The Challenge of Teaching ESL in Australia. by Shannon Tani
  • Jun 21, 2017 Vocabulary Development Powered By Film Credits For ESL Learners by Shannon Tani

Actions

  • Print Page

Articles Archive

  • January 2021
  • December 2020
  • November 2020
  • October 2020
  • September 2020
  • August 2020

Random Articles

Classroom Management

How to Stop Low Level Disruption

Being interrupted when you're trying to teach is frustrating. So how exactly do you stop students interrupting and disrupting the flow of your...

Writing

Differentiating Writing in the Classroom

For the purpose of this article, integrating writing and differentiation into your classroom, I have designed techniques that meet most writing...

Teaching

Self-Evaluation Sheet For Teachers - How Good is Your Lesson?

Let's see if there are any other categories we can add to this list. Use this list to help you reflect on your teaching. Answer these questions...

English Language Learning (ELL)

The Four Language Skills

To learn a language (in this case English), you must master different language skills. To communicate effectively, you need to be able to speak,...

Career Development

How to Identify Bad Classroom Management

Bad classroom management is a phase that every teacher tries to avoid. This simply implies that you are ineffective as a teacher. In one way or...

About ESL Article

ESL Article is a private ESL/TEFL site designed and maintained by educators and educational administrators. It was launched in August 2008 with the aim of bringing ESL/TEFL students, parents, teachers and schools information and articles about the teaching profession and learning community.

Icon Group Member

ESL Article is a member of Icon Group Thailand (IGT), a group of ESL TEFL TESOL websites providing educational resources and information to teachers, schools and students around the world. The group was founded in 2003 and now includes 15+ websites covering educational information services, teaching resources and e-learning.

What is ESL?

English as a second language (ESL) is the use or study of English by speakers of different native languages. It is also known as English for speakers of other languages (ESOL), English as an additional language (EAL), and English as a foreign language (EFL).

  • Home
  • Registration
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of Use
  • Help
  • Partner
  • Contact Us
  • About Us
​

© 2021 ESLarticle.com.
Member of Icon Group Thailand - Educating the Future:
TESall All TESOL  Total ESL  ESL Job Feed
TEFL World  TEFL Jobs Overseas  Teach Overseas
Asia TEFL  ESL Powerpoint  Teacher Training