Curso TEFL Unit 5

Unit 5: Icebreakers
It’s really important to make sure that the class feel comfortable with each other and with you right from
the beginning.
It is essential that students are able to interact with each other naturally because if they don’t, any form of
communication activity becomes very difficult indeed!
For those students who are shy, and often for adult learners who haven’t been in a classroom for a long time,
the first lesson can be particularly intimidating. And being nervous can obstruct learning.
It’s your job as a teacher to make them feel at ease by allowing students the time to interact with each other on a
personal level so that you can get the best out of them academically.
In this way you will build up a rapport with the class so that the students can get the most out of every lesson.
Ice breakers are not only useful for the first day of a new course, but you can also use them as warmers
at the beginning of a lesson or if you substitute another teacher for any reason.
Think about the type of task you’re going to be teaching and try to use a variety of ice breakers to introduce the
topic.
Look at the next unit to see some examples.
Introduce your partner explained

This classic ice breaker is great for the first day of a new course and is particularly appropriate for adult
learners.
Essentially students work in pairs and get to know their partner then present the information to the rest of the
class.
The good thing about it is that it gets students to ask slightly more interesting questions such as ‘who is your
best friend?’ rather than the mundane ‘where do you live?’/‘when’s your birthday?’.
You could also encourage students to ask for more information and even leave a space for them to invent a
couple of their own questions.
This ice breaker can also be adapted for children, where they draw a humorous picture of their partner in the
box and you put it up on the classroom wall to help the students remember each other’s names.
By introducing a partner instead of themselves students are also able to practice the ever-important
third person forms of the verb (most third person verbs in the present end in ‘–s’ e.g. I live (1st person),
he lives (3rd person).
Equally, having to memorise the information to present to the class allows them to really interact with their
partner rather than just going through the motions and immediately forgetting their partner’s responses!
This particular version is most appropriate to classes at pre-intermediate+ levels but the questions can be
adapted to suit any class.
Teacher Tic Tac Toe

In this game the teacher draws a noughts and crosses board and writes a word or number in each.
The information in each square is an answer to a particular question, for example you could write ‘3’ in one of
the squares as the answer to the question ‘how many brothers do you have?’
Students work in two teams, choose a square and try to guess the question it corresponds to. Whichever team
gets three in a row wins.
This is a great activity for the first day when the students already know each other but you are teaching them for
the first time as it allows them to relax and get to know you in a fun and interesting way.
All the information should answer questions about you so you can make it as personal as you like and level
appropriate.
For higher levels it’s good to throw in some ‘trick’ answers if possible, I knew an English teacher who used to
always write ‘gin’ in one of the squares and everyone would assume the question was ‘What’s your favourite
drink?’ The real question was actually ‘What’s the name of your first pet?’
As well as being a fun game which can induce some friendly rivalry between teams, this game is also
great for practising word order in questions and for higher levels you can decide to only give the teams
a point if they ask the correct, and grammatically correct, question.
Mingle / Find someone who... explained

‘Find Someone Who…’
This activity is perfect as a warmer for a conversation lesson or as an ice breaker for higher levels as it gets
students to talk to as many people in the room as possible. The aim of the game is to find one person who has
done each of the items on the handout and get some more information about each. The questions can be
adapted to fit in with a particular theme or can be left random for use on the first day.
An element of competition can be added by making the activity into a ‘first person to finish wins’ and can get
students to really launch themselves into the task without having time to feel nervous. They also have to practise
question formation by transforming the statements on the worksheet into appropriate inquiries.
Unit 5: Icebreakers: Questions

Ice breakers are useful for...(tick all that apply)
A. making the students feel as ease B. allowing you to relax and let the students take charge C.
building a rapport with the class D. encouraging interaction
Submit Answer
Correct!
In the ‘Introduce Your Partner’ ice breaker, what grammar point do students practice?
A. question formation B. third person verb forms

Submit Answer
Correct!
What follow-up would be appropriate to this ‘Find Someone Who…’ question? ‘Find someone who has been to
China’:
A. find out if they like travelling B. find out when they went and who with C. find out if they have been
on another holiday this year D. find out if they speak an Asian language
Submit Answer
Correct!
The 'Teacher Tic Tac Toe' game should include answers to questions about the teacher. T/F?
True False
Submit Answer
Correct!

Curso TEFL Unit 5

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Curso TEFL Unit 5

Uploaded by

Document Information

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

Curso TEFL Unit 5

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Unit 5: Icebreakers

Introduce your partner explained

Teacher Tic Tac Toe

Mingle / Find someone who... explained

Unit 5: Icebreakers: Questions

A. question formation B. third person verb forms

You might also like