How to make children concentrate for the whole lesson?

Two types of motivation: Intrinsic : - a natural interest - hobby -no external incentives -no idea of reward

Extrinsic: -comes from outside of the performer -rewards

The joke atmosphere could be dangerous A surplus of language games Excessive joviality on the part of the teacher Selection of visual aids which cause the distraction

Reasonably… However if we want to make children concentrate during the whole lesson we should prepare some funny games or activities to warm them up either at the beginning or during the lesson to restore the concentration

first five minutes of the lesson are very important for the whole class- we cannot enter the room and start writing a test it is better to ask your pupils about their week-end, or about their plans for the evening we can also ask how they are,to prepare the nice atmosphere for a language lesson

after this easing and creation of a good atmosphere we should warm up our pupils this warm-up activity can be listening to a song or playing some games when we see that pupils lose their concentration we can come up with some activity in the middle of the lesson

Why do the pupils lose their concentration?

They do not understand the instructions: -always demonstrate and rather than asking them if they understand, ask them questions such as: ´Do you have to draw in this box or in this box? -you should not start giving instructions unless you have complete silence

They do not know why they are doing the activity -Help them become active learners, tell them briefly why they are doing it: ´Let´s play a game to remember the colours we learnt yesterday´ -Then get feedback from them about what they did so they do not see it as an isolated activity: ´Did you enjoy that game? How many colours can you remember now?

The activity is boring Think first: if you are doing an activity for the first time, first think about what exactly you want to teach them and whether it is something you yourself would enjoy doing The fact that you have considered how successful an activity may or may not be before doing it, will better help you to deal with any problems that may arise..

The activity is too easy/difficult Split them into groups: some learners may finish extremely quickly and start disrupting. Check straightaway that they have understood the activity. You may find out that they have misunderstood and done only half of what they needed to do. For those who finished early because they found the activity too easy you need to challenge them further to ensure they stay interested. Have a box of extra activities that they can do while they wait. You can make the butterfly group working on one task and the spider group on another.

Youve forgotten materials you need to set up an activity You should always have some rescue activities on hand -If you know what you planned to do you can apply a rescue activity on it For example: You wanted to review the present continuous, but do not have your materials-you pick out some pictures from your box and introduce a miming activity. What are you doing? Are you swimming? No, I am drowning! !!Having a picture gallery can help a lot whenever you have a few minutes at the end of the lesson or you need to rescue your lesson (it happens… )

The equipment doesnt work Prepare your equipment: check before class that the DVD is working. Put your cassette to exactly the right place to avoid wasting time when trying to find the song you want. You will lose the children if you have to fiddle with machines!

Some examples of language games: Story-Go-Round Game Puzzle game I went to the supermarket and I bought Who am I? Word association A long word

Describe a picture Dictation- a memory game Crosswords Explain a word Classroom observation- spot the difference Memory game- look at it and describe what did you see Find somebody who.. What is red, small, nice…

Write a postcard What is my job? Pantomime Alphabet Game-individuals, groups Bingo Hangman Word football (word snakes) Scrabble

Other alternatives to maintain children´s concentration Make every listening interesting: -first listening without questions- write as many details as you can -filling in the missing words -mistakes in the text

And what about you? How do you make your lessons interesting?