Based on an idea from Nguyen Thi Hao and Le Thi Kim Dung in Yen Bai. This dialogue is used to practise 'a few' and 'a little'.

Draw a picture of a mother and her daughter in the kitchen and write up/ elicit the following dialogue:

M: What have we got?
D: We've got a few eggs.
M: What about flour?
D: Oh! There's a little flour in the bag.
M: Is there any cooking oil?
D: Yes, there's a little oil. What else do we need?
M: We need a few apples.

Drill the dialogue and ask students to repeat.
Put students in pairs to practise the dialogue.
When they have finished, rub out some of the words (eg the underlined words) and ask them to practise the dialogue again.
When they have finished, rub out some more words. Keep rubbing out words until the students have had enough practice.
Ask students to rewrite the dialogue from memory.

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An old one, but a good one! This activity is easy to prepare, versatile and, no matter how many times you play it, still entertaining. Good for practising virtually any grammar point you care to think of.

This idea from Phung Thi Thanh Tu and Tran Thi Do in Thai Nguyen

Divide the class into two groups. Draw a grid on the board and write irregular verbs in the boxes:

Each team takes turns to choose a box. Then they have to write a sentence using the past participle form of the verb (eg passive voice, present perfect). If the sentence is correct, the team wins the box. Three in a row and the team wins!

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Circle Writing

Another very effective way to involve all students in the lesson at the same time. Very good activity to practise conditional forms.

Based on an idea from Vu Van Thoai in Nam Dinh

Put students into groups. Give each student a blank sheet of paper. Dictate the following 'sentence head' - 'If you go to school late…'
Ask each student to complete the sentence in any way they like:
eg 'If you go to school late, your teacher will be angry'
Ask students to pass their paper to the person on the left. They should then write the next sentence (which must be different):
eg 'If your teacher is angry, she will give you bad marks' Students continue to pass their paper and write the next sentence. Continue until 10 - 12 sentences have been written. Students in groups check the grammar and choose the best 'story' to read out to the class.

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Right or Wrong? - betting game

This activity really forces students to think about the grammar very carefully. It's enjoyable too. You could prepare handouts for this activity, but it would be much easier either to prepare on a poster or simply dictate the sentences for students to copy down.

Idea from Pham Thi Thinh and Ng Minh Nguyet from Thai Nguyen [following Peter Watcyn-Jones].

Give students the following sentences. Ask them first to decide if they are right or wrong grammatically (if they are wrong, students should correct them). Then ask students to make a bet (between 10-100 points for each sentence) according to how sure they are that they have the right answers. When students have finished, check and correct the sentences in open class. Give students points for each sentence: + if they have the right answer and - if they are wrong.

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More fun here! You don't have to be an artist to play this game. You just have to keep trying. Often used for revising vocabulary, here the game is used to practise the present continuous.
Idea from Dang Hong Van and Vo Le Xuan Dung in Binh Dinh

Divide the class into groups. One student in each group is the 'artist' (they will need a pen and some paper). The others are the 'guessers'. The 'artist' should think of an activity and should start to draw the activity. The 'guessers' should ask YES/NO questions to guess the activity. The person who guesses correctly gets one point and also becomes the 'artist' for the next round. Continue the game like this.

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Dictation is a simple technique, but very effective as it involves all students in the class at the same time. A simple framework is given for the students to fill out. Here, this technique is used to practise/ revise time expressions with 'for' and 'since'. You could also use this idea to practise countable/ uncountable nouns with some/ any/ a few/ a little or many other things too.

Idea from Mr Duong and Mrs Mai in Yen Bai

Draw two columns on the board like this, label them and ask students to copy:

Dictate some 'periods of time' (eg. three days, five years, a long time, five minutes) and some 'points in time' (eg. Thursday, last year, 1993, this morning, 5.00pm) in random order. Students write down in the correct column, then check with a partner and the whole class.

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A simple but effective activity. No preparation is necessary. Here, the activity is used to practise 'there is/ there are'.

Idea from Ng Thi Nhan and Ng Huong Tra in Nghe An

Ask students to draw a plan of their house on a sheet of paper. Put students in pairs. Student A describes his house and student B draws. Then they change and student B describes for student A to draw. At the end, they check to see how accurate their pictures are.

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You will need to do a little preparation for this activity, but you only have to do it once as you can use the materials again and again with different classes. Here, the game is used to practise talking about the use of different objects.

Idea from Pham Cao Tri and Tran Thi Ngoc Diep in Ho Chi Minh City

On pieces of paper, draw pictures of household objects and label them (you will need about 10 for each group). Put students into groups with the pictures face down in the middle of the table. One student takes a card but doesn't show it to the others. The others should ask YES/NO questions to discover what the object is:
eg Is it used for cutting paper? No.
Is it used for eating? Yes
Is it a knife? No
etc. etc.

The person who guesses correctly gets one point. Continue until all cards have been taken.

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You don't always have to spend hours preparing to create an effective and efficient activity. Nor do you have to
produce lots of handouts. This activity is so simple. It is used here to practise 'such as'. Adapt it, though, and any grammar point fits the activity.

Idea from teachers in Danang

Write some categories on the board as prompts:

Elicit a Q & A exchange:

eg Which cities in Vietnam have you visited?
I have visited many cities, such as: Hanoi, Hue, Qui Nhon…

Students use the prompts to create similar exchanges.

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Miming

Very simple. No preparation. Good fun. Why not try it?
Here used to present a use of the present continuous tense.

Idea from Hung Thi Thuy and Trung Thi Lam in Nghe An

Mime an action and ask the students to guess what you are doing (eg reading a newspaper, making dinner, writing a letter). The student who guesses correctly mimes an action for others to guess. Continue until you have had enough.

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A nice idea for an initial practice activity. All students in the class are involved at the same time. Here, the technique is used to practise adverbial time clauses. You could also use it as a presentation activity.

Idea from Nguyen Viet Tuan and Trinh Quoc Than in Danang

Prepare the following table, either on the board or on a poster:

Students match a line in A with a line in B with a line in C. Check answers in open class.

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Quizzes are perfect for the language classroom. You can introduce, practise and revise a wide variety of language points and students will enjoy themselves while they are doing it. This quiz is used as a presentation activity for superlatives.

This quiz comes from teachers in Vinh

Read out the True/ False statements below. Tell your students that if the statement is true, they should stand up. If it is false, they should sit down. If they make a mistake, they are out of the game. The last student left is the winner.

China has the longest wall in the world (T)
Vietnam has the biggest population in the world (F)
India has the highest mountain in the world (F)
Dalat is the coldest place in Vietnam (F)
Nghe An is the richest province in Vietnam (F)
Ben Thuy is the longest bridge in Nghe An (T)

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Prompts are very useful for setting up controlled speaking practice activities. You don't need to do any complicated preparation and you need only a blackboard and a piece of chalk. Here, prompts are used to set up an activity to practise the past simple tense.
(questions, statements and negatives).

Idea from Trieu Thi Thuy Ha and Tran Thi Kim Luc in Nam Dinh

Ask what your students do during the summer holidays. Write up suggestions in the form of prompts:
go/sightseeing visit/friends stay/at home go beach play/football go/swimming etc.

Elicit the question and short answer forms:
"Did you go sightseeing last summer?"
"Yes, I did."
"No, I didn't."

Drill the questions and answers around the class.
Put students in pairs to ask and answer the questions, using the prompts. Change the pairs and repeat.

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Tables are a good way to set up a wide variety of different activities. You can use them to organise controlled practice, free practice, questionnaires, mini role plays... Here, a table is used to set up a controlled practice activity for the 3rd conditional. This activity allows space for personalisation too.

Idea from Thai Thi Hoang Mai and Nguyen Thi Thanh Binh in Binh Dinh.
Draw this table on the board:

Ask students to look at the table and think of something they didn't do last week (but should have done!) and ask them to give the reasons why (see example above).
Complete the table with students' ideas. Guide students to make sentences from the table:

eg If Mai had not been so busy, she would have washed the clothes.

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And to finish with, an activity sent to VTTN from the UK!

This activity is one of a number of dictation activities sent in by Mario Rinvolucri. Mario works for Pilgrims in Canterbury, UK as a language teacher, teacher trainer and writer. He edits the Pilgrims web magazine for teachers, which you can visit at www.hltmag.co.uk. He is also the author, with Paul Davis of Dictation published by Cambridge University Press. He is also a friend of VTTN!

Choose a text from your coursebook.
Tell the students THEY ARE TO WRITE DOWN THE LAST THREE LETTERS OF EACH WORD YOU DICTATE, LEAVING APPROPRIATE GAPS FOR THE LETTERS OMITTED.
Dictate your text.
Ask different students to read out the text in front of them with the rest of the class helping and listening. (Very good pronunciation practice for Chinese, Vietnamese and Thai students who often omit the ends of English words, especially consonant clusters.)