New article, new worksheets, old worksheets and places for upcoming worksheets on the most vital grammar points for IELTS on my new page on the topic here:
Put up a new worksheet on “How long is it?”, “What does it look like?” etc and then realised there was no page on the topic. So now there is one, with links to related stuff on colours, materials, etc:
Describing objects page – NEW
I’ve recently been researching the next book for my Cambridge CPE class and found that all the info online is out of date, so thought I’d summarise my findings here.
The only CPE textbooks which are updated for the post-2013 exam and are available new are, in order of personal preference:
Objective Proficiency
textbook with key, textbook without key, workbook with key, workbook without key, and teacher’s book
Proficiency Masterclass
There is no physical workbook, but the student’s book comes with online practice.
Proficiency Expert
The Proficiency Expert teacher’s book is no longer being sold, but your local Pearson rep will give you PDF copies of that, the answer keys and the transcripts for free if you ask.
And that’s it! Other old CPE textbooks such as Proficiency Gold are no longer being sold, and other exam series from the big publishers such as Compact don’t have CPE level books.
You’ll also need a practice exam book or two. The only three ones for the updated exam are:
Cambridge English: Proficiency Practice Tests with Key by Mark Harrison (OUP)
There are also two full tests available online for free, one as an online test and in the CPE teacher’s handbook, and the other as a downloadable PDF paper-based practice test.
The best other CPE book available is Advanced Language Practice, a grammar and vocabulary book designed for both CAE and CPE (although no longer marketed as such) and which I liked a lot when I used it for homework with my Proficiency classes many many years ago. As the language content of the test hasn’t changed much, it should still be useful.
On a related note, students can now get exactly the same level (C2) from getting an A in CAE as from passing CPE, so another possibility is just to put all your higher-level students in a CAE class, for which many more materials are available. However, you’d have to stop students going straight from passing FCE into a CAE class and put an Advanced-level general English class between the two, as otherwise you’d have a huge range of levels and needs in one class.
Another possibility is to use a very high-level Advanced textbook between CPE textbooks with supplements such as the exam practice books and/ or Advanced Language Practice above, something which I did many years ago and went okay. Headway Advanced is too high-level and too heavy in topics for most standard Advanced classes, so would probably be suitable for this.
I don’t particularly recommend Common Mistakes in Proficiency, which doesn’t actually cover the things that my students find tricky, but it’s worth looking at for teachers.
If you want to supplement or avoid the books above, it might also be worth looking at my own rapidly growing page of CPE materials:
Over the last few months I’ve put up articles on teaching UK and US grammar, vocabulary, spelling, punctuation, numbers, body language and gestures, dates and times, and functional language, plus carefully collated lists of the important vocabulary differences to teach and a new couple of worksheets. And I’ve just rounded all that off with a summary of the highlights. All available on my now very large page of UK and US English resources here:
British and American English games, worksheets and articles
I recently published a list of 32 bad IELTS tips. That seemed like a lot, but then I remembered even more bad advice from textbooks, websites and students which I think is worth a mention. Would love to hear other people’s ideas too.
Bad IELTS Speaking Part Two tips
Some IELTS books have completely pointless activities where they get students to draw mind maps as preparation for Speaking Part Two presentations. Interestingly, none of them even pretend that this can be done in one minute, which makes it completely useless in the exam. Worse, it is likely to make students say anything they like about the topic on the card, whereas in fact they have to answer just the four questions on that topic which are given on the card. They should therefore just write brief answers or key words to each of those questions on their scrap paper.
I very occasionally see students going the other way and trying to really save time by writing answers to the questions in their own language, but this is likely to affect their fluency and even possibly accuracy while speaking and so should avoided.
Please share any other bad ideas in this and other parts of the test below.
Many worksheets and articles with better tips here:
In approximate order of how often I have used them and am likely to use them myself. They are all also on the pages for each topic, and mentioned in any relevant TEFLtastic Classics posts on the most adaptable TEFL games and activities.
Talking about the future The same or different?
Speaker or listener simplest responses game (turn taking and active listening) – NEW
Giving directions miming games
Giving directions drawing games
Opinions on travel vocabulary (with travel collocations)
Crime and punishment extended speaking bluffing game
Time expressions meetings roleplay
Time expressions the same or different
Turn taking and active listening game
Solutions to countable and uncountable problems discussion
Academic writing cultural differences and useful phrases
Pick and act imperatives card game – NEW
Prepositions and determiners in Academic Writing pairwork guessing game
Passive voice problems and solutions speaking
Comparatives make me say yes game
Passive voice discuss and agree
Plurals simplest responses game
CPE Use of English collocations dominoes
Phrasal verbs random pelmanism game
Feelings- Miming & Drawing Game
Telling the time warmer cooler guessing game
Comparatives make me say yes questions game
Verb patterns discussion questions
Country and nationality words drawing games
Academic writing error correction pairwork
Opinions on science and technology
This that these those pick and draw drawing game
Present and past ability sentence completion games
Comparative adjectives drawing games
Academic discussions prepositions and determiners pairwork guessing game
Simple irregular and regular plurals presentation
Business meetings vocabulary and turn taking practice
Passive voice Yes No questions games
Academic discussions cultural differences and useful phrases
Designing and selling inventions with passive voice
Verb patterns sentence completion guessing games
How British is your Technical English?
Phonics yes no questions pelmanism game
Can you questions personalised pelmanism game
Asking questions to get more details drawing game
Past, present and future listening (especially useful for TOEIC Listening)
Guess the future time predictions practice
Irregular plurals reversi memory game
Regular and irregular plurals storytelling
British and American technical English collocations dominoes
Spot the odd one out ordinal numbers practice
Telephoning challenges dice game
Was were past time guessing game
Possessive adjectives pick and draw drawing game
Country and nationality words sentence completion games
Medical English present progressive mimes
Want and feelings guessing game
How many are there drawing game
Cultural differences extended speaking
Past and present modals of permission and obligation sentence completion games
Ordinal numbers flashcard memory games
Looking at both sides dominoes
Basic adjectives and nouns drawing games
Does he she like pick and draw drawing game
Like and don’t like TPR coin game
Prepositions and pronouns drawing game
Positive and negative words to talk about architecture
Adjectives and prepositions pick and draw
Guess the dates from hints game
Which is plus comparative drawing game
Nationality word endings maze games
Nationality words syllables and stress card games (pelmanism and snap)
Dates the Same or Different game
Comparing animals random pelmanism
Days of the week flashcard memory game
Telephoning roleplays dice game
Travel English telephone roleplays dice game
Strong and weak opinions collocations dominoes
Nationality word endings card games
Singular and plural competitions speaking game
Plurals of words ending In -y activities
Days of the week pick and draw drawing game
First contact and further contact dice game
Johnny Quickly, Jeremy Normal and Jimmy Quickly telling the time story
Days of the week Make me say Yes
Do you like categories pelmanism game
Different kinds of business communication dice game
Making arrangements roleplay dice game
Basic question formation dice game
Superlative adjectives dice bluffing game
Personal phone calls roleplays dice games
Giving directions on how to get somewhere dice game
Making shapes from blocks games
Supporting your opinions dice games
Lucy Was Not Impressed months of the year story
Can and can’t drawing coin game
I Brushed My Teeth in January past time expressions poem (Present Perfect and Past Simple)
1999 was a Strange Year months story
There is/ There are stacking games
Passive voice rhyming past participles poems activities
Present Perfect rhyming past participles poem activities
Environmental collocations first conditional pelmanism
Clothes and accessories to sell
John Finally Came First ordinal numbers story
Marketing discussion questions
Ordinal number word jigsaw games
Put the days of the week in order
Feelings and want pelmanism card game
Explaining Japanese performing arts
Different meanings in British and American English jigsaw – NEW
Past and future opposites reversi memory game
IELTS Speaking Part Two dice game
Countable and uncountable nouns Answer Me questions game
As my last article of the year is already up, I thought I’d give a list of all the ones in 2018, in approximate order of how often I’ve been using those ideas in my own classes.
If you’ve found any of my teaching ideas or materials useful in 2018, it would really help if you could donate a couple of pounds by buying a copy of my e-book. This will allow me to continue updating, improving and expanding TEFLtastic next year, and if I can make a few more pounds it would also give me time to finish off some of my 12 half-finished e-books. Thanks for all your support in 2018, and all the best for 2019!
How to teach British and American grammar
Having a ball – EFL ball games
Matching games part two – pelmanism
Stacks of fun: EFL blocks games
How to teach prepositions of time
How to teach giving and asking for directions
How to teach the language of feelings
How to teach telling the time in English
How to teach TOEIC Listening Part Two: Question Response
How to teach irregular plurals
Matching games part one – TEFL dominoes
Teaching ordinal numbers to EFL learners
How to teach British and American spelling and punctuation – NEW
How to teach British and American functional language
British and American body language and gestures
How to teach days of the week in English
How to teach past time expressions
How to teach future time expression
Most recent top of each section
New teaching materials pages
Imperative games, worksheets, stories and songs
New TEFL articles
How to teach British and American functional language
How to teach giving and asking for directions
British and American body language and gestures
How to teach TOEIC Listening Part Two: Question Response
List of useful language for EFL teachers and learners
The 100 most useful acronyms for EFL learners
The 100 most useful abbreviations for EFL learners
New TEFL pdfs
Dates- Different or the Same game
Singular and Plural Competitions Speaking Game
Designing and Selling Inventions with Passive Voice
Verb Patterns Sentence Completion Guessing Games
Past and Future Opposites Reversi Memory Game
Opinions on Travel Vocabulary (with Travel Collocations)
Past, Present and Future Listening (especially useful for TOEIC Listening)
How British is your Technical English?
Days of the week Make me say Yes
Comparing animals random pelmanism
Crime & Punishment- Extended Speaking Bluffing Game
Can you questions personalised pelmanism game
Am still working on an article on the topic, but have already made a new page for worksheets on “some”, “a few”, “too many”, etc, with mutual links to and from my related pages like countable/ uncountable, there is/ there are, numbers and determiners:
Quantifiers PDFs – NEW PAGE
Updated 11 February 2019
I’ve written a lot about pelmanism/ pairs/ the memory game before. However in the second half of the latest of my ETP articles that started with dominoes, I managed to come up with even more uses and variations and my new favourite, personalised pelmanism. Links to photocopiable versions and other articles/ blog posts on the different kinds of pelmanism below. But first a brief explanation of the original card game that the EFL version was taken from:
Pelmanism/ pairs/ memory game with normal playing cards
In the original version of pelmanism, a pack of normal playing cards is spread face down across the table. Between two and four players take turns trying to find two cards with the same number (e.g. the seven of diamonds and the seven of hearts), putting the two cards back face down in the same places if they don’t match. Play passes to the next person either after each try or whenever the last person turns over two cards which don’t match, with the latter variation being more exciting but sometimes leading to one player dominating the game.
ELT pelmanism
There are other ways of doing it, but I generally make TEFL pelmanism cards which are in groups which are similar in some way, in the same way as the seven of diamonds is similar to the seven of clubs. For example, if you want to practise prepositions, then you can make a pack of cards with missing prepositions like “___ Monday” and “___ New Year’s Day”, and then ask the students to find pairs which have the same word missing, as in these worksheets:
In/ on/ at/ no preposition snap
Adjective plus preposition pelmanism
Past prepositions of time snap
It’s generally best if there are the same number of each kind of card and an even number of each group, e.g. eight with “at” missing, eight with “on” missing and eight with “in” missing. However, having fewer of some kinds of cards and/or “orphan” cards left at the end of the game because there was an odd number in the pack is fine and can be a good way to make the game more challenging. You can play with as few as two categories (e.g. just different words meaning “go up” like “rocket” and words meaning “go down” like “crash”) or as many as ten categories (e.g. expressions with ten different missing dependent prepositions). However, you need to make sure that there are several possible matches for each card (as is true with the non-TEFL version). I find that it works best with between three and five groups of words, e.g. words which go with the negative prefixes “un-“, “in-“, “im-“ and “ir-“, with eight to 12 cards of each kind.
This kind of pelmanism works with the matches being:
The other possibility is to make cards that actually have to match each other in some way, e.g. prepositions cards and cards with prepositions missing. This can work, especially if you make the two different kinds of cards different colours and/ or sizes so they don’t take two prepositions, etc. However, matching cards that are the same in some way is easier to set up and probably more closely matches how we store such things in our brains.
Personalised pelmanism
It is also possible to play a personalised version of pelmanism. If you have a pack of cards with topics like “food” or vocabulary like “unicycle” on them, the students can ask each other yes/no questions about the two cards that they turn over and can keep the cards if they get the same answer to both questions. For example, if one student gets the “salt” and “paper” cards, asks “Is there any salt in your bedroom?” and “Is there any paper in your garden (now)?” and get “No” answers to both, they can keep both cards. Personalised pelmanism works for:
Other ways of making pelmanism personalised is to ask the students to combine both cards in one true statement or to combine both cards in one question that their partner answers “Yes” to. For example, they could try to make true conditional sentences like “If we hadn’t invented cars, trains would be more popular” with the “cars” and “trains” cards, or they could try to get “Yes” answers to questions like “If you had wings, would you save people jumping off bridges?” if they took the “wings” and “bridge” cards.
Photocopiable examples of personalised pelmanism include:
Yes/ No questions with can personalised pelmanism
Phonics personalised yes/ no questions random pelmanism
Third conditional vocabulary revision random pelmanism game
Do you like animals personalised random pelmanism card game
Do you like categories personalised pelmanism
Random pelmanism
As shown in the names of some of the activities above, the personalised games above are variations on “random pelmanism”, in which the teacher hasn’t decided the correct matches when setting up the game, and therefore any matches that the students can think of and which make sense are allowed. If you have a set of random words that need revising, this also works without any personalisation by asking the students to make comparisons such as finding similarities between the two cards that they turn over. For example, if they turn over the words “ladder” and “fuse”, they could say “A ladder is more dangerous than a fuse” or “They are both made of metal” to practise comparing/contrasting, or “They are both safe” for simpler practice of adjectives. To expand the range of language used, it’s best to tell the students that they must make sentences that are at least slightly different each time.
Random pelmanism works with almost any vocabulary, but I have used it most often with animals, classroom objects, places, body parts and academic vocabulary. For additional language practice, you can also put some additional information about the vocabulary on the cards (e.g. both the British and American forms, or the plurals of countable nouns). You can then test the students on their memory of that aspect of the vocabulary after the game.
Another blog post, a video and lots of example worksheets of random pelmanism here:
Phrasal verbs random pelmanism
Inventions random pelmanism (the one in the video)
Phonics personalised yes/ no questions random pelmanism
Abilities of animals can/ can’t games (including random pelmanism) – NEW
Comparing animals random pelmanism
Environmental collocations first conditional pelmanism
Do you like animals personalised random pelmanism card game
Comparing places random pelmanism (comparatives with places names and adjectives, including nationalities)
Academic vocabulary random pelmanism
Third conditional vocabulary revision random pelmanism game
Classroom language random pelmanism
Reverse pelmanism
The problem with random pelmanism can occasionally be that almost all the cards match easily, therefore taking away the challenge. To avoid that problem, you can make the game into “reverse pelmanism”, where the challenge is to find cards that their partner can’t match in any way. Example here:
Feelings and want reverse pelmanism
3D pelmanism
Another popular variation for younger students is “3D pelmanism”, in which they choose things such as plastic fruit from just feeling in a bag and then get points if they can say “They are red”, “They are big (in real life)”, etc. Blog post on the topic here:
Other variations
With students who find reading difficult and sets which are very tricky to match, you can also play pelmanism with the cards face up.
Before and after pelmanism
Before or after playing pelmanism, I often get my students to put the matching cards in columns, sometimes as a race. Snap can also often be played with the same cards, and is a faster paced game that makes students think of the language more quickly.
Other articles and blog posts on using pelmanism in EFL classes:
Pelmanism and Snap in EFL classes blog post (with links to all the worksheets arranged by language point)
