English Comes Alive! Dynamic, Brain-Building Ways to Teach Esl and Efl

Book excerpt: Do you like vigorous, quick-moving lessons with lots of classroom interaction? If so, you'll like English Comes Alive! Dr. Witherspoon opens with 60 favorite, wake-them-up activities. Then he writes about role playing, creative speaking, correcting bloopers, acting out words and sentences, outdoor activities, and much more. Drama, variety, student-teacher interaction: it's all here. And that's what it takes to ignite learning. Witherspoon has extensively tested these lessons during 20 summers of teaching overseas. His students have varied from teenagers to middle-aged professors, from clerks to physicians to non-native teachers of English. Whatever the age or profession of his students, he stresses conversation. "The act of talking," he says, "removes the fear of talking." And by removing that fear, students become fluent.