This on-line support is provided by the British Council.

We recommend you take a look at the lesson plans below which should give you some new ideas.

Alibi  Past tenses come up again and again in the contexts of holidays and free time, but students get a bit bored of talking about what they did last year or what they did at the weekend. ‘Alibi’ offers you a fresh context to teaching past tenses.

Asking Questions  These ideas will give you a chance to get to know your class, break the ice and estimate their language level.

Bart Simpson's Chalkboard Gags  This lesson can provide excellent practice of the future tense in French and Spanish and excellent practice of ‘dürfen’ in German.

On the Catwalk  Motivation to speak is the key to success and, in our media saturated environment, one way of getting pupils’ attention is to use pictures of current events to try to tune into our students’ mindset.

Dictation  Dictation used to be viewed as being a little bit old fashioned in Britain, but it can be a really useful tool if used creatively.

Education, education, education  As an assistant you are able to bring first hand experience of a completely different education system and this is immensely valuable for UK students.

Exam Preparation  In the run up to exams, you become even more important for students as someone to practise oral work with.

Finding Different Contexts  Assistants are often asked to practise role-plays over and over again so that candidates are well prepared. This is very important, but it can also become monotonous and repetitive. It is important therefore to vary contexts and approaches.

Fluency  One of the problems which arises with the general conversation questions at GCSE level is that students tend to learn them by heart and therefore have difficulty responding spontaneously to questions. This game is designed to encourage students to listen carefully to questions, to make sure they are answering the right question and to answer questions with more confidence.

Focus On Questions  Here is a suggestion for an activity, which focuses specifically on forming questions.

Giving Opinions  Giving opinions, even very simple ones, are really important at GCSE. These activities are all about encouraging your students to have their say, using a range of different opinions.