ESL Warm Up Questions

When a teacher begins a class, it is a good idea to start with a preview about what is to come.  This lesson is about ESL warm up questions.

When beginning most anything, being at least a little bit warmed up increases the likelihood that you will be more engaged in what you’re doing, and will probably perform better as well.

In a class setting, one of the most important factors of a preview is that it should be relevant to the day’s lesson, as well as to provide the students and teacher with some information about the level of prior knowledge, or lack thereof.

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What Is A Warm Up?

Assuming we are starting off cold, it’s important that we don’t try to do too much too soon, but it’s also important to get everyone up to speed as quickly and effectively as possible.

As the term warm up implies, it is simply a way to smoothly get things going.

In my class, I plan the lesson(s) for a particular class first.  When I’m done with that, I figure out the best way to connect what we are about to cover with a roomful of people who have no idea about what is to come.

I’ve found the most effective way of doing that with my ESL classes is with pictures, translating into English from students’ language what the pictures are, then writing about it.  After writing, I have them read what they wrote.

My classes are three hours long.

Warm ups in my class can take from 30-60 minutes, which is most likely longer than the time it takes for most teachers.

Having said that, it’s the best way I’ve found to make sure everyone is involved and engaged.

What Pictures Do I Use?

I use a picture dictionary the vast majority of the time.  If what I’m looking for is not in the picture dictionary, I find them in a variety of places, usually somewhere on the internet.

An English class has four basic elements:

• Reading
• Writing
• Listening
• Speaking

My favorite pictures show action as well as a variety of things.  Most of the time, I use several pictures that are somehow related to one another.

That is the main reason I like using a picture dictionary.  A single page can sometimes have as many as 20-30 pictures.

I use the translator mentioned above to translate the words.  The translator has audio.  So, they see the pictures and the English word or phrase associated with it.  They hear the word in English, as I display the text of what the word is in the students’ languages as well as in English.

I also have the students say the words they hear and see.

When we finish going over all the words on the page, I have them do their best to write 1-3 sentences about the pictures and words.

Sometimes we don’t cover all the words, depending on what the lesson will be and the amount of time we’ve used, compared to the time we have left in the class period,

What Are Some Of The Questions I Ask?

I particularly like pictures that have words that are verbs associated with them.

They give me a chance to ask questions about the tenses of the verbs and/or the different forms of the verb, as opposed to only the base form of the verb.

For example, if the picture is of a student talking to the teacher, and under the picture it says “talk to the teacher”, I can ask:

• What is the student doing?
• What is the teacher doing?
• What are the student and teacher doing?
• Who is the student talking to?
• Who is the teacher talking to?
• Many more

It’s not to say I ask all those questions to each student.  That would take forever. However, I can ask the class as many as I have time for and call on individual students to answer them.

Often times some or many of the students are not able to answer the questions correctly.

That is what is known as a teaching moment.

It gives me a chance to provide the correct answer or, in some cases, one of the students answers correctly.  Regardless of who provides the correct answer, I have the class repeat the answer out loud, then I will often ask the same question again so they can practice answering correctly.

Depending on what the day’s lesson(s) is/are about, I can spend as little or as much time a particular word and/or picture as necessary to prepare the class for the coming lesson.

There are several directions I can go.

The writing portion of the exercise is what allows me to see what the students understand and what they don’t understand.

When they read what they’ve written, it also allows me to hear their pronunciation.

In addition to using the examples I’ve provided above, I am also able to use the material I mentioned for review.  Often times, it provides me with the information I need so I can decide if we need to cover the material again.

I have the flexibility to be able to go in several directions.  Furthermore, the students have told me they like starting classes this way.

How Do I Connect The Warm Up To The Day’s Lesson(s)?

There is not a one-size-fits-all answer to that quesiton.

It depends on too many different factors.

One thing is for sure though.  I keep the warm up activity open and available, in case I need to refer to it as an example or a means to review something as we try to go forward.

If I am preparing the class for a test, and if a particular page in the picture dictionary is relevant enough and has enough pertinent examples,I will sometimes spend an entire class period using a single page in the dictionary as the lesson itself.

That doesn’t happen often but it does and has happened.

I have found there are almost always worksheets that I can tie to the pictures and terms.  I also use a variety of textbooks.  I can almost always find a lesson or lessons in the texts that relate to activity(ies) we began with.

If I can’t find what I want in the text or there aren’t any worksheets available, I use a website called The Teacher’s Corner where I can create my worksheets and/or lessons.

There are other resources available as well.

Some Final Thoughts

I hope I have provided information that helps you to understand a little about ESL warm up questions, what some of the questions are that I ask, some of the pictures I use, and how I apply them to my daily lesson(s).

I think this is an important part of every lesson in my class.

• I ask you: 
• What do you see in the picture?
• Where are they?
• Who are the people in the picture?
• What are they doing?

Answer the questions by writing one or more complete sentences in English.

Watch the corresponding YouTube video for this lesson.

Leave comments or questions in the box below.  I will promptly respond.