To ensure effective learning for a language class, the challenge is to secure the students’ attention, and prepare their minds so that you have got a few vacant neurones to program linguistically.

To achieve this, here are the main elements to include in a good warmer activity to start the class, and why they are important.

1. An easy to succeed activity.

Always start the class with students doing something which they can succeed in. This makes them feel optimistic about their abilities, and sets a positive outlook to their frame of mind. What could be worse than being asked to do something at the beginning of the class that you can't do. As the warmer develops, tasks can become more challenging, but the first tasks should make the student say ‘Yes! You're good! You can do this!'

2. Include continuity from the last class.

Start the class by using language from the previous classes to activate their memories through association. The students benefit enormously from ‘being transported back in time’ to the end of the last class’ content - helping them to access all the language that was being used. It also gives a sense of continuity. This is a well established technique used by television producers, where often the last things to happen in a series are recapped in a few brief excerpts before the current episode gets underway.

3. Physical activity.

There is a world of difference between what a human being can do before and after a little physical exercise. However light, exercise relaxes, focuses and clears the mind, and increases the heart rate to allow the whole body to be more prepared for mental activity. Woe to the student who gives up exercise during exam season in order to get in more hours of revision and study, only to find their attention span and ability to commit facts to memory has been seriously reduced.

4. Physical contact.

Everything in life has its reason. So why, when people meet, do nearly all cultures introduce an element of physical contact into the process of greeting each other? Because it is a highly effective ice-breaker - an act that has a profound psychological effect on the way we perceive the person we are dealing with and nearly always for the better. The type of physical contact varies enormously from country to country, from hugs and kisses in warmer climes to the somewhat ceremonial, brief hand shake in others. But the underlying function is the same. We are sentient beings, and gain great reassurance from well intended physical contact, with our trust towards others being enhanced and our predispositions relaxed.

5. Break the usual classroom layout.

The warmer is better of it needs the students to move tables and chairs, or simply relocate themselves to a different part of the class. This breaks down routines that create student linguistic dependence on familiar settings, as well as generating the feeling of novelty. It can also be a good way to mix student groupings, allowing the teacher to pair up different individuals, introducing variety into the class.

6. There should be an aim to the task.

Many warmers seem to have no particular reason for being done other than for the sake of being a warmer! Always make sure there is a point to the activity, such as finding the solution to a problem, include a competitive aspect, or transfer information to arrive at a conclusion.

7. Link into the next part of the lesson.

When the warmer closes it should serve as a natural jumping board for the next theme of the lesson. This allows the student to transfer their concentration effortlessly, and also gives the sense that the teacher is in control and knows where he or she wants the class to go. This imbues the student with confidence in the teachers ability.

8. A 5 to 10 minute activity.

Traditionally, a warmer has always been talked of as lasting between 5 to 10 minutes, and for a typical one hour teaching period, this is a logical amount of time to spend, allowing time for the main teaching aim to be dealt with. Having said that, most good warmers lend themselves well to in depth recycling, and this is an invaluable tool for the teacher to have on hand. So the duration is actually a matter that the teacher should consider to be totally at his convenience.

In the next article we will see how to put these aspects into practise.

Adrian Allen is one of the co-founders of http://www.findateacher.es, http://www.buscaprofesor.es, which is a search tool for private teachers to advertise themselves to students.