I took a poll at the end of our last lesson together – I asked my students what their favourite hobby was? Someone said ‘football’ (that’s ‘soccer’ to our cousins across the Atlantic!), which we decided would be the theme for the next lesson. Their ‘homework’ was to bring something football related to this lesson. I arrived with all my Sunderland memorabilia – scarf, hat, coat and so on. This is how the lesson went:

Greetings! Usual warm up exercise of greeting one another. For a more advanced class I usually include a ‘family news’ section at the beginning, which is an opportunity to share with the class anything of significance that’s happened between lesson. I will then talk for five minutes or so about the team I am passionate about.
Responses: here’s where we find out who likes football, and why they think my choice of team is the wrong one. I will start asking questions of the students. Depending on their skill level we can talk about everything from colours to home towns, club history to current form.
Video: we will watch a section of a recent match on the TV together, and I will encourage more comment and discussion from the clip. We will brainstorm soccer vocabulary, and write new words on the board.
If this was a one-to-one course, we would probably follow up the lesson with a real enthusiast with a visit to see a match. Teaching into people’s enthusiasm is by far and away the best method of getting a language across – the student will be searching for new words for a subject that has fully engaged him or her!
Quiz: set a brief observation quiz (5-10 questions) about the video, using simple written answers to questions arising: ‘which number player scored the goal?; what colour shirt was the referee wearing? Get the person sitting to the left or right of each student to mark his or her colleague’s paper. Small chocolate based prizes all round!
As with every group lesson, end with feedback (from the student to the teacher) and farewell.
This kind of plan works well for any hobby / pastime / enthusiasm: engage the student, illustrate well, and, as the teacher, mostly sit back and listen.

Andrew is a qualified TEFL (Teaching English as a Foreign Language) teacher, with 15 years experience of the global Automotive Industry as a Sales manager with an International component and systems supplier. For more information about learning English with Andrew at his home in the UK, visit the Lets Talk 2 website http://lets-talk2.com/_wsn/page2.html