Physical movement

What and why?

In school, students may often spend many hours confined to a desk as they have one lesson then another. This can lead to boredom and restlessness (with its effect on DISCIPLINE). Physical movement can also be important for other reasons. If students can be physically involved with English, it can lead to deeper, more long-lasting learning as the language becomes more 'concrete' to them and involves them as whole persons. Adolescent students, however, are often very self-conscious about moving around in the classroom (as are many adults) so it is important to choose activities carefully. Many games that work successfully with younger students may appear 'childish' to adolescent students.

Practical ideas

• 'Simon says' games, in which students have to carry out actions upon the orders of the teacher/a student work successfully with younger students but may not be acceptable to older students.
• 'Total physical response' activities, however, can work well if they are approached seriously (at first). They are probably more useful in teaching beginning students, however, with the teacher saying a verb and the students doing the action.
• It may be possible to involve more physical movement simply by moving to another place. It may, for example, be possible to have the English lesson outside in a playground or in the hall, where the students will be standing up. This is especially useful if you want to do a ROLE PLAY with the students, or if they are working on POSTERS.
• If you are DISPLAYING STUDENTS' WORK you can put it up in different parts of the room so that students have to move around to look at it.
• A 'cocktail party' activity is also useful for getting the students to move. Students can move around the classroom talking to other students, perhaps trying to find some information. For example, you could pin the name of a country on the back of each student. That student must then ask other students questions to discover what country it is. They can only ask one question before they move to another student and they can only reply 'yes' or 'no' to a question.
• Students can represent something in a group. For example, they might together form the shape of their country. They can then move to where they would like to be in their country and talk about why they want to go there. They could ask each other across the map: 'Peter, where are you?' 'I'm in Barcelona, in the north-east.' Students can similarly form maps of their town, maps of a jungle and maps of their school.
• Mime is also useful. Students act out a word and the others have to guess what it is.
• You could have various items of clothing available such as hats, gloves, etc. to make roundelays, acting out, mime, etc. more fun.
• Physical activity doesn't have to be related to language learning. You might start a lesson or break up a long lesson by getting the students to do something, for example, shake their arms, stand up and turn round a few times or walk around the room. You could combine this with MUSIC.