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57 of 58 found the following review helpful:
 English for EFL purposes?Nov 20, 2001
By Chris Elvin
Five-minute Activities contains over 130 ideas for the foreign language classroom in its 100 pages. I read this book from cover to cover, and was pleased to be able to make many notes for my future lessons. Some of the activities are actually quite common, and perhaps most teachers would be aware of them, but there were many good ones that I'd never come across, including a few gems. Some are literally five-minute fillers, while others are worthy of spending maybe a whole lesson on. If I had to make a tentative criticism, it'd be that many of the suggestions have students generating language that would never be heard beyond the walls of an EFL classroom. For example, "A pencil is thinner than an elephant." I have mixed feelings about whether this is such a bad thing or not. On the one hand, students can practice structurally correct forms of language and learn whilst having fun. On the other hand, Five-minute Activities doesn't really present them with many opportunities to practise for situations in the real world, which may, of course, not be as fun. Also, I felt that there was a bias for activities that focused on self-disclosure, or competing to be the best in the class. Great, perhaps, for European or South American students of English, but not quite so good for students at my secondary school here in Japan. Overall, I'm pleased to have this book for reference, and I'd recommend it to most of my colleagues, even if some of the suggestions reminded me of what it used to be like as a pupil at a British elementary school.
35 of 35 found the following review helpful:
 Extremely good for all levels, a teacher's pet!Sep 03, 1999
I've had a copy of this book since 1995. I keep it in my bag of things for class as it helps to fill in those odd minutes of leftover time. Here in China I find the activities can be used for much longer than 5 minutes. I highly recommend it. Money well spent.
17 of 17 found the following review helpful:
Thank you for the help!Nov 20, 2002
So, I was recommended this book, along with a couple dozen others, from my TESOL class. I FINALLY bought it here in Seoul and I'm happy to have the help with the ideas. Teachers have to be creative but it's nice to have the help. The only thing that I might have liked to see (and this is just to spoil me) is have the book broken down into their categories in the front of the book, instead of just the index...and by level. I still highly recommend the book because I don't see myself living without it again.
15 of 16 found the following review helpful:
I take exception for its usefulness for EVERY teaching situation...Mar 20, 2006
By Steven D. Ward
"Editor"
This book has been of limited usefullness for me. I've found only a few activities in here that would be practical for my classes of 40 Korean middle schoolers, but I also believe I'm in a bit of an unusual situation trying to teach English to such big classes. That being said, I did find it useful for, if nothing else, getting my own ideas rolling. I would also like to add that it's rather pricey for a flimsy little book, but I'm sure that if my situation were different it would have been well worth the money. I can pretty much recommend it to everyone EXCEPT those with unusually large class sizes, but it would be good for them too if they could find it used. Otherwise there are good resources to be found online for free.
15 of 16 found the following review helpful:
Good Activity Resource BookJul 20, 2005
By Katestrophe
This book contains many quick activities that require little preparation. It's a good tool for use in the EFL classroom. Many of the activities seem geared for middle school and up, though they can be easily adapted for elementary students. This book would be quicker to use if the activities were marked as appropriate for beginner, intermediate and advanced at the beginning of the description.
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