The Book Next Door
Australian ESL materials for adults and young adults

Tabletop English

Watch this space for two new products, Starting Tabletop English and Tabletop English!

(These are only draft covers – final versions and due in December 2024!)

These are photocopiable interactive games and activities for group work, designed to promote learner independence, peer support – and fun!

Starting Tabletop English is at early beginner level (think Course in EAL from the EAL Framework, if you’re in Australia). Tabletop English is for beginners (and more confident early beginners).

You can download sample tasks for every activity on the Payhip page, and try them out with your learners! {link is coming!}

There are 10 tasks for all 12 activity sets, so that learners develop familiarity with a task type:

  1. Cut up pictures and sentences, with the topic of ‘Where I live’ or ‘My dream home’
  2. Cut up stories, narrated by a working mum and an at-home mum.
  3. Complete 4 sentences and Write 4 sentences
  4. Interactive board games (picture prompts)
  5. Interactive board games (text prompts)
  6. Match and spell and Spelling Boss (simple peer reading and dictation)
  7. Find 5 differences and Find 7 differences in a simple familiar text type
  8. Memory Match: Matching cut up activity to use as a memory game
  9. Write and draw information gap activity
  10. Simple ‘Ask everyone’ quizzes
  11. No-clue crosswords (focus on word length and letters)
  12. Cut up Conversations with Adam (young adult) and with Sam (worker and dad)

There are also 10 Giant tasks that can be pinned to the wall or whiteboard for whole class explanation, and Tabletop templates to make your own matching tasks.

The idea for this resource came from Dorothea Milenti at North Metropolitan TAFE, so huge thanks to Dorothea and to all the teachers who offered feedback!

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