the-venus-of-willendorf.pdf
The Venus of Willendorf (below) is an icon of prehistoric art. It is housed in the Museum of Natural History in Vienna. One day, a visitor to the museum asks a guide how old it is. The guide replies that it is 25 thousand years and 8 months old. The visitor is […]

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The cloud game is the first TEFL activity I ever learned. On day one of my TEFL course, our trainer wrote 6 answers to 6 questions about himself in a cloud on the blackboard. Our task was to work out what the questions were. It was a bit like Jeopardy, the well-known US quiz show.
I […]

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dr-gachet.pdf
“Sad but gentle, yet clear and intelligent” is how Vincent Van Gogh referred to his 1890 Portrait of Dr Gachet.

This activity (see pdf link above) works well with beginners. It exploits the fact that Van Gogh actually painted two easily-distinguishable versions of Dr Gachet. It addresses language that may be used for picture descriptions […]

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