Generally, the EFL classroom or workshop setting features students from a large number of cultures, each with their norms and values. This means tension--over the role of women in the classroom, appropriate classroom behavior and how the teacher is addressed, for instance--is bound to occur. An icebreaker is an excellent way to help students learn more about and familiarize themselves with each other before learning begins. Although EFL workshops are generally short, and some teachers would prefer to forgo the ice breaker in preference to another English lesson, the icebreaker itself is an English lesson. Its purpose is communication, which is why your EFL students are present. Ask students to think of an adjective that describes them and an activity that they enjoy doing. Each word must begin with the same letter that starts their name. Students must put these words into a greeting that takes the form of a sentence. For instance, a student might say, "I'm Marvelous Mary, and I like to mend clothes." This teaches students pronunciation, parts of speech, sentencing and the importance of first names (rather than family names) in most cultures that speak English.
Students learn English best when they hear it in the context of something they enjoy discussing, and most ELLs like to talk about their native cultures. During part of the workshop, engage students by allowing them to communicate about their cultures in English. Ask students to compose a paragraph about their cultures or home countries. Have the ELLs work in pairs or small groups, but ask each student to produce her own paragraph. (The students should ask their group mates when they have questions about grammar or vocabulary.) Next, instruct students to read their paragraphs to their groups, and ask group members to help the reader correct his grammar, vocabulary and sentence structure. Also, tell group members to give advice to the author about including or cutting out information in this short piece. After each student has read to her group mates, allow students to revise their paragraphs. Finally, have them read their writing to the class. This develops oral and written skills, and it helps ELLs learn how to use the writing process in a short time, allowing for the condensed nature of EFL workshops.
In a workshop environment, teaching pronunciation can be a difficult task. Not all of your workshop participants will have the same first language, meaning your students will have trouble with different English language sounds. The International Phonetic Alphabet, a device that the University of Arizona, Tucson defines as "designed to be used in the transcription of human speech sounds" can help all your participants work at the same level. Pass out a list of the IPA symbols for the English language and make the sound for each. Tell students to write a word from their own language next to each symbol to help them remember the sound it makes. Next, present vocabulary words to students that feature the IPA spelling below the alphabetic spelling. This will help students learn there are significant differences between how a word is spelled and how it is pronounced. This technique also helps students who struggle with pronunciation problems when they don't have a teacher around to correct them.