Skimming and scanning are skills that all students need to manage all the reading materials they encounter. Students can read titles, headings and subheadings out loud and then use a timed worksheet to find specific pieces of information.
Quick writing activities that last 3 to 5 minutes are excellent TEFL exercises because they promote fluency and speed and help students overcome their fear of making mistakes. Quick writing activities are a good way to warm up for a new topic, brainstorm for a project, generate research questions, explore ideas and summarize or conclude an activity.
Many students of English are shy and hesitant to speak out loud. However, practice in speaking is essential to attain fluency. Therefore, the following "chaotic speech" exercise is both fun and effective. Place students in two lines facing each other:: one line is A; the other line is B. Give students a question and allow 90 seconds for them to prepare their answers. Have the students in line A speak for 90 seconds while those in line B listen. If the students in line A finish their answer before the 90 seconds is over, they should repeat themselves until their time is up. Next, the students in line B get their turn.
Some of the best TEFL listening exercises are found on audio aids. Students listen to similar sounding words and are instructed to choose the words they heard from a worksheet. For example, the words bite or bike have similar sounds. In this activity, the students decide which word they heard (bite or bike) and select it from the worksheet.
TEFL exercises can be modified or combined with one another to reinforce the different skills needed to learn English. For example, during the "chaotic speech" exercise, the listening students can be instructed to listen for specific kinds of information. They then can pose questions about that information to the speakers. As another example, after a quick writing exercise, students can read their essays to partners. Again, the listeners can pose follow-up questions.