101 Bright Ideas: ESL Activities For All Ages by Claire Maria Ford

101 Bright Ideas: ESL Activities For All Ages does not have many activities that would be beneficial to a student of English as a second or foreign language hoping to improve her language skills. Far too many of the suggestions deal only with letter or word games requiring little or no communication. Perhaps one or two, such as categorization or association, may be useful for vocabulary building, but I felt that many others lacked any obvious pedagogical purpose. Activities that could be classed as communicative were a perplexing mixture of either boring and easy, or interesting but too difficult without considerable language support from the teacher. Some suggestions entailed bribing students with fake money in order to get them to participate, a ruse that will wear thin if the activity is not worthwhile. Others, based on TV game shows, looked fun, but perhaps teachers will already be familiar with most of these anyway.
Although I liked the organization and simple layout of the book, some activities were also no more than simple layouts, such as calendars or blank Valentine cards that students were expected to complete. When language was presented, it was not always satisfactory. For example, Who is the bald Irish female singer?, Where do the pygmies live? and Who is the best basketball player in the NBA? were suggestions, with answers, for a mega quiz.
If you are an EFL or ESL teacher interested in developing your students' communication skills or language proficiency, and want them to engage in critical and purposeful language learning, then I cannot recommend this book.

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