Category: Teaching English

Tips for getting an advantage in the very competitive field of writing about English language teaching.

An in-depth look at how to present grammar

Suggestions for useful and easy to write articles that any teacher at all could write at least one of.

Error correction in the EFL classroom

Using students' first languages in the classroom

Some ways of spotting if you have been able to draw the fine line between too much pairwork and not enough, and ways of planning lessons that include whatever you decide is the perfect amount

Here are some pointers to help you judge whether you have got the right balance of sit down and moving around activities in your classes, and then some tips on how to think about making changes.

Some tips on checking if you have got the use of warmers and fillers just right, and what you can do about it if you haven’t.

Interesting activities and topics about the Middle Ages for ESL classes

Using the positive aspects of authentic texts, getting rid of the negative aspects, and deciding when graded texts might be better.

Ways of helping students learn by helping them learn to trust the teacher.

Making brainstorming more useful and fun

How an ESL teacher can get into publishing

How an ESL teacher can get into publishing Part 2

A checklist for English conversation schools if you're teaching kids for the first time

Ideas on miming vocab associated with Xmas

Useful classroom language for ESL teachers for starting lessons

Useful Classroom Language for making things in class

Useful classroom language for teachers for finishing classes

The big list of useful classroom language when teaching pronunciation

Useful classroom language for teachers for doing listenings

Useful classroom language for teachers while using the board

How to combine Christmas with a Kindergarten/ Pre-school/ Very Young Learners English Syllabus

Activities suitable for English through History classes, CLIL classes, as supplementary activities when there are historical topics in an EFL textbook, or as grammar practice

A look at how to write a good language test.

What role does culture play in the foreign or second language classroom

The standard way of doing a listening with many small and large variations.

How you can use Xmas songs in the classroom

How to start the new school year teaching IELTS classes

Activities that teach football vocabulary and other language

Stimulating activities for chunks of language

Stimulating speaking activities for adjective plus more or –er

Video tasks that can be used when practising future tenses and conditionals

Ways of practising the present simple and continuous with video

A look at the options available to people wanting to publish in ESL

Reasons why everyone in TEFL should publish at least something, then how to choose what to do and to go about doing it.

Four ways of getting to the point of being paid to write for publishers of English language teaching materials, with a detailed examination of two of them.

What to do when the demands of the student and the person paying for the classes clash

Activities for history projects in the ESL classroom

Making a popular topic useful and suitable for all classes

Some tips on moving into teacher training

Lessons to help students understand newspaper headlines

Teaching how to ask for and give confirmation of meaning without sounding rude.

A look at the second part of the IELTS Speaking Test

Issues with "It is…"/ "They are…" or their contracted forms, plus how to present and 11 stimulating practice activities

Issues, teaching ideas and games for “wanted, “passed”, “did”, “went”, “saw” etc.

The process by which you can go about writing and publishing articles on teaching English as a foreign language.

Tips for helping students with this section of the IELTS exam

Tips for handling listening activities

Teaching the popular topic of sport and using that topic to practise loads of other language.

Going a little and much further than talking about running, jumping and swimming.

The advantages and disadvantages of peer observations

Factors to include and think about when planning your first pre-school English class

Interesting activities and topics about prehistory and ancient history for ESL classes

This article gives some tips to make sure you are prepared and are able to go into your first preschool English class with the confidence of knowing that you are really ready.

What you should do before teaching an EFL exam class for the first time.

Putting the seasonal cheer back into grammar

A look at how quotations can be used in the ESL classroom to motivate students.

Using rhymes and crafts in the ESL classroom

Personal experiences in setting up a TEFL Certificate course

The pros and cons of setting-up a TEFL certificate course from personal experience

Some tips on how you can make workshops work well

What do you do when you find that students are reluctant to ask questions about the class or their homework?

A look at ways to teach countable and uncountable nouns

What students need to do near the beginning of the IELTS Speaking paper and how to prepare them to do so.

In what ways can conversation be regarded as a skill? How might this influence our approach to teaching it?

This article is based on a workshop entitled “Testing and Reviewing New Materials” given by Alex Case at the Tokyo Expo/ Tokyo ELT Book Fair

What are the advantages and disadvantages of “blind observation”- when someone checks everything but the lesson itself?

The advantages and disadvantages of eliciting in the EFL classroom… and how to exploit them

Useful words and phrases for using games in the ESL classroom

Useful phrases to end ESL classes

This list could be useful for talking or writing about classes that are shared (e.g. between an Assistant Language Teacher and the regular classroom teacher), for writing handover notes, and for job interviews and initiation periods.

ESL students offer their opinions of good language teaching.

How to secure a job as a teacher trainer

Tips for a CV for teaching general English to adults

What you need to include if you are applying to teach young learners

The CV for those specialising in ESL examinations

Tips for writing a CV for a Director of Studies position

How to get a decent reference for a position as teacher trainer

Some suggestions for organising and equipping a Learning Resource Centre

Keeping your self-motivation up and the experience new as the years go by

Classroom language and tips for teaching texts

How poetry can help young learners with pronunciation

Why and how to use songs with young children

How to start the new school year when teaching very young learners

How to develop video materials for EFL classes

A selection of ideas for using video to teach specific grammar points and language skills

Activities to teach past tenses using video

Why did my foolproof activity just fail with that class? … and how to make sure it works again next time.

Who's in charge in the classroom?

Students are often less keen on pairwork than their teachers

Reasons for students not doing their homework, with suggestions to deal with the problem

A look at why learners may find listening difficult

A look at dictionaries in the classroom

Some reasons why students speak their own language in English classes

A look at a common and frustrating issue