Teaching adult ESL with no materials or time? Here’s what works when nothing else does.
I Found My Old Gratitude Post…And Then I Found What Came After
I’ve been going through all my blog posts, fixing where images exploded into huge sizes and formatting got weird after I changed my site theme…
3 FUN Vocabulary Games for Adult ESL
“GAME.” When I say “game” in my adult ESL vocabulary classroom, the air crackles. Spines extend, eyes brighten, pulses increase. “GAME” they repeat to each…
2 Ways to Get Adult ESL Students to Try New Strategies
I used to stand at the front of the classroom, waiting. Just…waiting. I’d asked a simple comprehension question about the text we’d just read. The…
Why Your Adult ESL Students Still Write Like Beginners…and how to fix that
You grade another stack of essays from your intermediate students and want to bang your head against the desk. Again. These students can handle a…
How to Sneak Test-Taking Strategies into Beginning Adult ESL Lessons
When we started working on color vocabulary, Ama’s face went dark. I didn’t know her well because she had just started in my class that…
5 Smart Ways to Use Music in Adult ESL
Music is one of those magical classroom tools that almost everyone reacts to. Even the grumpiest student with their arms crossed and their hood up…
4 Strategies for R/L Pronunciation That Don’t Involve Parroting
“And then,” my professor paused dramatically, “the Muslims were playing in the streets! Everywhere! They were playing in the streets all over the country!” Everyone…
Check Out These Fun Summer Vocabulary Ideas for Your Adult ESL Classes
Why do we need summer vocabulary lesson ideas for adult ESL? When schoooooool’s NOT out for summer… Well, across the country, students and teachers look…
7 Fun Activities for Opposite Adjectives
Years ago, I had this quirky Korean student who assigned friendship and enemy status to words when he couldn’t remember the English term he wanted….
Conversational Visits: Why Your Students Need to Talk to Someone Besides Each Other
You know that moment when you assign a speaking activity and your students look at each other like “Again? With YOU?” Yeah. That moment. They’ve…
The 4 Best TH-Pronunciation Activities for Adult ESL
Why do we need TH-pronunciation activities? The voiced TH and the unvoiced TH are two of the most difficult sounds for many of our adult…
Getting Adult ESL Students to Talk About the Environment
The environment is everywhere in the news. Microplastics in our water. Fast fashion waste filling landfills. Wildfires and extreme weather events. Rising sea levels. Your…
2 Vocabulary Games That’ll Get Even Your Skeptical Adult ESL Students Excited
The first time I announced we were playing SWOOSH!, my student Saleh crossed his arms and said, “I didn’t pay for this class to play…
Teaching Future Progressive…Because Simple Future Isn’t Enough
You’re probably teaching future progressive because it’s in the curriculum, and you need to cover it before the next unit test. Maybe you’re teaching it…
The Amazing Power of Role Plays in Adult ESL
Role plays made this happen: A giant voice roared out of the young woman many never even noticed was in the classroom. She gestured as…
New? Start here.
Need lesson ideas now?
Teaching Specific Groups
Browse by Skill Area
Need Ready-to-Use Materials?
Browse my Teachers Pay Teachers store for printables, activities, and resources that save you hours of planning.
