Teaching adult ESL with no materials or time?
Here’s what works when nothing else does.
Most recent posts:
- Hey TpT Buyers, Are You Leaving Perks on the Table?
Teaching adult ESL and getting great resources from TpT? Here are some TpT tips for buyers that you might not know but really should. - 6 Reasons to Switch Off the Slideshow and Pick Up the Flashcards.
I know…I know. You went through all that trouble learning the new apps. You’ve got your Canva templates, your carefully curated Google Slides, those PDF presentations you purchased from your favorite adult ESL seller↗ on TpT. And here I am, telling you to go back to…gussied-up index cards. Made of paper. Don’t click away. Hear… Read more: 6 Reasons to Switch Off the Slideshow and Pick Up the Flashcards.
Older Posts:
“Learn English” Isn’t a Goal: 6 Things Your ESL Students Are Missing
“What’s your goal?” I asked the class on the first day. “Learn English!” they chorused back, smiling like they’ve just solved world hunger. “Graduate university!”…
Check Out These Fun Summer Vocabulary Ideas for Your Adult ESL Classes
When schoooooool’s NOT out for summer…Well, across the country, students and teachers look forward to the school-free summer months, but for many adult ESL courses/classes,…
The Mixed-Ability ESL Classroom Fix Nobody Talks About
“Ming” finished his paragraph before I could finish writing the instructions on the board. He looked up, grinned, and pulled out his phone. Across the…
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…
Stop Teaching English Like It’s Only For Exams
Somehow, in every Intensive English Program I’ve taught in, practical English gets shoved aside. We rush through it, almost dismissively, trying to hurry students into…
Dear Past, Hello Future: Another New Year
Updated January 2026. Another year has passed, remarkably fast and excruciatingly slow both in turns and at the same time. Time is a weird concept…
Goal Setting for Adult ESL Students: Why “I Want to Learn English” Isn’t Enough
“What’s your goal for this class?” “I want to learn English.” Cool. Super helpful. That’s like saying “I want to get healthy” and then wondering…
Stop Pre-Teaching Vocabulary All the Time!
None of my professors EVER told us to stop pre-teaching all the vocabulary (they were huge fans of that method), but I’m telling you to…
Summarization: The Reading Strategy Your Adult ESL Students Need, But Nobody Taught Them
I’ll never forget the day I brought in a stack of university textbooks to show my reading class what was eventually waiting for them. Fahad…
When Your Students Want to Reduce Their Accent (And Why That’s Okay)
“Teacher, I need to fix my accent. Nobody understands me.” Zara pulled me aside after class, frustrated and exhausted. She’d been in the US for…
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….
4 Fun Plural Noun Activities for Adult ESL
Picture this: You’re teaching plural nouns. Again. You hand out worksheets. Again. Students dutifully fill in the blanks, turning cat into cats and box into…
Put Cooking Verbs on the Menu in Your Adult ESL Classes
I once had a low-beginner student from Saudi Arabia who lived with a homestay family. He wanted to cook with them—both to share dishes from…
Teaching Color Vocabulary to Adult ESL Students
Way back when, in my high school German class, we were learning colors. Pretty basic stuff, right? The teacher was going around asking students what…
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…
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