Teaching adult ESL with no materials or time? Here’s what works when nothing else does.
Your Adult ESL Students Can Recite the Days of the Week. So What?
I’m rolling my eyes right now just remembering it. My students would dutifully memorize the days of the week, recite them back to me in…
Commonly Confused Words: 3 Reasons English is Ridiculous
Do your students ask for your advise in learning vocabulary? Its a common question, right? You might want to take a brake in your lessen…
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….
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…
Conditionals Worksheets: 6 Quick Ways to Make Them FUN!
I was scrolling through a teacher Facebook group the other day, and someone had posted a photo of their student’s answers in a conditionals grammar…
Talking about Hygiene in Adult ESL Speaking Classes: Helpful Tips, Fun Activities, and Cultural Considerations
Hygiene isn’t glamorous. I get it. Talking about it can be really uncomfortable. But it’s super practical, especially for adult ESL students who are still…
Stop Selling Academic Vocabulary. Start Selling This Instead.
My co-workers and I used to hash out the same problem over and over: How do you convince students that passing the TOEFL or IELTS isn’t…
Pronunciation Truly Matters: The Spelling Quiz That Made My Students Question Everything
“Bet.” I said it clearly. The students hunched over their papers, writing what they heard. “Pat.” More writing. A few confused glances around the room….
Teaching Animal Vocabulary in Adult ESL
“This is for children. I don’t want it.” Nasser crossed his arms and leaned back in his chair, looking at me like I’d just suggested…
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…
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…
6 Fun Simple Present Activities for Adult ESL
Why is the simple present so danged hard? For reasons I still can’t fully explain, my students almost always struggled more with the simple present…
Telling Time in Adult ESL: Not Just Reading Clock Faces
“But everyone has a phone now.” You think this every time someone mentions spending class time on telling time, right? And look, I get it….
10 Practical Ways to Teach the Alphabet to Adult ESL Students
So, you’re teaching adult ESL true beginners, and you need to teach the alphabet. You know there are millions of resources and ideas for teaching…
Gestures: The Secret Language You’ve Been Missing
I’d been teaching Saudi students for almost a YEAR when I finally figured out that they’d been trying to tell me something crucial with a…
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