Teaching adult ESL with no materials or time?
Here’s what works when nothing else does.
Most recent posts:
- Teach Vulgar Vocabulary to Your Adult ESL Students
C’mon. You know this. Your adult ESL students are not living in a sealed, expletive-free terrarium. They’re at work, on public transit, watching TV, scrolling social media, and hanging out with native-speaking friends. They hear things. They just don’t always know what those things mean, or whether the person who said it was being friendly or terrible. - 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.
Older Posts:
Teach Vulgar Vocabulary to Your Adult ESL Students
How to Teach Coordinating Conjunctions to Adult ESL Students (Discovery Lesson Method)
Adult ESL students love “and.” They use it to connect everything. Every. Single. Thing. And while they’re technically communicating, reading what they write (or listening…
Participial Adjectives: 2 Tests to See if They’re Sneaky Verbs
“Teacher, I am very exhausting today.” I looked up from my desk to see Maria standing there, clearly tired. She meant exhausted, of course. We’d…
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…
Why Do We Avoid Teaching a-an-the in Adult ESL?
I’ll never forget the day Yuki raised her hand in my intermediate class and asked, “Teacher, why do we say ‘the United States’ but not…
4 Engaging Movie-Based Activities for Adult ESL Learners
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…
Fall Activities for Adult ESL: When Reality Doesn’t Match the Hollywood Version
“Teacher, when do the trees turn colors?” My Saudi students were sooo ready for fall activities. They’d seen the pictures online. The Instagram-worthy leaf tunnels….
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…
Teaching Home Vocabulary to Adult ESL Students: Why It Matters More Than You Think
I once had a student who labeled everything in his home with sticky notes to learn vocabulary. Not unusual, right? Lots of language learners do…
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…
Teaching the Months of the Year: Yes, It Matters. No, You Don’t Just Sing a Song.
Let me guess. You’re staring at your lesson plan thinking, Really? Months of the year? These are adults. And yet…here we are. Because someone put…
3 Reasons Why Your Adult ESL Students Can’t Remember Vocabulary & What To Do About It
You know that student who swears they’re studying vocabulary every single night but still bombs the quiz? Yeah, I had Mesfer. This guy was COMMITTED….
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…
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…
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