Teaching adult ESL with no materials or time?
Here’s what works when nothing else does.
Most recent posts:
- Your Adult ESL Students Have Gaps and That’s Completely Normal
I need to tell you something that might make your day easier. You know those gaps your students have? The ones where you’re teaching present perfect and suddenly realize half the class is shaky on simple past? Or you’re doing passive voice and someone raises their hand to ask what a past participle is? Those… Read more: Your Adult ESL Students Have Gaps and That’s Completely Normal - 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 when I found this “gem” from September 2017: “3 Ideas for Inspiring Shared Gratitude in the Classroom.” I cringed while reading it. Not because it’s badly written or because the… Read more: I Found My Old Gratitude Post…And Then I Found What Came After
Older Posts:
Talking about Etiquette and Manners in Adult ESL: Beyond Grammar and Vocab
Have you ever thoroughly disgusted someone without meaning to? Just going about your normal day, doing something completely ordinary, and suddenly everyone’s staring at you…
Teaching /b/ and /p/ Pronunciation to Adult ESL Students
If you’ve ever taught adult ESL students whose first language is Arabic, you already know what’s coming. The b and p sounds. They sound harmless…
3 Huge Reasons to Spend as Little as Possible on Your Classroom
It’s back to school time, and teachers everywhere are groaning over the tsunami of products being marketed at them while simultaneously filling up Amazon wishlists….
Study Habits: The One Question That Changes Everything
Half defiant and half remorseful, Faisal handed me a mostly blank paper with seemingly random words shoved into something vaguely resembling sentences. This was an…
Jobs and Careers: Making Adult ESL Speaking Practice Matter
Your adult ESL students probably already have jobs but want better jobs. Or maybe they’re worried about keeping their jobs. They could be negotiating salaries,…
Create Listening Labyrinths Using Minimal Pairs: A Step-by-Step Guide
I’ll never forget watching Ahmed confidently grab a marker when I handed out the first listening labyrinth of the term. “You want a pencil?” I…
The Emergency Sub Plan for When You’re Too Sick to Think…That Students Love
Picture this: You wake up with your throat on fire, your head pounding, and the kind of fever that makes you question whether you’re still…
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….
Why Your Adult ESL Students Need Reflective Writing
I don’t remember why I asked the question, but I’d written it on the board: “What’s the most terrible sound you’ve ever heard?” Amara raised…
Stop Writing Questions on Your Game Blocks (Do This Instead)
“Ask someone a question. Any question.” Rashid pulled out a wooden block, checked the number, then grinned at the guy next to him. “Have you…
Why Your Adult ESL Students Need Idioms…Even If You Think They Don’t
I was sitting in my graduate program class, getting my M.Ed. in TESL while teaching full-time, when one of my international student classmates got visibly…
Cultural Differences in Adult ESL: Navigate or Crash and Burn
Your classroom is full of cultural landmines you don’t even know about yet. Students from cultures with little concept of personal space are getting too…
Sh/Ch: 3 Ways to Help Your Students Stop Saying “Teasher”
I’ll never forget the day one of my Saudi students accused a classmate of “sheating” off of them. Except it wasn’t just the sh/ch mix-up…the…
4 Fun Simple Past Activities for Adult ESL
You’ll want to try these four fun simple past activities with your adult ESL students! Whether your students are just now dipping their toes into…
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…
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