Prepping for grammar classes during a time crunch has never been easy. Now many teachers are teaching online as well as in-person. Who has the time to prepare EVERYTHING needed for a grammar class? I’m going to let you in on a little secret. Sometimes, I used to let YouTube teach my class, and now …
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The Present Perfect Tense Survival Guide: A Detailed Overview
Did you know that the present perfect tense is a bridge between the present and the past, allowing us to understand how the past has shaped the present? It is a tool that helps us see the connections between different moments in time. News to you? No worries because this guide is here to help …
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How Using Adjective Clauses Helps Power Up Their Writing
You’ve noticed something. Your students are at least intermediate, but their writing isn’t. Sure, they use adjectives, and they add prepositional phrases. You’ve done sentence stretching exercises with them. But they still write short sentences that are short on details and sans anything like adjective clauses. You dream of the day you grade essays with …
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Two Engaging Multi-Level Vocabulary Games for Adult ESL
Adults love vocabulary games as much as children do, but unlike kids, they tend to want fun and educational games. Adult students have limited time, and they’re usually paying for their English classes. They prefer games that give them English practice, but they’re not likely to object to prizes! ^_^ Still, you might run into …
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Why Aren’t You Teaching Grammar Vocabulary?
No math teacher would try to teach math without using math terminology, right? So why don’t grammar teachers teach grammar vocabulary by using it right from the start? You’re not teaching little kids. Your students already have quite a few tools in their kit and can use what they already know about their own language …
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Emotion Vocabulary: Why It’s Important and How to Teach It
Emotion vocabulary is not often taught in adult ESL classes, but it should be! As language teachers, we know that vocabulary is crucial to communication. But beyond just naming objects and actions, our students also need to have a rich emotional vocabulary. After all, being able to describe and express emotions accurately is essential to …
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Free Talking: Getting Low-Level ESL Students to Talk
Free talking sessions in A1?! Getting low-level students to talk can be a daunting mission. They might be shy; they might not know what to say or how to say it. Because of this, sometimes, in our eagerness to cover all the required material, we neglect to give our students time to talk. I don’t …
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3 Powerful Reasons to Incorporate Conversational Visits in a Speaking Activity
What are conversational visits? Simply put, conversational visits are when one or more of your students visits another classroom to practice speaking in English with another teacher’s students for a specified ESL speaking activity. You can freshen up just about any speaking activity when you incorporate students from a similar level in another class. But …
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Role Plays for Adult ESL: 4 Impressive Reasons to Use Them
Real-life English enters your classroom when you incorporate role plays for adult ESL. Your students need speaking practice, not to survive in your classroom, but to live their lives OUTSIDE your classroom. If you haven’t been using role plays written specifically for adult ESL, now is the time! Here are four reasons why your students ought to be doing …
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The Battle of B and P Sounds: Moving Toward Pronunciation Precision
If you’ve had the privilege of teaching students whose mother tongue is Arabic, you’re no stranger to their unique challenges when grappling with the b and p sounds. It’s the structure of the Arabic language’s sounds and those oh-so-subtle distinctions between the b and p sounds in Arabic that create significant challenges when it comes …
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Sh/Ch: 3 Must-Have Methods for Successful Pronunciation Tweaks
The pronunciation of sh/ch is a bigger problem than you might think! Whenever I heard teasher, I knew to look towards one of my Saudi students, not the ones from Korea or Spain or but sometimes one of the students from the Ivory Coast. These were the students who would ask where they could find …
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Short I and Long E Sounds: 4 Engaging Activities for Adult ESL Pronunciation
Short I and Long E sounds require clear pronunciation for effective communication and building confidence in adult ESL speakers. Conquering these sounds may present challenges, but none of us want our students to confuse “beach” with “bitch,” right? The thing is, drilling is effective but boring. So how about some activities for Short I and …
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