Teaching adult ESL with no materials or time? Here’s what works when nothing else does.
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….
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…
Beyond Basics: Teaching the Passive Voice for Adult ESL Success
Teaching the passive voice went from not on my radar to one of my favorite things to teach! I’m about to admit something embarrassing. When…
Stop the Grade Begging: Teach Them How to Ask
“Teacher, I need extra credit. My family and my government will be very angry if I don’t get an A. You must give me one…
Free Talking with Low-Level Adult ESL Students Without Dying Inside
I’ll never forget my first attempt at a “free talking” session with my A1 class. I had twenty questions printed out. TWENTY. I’d spent the…
How to Support Your IEP Students When Everything Feels Like Too Much
Your student walks into class late again. She’s got her toddler with her because childcare fell through. Another student is checking his phone constantly because…
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….
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 Still Can’t Say Their Phone Number
I turned the page and hmphed at what I saw. Number vocabulary. Numbers listed in order, some blank lines, and a quick little listening exercise….
Why Aren’t You Teaching Grammar Vocabulary?
No math teacher would try to teach math without using math terminology, right? You wouldn’t expect a physics teacher to explain gravity without ever saying…
Teaching Body Vocabulary: Why It’s Not as Basic as You Think
So there I was, day three in a hospital in a foreign country where I didn’t speak the language. Nurses kept asking me questions I…
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…
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…
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…
“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!”…
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