Rike Neville | Teaching Adult ESL

9 Delightful Springtime Activities for Adult ESL Classes

The days are (finally) getting longer and you want to shake off the winter doldrums your adult ESL students are mired in. Embrace the springtime with activities that will engage and delight your students! Spring-flavored activities for adult ESL springtime activities: Make It Local Introduce them to some activities that are commonly enjoyed in the… Read More
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… Read More
Discussions: How to Ensure All Your Adult ESL Students Participate

Wouldn’t you love to have discussions in ESL classes where everyone not only speaks, but takes turns, listens, and invites others to speak? The thing is, we’ve all had that student, the one who dominates every conversation. We’ve also had the one who never speaks at all. Passive vs. Overbearing Why are some students so… Read More
Linguistic Investigations: an Incredible Way to Build Student Self-Reliance

Do your students immediately ask you for help when they don’t understand something? That they feel comfortable asking you is one thing. Relying on you to explain EVERYTHING to them is another. You need linguistic investigations. One of the toughest aspects of teaching adult ESL is, the better you are at it, the less your… Read More
The Intense Power of Minimal Pairs in Teaching Pronunciation to Adult ESL Students

If you want to tempt some of your feistier adult ESL students into throwing their pencils at you, introduce them to minimal pairs during some pronunciation lessons. Okay, so Afaf deliberately missed me when she pitched her pencil in my direction, but using minimal pairs in pronunciation exercises will certainly engage your students! What are… Read More
2 Fun Activities for Reviewing Prepositions of Time

Reviewing prepositions of time doesn’t have to be yet another worksheet, task cards, or even BOOM cards. Try out some of the following simple but effective ways to review prepositions of time. Go Visual! If you already know your students and their routines and activities, look for photos and pictures representing what you know will… Read More
Color Vocabulary Made Fun: 3 Levels of Engaging Activities for Adult ESL

Teaching color vocabulary in the adult ESL classroom goes way beyond identifying basic colors like red, blue, green, or yellow. Teaching color vocabulary isn’t just about recognition; it’s a gateway to engaging language instruction, offering opportunities to practice grammar, expand vocabulary, and have meaningful conversations. This article is a guide for ESL teachers working with… Read More
Why Adult ESL Students SHOULD Neutralize Their Accent

Try telling an adult ESL learner who has been here for years and still struggles to be understood that reducing accents isn’t necessary. It may be PC to accept everyone no matter how they pronounce English words, but non-native speakers live in the real world. And c’mon…what image do you get in your mind when… Read More
Everyday Role Plays Perfectly Tailored for Adult ESL: 3 Easy Steps

Everyday role plays are essential for our adult ESL students. Teaching adult ESL, especially in an Intensive English Program, means teaching more than the four language domains and more than the culture of the country your students are studying English in. It means teaching them how to do life tasks such as getting an apartment,… Read More
12 Exciting Ways to Use TED Talks with Adult ESL

Stop thinking TED Talks are just for high-level adult ESL students! I’ve successfully used them with students from high-beginner and up, and you can, too! I’m going to share with you twelve ways you can use TED talks to help your students develop their proficiency in the four language domains, make connections to their lives,… Read More
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… Read More
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… Read More
Guide Them into Understanding Coordinating Conjunctions

This is for all you adult ESL teachers out there trying to get your students to use coordinating conjunctions other than “and”. I didn’t know about the due date, and I missed class the day you explained it. One of my classmates told me it was today, and I thought since I missed class, tomorrow would… Read More
Dear Past, Hello Future: Another New Year

So this one will be different. Another year has passed, remarkably fast and excruciatingly slow both in turns and at the same time. Time is a weird concept to me. Once I learned that it’s not the same “time” for everyone in the world simultaneously, a lot of time-related traditions became meaningless for me, especially… Read More
Breaking Barriers: 7 Strategies for Supporting Adult ESL Students Facing Challenges on the Road to Fluency

The challenges adult ESL students face can be daunting, from limited study time to difficulty understanding native speakers. However, you can help them break down these barriers by providing strategies and support. Keep reading to explore seven effective strategies for supporting adult ESL students, from accessing resources to staying motivated and expanding horizons. Strategy #1.… Read More

4 Fun Simple Future Grammar Activities for Adult ESL

Simple future grammar activities are a sure win in any simple tense lesson. Sometimes teachers, especially those new to adult ESL, mistakenly believe that because a verb tense is “simple,” students will easily and quickly learn it. That’s not always the case. What makes the simple future a challenge? Using the simple future tense is …
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7 FUN Activities for Opposite Adjectives

Opposite adjectives quickly double your adult ESL students’ vocabulary and make learning (and teaching) definitions a snap. Years ago, one of my Korean students had this quirky habit of assigning friendship and enemy status to various words to convey the meaning he wanted. When he couldn’t think of the word for mustard, he mentioned ketchup’s …
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Improve Your Grammar Lesson with Fun Speaking Activities!

I think these English classes are a waste of time and money. We don’t get to practice speaking enough. -unnamed student I overheard a student say that, though, thankfully not my student. Truthfully though, after doing a mental review of my classes, I could see that my own classes were part of the problem. I …
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Teaching Time: Fun Ideas for Incorporating Time into Adult ESL Classes

Teaching time vocabulary and expressions but want some practical and engaging ideas for this theme? Adult ESL teachers are accustomed to teaching time expressions in grammar classes and even in some speaking classes, but time is an essential element of everyday communication. Expressing and understanding it is crucial for making plans and appointments, which is …
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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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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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5 Innovative Ideas for Using Music in Adult ESL Classes

Music is a universal language that can bring people together and facilitate meaningful conversation. In an adult ESL class, incorporating music in adult ESL can be a fun and engaging way to improve language skills and create a sense of community among learners. Here are five ideas for adding music in adult ESL classes: Share …
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One Effective System for Creating Discussion Groups

Finding that delicate balance of talkative vs. shy and high level vs. low level to create discussion groups can be challenging to do on the fly. Making students get up and move to another seat takes up time, and people get weirdly attached to their place once they’ve sat down. You’ll get some sighs and looks if you …
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Discussions: How to Ensure All Your Adult ESL Students Participate

Wouldn’t you love to have discussions in ESL classes where everyone not only speaks, but takes turns, listens, and invites others to speak? The thing is, we’ve all had that student, the one who dominates every conversation. We’ve also had the one who never speaks at all. Passive vs. Overbearing Why are some students so …
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4 Surefire Strategies for Refining R/L Pronunciation

When you teach Korean, Chinese, or Japanese students, you know you’re going to run into R/L pronunciation blunders. Before I knew about this common pronunciation error, I wondered why I kept hearing people talk about eating lice. I assumed it was a cultural dish because I hadn’t yet trained my brain to immediately switch r/l …
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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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Create Listening Labyrinths Using Minimal Pairs: a Step by Step Guide

I love to create listening labyrinths because they make fantastic informal assessments of students’ ability to discern the difference between two sounds. The icing? Students love them! Let’s say you have students who often use a short i sound when they need a long e sound (and vice versa). Here’s what you do: Here’s how to create listening labyrinths. Before …
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