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 that. But this student took it further. He photographed every single labeled item. Then, whenever he had downtime, like waiting for the bus, sitting in the library between classes, or […]
The environment is everywhere in the news. Microplastics in our water. Fast fashion waste filling landfills. Wildfires and extreme weather events. Rising sea levels. Your students see these headlines, and wow, do they ever have opinions. They’re worried about the future, theirs, their children’s, and the world’s. So use it as a discussion topic. Environmental
I’ll never forget “Pablo” telling me, completely deadpan, that he felt “very boring” during our class discussion about emotions. He meant bored. But honestly? His version was more accurate, even if it hurt. Most ESL classes skip emotion vocabulary entirely, or worse, they turn it into one of those soul-crushing vocabulary lists where students robotically
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 ‘months of the year’ on the curriculum, now you’re supposed to make a whole lesson out of twelve words your students probably already half-know. Because here’s the thing…the months of
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 with horror? I’ll never forget the look of shocked disgust on the faces of a classroom full of Korean kindergarteners when I blew my nose. Yeah. Don’t do that in
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 couldn’t answer, and eventually they started dragging in patients from other rooms to translate what turned out to be fairly simple stuff. If I’d known some basic body vocabulary? I
Pets are everywhere in your students’ lives. Dogs on Instagram. Cats in memes. Coworkers talking about their rabbits. Neighbors complaining about barking. Rental applications asking about animals. So why not use pets as a theme in your adult ESL classes? Pets give you a relatable, engaging topic that promotes conversation, builds vocabulary, and provides tons
Lights, camera, ENGLISH! Movies work in adult ESL classes. Or rather, movie clips do. They give students authentic language input. They’re engaging. Students hear vocabulary in context and pick up cultural knowledge. Their listening comprehension improves. And here’s the thing: you don’t need to make your students sit through a three-hour epic. Short trailers or
I watched Carmen stand in front of the class, gesturing frantically at her sleeves while trying to explain why she needed to return a shirt. “The arms! The arms are… the arms are bad!” A classmate jumped in: “Too short?” “No! Too… fat?” “Wide. Long sleeves but wide?” “YES! Wide arms!” She meant the sleeves
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 close to female Saudi students who can’t be touched by men outside their family. Korean students are asking direct questions about age while the Americans in their communities recoil in
