Using music in adult ESL classrooms gets reactions. Even the grumpiest student with their arms crossed and their hood up is still listening. And when you use music well in adult ESL, it does a lot more than fill time. It gets people talking. It brings culture into the room and sneaks in vocabulary, pronunciation, […]
Picture this: Your student Mahmoud has been in the country for six months. His English is pretty solid in class. He can talk about his weekend, describe his favorite foods, and a lot more. Then one day, he needs to get bloodwork done at the hospital. He parks, walks in… and the hospital is massive.
“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. When you’re scrambling to cover conditionals and the nightmare that is present perfect, dedicating class time to clock faces feels unnecessary. Here’s the thing. Numbers don’t come up much in
I’m rolling my eyes right now just remembering it. My students would dutifully memorize the days of the week, recite them back to me in perfect order, and BOOM! Standard met! Except they hadn’t really learned anything useful. They could perform this neat little trick on command just like I can recite the days of
When schoooooool’s NOT out for summer…Well, across the country, students and teachers look forward to the school-free summer months, but for many adult ESL courses/classes, it’s business (or education) as usual. If that’s the case for you, consider trying out some of these summer vocabulary lesson ideas for adult ESL classes. After all, our childhood
The days are (finally) getting longer and your adult ESL students have energy again. You know what I’m talking about. That fidgety, restless, can’t-sit-still energy. The way they keep glancing at the windows like they’re planning their escape. Here’s the thing…spring is the perfect excuse to inject some life back into your classroom. I’m not
Winter happens whether we acknowledge it in our classrooms or not. And sure, we could pretend it doesn’t exist because we’ve got Chapter 7 of the grammar textbook to finish. We could keep our heads down and push through those conditional clauses while students are distracted by the first snow of the season outside the
“Teacher, when do the trees turn colors?” My Saudi students were sooo ready for fall activities. They’d seen the pictures online. The Instagram-worthy leaf tunnels. The explosions of red and gold stretching from your feet to the horizon. They were prepared for sweater weather and cozy scarves and all that romantic autumn atmosphere Hollywood had
“This is for children. I don’t want it.” Nasser crossed his arms and leaned back in his chair, looking at me like I’d just suggested we all sit in a circle, hold hands, and sing “Old MacDonald Had a Farm.” I could see where he was coming from. Here I was, an adult ESL teacher
“Teacher, what is ice storm? Like hail, no?” Reem held up her phone, showing me a weather alert that had just lit up her screen. The rest of the class leaned in to look. We were in Oklahoma, and a winter storm was bearing down on us. The whole town would be shut down the
