Inability to Ask Questions: It’s a Big Problem! One of the biggest problems my lower-level students have is knowing how to ask questions, especially of the follow-up variety. They’re pretty decent at answering the basics, like: “What’s your name?” “Where are you from?” “What’s your favourite_____?” But once that question …
I always use warm-up games or activities in my classes. It can be pretty hard for our students to come in, sit down, and then just immediately get into the meat of the lesson. I like to give them time to warm-up their brains, and think, speak, read, write, and …
“Online Teaching: The Answer?” So you’re teaching ESL abroad, and think to yourself, “I wish I made more money!” If you’re going to be teaching for only a year or two, have fun, drink lots of beer, and travel to some amazing places during your vacation. However, if you’re doing …
Relative Clauses: We Use Them all the Time Relative clauses are important and we use them all the time in the English language.We just use them naturally, never make mistakes and use reduced relative clauses all the time without even realizing it. The problem comes when teaching relative clauses to …
I Had no Idea about How to Teach ESL Listening I’m always surprised when I get reader questions or talk to people preparing for their upcoming job interviews that they don’t know how to make a basic lesson plan. But, it’s not so crazy and I actually had no system …
Exciting news! I’ve just released a new book on Amazon, 39 ESL Warm-Ups: For Teenagers and Adults. Warm-Up Activities are awesome, if you didn’t know that already. They get your students active, engaged and speaking English right from the beginning of the class. In case you’re the type of person who …
Teaching Writing to ESL Beginners: A Tough Job Teaching beginners to write in English can be a very difficult job. These students often struggle to put together a sentence, so teaching them to “write” can be quite overwhelming and many teachers instead find themselves just focusing on student’s grammar mistakes. …
Is Teaching ESL Abroad a Good Career Choice? An English as a Second Language teacher doesn’t exactly fit into the category of a “serious” job where you make “serious” money. However, I would argue that it actually has a lot going for it and it’s a great choice for someone …
Top 10 ESL Activities for University Students and Adults If you’re looking for some ideas for your conversation classes with university students or adults, you’ve come to the right place. Here are my top 10 ESL activities for adults that will make your lesson planning easy and your classes as …
Not ESL Board Games I love me a good board game. Three of my favourites are King of Tokyo, Settlers of Catan and Puerto Rico. Because I’m essentially totally and completely burnt-out on the teaching after almost nine years of doing it in Korean universities, my USA internship preparation …
Monolingual Classes: Difficult to Teach! Monolingual classes (everyone speaks the same language) can present a difficulty for ESL/EFL teachers. This is because there is often no compelling reason as to why students actually have to communicate with each other in the target language. This is the situation I find myself …
If you’re looking for some English reading tips, you’ve come to the right place! We have three of our favourite English reading tips, along with a link to where you can get even more of them. There are many reasons why you might want to improve your English reading skills. …
Types of Context Clues Here’s an English reading tip for you about using context clues. Sure, you can use your dictionary to look up words you don’t know, but this is the easier (and better way). After all, you don’t always have a dictionary handy, especially when doing an English …
Improve your English Listening Skills I love podcasts-you can almost always find me listening to one while I’m exercising, hanging around the house cooking or cleaning. They are entertaining, informative and you can learn something new. There is a podcast for just about any topic you can imagine. The best …
The Biggest Mistake You can Make for ESL Writing Not proofreading your writing is the biggest mistake you can make for ESL writing. This applies to students who are studying English as a second or third language, as well as native speakers. Almost everyone makes a lot of very simple …
