CONTENTS

MUST READ: How

Can I Make Class More
of a Pleasure and Less
of a Chore for Students?

16 VOCABULARY: How Do
I Help Students Learn
More Vocabulary?
17 VIDEOS: Where Can I
Find ESL Videos I Can
Use in Class?

MUST READ: How Can

I Make My ESL Classes
More Dynamic?

YOUR STUDENTS:
What Should I Know
About My ESL Students?

YOUR STUDENTS:
What Are Some Good
Ways to Connect with
My New ESL Students?

19 TURN-TAKING
STRATEGIES: 7 Turntaking Strategies
That Will Boost
Student Speaking Time

YOUR STUDENTS: How

Can I Get Students
to Pay Attention?

20 PHOTOS: How
Can I Use Photos
for Writing Tasks?

YOUR STUDENTS: How

Can I Increase Student
Engagement?

YOUR STUDENTS:
What Are Some Ways
to Improve Student
Questions?

21 USING INSTAGRAM:
What Are Some Great
Ways to Use Instagram
in the ESL Classroom?

10 ADVANCED
LEARNERS: How Can I
Help Advanced Learners
Overcome
a Language Plateau?
11 ADULT LEARNERS:
Should I Play Games
with Adult Learners?
12 ADULT LEARNERS:
How Can I Get
Adult Students
to Do Their Homework?
13 WRITING: What Are
Some Creative Ways
to Practice Writing?
14 WRITING: How Can We
Practice Writing
with Video Tasks?
15 LISTENING:
Why Is Listening
Comprehension So Hard
for My Students?

18 GRAMMAR: How Can

We Practice Grammar
with Video Tasks?

22 GAMES: What ESL Card

Games Can I Play
in Class?
23 GAMES: What Are
Some Great Games for
Speaking Practice?
24 GAMIFICATION:How
Can I Gamify
My ESL Classroom?
25-26 SOCIAL MEDIA:
7 Ways To Use
Social Media
in the ESL Classroom
27 ONLINE: What Works
Best with Online Skype
Lessons?
28 SUMMER: How Do I
Teach a Special OneWeek Summer Class?
29 PARENTS: What Is the
Best Way to Deal with
Students Parents?
30 NEWBIE TEACHERS:
What Is the Best Advice

You Can Offer

to Newbie Teachers?
31 NATIVE VS NONNATIVE: Are Native
English Speakers Better
Teachers than NonNative Speakers?
32 STRESS: What Can I Do
To Reduce the Stress
of Teaching?
33 SUCCESSFUL LESSON:
How Can I Evaluate
if My Lesson
Was a Success?
34 PROFESSIONAL
DEVELOPMENT: How
Do I Become a More
Effective Teacher?
35 PROFESSIONAL
DEVELOPMENT: Only 5
Minutes A Day Required:
5 Simple Things
That Will Make You
A Better Teacher

How Can I Make Class More of

a Pleasure and Less of a Chore
Most of my students come to class
because they have to. They have
to study English because their parents make them or because they
need it for work. They see learning
English as just another chore they
must do. How can I make learning English a pleasure for my students?
Tidy up. Pick up the milk. Study English. For some students, it is indeed just
another chore on their list. For some, it
is compulsory (Everyone in the company has to study). For others, its a
means to an end (I need to pass an
English test to study in the US). They
seem to have no joy in learning! But
it doesnt have to be a chore. Heres
how you can make English class more
of a pleasure and less of a chore.

HERES HOW YOU

CAN MAKE LEARNING
ENGLISH A PLEASURE

CONNECT ENGLISH
TO THINGS THEY ENJOY

This is just one of the reasons you

should take the time to get to know
your students. At the initial stage of the
course, you should find out what your
students are passionate about, where
their interests lie and what they hope
to accomplish in the future, among
other things. Use these interests to
help them see how learning English
can help them pursue their passions
and dreams. Say theyre passionate
about movies. Wouldnt it be awesome
if they could understand their favorite
movies in their language of origin?
What if they long to travel to Liverpool,
the Beatles hometown? How much
more enjoyable would it be if they
could tour the sights and not need a
translation?

DONT PILE ON
THE HOMEWORK

Homework is not construed as helpful.

Homework is construed as the chore
within the larger chore of having to take
English lessons. It only makes matters

worse if you pile on the grammar exercises and worksheets that are several
pages long. Of course, it is essential
for students to do homework, but why
dont you give them homework that really works for them instead?

USE REAL,
UPDATED INFORMATION

Youre teaching a business English

class, and you happen to be looking
at a fictional companys organization
chart. Why would students take interest in a company that doesnt even exist with a CEO theyve never heard of?
Talk about real CEOs instead and the
companies they run. Or have each student present a chart of how their own
company is structured.

CAPITALIZE ON THEIR
SKILLS AND EXPERTISE

Say you have to teach a topic you know

very little about, like water sports, marketing or even music. Instead of floundering with a basic explanation of marketing (because, lets face it, youre no
expert), let the marketing expert explain. Ask the kid who has tried every
water sport on the planet to explain the
difference between wakeboarding and
waterskiing. What could be more pleasurable than sharing information about
something we are experts at?

KEEP THE ATMOSPHERE

FRIENDLY AND LIGHT

Start the class by asking students about

their weekend, families or holidays.
Never get right down to business! Give
them an encouraging smile when they
make a mistake or get tongue tied. Let
them know its okay: we all learn from
mistakes. Even though there might be
tests and grades, the important thing is
for them to relax and enjoy the learning process.

BALANCE THEIR
PARTICIPATION

Eager beavers who raise their hands

all the time and dont let others speak

can really take all the pleasure out of

a class for those who cant get a word
in. Make sure the eager beavers know
they have to give everyone else a
chance to speak, and encourage the
participation of those who tend to be
more quiet.

CELEBRATE
THE DIFFERENCES

Few things beat the pleasure of being

accepted in a group, despite any cultural or ethnic differences. Make your
class a place where students of all
nationalities and races can share experiences and information about their
culture.

ENCOURAGE HABITS

Studying doesnt have to be

a chore, if you make it a habit. And
students should find out which study
habits work best for them. Are they
too tired to do homework after work?
If they insist on doing this, it will inevitably become a chore. But if they form
the habit of doing their homework over
breakfast or on the train to work, it will
be a much more painless task.

AVOID LECTURING

Lectures will, without a shadow

of a doubt, take all the pleasure out
of learning English. Who wants to sit
there while you go on and on about the
differences between the simple past
and the past perfect? Dont tell them!
Show them! With examples, with
games, with their own experiences.
But try to keep the explaining down to
a minimum.

BUT IN THE END, THE ONLY ONES

WHO CAN MAKE CLASSES MORE OF
A PLEASURE AND LESS OF A CHORE
ARE YOUR OWN STUDENTS.
Students need to overcome the prejudice and all of the negative expectations tied to going to school. Prove
to them that learning English can be
a great adventure, one that will take
them to places and show them things
they never imagined.

How Can I Make My ESL Classes

More Dynamic?
I teach everything Im supposed
to teach in class, but Id like to
make my classes more dynamic.
Do you have any tips or advice?
This question brings up a great point.
You may be teaching your students
everything they are supposed to be
learning, you may be following the
syllabus and covering all the points, it
is very likely your students are even
learning what they are expected to
learn. But would you settle for this?
Dont you want to make your classes
truly great? Dont you want to not only
catch and hold your students attention, but also keep them happy and engaged for the duration of the course?
Here is where dynamic lessons come
in. And heres how you can make your
classes more dynamic.

DISCOVER THESE
7 WAYS TO MAKE
YOUR ESL CLASSES
MORE DYNAMIC

USE A POWERFUL TOOL

YOUR VOICE!

If you ever fell asleep during a class or

lecture, youll probably remember that
it was not so much the topic that made
you doze off but the teachers monotone. The problem with not changing
pitch is that it conveys a complete lack
of expression. So be expressive! Be
animated! Raise and lower your pitch.
Talk louder. And then whisper as if you
were sharing a secret. Your voice can
not only convey feelings and emotions, it also keeps your students alert.

BE ORGANIZED

You finish an engaging activity...

but then you cant find the flashcards
you need for the next one. Several
minutes tick by as you mumble things
like, Now, where did I put those
cards?...They must be here somewhere... I know I put them in my bag
this morning..., and students look
on with expectant faces. The energy
and mood you created with the previous activity is deflated, and precious
minutes are wasted while you search
your bag for whatever it is you need.

To make classes more dynamic you

need to move from one activity to the
next seamlessly. And to achieve this,
you need to have all of the days materials beforehand. Keep them on a
shelf, on your desk or in a box. Just
be sure theyre handy.

the aisles. Do this while you speak,

while you ask questions and while
you listen to them. They will be forced
to follow you with their gaze, and they
will hear you louder when you get
closer. Nothing is more dynamic than
movement!

ENCOURAGE
PARTICIPATION

Quite often, we introduce a topic by

setting a scene. Say youre going to
introduce the use of should for giving advice. So you launch into a list
of things you usually do when you
or someone in your family feels sick.
But try this instead. Ask your students
what it is they do when theyre sick.
Do they go to the doctors or speak
to them on the phone first? Do they
take an aspirin? Or do they try grandmas home remedies? Brainstorm a
list of typical home remedies! You can
always set the scene with a story or
anecdote, but student participation
makes things a lot more dynamic.
Avoid lecturing. Ask good questions
and lead in to the topic you want to
introduce.

SURPRISE THEM!

Unexpected twists keep things

interesting. So if you always have
your class act out conversations while
sitting, make them stand up! If you
always pair them with the student sitting next to them, make them stand up
and move so they can be paired with
someone they usually dont interact
with. And while were on the topic of
moving...

MOVE AROUND
THE CLASSROOM

One of the biggest mistakes you can

make as an ESL teacher is to teach
while sitting at your desk. Standing
up is great -- everyone can see and
hear you as you move back and forth
from the whiteboard to your desk. But
its even better when you walk around
the classroom. All around. Walk to the
back and to the front. Walk around
your students desks. Up and down

TRY NEW THINGS

Tried and tested is great, but

every now and then, introduce a new
game, different activity or innovative
technology. Never used a computer
in class before? Theres never been a
better time! Always practice grammar
with flashcards? How about a board
game instead?

GIVE IT A STRUCTURE

So you move around and implement new things. You may even transition smoothly from one activity to
the next. Students seem happy and
engaged. Your lesson was finally dynamic! But wait... are you sure you
gave it a solid backbone? Like any
good story, a lesson has to have a
beginning, a middle and an end. In
the beginning, you review what you
did last time and introduce the goals
for this class. Then, you go through
the activities youve planned to meet
the days goal. Finally, you put it all
together at the end with an activity
that will confirm the goal and give the
lesson some closure. What does this
have to do with keeping the class dynamic? Because simply jumping from
one activity to the next with no organization, no end goal in mind, leads to
confusion. A truly dynamic class takes
a lot more than simply a frenzy of activity. You want your students to walk
away with a lesson learned.

SO YOU SEE, THERE ARE SEVERAL

INGREDIENTS YOU COULD ADD
TO YOUR LESSONS TO CREATE A
DYNAMIC LEARNING ENVIRONMENT. JUST ONE OR TWO MAY NOT
BE ENOUGH. THE MORE YOU MIX
AND MATCH, THE BETTER, AND THE
MORE DYNAMIC, THE RESULTS WILL
BE.

What Should I Know

About My ESL Students?
Ill be teaching my first ESL class
soon, and Im eager to get started
on my planning, but several other
teachers have told me its important to get to know my students
first so I can tailor my classes
to their needs. But what exactly
should I know about them?
At this day and age, most ESL teachers agree theres only so much you
can plan before you actually meet
your new ESL students. You see,
what works great for one set of students, might not be the best fit for
another set. There is no formula, not
cookie cutter lesson plan that you can
use with every group. Each particular
group will bring its own set of skills
and characteristics, which youll need
to consider as you plan each lesson,
each activity. In most cases, the information you get consists of a proficiency level and an age group for kids.
But knowing theyre a bunch of 9 to
10-year-old beginners or middle-aged
intermediate students wont cut it.
Its very easy to say, get to know your
students but what is it exactly that
you need to find out? Lets see...

REMEMBER 7 THINGS
YOU SHOULD KNOW
ABOUT YOUR
ESL STUDENTS

ESL BACKGROUND

You may have an intermediate student who has studied English nonstop for three years, and
you may have another at exactly the
same level who has studied for ten,
but with lots of interruptions along the
way. This tells you a great deal about
each. Try to find out when and where
theyve studied English before and for
how long. How long did it take them to
complete each course/level?

LANGUAGE BACKGROUND

Its important to know what your

students native language is and what
their current English fluency is. A distinction needs to be made here for

those who are teaching ESL within an

English-speaking country and those
who are teaching ESL abroad.

If youre teaching ESL within an

English-speaking country: youll
need to find out when your students arrived to the country and
if they spoke any English at the
time. Did they study English before arriving? (this relates to the
first point, ESL background).
If youre teaching ESL abroad:
find out if your students have ever
lived or traveled to an Englishspeaking country. This tells you
if theyve had the chance to practice English in a real-life setting.

CULTURAL BACKGROUND

Are all of your ESL students

from the same country or is this a culturally diverse classroom? What languages do they speak? Does a students culture have any particularities
you might need to know about (i.e. a
student who cant have any physical
contact with the teacher or cant look
you directly in the eye).

PERSONAL INFORMATION

There is no need to get too personal, but it is useful to know if your

students are married and have children, or if they have a full time job.
What is a typical day like for each
student? What do they do in their free
time? Do they have any hobbies or
activities they do regularly? It gives
you information you can use for activities, and its also good to know in
case problems arise (i.e. students
who arent doing homework because
they have too much on their plate).

LEARNING STYLES

nance of musical, visual or kinesthetic

learners. You can use this knowledge
to design activities that target their
natural talents.

NEEDS AND GOALS

Perhaps one of the most important things you need to find out is why
your students are studying English.
Do you have a group of housewives
who are learning for fun? Or businessmen who need English to advance
their careers? Is it a group of teens
who dont seem to have an interest
in learning? You may have specific
needs and goals within one group, but
you should try to identify the one thing
that they all have in common so that
you can use it to tailor your activities
and lesson plans.

FEELINGS AND ATTITUDES

RELATED
TO ENGLISH LEARNING
And the final piece of the puzzle is
how your ESL students feel about
learning English. Do they find it boring, interesting or exciting? Are they
motivated to learn? Or are they being
reluctantly dragged to class by their
parents? What are their expectations
for the course?

YOU WONT FIND THE ANSWERS TO

ALL OF THESE QUESTIONS IN THE
FIRST LESSON; IT TAKES A WHILE
TO REALLY GET TO KNOW YOUR
STUDENTS.
You may want to give them a diagnostic test to get a feel for how much
language they can use. Or you may
choose to give them a student survey,
instead. Whatever the means you
choose to use, the more information
you gather, the better prepared youll
be to plan the right kind of lessons for
your class.

Will your students learn better

with songs and music, or with arts
and crafts? Do they thrive on Total
Physical Response? Naturally, not all
of your students will fit into one single
category, but its tremendously useful
for you to know if you have a predomi-

What Are Some Good Ways to

Connect with My New Students?
I often find it hard to connect
with students once they come
back from their summer vacation.
It takes them a while to get their
heads into the classroom. What
are some good ways to connect
with my new students at the start
of the school year, and not just get
to know them, but to really connect
with them?
The school years starts, and you look
forward to greeting a fresh batch of
smiling, eager faces. They may have
the same reason for taking your class,
or they may have different reasons. Is
it enough to simply find out what those
reasons are? Is it enough to interview
them about their lives, their likes and
dislikes? You know where this is going. The answer is no. Its not enough
to simply get to know them (though it is
an essential step!) The best thing you
can do to get the year off to a great
start is to connect with them. Connecting with your class on a deeper level is
mutually beneficial. It helps build trust
and sets a solid foundation on which
to build effective learning experiences.

BENEFIT FROM THESE

SURE-FIRE WAYS TO
CONNECT WITH YOUR
NEW ESL STUDENTS

PAY ATTENTION
TO THEIR BODY LANGUAGE

How are they sitting? Do they look relaxed or tense? Is one of them biting
his/her nails? Or chewing on a pencil?
How many are sitting with their arms
crossed? Before they even utter their
first words in English, your students
can tell you a whole lot about themselves through their posture and body
language. See if you can find ways to
make them feel more relaxed try an
icebreaker!

SMILE AND DO IT OFTEN!

So youre not good at telling

jokes -- you dont know how to make
people laugh. But you dont have to be
the funniest teacher in the school to
connect with your students. After one

of the first classes I ever taught, one

adult learner took me aside and said
she thought the class had been impeccably delivered. But she also noticed I had not smiled. Not even once.
She challenged me to give it a try. And
from then on, it was a lot easier for me
to connect with students. Its a very
simple gesture, but it goes a long way
towards showing your students that
you are a friendly, human being and
not just a robot spewing lessons.

CONNECT
WITH THEIR WORLD

What are they talking about as they

walk into the classroom? The latest
episode of Downton Abbey? Or the
newest release of a video game they
love? What music do they listen to?
What gets them excited? Naturally,
you dont have to become one of them
and do everything they do, but if you
choose just one thing you might want
to try, like read The Hunger Games,
for example, or listen to a few songs
of a popular band youve never heard
before, youll be able to genuinely
share an interest with them. Youll definitely be more believable the next time
you say, I love that band, too! Theyre
awesome!

GIVE THEM A GLIMPSE

INTO YOUR LIFE

You cant be their best friend, and

you cant share every private aspect
of your life. But you can choose to
share a few of the things that make
you who you are. Students invariably
ask where you learned English, for example. I always tell them I lived half of
my life abroad and grew up in the US.
Their interest is always piqued, and
the information you share may lead to
interesting questions/discussions.

TELL STORIES
AND SHARE ANECDOTES

So youre practicing asking for/giving directions and one student recalls

the time he/she got lost in New York
City. Share your own anecdote or ask

another student to share. We are not

that different from our students in that
we can have the same kinds of experiences. How awesome is it when your
class realizes that something that happened to them also happened to you?

CONNECT
IN ELECTRONIC WAYS

Gadgets in the ESL classroom? Youll

have to check school policy regarding
the use of cell phones and other devices, but if theyre allowed, I say let
them use them in the classroom - under your supervision, of course. If you
cant beat em, join em, I always say,
and theres plenty you can do in class
with cell phones and tablets.

GIVE THEM CHOICES

Whenever possible, let them

choose what to write about, which
game to play or which video to watch.
You dont want the class to become a
free-for-all? Give them three to four
options to choose from. Theyll still be
choosing. But youll earn their trust by
letting them have some say in what
goes on in the classroom.

TEACHERS ARE SOMETIMES PUT ON

PEDESTALS.

But how can you reach and connect

with your students when youre looking down from above? On the other
hand, teachers are sometimes their
students buddies or friends. You
should not be one or the other. Simply
show them that in many ways you are
no different. The only difference is that
you have mastered a skill that theyre
trying to learn. And that they can trust
you to help them acquire it.

How Can I Get Students

to Pay Attention?
I often find students checking their
phones during class or simply staring out into space. I can tell when
their minds wander. How can I get
students to really pay attention?
As technology runs faster, our attention spans get shorter. Remember what
it was like to have to wait several minutes for a web page to load? There are
students whove never experienced
that. From the moment they were
born, theyve been exposed to things
that move at an alarming speed. They
click through websites faster than we
ever flicked through a magazine in our
youth. They type text messages with
dizzying speed, their thumbs clicking on
the keys to rapidly shoot off one message after another. Meanwhile, in your
ESL classroom, things move considerably slower. You ask a question and a
student takes his/her time to answer.
Theres a silence while you patiently
wait. And so students minds start to
wander, their fingers itching to tap on
their phones to see if someones posted
any news on Facebook.
So how can you grab their attention and
hold it for the duration of the class? It
might seem like mission impossible, but
there are a few tricks you may want to
try.

9 WAYS TO GRAB YOUR

STUDENTS ATTENTION

MOVE AROUND

One of the simplest ways to grab

your students attention is to simply
walk around the classroom. All the time.
Stand next to students if you see them
reach for their phones. Move to the
back of the classroom. Students need
to feel that there is no place for them to
hide and slack off while you teach.

LOSE THE STRUCTURE

Too many students are accustomed to a specific classroom setup.

The best students sit in the front. The
shier ones sit in the back where they
hide. Do away with these physical
constraints! Have them all sit in a circle
on the floor. Or arrange their desks in
a circle. Shake them out of their ac-

customed structure, and they will pay

attention. For they wont know what
comes next.

ELIMINATE ROUTINES

And speaking of not knowing what

comes next... Students may wander
more easily when they know what to
expect and what will happen next. They
come in and sit down. You ask them if
they did their homework. You tell them
to open their books. But what if instead
of beginning the class the way you usually do, you do something completely
unexpected? What if you show them a
video first? Theyll certainly be intrigued!

REMOVE DISTRACTIONS

Sometimes you have no choice.

Sometimes you have to enforce a no
cell phone rule. However, they may still
need them to take photos or film videos
during class. So, simply ask them to deposit their phones in a designated box
at the start of class and give them back
as needed. Yes, they will complain. No,
they wont like it. But if you engage them
with activities they enjoy, theyll forget
about their little tech gadget for a while.

MAKE THEM MORE ACTIVE

Have them do what you would

ordinarily do. Have a student write on
the board, have another hand out worksheets, and yet another help a classmate with something they dont understand.

DIVIDE AND CONQUER

Students are forced to focus when

they cant hide within a larger group. Divide the class into pairs or small groups
for some activities. Walk around and
assist as needed.

PLAY WITH YOUR VOICE

Change your tone of voice as often as you can. Whisper something,

then SAY IT LOUD. (Ever see students
jump out of their seats?) Use different
accents if you can, I highly recommend
it. Students get a real kick out of it, and
it really makes them listen up.

USE PROPS

Grab a small, soft ball. Ask a

question and toss the ball to a student.
Prompt him/her to answer your question. Have them throw the ball back to
you and choose your next target. Who
will be next? They wont know! Use
balls, hats, toys, anything and everything that will make a drilling session
more interesting and dynamic.

SURPRISE THEM!

Have a box with the word Box

of Randomness written on the side.
Inside the box have pieces of paper
with a variety of actions and things your
class will have to do. At any given time
during the class, whip out the box and
have a student take out a piece of paper that will state something that he/
she or the entire class will have to do.
You may want to save this box for when
you see someone not paying attention.
Here are some ideas for your Box of
Randomness:
Pop quiz! the entire class has to
take a graded pop quiz on a recent
topic.
Random dancing play a tune
from your phone and have the entire class stand up and dance.
Your turn to teach the student
who takes this slip of paper has to
stand up in front of the class and
teach something/ask the others
questions/lead a discussion.

YOU CAN HAVE LOTS OF FUN WITH

YOUR BOX OF RANDOMNESS, AND
ITS A GREAT PENALTY FOR NOT
PAYING ATTENTION.

It may be a hard truth to swallow but

when you see your students minds
wandering, theres something you are
neglecting to do. ESL students are not
automatically engaged just because they
need to study English. Its up to us to
engage them! Increasingly so, students
come to us wired with short attention
spans. Its our job to try our best to grab
and hold their attention. Whats in it for
you? The satisfaction of knowing you
are more interesting than anything thats
going on in Facebook. And how wonderfully satisfying that is!

How Can I Increase

Student Engagement?
I have a group of very nice, polite
adult learners, who meet the basic requirements for the course, but
I would love it if they would participate more actively and with greater
enthusiasm. How do I generate more
enthusiasm? How can I increase student engagement?
Ahhh... if only adults or teens had the
natural enthusiasm that young learners
bring into the ESL classroom! If only they
had the same energy and curiosity! If only
they were as easy to engage! But they
are certainly different. Teens are bogged
down by preoccupations, from college
applications to piles of homework from
their other classes. With job and family
responsibilities, adults also have a lot on
their plate. Which is why they most often
show up for class and hope they pass
the course. Doesnt sound very exciting,
does it? But there are ways to get them
excited and engaged in the ESL activities you present. And heres how:

APPLY THESE SUREFIRE WAYS TO

INCREASE ESL STUDENT
ENGAGEMENT

MAKE LEARNING ACTIVE INSTEAD OF PASSIVE

Students walk into the classroom, sit

down, open their notebooks and get
ready to take notes. And while note-taking is a fine strategy, you dont want to
launch into an explanation of the differences between the Simple Past and the
Present Perfect as your students merely
take notes. Talk about boring! And passive! Instead help students learn these
differences through real-life examples:

T: Juan, how long did you live in

Mexico before coming to the US?
S. I lived there for 20 years.
T: And when did you move to the
US?
S: I moved here two years ago.
T: (Write down examples on the
board) So, you lived in Mexico for
20 years. You have lived here for
two.
Ask students if they see the difference
between the two sentences (one refers
to something that happened in the past
and is finished while the other refers to

something that started in the past but

continues today). Try to avoid explanations or reading from a grammar textbook
while students copy down the rules. Try
to use their own experiences and before
giving them an answer, give them the opportunity to think. Engage your students
thought processes to help them reach
conclusions on their own.

MAKE GENERAL LEARNING

GOALS SPECIFIC
TO THEIR INTERESTS
Say your students have to learn the
Simple Past. You walk into the classroom and say, Class, today youre going to learn the Simple Past. And youll
probably get a bunch of blank stares in
return. Why would students care about
the Simple Past? What they want is to
get a job, talk to their boss in English
or connect to friends in other countries.
So, depending on the characteristics of
each particular group of students, you
can modify the general goal (learn verbs
in past) to suit their own particular needs.
Say, Class, today youre going to learn
how to tell your friends about your holidays/talk to someone about your past
job experience. Sounds more interesting, doesnt it?

FOCUS
ON COMPLETING TASKS

No matter if youre doing a reading, writing, listening or speaking activity, always

make sure your students understand exactly what is expected of them. You tell
your students to Listen!, right before
a listening task. What exactly is it they
have to listen for? Do they have to get the
gist? What will they listen to? A conversation? A news report? Dont be surprised
if students tune out halfway through the
listening... A simple indication to listen
is not enough to engage your ESL learners. Instead, give them a specific task:
Youll hear a conversation between a
customer and a waiter in a restaurant.
Listen carefully and write down what the
customer orders for lunch.

FACILITATE INTERACTION

Chances are your ESL students

are learning English because they want

to communicate with others. They need

opportunities to practice real-life interactions. Two-way gap- filling exercises, for
example, are great. Or have students
pair up, and give each a copy of their
weekly schedule (naturally, each copy
is completely different). Students must
work together to set up an appointment.

S1: Are you free Friday morning?

S2: No, I have yoga class. Does
Friday afternoon work for you?
S1: No, sorry. I have a meeting then.
How about Monday morning?

GIVE THEM REAL

PROBLEMS TO SOLVE

Think of real-life problems your students

could very likely face in a variety of areas, from buying a special gift to house
hunting. Ask them to work together to decide the best option/solution for the problem. Try this house hunting scenario:
give students two housing options. One
is an apartment in the city and the other
is a house in the suburbs: if they move
to the suburbs theyll have a longer commute but more peace and quiet. What
will they do?

GIVE THEM PROJECTS

TO RESEARCH

Take the real-life problem one step further and turn it into a full blown research
project. Students could do research on
a nearby town that is perfect for a weekend getaway. What hotels are there?
What activities can you do there? How
can you get there? Divide the class into
teams. Each team member can research
one of the aspects and then share the
information with the rest of the team. Finally, the team puts together a presentation on the information theyve gathered.

CAN YOU TELL WHAT EACH OF THE

POINTS MENTIONED ABOVE HAVE IN
COMMON? They focus on real-life sce-

narios, common dilemmas, everyday

problems that your students may face,
and that is one the keys to ESL student
engagement (together with making your
lessons more fun). You can grab their
attention with your tone of voice, jokes
or overall sense of humor. But when they
see the practical use of something theyre
learning, youll have them engaged for
the duration.

What Are Some Ways to Improve

Student Questions?
I have a group of students who do
quite well in class, except when it
comes to asking questions. This is
when they make most of their mistakes. How can I help them ask questions more accurately?
Every ESL student has a weakness.
For some, listening is particularly hard,
while others need to work on their writing
skills. And yet there are others who can
express themselves clearly enough and
even answer all of your questions...but
they have a hard time asking questions
themselves. Word order is jumbled and
all logic goes out the window. They simply cant structure their questions right.
Here are some ways you can help them
(Note: These are organized from basic to
more advanced techniques).

5 WAYS TO IMPROVE
ESL STUDENT
QUESTIONS

MODEL
STANDARD QUESTIONS

When teaching beginners to ask questions, the best way to start is by modeling
the questions and having them repeat.
This is what we do from the very beginning when we teach them to ask simple
questions like, How are you? to helpful
phrases like How do you spell...? These
questions and others should be introduced in the opportune moment (when a
student wants to write down a word and
doesnt know how to spell it) and should
be repeated by the whole class. If students learn to consistently repeat and
ask these questions, theyll eventually
learn them.

EMPHASIZE WORD ORDER

When trying to ask questions in a

specific verb tense that is new to them,
students often forget to use the auxiliary
(You went to the movies last weekend?),
make mistakes related to word order
(You did go to the movies?) or use the
wrong form of the verb (Did you went to
the movies?) This is why, more often than
not, we need to go to the board and write
down the corresponding rules/structure
for them. So, when teaching them to ask
questions in Simple Past, we write the
classic basic formula:
Did + I/you/he/she/it/we/they/person/

subject + verb in base form: Did you go

them to ask questions out of sheer curiosity, like so:

We must also remember to add other

variations of the same formula:
What


see
Where + did + you/he/she/etc... + go
What time


buy
Etc...


There is always a formula for asking
questions, and it really helps ESL students if they know it.

T: I just saw the most interesting

thing!
S1: What did you see?
T: I saw a musician playing a musical
instrument in the park.
S2: What instrument was he playing?
T: Umm... I dont remember what its
called...
S3: Was it a big or small instrument?
T: It was small... it was placed directly over his mouth.
S4: Was it a harmonica?
T: Yes! Thats right! And I really liked
the music he was playing.
S5: What kind of music was he playing?

(to the movies last weekend?)

PRACTICE
QUESTION WORDS

So they know the grammar and the right

formulas to use, but they still have trouble coming up with questions on their
own. The next logical step is to give them
something specific to ask about and use
the right question word in the process.
Write a statement on the board and underline one part of the sentence:

She bought milk, coffee and bread

at the supermarket yesterday.

Ask students what question theyd ask if

this little piece of information were missing. The correct question would be: What

did she buy at the supermarket?

Now, if we underline a different segment,

the question changes: She bought milk,

coffee and bread at the supermarket

yesterday. Question: When did she
buy milk, coffee and bread?
And again: She bought milk, coffee
and bread at the supermarket yesterday. Question: Where did she buy
milk, coffee and bread?
Its really helpful for students to see how
you can ask different questions from one
single statement. You may also want to
give them a series of statements with
blanks/missing information or facts that
differ. Try an Information Gap activity.
Students work in pairs and ask each other questions to find the differences.

USE PROMPTS /
CONTEXT CLUES

Soon enough, your class should be ready

to go a step further and start coming up
with questions on their own. They will
still need some prompts or context clues.
What I like to do is ask the class to imagine theyve just run into a friend who is
excited to share some news with them.
The idea is to say things that will prompt

And the conversation may go on as long

as you like! Keep in mind you might have
to give some students a nudge in the right
direction, perhaps whisper the first word
or two of the question they should ask.

GIVE THEM
GREATER FREEDOM

The last level is reached when students

are ready to ask questions on their own,
with very little to no help from you. Its
always helpful to set a good context for
asking questions, and here are a few examples:
You tell students you are a famous
celebrity/inventor/historical
figure,
and they must interview you
Students interview each other, about
their own interests, special events or
hobbies.
Students interview another who pretends to be a famous celebrity.
Students take turns giving presentations on different topics (great strategy for Business English students!)
and answer questions from the class
at the end.

NATURALLY, WE SPEND A GREAT DEAL

OF TIME ASKING OUR STUDENTS QUESTIONS. Questions are a great way to

check for comprehension. But dont forget

to have your students ask you or ask each
other questions on a regular basis. They
may be confident answering questions
from you, but not confident at all when it
comes to asking their own. Its a skill that
always comes in handy, and youll want
them to get plenty of practice.

How Can I Help Advanced Learners Overcome a Language Plateau?

I teach intermediate to advanced
learners most of the time, and I keep
seeing the same trend. Once they
reach a plateau, they get discouraged and eventually abandon their
studies. What can I do to help them
succeed in getting past this barrier?
Nothing is more frustrating than the feeling of being stuck. And there comes a
time when every ESL student feels they
are not making any progress. They are
not learning as fast as they used to they
dont notice any changes in their fluency
or ability to speak English. But before we
tackle the how to help them past this
language learning plateau, lets look at
the what students feel versus what is
actually going on.

WHAT ESL STUDENTS

FEEL
Students who are stuck in a plateau
have mastered the basics. They can get
around in English, ask questions and
even feel comfortable speaking with native English speakers. But as they continue their studies, the feel they are making very little progress. They dont feel
more advanced than the previous year,
though theyve taken a test that proves
they are ready for the next level. Every
now and then they might learn a new
word, expression or skill, which brings
them great satisfaction. But in the past,
they learned new things every day. They
are aware that their English is not perfect
and that it can be improved, but they simply dont see it happening.

WHAT IS ACTUALLY
GOING ON
Although students may feel they are
stuck and not making progress, technically they are: they are just not seeing it.
When students start learning a foreign
language from scratch, the learning curve
is very steep. They learn by leaps and
bounds on a daily basis. As they progress in their studies, the learning curve
starts to flatten out cue the infamous
learning plateau. It is at this stage that
an autopilot kicks in, and students think
and say things in English automatically,
without much thought or deliberateness.

10

(Whereas in the beginning learning had

to be very focused and deliberate because they knew very little). But this does
not mean they will necessarily remain
stuck there. There are things they can
do to switch off the autopilot and reach a
more fluent, improved, advanced stage.

HERES HOW YOU

CAN HELP YOUR
ESL STUDENTS GET
PAST THE LANGUAGE
PLATEAU

TURN THEIR ATTENTION TO

THE AUTOPILOT

ESL students reach a point where they

make the same mistakes they repeat
them again and again, no matter how
many times you correct them. These
mistakes have become entrenched or
fossilized. They say things without really
thinking about what theyre saying. The
first step towards getting past the plateau
is directing your students attention to this
that theyre speaking on autopilot. They
need to go back to what they did in the
beginning and make their learning (and
speaking) more deliberate. This does not
mean they will necessarily have to sacrifice fluency for the sake of accuracy. But
they need to become more accurate if
they want to achieve better fluency.

CHANGE TACTICS

Students get stuck in autopilot

because theyre also doing the same
things. More of the same thing will not
help them improve. They need to do
things differently to get unstuck. So if students watch entire movies in English and
feel that their listening comprehension is
not improving, they might need to watch
shorter videos. If they spend hours doing grammar exercises and feel they are
still not using correct grammar when they
speak, it is because they need to get out
there and speak to others (preferably native speakers). So help students identify
which learning tactics they can replace
with new strategies.

FOCUS ON SPECIFIC GOALS

The plateau is a vast plain of knowledge and areas that might need improvement. What is it that your students are
particularly stuck on? Pronunciation? Vocabulary? Speaking? Try to focus on one
area at a time until your students start to
see some improvement.

GIVE THEM
CONSTANT FEEDBACK

If you have students working on improving their pronunciation and reducing their
foreign accent, be sure to constantly
provide feedback on their efforts. Break
the main goal into smaller, more attainable ones. Have they mastered certain
consonant sounds? Which ones do they
still need to work on? Keep recordings
of your students speaking or pronouncing certain sounds, so they can hear for
themselves which areas still need improvement.

TEACH THEM
TO SELF-CORRECT

ESL students who are speaking on autopilot, dont listen to themselves. This is
evident when you correct mistakes.

S: Last night I speak to my sister.

T: Last night you what?
S: Sorry! Last night I spoke to my
sister.
The student knows the correct form of
the verb in simple past, but was probably
speaking too fast to notice they made a
mistake. Train students to become more
skilled at self-correction. Highlight the
importance of listening to themselves,
really listening and paying attention.
Theres no better way to eliminate those
mistakes that have been fossilized.

IN AN EFFORT TO OVERCOME A LANGUAGE PLATEAU, THE IMPORTANT

THING IS NOT THE NUMBER OF HOURS
YOUR STUDENTS SPEND PER DAY
PRACTICING OR REPEATING THINGS.
The important thing is how they spend
their time. If they spend it on a deliberate,
conscious effort to overcome a specific
barrier, they should be able to move past
their plateau and climb to new heights.

Should I Play Games

with Adult Learners?
Ill be teaching adult learners after
years of experience teaching only
kids. Games were the backbone of
my classes with young learners, so
my main question is: should I play
games with adult learners, too?
Most adult ESL learners are very serious about their studies. Some consider
it an investment, a means of improvement and furthering their careers. Others desperately need to learn conversation skills because theyve moved to
an English-speaking country. None of
these adults have time for games. Or
so they think. There are plenty of people who think games in adult classes
are a waste of time. But they couldnt
be more wrong. And heres why:

CONSIDER
THE REASONS TO PLAY
GAMES WITH
ADULT LEARNERS:

GAMES MAKE DRILLING

AND PRACTICE MORE FUN

How many times can you ask a student

to ask a classmate a question with
ever before they start dozing off?
Games offer engaging opportunities to
practice a verb tense, language point
or set of words again and again.
Tip: Use any board game template and
adapt it to suit the grammar or vocabulary you want to practice. Students may
take turns asking questions or providing examples as they try to reach the
finish line first. You can make the game
as easy or as challenging as you like,
and add special rules (if their questions/statements are not correct, they
have to move back two spaces).

GAMES ARE GREAT

FOR WARMERS AND SHORT
TRANSITIONS
Students walk in and take their seats,
and you can tell from the look on their
faces theyve had a tough day at the
office. Why make them get down to
business right away? Help them unwind, instead, and get them into the
right mood for class with a quick game.

Tip: Draw a Tic Tac Toe grid on the

board for a quick review of what they
learned the previous class. Or use it to
check homework answers.

THE COMPETITION
MOTIVATES THEM

Adults can be just as competitive as little kids. If theyre trying to beat a classmate or another team, they will work
harder to produce the right questions,
word or phrase.
Tip: Whiteboard games are particularly well-suited to adult learners, but
choose a game that will be competitive
and mentally stimulating, like Jeopardy. It has a game show feel to it that
adult students can relate to.

GAMES ADD VARIETY

TO CLASS

When considering ways to make your

lesson more engaging, I always say
variety is key. And games are just another type of activity that you can add
to the mix. If you, on the other hand,
choose to not play any games, because you think your students are all
grown up, youll find it harder to reach
the right level of variety.

or ask questions about every little word

they did not understand, the best we
can do for them is take them out of
their rigid structure. Shake things up!
Adult learners who play games in class
get to tap into another aspect of their
personality, not the responsible, serious adult who has to have everything
under control, but the person who can
relax and simply enjoy the learning experience.
Tip: Never assume that because its
fun for kids (or even other adults), itll
be fun for your particular class. Some
adults wont like games with charades
or activities that involve running or a
great deal of TPR. Adults should play
games that are more mentally challenging and stimulating. Try to choose
games that will help them think fast,
something that always comes in handy
as they try to improve conversation
skills.

REVIEW ADDITIONAL TIPS FOR

MAKING GAMES WORK WITH ADULT
LEARNERS:

Tip: As you look at your lesson plan,

see how many of each type of activity youve planned. How many listening, writing and reading tasks have
you planned? How many games? Is
it possible to replace the drilling exercise with a game? Try to see where a
game could fit into the lesson plan as
a whole.

Dont use games as a way to kill

time because you dont know what
to do next. Unexpected things do
come up (ever had to teach during
a power failure?), and you should
always have some quick games
you can use when youre in a bind.
But try to only play games that
youve planned for your lesson.

Make games short, to the point

and make sure students see what
the goal is (and no, the goal is not
to win the game, but rather to practice a particular language point or
pronunciation).

Dont play a single game for half

the class or until students get
bored. Games should not overstay their welcome because students will get tired of them.

ADULTS GET TO LEARN

LIKE CHILDREN

Lets be honest, here. Adults are often

very opinionated. They have big ideas
about what should and what should not
happen in a classroom. Meanwhile,
kids just go with the flow. Learning
through games comes more naturally
to them, but theyre also a lot more flexible. Its a lot easier to shape a young
mind, right? So, when were faced with
grown ups who copy everything down,
or look everything up in the dictionary,

EMBRACE YOUR INNER CHILD!

And help your adult learners do the

same. There are plenty of games you
can play in class that will help them
think, practice and succeed in improving their English. And when they use
the skills youve taught in class, everyones a winner!

11

How Can I Get Adult Students

to Do Their Homework?
I have a group of adult learners,
and while theyre good students
generally speaking, they never do
the homework I assign. Theres a
good reason I give them homework:
I believe it will help them strengthen some weak areas. So how can
I get them to do their homework on
a regular basis?
The issue of homework with adult
learners is a tricky one. Kids have their
parents on their backs: most of the
time we can count on them to steer
the little ones in the right direction. But
adult learners are on their own. We
need them to be completely on board,
and that includes the completion of
homework tasks. Because we can all
agree that homework is important for
the ESL learner, no matter their level or
age. So, how can we get adult learners
to do their homework? You might want
to try some (or all!) of these ideas.

GET ADULT LEARNERS

TO DO HOMEWORK
EFFECTIVELY

MAKE IT SOMETHING THEY

CAN REALLY USE

We must remember that adult learners

are very different from young learners. They have different needs. And
while kids may have fun completing
a crossword puzzle for homework,
most adults will find it childish. Good
homework tasks, homework that really works, is the kind that will allow
them to continue working on the skills
they need to hone. With this in mind, it
would make more sense to have adult
learners write an email for homework,
which has to include the vocabulary
theyve recently learned, for example.
Or have them watch a video on Newsy
so they can keep sharpening those
listening skills. Or have them find a
MeetUp they can attend in English.
Who says homework has to be written
all the time?

MAKE IT CHALLENGING
(BUT NOT TOO DIFFICULT)

Ask your students to create a Pow-

12

erPoint presentation with at least 15

slides. How many will actually do it?
What are the odds? What if you ask
them to research a famous person and
write a summary of their life? Sounds
long and tedious to me. Now, try assigning an email with a few complications. Have them arrange a meeting
with a business partner. Divide students into pairs and have them email
each other till they reach an agreement on a day, time and location for the
meeting. Students will have to put reallife skills to the test and use the target
language at the same time (Is Friday
good for you?/Friday doesnt work for
me. How about Monday morning?)

sons for not completing their homework tasks, there is always a way to
get past this barrier. For starters, try
to negotiate what a reasonable homework assignment would be. One written email per week? A 5-minute video
they must summarize in 100 words?
50 words? Deal! No matter how busy
your students are, they must understand that where theres a will, theres
a way. They can do their homework
over breakfast or on their lunch break.
How about taking just 10 minutes before they go to bed? It doesnt have to
take up a large chunk of their valuable
time, and any time spent on homework
is time well spent.

MAKE IT A PRIORITY

Heres the cold, hard truth. More

often than not, adult learners have
a lot on their plate. On their busiest
weeks, they barely make it to class.
Doing homework is not a priority.
Some may even tell you their goal is
to practice speaking and see no point
in doing homework. But chances are
they feel this way because youre not
giving them homework that works for
them (see Point 1). If you give them
homework that helps them build the
skills they wish to develop, they will
give it greater importance.
And sadly, there are teachers who also
feel that homework is not a priority.
They assign it just because. If youre
not invested in the importance of
homework, your students will not feel
its that important, either. So, tell them
exactly why its important for them to
complete their homework regularly.
And to take the pressure up a notch,
tell them youll grade it and that the
average of all homework assignments
turned in will count towards their final
grade.

OVERCOME THE NO TIME

ARGUMENT

This is probably one of the hardest obstacles to overcome with adult learners. Im talking about the no time for
homework argument. And while your
students may have very valid rea-

FOLLOW UP

Raise your hand if youve ever

assigned homework to adult learners
and then completely forgot to check
if they did it. (*Raises hand*) Yeah, I
thought so. We tend to give adult learners more credit, greater freedom -- we
believe they will do the right thing.
But if we dont at the very least ask
them if they did their homework and
try to find out if they had any problems
or doubts, they will get the idea that its
not really that important or that its an
optional thing, when its not.

HOMEWORK ISNT A CHORE.

It doesnt have to be. If adult learners

see it as a continuation of what youve
been working on in class, if they see
the value in completing a particular
homework task, all of their objections
and misgiving will vanish.

What Are Some Creative Ways

to Practice Writing?
I would love some advice on creative ways to practice writing. I find
that my students simply dont enjoy writing and often stare at the
blank sheet paper for the longest
time. We all know that writing is a
very necessary skill, but I would
love to make this a more enjoyable
activity for my students.
Ah, the joys of writing! It happens to
be my passion and one of the few
things I feel I was born to do (besides
teach!)
But even I understand its not something that everyone enjoys, especially
not every ESL student. As this teacher
points out, good writing is a very important skill: students understand this,
so they grin and bear it they try
their best to get the work done. But
are there creative ways to make writing tasks more enjoyable? You betcha!

TRY THESE 7 CREATIVE

WAYS TO PRACTICE
ESL WRITING

MAKE IT A MURAL

With all of the visual stimulation

students get from websites, social media and online games, a blank sheet of
paper is simply too overwhelming for
some. A great way to combine the use
of images and other multimedia tools
is through the creation of an interactive mural, with the use of an online
tool like Mural.ly. Students do their
writing on different-shaped, colorful
sticky notes and text boxes as they
add images and videos to get their
point across. It may not be the most
classic example of a writing task, but
it is certainly the kind of writing they
will most likely have to do in the future
as they use online collaboration tools.

MAKE IT A JOURNAL

Journal writing is a classic in any

writing course and often used in ESL
classrooms to let students tap into
their thoughts, hopes and dreams.
But an online journal, like the one of-

fered at Penzu combines the classic

writing task with the use of technology
the perfect combination to encourage inspired writing for todays ESL
students.

MAKE IT COLLABORATIVE

In todays connected world,

people increasingly collaborate on a
variety of projects across remote distances. And people increasingly collaborate on writing projects and tasks,
from business reports to academic
papers. Assign a writing task that students must work on after school, for
which they must use a specific collaborative tool, like Skype or GoToMeeting.

MAKE IT PAPERLESS

Students may write a first draft,

then hand it in for review, then get
it back with your ideas/suggestions
before they can submit a final draft,
which you will return with corrections.
All of this back and forth takes times,
especially if you only see your students a couple of times a week. So
forgo all of the shuffling back and forth
with notebooks/sheets of paper and
simply share documents online, like
for example, with GoogleDocs.

MAKE IT EMAIL

We should not underestimate

the importance of teaching proper
email writing skills, not just for business/professional purposes, but for
all types of communication. Divide
your class into pairs and have them
swap email addresses. Give each pair
a writing prompt to get the ball rolling
and have them write back and forth to
each other. Give them a basic strategy
they must follow, for example, Student
1 must answer the teachers question, then end the email with a question for Student 2. Student 2 answers
this question and ends the email with
another question for Student 1. This
can go on for quite a while! Be sure to
have students CC you.

MAKE IT MEANINGFUL

One of the reasons writing is so

boring for students is that it is simply
not the kind of writing they need. What
kind of writing do they need to learn?
To answer this question you must first
assess your students needs at the
very start of the course. Most ESL
students dont need to write stories
or poems. They need practical writing
skills! Have them write emails, cover
letters for job applications, resumes,
reports, product descriptions, etc...,
anything and everything they might
very likely have to write in English in
the near future.

MAKE IT A NOTEBOOK

Have students bring a Writing

Notebook to class. This way, they
can keep all of their writing assignments in one handy place and have a
quick overview of how far theyve progressed. One blank sheet of paper is
less scary if they already have lots of
other pages that have been filled with
their writing.

THERE IS NO COOKIE-CUTTER
APPROACH TO MAKE WRITING
PRACTICE MORE ENJOYABLE FOR
YOUR CLASS.
But there is one key: you must really
get to know your students and find out
which writing skills they need to develop. Once you know that, all the right
strategies will fall into place.

13

How Can We Practice Writing

with Video Tasks?
My students are not very keen on
writing. They love watching videos,
however. How can I combine video
and writing tasks so that my students find writing a little more enjoyable?
There are tasks and activities students
enjoy more. There are tasks and activities they enjoy less. And writing in
particular is usually a big chore. Lets
face it. Writing is hard work! But you
can make writing less of a chore and
more of a pleasure with some of these
video tasks.

TRY THESE 7 WRITING

TASKS WITH THE USE
OF VIDEO!

SUBTITLING/CAPTIONING

ESL students are very familiar

with subtitles, after all, they often watch
movies and TV shows with English subtitles. But lets make things more interesting, shall we? Play a short video for
your class, perhaps a snippet or one
scene from a movie or program. Play it
once with no audio so students can get
the gist from the action onscreen. Now
tell students they will write the subtitles
for the video, i.e. the conversation they
imagine the characters are having.
Students may work individually or in
groups/pairs. Play the video again and
pause to give them a chance to write
their subtitles. Walk around and assist
as needed. When theyre all finished,
play the video with the audio so they
can compare their scripts to the real
one.
Tip: Choose a scene that is easy to
caption, for example, a customer asking for/returning something in a store
or someone asking for directions. For
higher levels, play videos that pose a
greater challenge, for example, of two
people who seem to be having an argument.

DESCRIPTIONS

Play a short video with no audio

and have students later write a description of what they saw. This is a great
way to practice prepositions of place or

14

vocabulary used to describe people.

Tip: Choose videos that are full of interesting details, like a messy or cluttered
room/office, or a family gathering.

A DIFFICULT DILEMMA

Play a video, then pause it at a

strategic moment. Before you play
the rest of the video students must
write about how they would proceed
- a great way to practice conditionals.
Once they are done writing, play the
rest of the video so students can see
what happens next.
Tip: Choose videos where the protagonist must face a decision, for example,
a man finds a wallet on the floor, or
someone witnesses a burglary. Pause
the video right after the person sees
the robbery. Students must write about
how they would proceed: would they
try to stop the burglar or call the police?
Why?

CREATIVE WRITING

Quite often we use creative writing prompts to get students to write. But
sometimes an image, or in this case, a
scene, can say a thousand words. Play
a very brief snippet of a scene, just a
few seconds, and have students use
that to write a story.
Tip: Show a scene where there is
someone who clearly looks worried
about something. Students must write
what is going on in this persons mind.
Another great option is to have them
place themselves in this persons
shoes and write a journal/diary entry.

BUSINESS
PRESENTATIONS

Play a video of a business presentation. Students watch the video as they

take notes. Next, they write a summary
of the presentation in their own words.
Tip: Choose a presentation that covers a topic youve discussed in class
or something your students are familiar with. See for example, this video on
marketing:

https://www.youtube.com/
watch?v=xyb5Edfpw5U
After watching this video, students
should be able to summarize the concepts set forth in the presentation.

SCRIPT IT,
THEN ACT IT OUT!

Divide students into pairs and have

each pair write out a dialogue for a
common everyday situation, like ordering a meal at a restaurant. Then,
students study their lines and a third
student records them acting it out on
video. The process of writing out their
lines is particularly useful in lower levels where students may not have the
confidence to act out a role play with
no previous preparation.
Tip: Use a cell phone to record the role
play. If its very short (up to 15 seconds)
students can upload it and share it on
Instagram for the whole class to see.

WRITE A REVIEW

YouTube is filled with videos your

class may write a review for. Have
them see a commercial for a product
and write a review for it, based on
their impressions. You may also show
them one episode of a popular series,
a comedy sketch or a musical number
and have your students review the performances.
Tip: Lots of people post videos on YouTube of themselves playing a musical
instrument, dancing or singing a cover
of a popular song. Are they any good?
Have your class give their honest opinions and write a complete review.

WE NO LONGER RELY ON TV SETS

AND VCRS TO SHOW VIDEOS TO OUR
CLASSES.

We can show videos on laptops, tablets or cell phones. Video lessons used
to be this big thing that needed lots of
careful planning, because we needed
big equipment. But with the newest
technologies on our side, we can easily
share or show short videos or snippets,
and engage students in all kinds of activities. So put a spin on your writing
practice and combine it with videos that
will engage and entertain your class.

Why Is Listening Comprehension

So Hard for My Students?
I have a particular group of ESL students, whose weak point seems to
be listening comprehension. I have
to play the audio recording several
times before theyre able to answer
any questions. Why is listening comprehension so hard for them?
Listening comprehension is one of those
skills that you simply cant put your finger on. It seems to be easy enough for
some. For others, its a nightmare. Why
is this so?
A number of factors contribute to the
extent to which an ESL student is able
to understand an audio recording in
English. Some of these factors may be
characteristics we can attribute to the
students themselves, things like working memory, anxiety or mental blocks.
Other factors deal with characteristics
of the audio track, things like length and
complexity. Finally, others are specifically related to the task at hand, things like
time pressure and note taking. But to
answer the question, lets address some
specific reasons your ESL students are
having such a hard time with their listening tasks.

BE CLEAR ABOUT 5
POSSIBLE REASONS
WHY LISTENING
COMPREHENSION IS
SO HARD FOR YOUR
ESL STUDENTS

THEYRE USING THE WRONG

LISTENING STRATEGY

Most students with listening comprehension issues get stuck trying to understand every single word. They try to
figure out the meaning of just one word,
and before they know it, the recording is
finished, and theyve missed most of it.
Tip: Be sure to tell students that the goal
of the listening task is not for them to understand each and every word. Present
the goal clearly and make sure students
understand what they are expected to
do. If the goal is for them to listen and
complete a chart with information, like
for example a travel itinerary, they must
listen for the specific words and phrases that give them the information they
need. If the goal is for them to get the
gist, they will most likely get it even if

they miss a word or two in the middle.

THERE ARE TOO MANY

NEW WORDS

One new word will probably not affect

your students ability to comprehend an
audio track, but what if there are several words they dont know? You must
also consider if there are any words that
are essential to their comprehension,
as when two people are talking about a
new food to try, or a sport, or a recently
developed technology.
Tip: There are cases in which it is absolutely necessary for you to teach new
vocabulary before the listening task.
This is helpful so they can not only learn
new words, but also be better prepared
to comprehend the listening. Be sure to
check the audio track, if possible read
the audio script, and make a list of words
your students may need to know.

THEY DONT UNDERSTAND

THE ACCENT

Some students say that as theyve

mostly been exposed to American English, they dont understand the British
English accent, or vice versa. A whole
other problem is when they dont understand certain foreign accents, i.e. an
Italian/French/Korean person speaking
English.
Tip: Depending on the class, you could
choose one of two paths. You could focus on the accent they need to grasp. I
would recommend this, for example, if
you have a group preparing to sit for any
of the Cambridge ESOL exams. Most of
the audio features British English, and
your students need to train their ears
for this particular accent because their
exam score depends on it.
The second route is to give them as
much variety as possible. In real life,
students will encounter people from a
variety of backgrounds, and theyll need
a great deal of flexibility if they want to
interact or do business with people from
all over the world.

THEY GET LOST

OR BECOME TOO TIRED

It all starts rather well, and your students

remember what was said at the beginning of the audio track. But then their attention fizzles out, and they get lost.
Tip: This is something that typically occurs when the audio track is too long. If
you want to run a marathon, first you try
running 1K, then 5K, then 10K and so
on. The same thing happens with listening. Its a skill that has to be honed over
time and must start with short listening
tasks. This does not mean you cant
give your class a longer conversation to
listen to. Simply break it down into parts.

THEYRE
NOT GOOD LISTENERS
WITHOUT VISUAL INPUT
Your students understand you just fine
when youre speaking to them, and they
can work very well with videos. But they
have a really hard time listening to an
audio track. Listening on the telephone,
for example, is nothing short of torture.
Tip: When it comes to learning, some
students are more visual. They need to
see. Whether it is illustrations or facial
gestures, they are lost without the visual
component. Naturally, you can give them
listening tasks with video, but youll want
to gradually wean them out of it so they
rely less on the visual input (theyll need
this skill for telephone speaking). Watch
a video once, then cover the TV/computer screen and have them listen with
no picture. Or have them watch some
parts and listen to some parts with audio
only. For audio tracks, have them read
the audio script as they listen. Then, try
a second listening without the script.
Try different types of tasks with longer
or shorter tracks. Just be sure to give
them something they can read or see for
at least some of the tasks. Eventually,
they should notice a change and should
be able to handle some listening with no
visual cues.

NO MATTER WHAT THE REASON IS

FOR YOUR STUDENTS LISTENING
COMPREHENSION DIFFICULTIES, THE
FIRST STEP IS TO IDENTIFY WHAT IT IS
THEY (OR YOU) ARE DOING WRONG.
Then, its all about implementing the
right strategies. And putting in the hard
work. For the more they listen, the more
they will notice improvement.

15

How Do I Help Students Learn

More Vocabulary?
My ESL students can communicate clearly and make few mistakes.
The problem is they always use the
same words and stay within a safe
zone. How can I help them expand
their vocabulary so they dont use
the same words again and again?
Weve all been there. You ask your ESL
students about a city they visited, and
they say it was nice. Every single sight
was beautiful. The food was good.
And while these are perfectly acceptable adjectives, you start noticing that
they rarely stray from the usual choices.
We have to understand our ESL students here. Once they find words they
can use correctly, they will hold on to
them for dear life. Using new words is
a risk: they could make a major blunder, and naturally nobody likes to feel
embarrassed when theyre speaking
a foreign language. This means that
soon enough, ESL students reach a
language plateau they dont expand
their vocabulary and tend to resort to
the same words time and time again.
How can we help them get past this plateau and reach new vocabulary learning
heights? Heres how!

TRY THESE 6 WAYS

TO HELP YOUR ESL
STUDENTS LEARN
MORE VOCABULARY

TEST IT!

You might think that testing only

helps you assess how much your students have learned. But when it comes
to learning new words, it also happens
to be more effective than simply sitting
down to study them. Think about it. Students take a multiple-choice vocabulary
quiz. They see which words they got
right and wrong. They increase their
chances of learning the words they got
wrong. So, design your own quizzes or
use some handy online tests. The more
you test them, the more theyll learn.

READ IT!

As an avid reader since age six,

I cant emphasize enough the importance of extensive reading, and by extensive I mean every day for at least
30 to 60 minutes. What should ESL
students read to increase their vocabulary? Your students safest bet is
reading graded readers. Students may
progress through levels that are increasingly more difficult, with the ideal
vocabulary-building approach. On the
plus side, graded readers often come
with vocabulary lists and exercises to
test students. Not sure which graded
reader would be best? Check out this
handy little chart created by the Extensive Reading Foundation:
http://www.robwaring.org/er/scale/
ERF_levels.htm
Cambridge English offers an online
placement test, plus lots of resources
like worksheets and lesson plans. Macmillan also offers a level test, and Penguin has an amazing students area that
is chock-full of resources and activities
that were specifically designed for vocabulary building.

ORGANIZE IT!

Youve got to give your students

some way to organize the massive jumble of new words they learn every week.
You can use:

Mind Maps, Word Clusters or Vocabulary Trees (whatever you choose

to call them, they look like this:
http://esl.about.com/library/lessons/
nblvocabtrees.htm

A Word Book (students have a different page for each topic and simply add new words as they learn
them)

CHUNK IT!

Teach new words in chunks that

make sense. Teach words clustered
around topics, but also dont forget the
most common collocations. Its a lot

16

easier for students to remember new

words if they have a phrase they can
remember and use. This is the case, for
example, when we describe symptoms/
health problems. I need to say I have
a stomachache or that my stomach
hurts. Teaching isolated words like
stomach or stomachache doesnt make
sense.

It doesnt matter which tool you use.

You can even have each student pick
whichever one they like best. The important thing is that they have a system
that works for them.

PLAY IT!

Words games are excellent for

learning new words. If the New York
Times crossword puzzle is a little too
difficult, design your own (and dont forget there are plenty of crossword puzzles available from BusyTeacher.org)!
There is a variety of word puzzles you
can create. You may also suggest online word games like Dictionary.coms
Word Dynamo.

DOWNLOAD IT!

Vocabulary building apps are

awesome tools because students can
use them while they wait for the train, on
their way to work or anywhere! Here
are a few you can recommend:
Word Dynamo (the mobile version
of the online game:
http://bit.ly/1pb9QJ4
Vocabology:
http://bit.ly/1pb9YZ3
IELTS Master Vocab Guide:
http://bit.ly/1lOPK7x
The British Councils MyWordBook
2:
http://bit.ly/1uD9lLW
or IELTS WordPower:
http://bit.ly/1rAuXal
Or any of the Cambridge vocabulary mobile apps:
http://www.cambridgemobileapps.
com/vocabulary.html

THE KEY TO ACQUIRING VOCABULARY

LIES IN BEING METHODICAL.

Students may learn lots of new words

through extensive reading, but they
must also employ specific strategies
and be consistent in their use. For example, they may choose to add the new
words they pick in their reading to their
Word Books or create a Vocabulary
Tree for each book they read. Whatever
they choose to do, they must stick to it,
and soon enough their trees will bear
fruit.

Where Can I Find ESL Videos

I Can Use in Class?
Where can I find videos for ESL
learners I can use in class? I mean
the kind that is specifically developed for students, not original American or British series, TV shows or
movies.
ESL students have no shortage of original videos to watch.
From Hollywood blockbusters to hilarious sitcoms, national geographic documentaries to reality TV, they have an
astounding variety to choose from. But
its difficult to use authentic sources in
class, particularly if your students are
beginners. Also, original videos tend
to be long. Needless to say, they dont
come with worksheets, and it takes a
great deal of preparation to get them
ready for class. There are, however, videos that are created with this particular
audience in mind your ESL students.
Theyre short and often target specific
language points. Where can you find
these video gems? Heres where.

WHERE TO FIND ESL

VIDEOS YOU CAN USE
IN CLASS:

BUSYTEACHER.ORG

You may already know this, if

youre not new to the site, but for those
who are newcomers to our wonderful world of free, printable, and shareable resources, there is an entire section devoted to movie and TV video
worksheets you can simply download
and start using. Most come with either
the video embedded onto the page
or the link you can copy and paste to
any browser. There are countless videos made for ESL learners, but if you
choose to use original movies and TV,
the worksheets are a huge timesaver.

YOUTUBE

YouTube is a world all on its own,

with endless channels you can navigate, good content you can use, but
also complete rubbish that is nothing
more than a waste of time. However,
there are plenty of channels that are
specifically targeted to ESL learners
and offer great, quality video content
you can use any day, any time. Here

are some of my personal favorites:

Fluency MC (http://bit.ly/1reLoqS)
- Jason R. Levine, more commonly
known as Fluency MC, is an ESL
teacher who has rapped his way
into the hearts of teachers and students across the globe, preaching
the benefits of the 3Rs: relax, repeat, and remember. His songs are
catchy and fun, and help ESL students remember bits of language
through collocations.
Rachels
English
(http://bit.
ly/1lFfur3) If you want videos that
will help your students improve their
American English pronunciation
look no further than Rachels English. In her videos, Rachel clearly
shows how to position the teeth,
tongue and lips to make the right
sounds. Her YouTube channel is an
invaluable resource for those with
pronunciation barriers to surmount.
Cambridge English TV (http://bit.
ly/1lK4wRF) This YouTube channel has a great variety of videos you
can use in class with your students
or recommend for them to watch at
home, from varieties of English to
language that comes in handy in
job interviews.
DJC Kids (http://bit.ly/1t9kovb)
One of the best YouTube channels
for teachers of young ESL learners,
it features alphabets songs and
videos that teach anything from
shapes and colors, to animals and
foods.

BRITISH COUNCIL

Among all of the wonderful resources British Council offers for ESL
students and teachers, there is an entire Listen & Watch section for students
that includes How to videos, a Word
on the Street section that covers uses
of English in everyday life, and Overcooked, a section that features typical
UK food. And that is only for adult learners! There are more videos for kids and
an entire Video Zone devoted to teens.

VOICE OF AMERICA

age news site, but it is actually developed for ESL learners. The Learning
English TV (http://bit.ly/1t9kovb) section features news reports with speakers who speak slowly and clearly. The
short English in a Minute videos teach
idioms and phrases that are useful
for students learning American English. News Words teaches words that
typically appear in news reports a
great resource for students who need
to expand their vocabulary. Finally,
TALK2US is a Skype call-in show, and
the videos are recorded with the participation of the audience.

MANYTHINGS.ORG

There are countless videos to sort

through in this website, but chances
are youll find the one you need. It is
basically a collection of videos that are
found in different sites, including YouTube and VOA. Just check out the list
of categories on the right. From Business English to slang, and even writing, there are lots of videos that are
absolutely worth showing to your class.
(Bear in mind that some links dont
work as the originals might have been
removed from YouTube.)

ELLO.ORG

You can tell Ello was a created by

an English teacher. The video section
has over 700 videos you can choose
from, featuring speakers with a wide
range of pronunciations who answer
questions tailored to different levels.
There is a study guide for each video,
as well as quiz so students can check
their comprehension.

SO, IF YOU FEEL OVERWHELMED BY

THE AMOUNT OF PREPARATION IT
TAKES TO ADAPT ORIGINAL TV SERIES
AND MOVIES TO YOUR LESSONS, TRY
ANY OF THE VIDEO SOURCES LISTED
ABOVE.
From simple kiddie videos with alphabet songs to advanced news reports,
these ESL videos, combined with the
right teaching strategies, guarantee
ESL listening success for your class.

VOA might seem like your aver-

17

How Can We Practice Grammar

with Video Tasks?
The benefits of using video in the
ESL classroom to boost listening
comprehension are obvious. But
Im curious to know if we can also
practice specific language points
with videos. Can you give me some
examples of great video tasks?

(He didnt say he needed the money to

buy a car. He said he needed it to pay
the rent and feed his kids.)

MAKE A PREDICTION

DISCOVER 6
ENGAGING VIDEO
TASKS THAT PRACTICE
GRAMMAR

Grammar: Simple Future Tense

Play a video but pause it before you
give too much of the situation away. For
example, play this video of Mr. Bean in
jail but pause it just as he stands before
the mirror:
http://www.youtube.com/
watch?v=TVltt7pqHEc
Have students predict what will happen next (Mr. Bean will start dancing
in front of the mirror). Continue playing
the video and see which predictions
came true.
Give it a spin: Watch a longer video or
movie, like Deep Impact, but watch it in
segments. Ask students to make their
predictions after each segment.

As ESL teachers, we place a great deal

of emphasis on grammar. But grammar
practice can be boring, repetitive and
thoroughly demotivating if all we do is
drill and use worksheets. We must find
different ways to practice grammar,
and videos give us plenty of opportunities to do just that. Videos also provide
a welcome change of pace. So here
are just a few examples of grammar
you can practice through video tasks.

HE SAIDSHE SAID

Grammar: Reported Speech

Reported Speech probably takes the
cake as the most boring grammar point
to teach. I mean, whats the point in
making a random direct statement and
then having the student report it back
immediately? It works for initial drilling,
but at some point, students must understand that Reported Speech is very
useful in certain real life scenarios, situations in which it is necessary to report
what another person said. So play a
short conversation or a snippet of a
longer one (perhaps a scene from a
sitcom) and have students report what
each person said. You may also divide
the class into two groups and have one
group report the conversation from one
point of view and the second group
from the other.

Group A: The robber said he

needed the money to feed his kids.
Group B: The shop clerk asked if
he would take $40.
Give it a spin: Print a worksheet with
a list of statements for each speaker.
But make sure each of the statements
has at least one inaccuracy, i.e., wrong
date, hour, name, detail, etc. Students
watch the exchange and then correct
the inaccuracies with Reported Speech

18

WHAT DO YOU SEE?

Grammar: Countable/Uncountable Nouns

Show a video that features a very cluttered office, messy classroom or open
cabinet/refrigerator door. Freeze the
image and have students describe
what they see. They must use there
is/there are, some/any, a lot of/a few/a
little, as well as the right countable/uncountable nouns.
Give it a spin: Freeze the image and
show it for 30 seconds. Then, cover
the screen or turn off the TV/computer
monitor. Students write down as many
things as they remember, using the target grammar (There are a few papers
on the floor). Put the image back on
and compare. See which students remembered the most things correctly.

WHAT DID HE DO?

Grammar: Simple Past

Find a video where a character carries
out a series of actions, like this classic
Mr. Bean video:
http://www.youtube.com/
watch?v=NnaRp0x_kQM
Use this worksheet on Mr. Beans
Sandwich:

http://busyteacher.org/10967-mrbeans-sandwich.html
or create your own to have students
practice the Simple Past. Now, this is
something you can also do with several
other verb tenses like the Simple Present or Present Continuous.
Give it a spin: Play the video with the
sound off and have students tell you
what the person is doing/did. Theyll
have to think fast!

POSSIBILITIES

Grammar: Modals of probability

Play a video but cover the screen so
students can only hear whats going on.
Based on what they hear, students use
modals of probability to guess whats
happening (They could be in an office.
One of the people might be the boss).
Give it a spin: Have students discuss
what the characters could/should have
done differently (Bob shouldnt have
turned off his alarm clock).

A RECIPE FOR SUCCESS

Grammar: Imperative Form

Find a video that illustrates someone
doing something in a series of steps,
like a recipe, or instructions for how
to build or make something. Students
watch the video once for comprehension. Then, they watch it again with the
sound off and use the imperative form
to write the steps in their own words.
Give it a spin: Print a worksheet with
the steps in the wrong order. Students
must watch the video to put them in the
right order.

YES, VIDEOS ARE GREAT FOR LISTENING COMPREHENSION, BUT DONT

UNDERESTIMATE THEIR VALUE IN
HELPING YOU PRACTICE GRAMMAR.
Each video offers a wealth of learning
potential. You just have to know where
to look and how to use them to your
advantage.
Finding the right video and preparing
the materials might take some time, but
thankfully, at BusyTeacher.org, there
are quite a few video worksheets you
can use.

7 Turn-taking Strategies That Will

Boost Student Speaking Time
Although most of my students have
no trouble answering or even asking
questions, I find they struggle with
the ability to carry a simple conversation. What are some turn-taking
strategies I could teach them to help
them have longer conversations/discussions?
ESL students learn a variety of skills in
the classroom, and strategies for listening, writing or reading. They can certainly speak in class, but is answering your
questions the same as speaking? Can
your students carry a conversation with
another English speaker? How long can
they keep one discussion going? The
reason these questions are important is
that ultimately this is exactly what ESL
students hope to accomplish: they want
to gain the level of proficiency that will
allow them to engage English speakers
in conversation. And to reach this level
of proficiency, the ability to take longer
turns and turn-taking skills are absolutely essential.

WHAT IS TURN-TAKING
IN SPEAKING?
Quite literally, were talking about taking turns to speak. So, if you tell a group
they have to plan a party together, the
students should take turns providing
ideas, offering to do something or giving
opinions. What happens most often in
the ESL classroom is that one or a few
of the students dominate the conversation, giving the others very short turns.
Another common scenario, when students are divided into pairs, is that both
students take turns to speak, but end
the conversation in a matter of seconds,
i.e. the talk is cut short simply because
they dont know how to keep it going. So,
here are some tips, just a few ideas that
should help your students have longer
and better conversations/discussions.

USE THESE 7 TURNTAKING STRATEGIES

TO BOOST STUDENT
SPEAKING TIME

SPEAK, THEN ASK

When you ask someone a direct

question, youre forcing them to take
their turn. One great strategy is to divide
students into pairs to discuss a topic and

instruct them to do the following: one

student has to get the ball rolling with
his/her opinion, then ask his/her partner
a question. Say the topic is Cell Phone
Use How much is too much?
S1: The first thing I do after I wake up is
check my phone. How about you?
S2: First, I have breakfast and turn on
my computer, then I turn on my phone.
Do you check your phone for messages
all the time?
S1: Constantly! I cant stop checking
messages! How many messages do you
think you send per day?
Etc.
As you can see, questions can help
move the conversation along nicely!
This is a great strategy for beginners
to intermediate students who need that
little extra push to speak.

USE CONJUNCTIONS

Conjunctions and connectors like

however, on the contrary or as a result,
help students get used to taking longer
turns. Try this strategy. Write down a
list of conjunctions on the board or on a
piece of paper. Each student has to say
something and then add more information by using a conjunction: I went to the
movies last weekend. In fact, I go to the
movies every weekend. Cross out this
conjunction, thus forcing the other students to use the rest. This is a great way
to practice these as new vocabulary, but
it also helps students speak a little longer.

TEACH PHRASES FOR

AGREEING/DISAGREEING

Another great way to keep the conversation going is by agreeing/disagreeing with what another student has said.
Some of the phrases you can teach include:
I agree/disagree with you.
Im afraid I cant/dont agree with you.
I couldnt agree more.

TEACH PHRASES FOR ASKING FOR/GIVING OPINIONS

Just like the above skill, its very important for students to be able to not only
express their opinions, but also ask others for their own. Some of the phrases
that come in handy in this case are:

Do you like that idea?

What do you think?
Does that make sense to you?

TEACH FILLERS
FOR PAUSES

One of the things that can scare any ESL

student is not knowing what to say. Long
silences are awkward. So teach them
useful phrases that act as fillers, thinking
words they can turn to when they need
time to come up with an appropriate response. Some of these fillers include:
Let me see...
Let me think...
The thing is...
What I mean is...

AVOIDING INTERRUPTIONS

Another important skill is being able

to avoid being interrupted. If you start by
saying, There are three things I would
love to do before I die then the others
will have to wait to hear what those three
things are before they can add their own
thoughts. Another strategy is to begin
the sentence with a clause: Although I ...
/ Even though I... / Because they... This
way those who are listening will have to
wait until they hear both clauses.

FLUENCY OVER ACCURACY

When encouraging students to

take longer turns speaking, I recommend
keeping corrections to a minimum. In
fact, consider simply letting them speak
and giving them feedback at the end.
This works for two reasons. If you insist
on correcting them, you will not only interrupt their train of thought (which they
are trying so hard to keep!) but it will also
affect their confidence. So, when theyre
done speaking, offer some suggestions
for improvement. But dont forget to offer
praise as well!

STUDENTS STRUGGLE WITH GRAMMAR,

STUDENTS STRUGGLE WITH CONFIDENCE, STUDENTS STRUGGLE TO
REMEMBER THE RIGHT WORDS. And
through it all, they dont want to embarrass themselves in front of their classmates. Its not easy for them to get used
to speaking longer. But if you guide them
with the right steps, and provide the right
strategies, you will have more confident
speakers.

19

How Can I Use Photos

for Writing Tasks?
I really loved your article called
What You Can Do with Photos: 10
Creative ESL Games/Activities. Any
ideas for more ways to use photos
specifically for writing tasks?
Photos are resources that are very
easy to find and handle, especially
now that we have access to very easyto-use digital photography tools and
photo sharing platforms. We no longer
have the need to cut out images from
magazines or even print snapshots.
With a click of a button, we can snap a
pic and share it instantly with our class.
So, how can we make use of photos for
writing practice? Here are some ideas
youll also want to share!

SIX AWESOME WAYS

TO USE PHOTOS
FOR WRITING TASKS

CAPTION IT!

Lots of companies and Facebook

pages engage their followers by sharing a photo, or a scene from a movie or
TV show, and asking them to caption it.
Try the same with your class. Look for
photos on Facebook or Instagram you
can easily share, or snap your own. If
there is more than one person in the
shot, you may ask your students for a
short conversation or exchange. Share
the photo in your class Facebook page
or Instagram account.

THIS IS MY FAMILY

Quite often, at the start of the

school year, we ask students to describe their families. So why not ask
them to complete a written description
and add a photo to it? Have students
upload the photo to the class Facebook
page and add the written description to
it, or have them bring a recent snapshot they can glue to the top of a page.

WHATS WRONG
WITH THIS PICTURE?

Take some photos of behaviors or

things that are considered bad or just
plain wrong, for example, litter on the
sidewalk, graffiti on a wall or a leaky
faucet: I recommend having an under-

20

lying theme, like the protection of the

environment. Present these pictures to
your class and have them write about
whats wrong with each photo and why.
This is a great way to practice modals
in the passive voice: Streets should not
be littered. Trash must be deposited in
trash cans. Garbage should not be left
in public spaces.
Variation: A short stroll around the
neighborhood might reveal several of
these crimes. Ask your class, to take
a look around, snap some photos and
share them with a caption.

SPOT THE DIFFERENCES

This is a fun writing exercise for

young learners. Take a photo of a bedroom, and call it Room A. Next, make
some changes in the bedroom: take
some items out and replace them with
others, for example, a green jacket on
the bed is replaced with a red one. Add
another poster so that now there are
three instead of two. Take a photo, and
call this Room B. Tell your class that
Room A is Alisons bedroom, and Room
B is Bellas. Ask them to write the differences between what each of the girls
has got: Alison has got two posters,
but Bella has got three. Alisons got a
green jacket, but Bellas got a red one.

PHOTONOVELS

In the late 70s, photonovels were

quite popular. These were basically
books made about films and TV shows
with a comic book feel to it but featuring
stills and images from the film. Check
out some examples with these classic
Doctor Who photonovels:
http://bbc.in/1wk2MBR
Creating an entire photonovel might
seem like an overambitious project, but
it doesnt have to be. First, have your
students collaborate to write a short
story. Next, assign roles and have
them act out different scenes while you
take photos of each. Print the photos.
Finally, have your class assemble the
photonovel by pasting the photos and
writing the text that goes underneath
each one.

WRITTEN SHOW AND TELL

Were all familiar with the classic Show and Tell, an activity for which
we ask students to bring something
from home and talk about it in front of
the class. Why not give it a spin and
practice some writing? Ask students
to bring a snapshot of something they
have at home. Dont forget your underlying theme! If you want to teach
culture in a multicultural class, ask students to bring photos of things that are
very typical to their country, maybe a
tea pot used in a traditional Japanese
tea ceremony, or a typical Greek food,
like baklava. You may also ask them
for photos of how they spent their holidays, their favorite books or their most
prized possession.
Now instead of standing up in front of
the class to describe the photo, students paste it onto a piece of paper
and write about it. Make sure they
leave some space at the bottom or on
the back of their paper. Now, comes
the fun part! When everyones finished,
students pass around their work so
classmates can see their photos and
read their descriptions. Students leave
comments or feedback at the bottom:
Thats a great photo, Yuki! My grandmother has a tea pot just like that one.

WRITING IS OFTEN A LONELY TASK;

THE ONLY THING TO LOOK AT IS THE
BLANK SHEET OF PAPER. STUDENTS
HAVE TROUBLE FILLING BLANK
PAGES WITH THOUGHTS. BUT IF YOU
PROVIDE SOME FORM OF VISUAL
INPUT, THE WRITING FLOWS MORE
EASILY AND NATURALLY.

What Are Some Great Ways to

Use Instagram in the Classroom?
Ive noticed lots of my students use
Instagram. I would love to use it in
my ESL classroom, as its something they seem to be genuinely
interested in. Can you recommend
any ESL activities we can do with
Instagram?
Ah, the Internet and the endless slew of
social media sites and apps it continues
to spawn. We have only recently come
to terms with the need to use technology in the classroom. And now we have
to add social media to the mix? Sigh.
But what this teacher has seen is a
golden opportunity, a chance to use
something your students are excited
about for educational purposes, our
main purpose being, helping them improve their English communication
skills. But what is Instagram and how
can you capitalize on its appeal to engage your ESL students?

INSTAGRAM 101
Launched in October 2010, Instagram
is basically a mobile app that allows its
users to share photos and 15-second
videos with their followers. With Instagram, you can apply a variety of filters
to photos and videos, and add captions.
A very interesting feature of the video
recorder is that you can delete specific
portions of the video there is no need
to do it all over again. Finally, users
have the option to share their photos or
videos on Facebook, Twitter, email and
other social media sites.

INSTATIPS!
You and your students may adjust your
visibility settings so that your photos
and videos are not public. Youll need
to follow a user to be able to see their
stuff. I recommend reading Instagrams
policy regarding privacy and familiarizing yourself with its settings.
Be sure to use hashtags for each specific assignment or project so that they
are easily searched and found by everyone in the class, for example, #ESLmyfavethings or #msgarciasclass.
Instagram is available in 25 languages, so chances are your students may
navigate the app in their own native lan-

guage. Encourage them to switch their

language settings to English for an
added benefit to using the app.

throw garbage in the streets.

CHECK 8 AWESOME
WAYS TO USE
INSTAGRAM IN THE ESL
CLASSROOM

And while on the subject of captions... There are lots of fun writing
activities you can do with your class.
Post an interesting photo and have
them caption it in the comments: the
best caption wins a prize! Or have your
students share photos and caption a
classmates.

MY WINTER BREAK

What could be a better way to

keep your class connected over a long
break than to have them post photos of
what theyre up to? Give your class a
specific hashtag (#mywinterbreak) and
have them post photos with captions in
English. Students may choose to comment, interact and stay in touch!

DIGITAL SHOW AND TELL

Show and Tell is a classic in any

classroom. Kids are usually instructed
to bring one item to show to the class
and to talk about it. Now, thanks to Instagram there is no need to actually
bring the item to class they can just
snap a pic to share. In fact, because
they can take several pics, you may allow them to share more than one item.
Is the topic favorite things? Ask them
to take photos of their five most treasured possessions.

SIGNS OF THE TIMES

If you live in an English-speaking

country, have your class take photos
of any signs they encounter. Students
share their photos and discuss what the
signs mean. For example, No smoking
means you are not allowed to smoke,
while a camera with a slash across it,
means you are not allowed to take
photos. If you dont live in an Englishspeaking country, challenge students to
find signs in English (in some countries
stores typically put up Sale! signs).

GRAMMAR POLICE

Instruct students to snap a pic of

someone doing something wrong or
the evidence of something that should/
should not have been done. For example, a student takes a photo of an
empty soda can lying on the sidewalk
and captions it, We shouldnt litter/

5
6

CAPTION IT!

PHOTOS AS PROMPTS

Share an interesting photo as a

prompt for a creative writing task. Students will see the same photo --how
many different stories will they come up
with?

ROCKIN ROLE PLAYS

You may not be able to record

long conversations or discussions in 15
seconds, but there are plenty of short
exchanges you may want to share on
video like saying hello/goodbye, formal
greetings, how to congratulate someone/ask for directions/start a conversation. Students will have access to these
short dialogues on their Instagram accounts for quick access any day, any
time.

PRONUNCIATION PLUS

Is there a word or phrase a student has a hard time pronouncing? Record yourself saying it and share it with
this particular student for extra pronunciation practice.

INSTAGRAM WAS LAUNCHED JUST

FOUR YEARS AGO AND SKYROCKETED TO POPULARITY, REACHING 100
MILLION USERS IN LESS THAN TWO
YEARS.
Ninety percent of its current 150 million
users are reportedly under 35. The potential is there. Its up to you to capitalize on it. No, I wouldnt force a group
of students to use it if they have no interest in this app. Dont use Instagram
for the sake of using technology in the
classroom. But if you happen to have
a group of youngsters who are very
much into social media, Instagram may
be another great way to engage them.

21

What ESL Card Games Can I Play

in Class?
I love playing card games with my
ESL students, but I find it hard to
stray from the classic Go Fish or
Snap. What are some other card
games I can play with my class?
There probably isnt an ESL teacher out there who doesnt love card
games. Theyre tremendously versatile, as you can use them to practice
anything from verb tenses to vocabulary. The cards are also easy to carry
and keep handy for any last minute
changes you need to make to your
lesson plan. But, its also true that we
tend to play the same games again
and again. So if you want to add some
variety to the card games you play,
here are some great options you might
want to try. Some may be new to you,
while others are simply a new spin on
an old favorite.

TRY THESE 6 CARD

GAMES WITH YOUR
ESL CLASS

In the game of Snap!, you have

two students holding one deck of cards
each, and they take turns turning the
top card of each deck over to see if
their cards match. If they match, they
shout, Snap! Now, you can adapt
this game and redefine what it means
to have cards that match. You can define two cards as matching when:

Someone in the team has to say what

he/she is doing (Shes opening the
window). If the statement is correct,
the team gets to keep the card. The
team with the most cards wins.

TABOO

One is a signal word and the other

is a verb in the right tense (one
card says ago and the other card
says went)

Another classic in the ESL class,

in the game of Taboo, a student is
given a card with a word he/she must
define/explain but without using any
of the words underneath. You can use
this worksheet for a Health and Body
Taboo, or create your own with any vocabulary you want to practice.

One is an article and the other a

noun that matches it (an and apple).

One is a verb and the other is

a noun that matches it (do and
homework)

One is a noun or a verb, and the

other is a suffix, as in this Suffixes Snap Game:
http://bit.ly/1BiNUUo

One is an illustration and the

other is the corresponding word,
as in this Food Snap:
http://bit.ly/1oRr25E

GO FISH

Now, Go Fish is a popular choice

and one of the card games you can
adapt to suit many different grammar
points. To make the game more adaptable, simply use cards with verbs in
their base form (eat, drink, buy, live).
Have two sets of verb cards, so you
have two of each verb. You can play
the game in pairs or in small groups.
Each student is dealt five to seven
cards (the remaining cards are placed
in a stack at the center) and has to
ask a question in the correct grammar
tense in order to find the pair. So, if
youre practicing questions with ever,
and Student A has a card with the verb
be, he/she asks, Have you ever been
to ...? If student B has the card with
the verb be, he/she must say, Yes, I
have and hand it over. If not, he/she
says, No, I havent! Go fish!, thus
prompting Student A to take a card
from the stack of remaining cards. For
another great spin on the Go Fish card
game, check out this worksheet:
http://bit.ly/1xqbsbq

22

SNAP!

MEMORY GAME

The classic Memory Game features two sets of identical cards that
are mixed up and placed face down
while students turn them over two at a
time with the goal of finding a pair. But
lets put a spin on this classic, shall
we? You can have one set of verbs
and another of prepositions and have
students find the right matches (agree
with, talk about) or just like in Snap!,
verbs and signal words.

ACTION CARDS

This is a form of charades. Write

a set of actions in imperative form on
a set of cards. Separate the students
into two teams. A student in Team A
takes a card and performs the action.

DISCUSSION DISCARD

Prepare a set of 10 to 12 cards

with expressions students will need
to use in a discussion. These may include ways of agreeing/disagreeing
(You may have a point there, but..., I
strongly disagree), ways of expressing opinions (I think/believe that...) or
interrupting (If I may say something
here...). Divide the class into pairs
(youll need to have one set of cards
for each pair). Each student gets five
cards. Give each pair a topic to discuss. Each student must try to use the
expressions that are written on the
cards they have been dealt. Once they
use a card, they put it face down on
the table. The goal of the game is to
be the last person to put down a card.

YOU DONT NEED TO HAVE MANY

DIFFERENT TYPES OF CARD GAMES
OR CARDS. WHAT YOU NEED IS A SET
OF VERY ADAPTABLE GAMES THAT
YOU CAN MODIFY TO SUIT YOUR
NEEDS. THIS WAY, YOULL HAVE
MANY MORE VERSIONS OF THE
SAME GAMES.

What Are Some Great Games

for Speaking Practice?
My students love to play games in
class and always ask for more, but
what they actually need is to improve their speaking. Can you recommend any games for speaking
practice?
Our students can always use some extra speaking practice, after all, its most
likely the main reason they signed up
for the course: they need to speak English in real life situations. But what they
enjoy the most is playing games. So,
lets kill the proverbial two birds with
one stone, and lets play some games
for speaking practice!

7 FABULOUS GAMES
FOR SPEAKING
PRACTICE

CRAZY CUBES

When students give instructions, they often struggle to recall the

right preposition. Play Crazy Cubes for
some preposition practice! First, print
two blank cube templates. Lets say you
want to practice prepositions of place.
On one of the cubes, write down different locations or places in the classroom:
the floor, the teachers desk, a chair, a
table, a backpack, etc. On the second
cube, write down different instructions:
put your book, put your pen, put a piece
of paper, put a ruler, etc.
Divide the class into two teams. Each
team takes turns rolling both cubes.
Students must correctly give someone
on the other team an instruction based
on the prompts given in the cubes: Put
your pen on the teachers desk. If the
student uses the correct preposition,
the team gets a point.

SPOT THE DIFFERENCES

Heres another option to practice prepositions of place, this time, by

providing descriptions. Print this worksheet:
http://bit.ly/1CXCsPR
Divide the class into two teams and
give each team one set of photos.
Team members take turns saying the
differences out loud. Team A goes first,
then B, then A again. Give each team
one point not only for spotting the difference, but also for each correct answer.

PERFECT POSSESSIONS

This is a great way to practice

possessive pronouns. Cut out images
of people from magazines. Make sure
you have men and women, but also
pairs and groups. Next cut out, pictures
of cars, houses, dogs, and be sure to
get some bedrooms and offices. Put
the people in one bag and the possessions in another. Students take turns
pulling one picture from each and talking about the items. Lets say a student
takes a picture of a man and a picture of
a house: This is John. This is his house.
His house is very big and has a swimming pool. There are three bedrooms in
his house. Etc... Challenge students to
say as much as they can!

TELL ME A STORY

Heres a fun way to get students

to tell you a story. You can use this fairy
tale boardgame:
http://bit.ly/1tO3TsK
or design your own. Students roll the
dice and tell their story by using the
character they land on.
Variation: Make your own boardgame
by pasting pictures youve cut out from
magazines or even celebrity photos.
You can use people, objects, places,
and make the game as long or as short
as you want their stories to be.

WHAT A LIFE!

This game is guaranteed to spark

conversations. Print a copy of the What
a Life worksheet:
http://bit.ly/1rPHvJn
and cut out the different slips of paper
that contain information on major life
events. Students take turns taking a slip
of paper out of a bag. They read their
life-altering event out loud, and the rest
of the class asks questions about it. As
students take their turns, keep a tally on
the board of how many questions each
student asks. The student who asks the
most questions in total wins.
Variation: Students stand in front of the
class and reveal a major event in their
lives: it could be a memorable vacation
or party, or an important milestone, like
a graduation or their first job.

THE DOCTOR IS IN!

Try this game to practice giving

suggestions/recommendations or using should for advice. Write short messages on slips of paper: each message
should describe a problem or a symptom: I have a fever and a stuffy nose. I
feel chills, and Im too tired to get out of
bed. Students take turns taking a piece
of paper. They must read the problem
out loud and then proceed to give their
recommendation: This person should
stay in bed and get plenty of rest. They
should also drink lots of water and take
aspirin for the fever.
Variation: Write other types of problems
your students could solve, perhaps difficulties related to studying English, financial troubles or any kind they might
share advice on.

ITS MOVIE TIME!

This
worksheet
(http://bbc.
in/1wk2MBR) also provides a great example of how to turn a speaking activity into a game. In this case, the topics
revolve around types of movies and
the kind your students enjoy the most.
They take turns rolling the dice to see
what to talk about.
Variation: Edit this very same worksheet, or create your own with any topic
you want them to talk about - health, the
world of work, the environment anything and everything youve covered in
class.
To make some of these activities more
of a competitive game and less of a simple speaking activity, simply introduce
game elements. My favorites include
a basic Tic Tac Toe grid, and a boardgame type of path that students move
along with the roll of a pair of dice. They
can take their turns after they roll their
number, for example, but in order to be
able to move that number of steps, they
must give a correct answer. You might
also want to give more advanced students a time limit, and say, for example,
they must speak for a full minute. Or
make it a competition to see who can
speak the longest!

YOU CAN TURN ANY SPEAKING ACTIVITY INTO A GAME IF YOU USE THE
RIGHT GAME ELEMENTS. STUDENTS
OF ALL AGES WILL FIND SPEAKING
MORE ENJOYABLE AND WILL BE
MORE MOTIVATED TO PARTICIPATE.

23

How Can I Gamify

My ESL Classroom?
Ive read about this recent trend
called gamification, which seems to
involve a lot more than simply playing games in the classroom. Can
you explain what gamification is and
how I can gamify my ESL classroom?
Bingo...
Tic-Tac-Toe...
Hangman...
Weve been playing games in the ESL
classroom for ages. But as stated in the
question above, gamification is more
than simply playing games. So, what is
gamification? Why should you use it in
your ESL classroom? How can you use
it? Lets address each of these questions.

WHAT IS
GAMIFICATION?
Gamification is the use of game elements
and game design techniques in nongame contexts. Typical game elements
include the use of leaderboards, avatars,
points, levels, rewards and badges, just
to name a few. If you were to gamify your
ESL classroom, youd first have to define
a goal you hope your students will accomplish, then use game techniques to
design a game that will help your class
achieve this goal, while including the
use of the previously mentioned game
elements. Simply put, if youre playing
games in your classroom, youre not really gamifying. Gamification involves the
design of a personalized game, a game
youre creating to engage your students
by appealing to their natural interest in
gaming.

WHY SHOULD YOU

USE IT IN YOUR ESL
CLASSROOM?
So gamification involves a whole lot
more than choosing a game to play and
playing it: you have to actually design
one and that will take a whole lot of effort
and work on your part. Why bother? We
have to face the facts. An overwhelming
number of kids and adults play video,
mobile or even Facebook games. They
are addicted! Whats so appealing about
games these days is not just the game
itself, but also the social interaction and
the competition. Players post their high
scores and get to beat their friends.
Leaderboards show whos first. Badges

24

display all of your accomplishments.

More importantly, a game does not simply start and finish. Theres a progression as players move from one level to
the next, the ultimate goal being to reach
the highest tier. Its motivating. Its engaging. Theres no denying that. And just
because its a game, it does not mean
it cant be an educational experience.

HERES HOW YOU

CAN GAMIFY YOUR
ESL CLASSROOM
EFFICIENTLY

CHOOSE A GOAL

What do you want your students

to accomplish? Is there a behavior/habit
you want them to learn? Pick any goal,
but not a learning goal, like learn the
Simple Past. Think of a longer, overarching goals for the year, like completing homework tasks, following classroom
rules, or writing better and longer texts.

DIVIDE IT INTO MILESTONES

Say your goal is to get students excited about doing homework (something
that for most is not exciting at all). Think
of how you can divide this into achievable steps, targets or milestones they
can progress through. For example, the
first step can be 5 Tasks Completed On
Time, the next step can be 10 Tasks
Completed On Time and so on. You can
make this as simple or as complex as
you like (you may want to specify different types of homework tasks writing,
reading, grammar , for example).

any effective gamification experience.

Students may earn a badge when they
achieve a particular milestone (5 Tasks
Completed!) but the gaming experience is enhanced when you allow your
students to unlock secret, unexpected
badges. For example, if a student hands
in a homework assignment with no spelling mistakes, you may announce the big
surprise: he/she has unlocked the Spelling Bee badge! How about some goofy
badges? How about a Mighty Pen
badge for a student whos written over
a thousand words? Create your own or
use a site like ClassBadges, where you
may award badges and students can
keep track of the ones theyve earned.

DESIGN A LEADERBOARD

Students will want to know where

they stand. Leaderboards may not only
display which students have reached
the most milestones or gained the most
points, but also show achievements and
badges earned.

CONSIDER PLAYING
IN TEAMS

Will it be a simple chart with milestones? Or a board game type of path

they must travel down? Again, you may
stick to a simple design or get as creative as you want!

Gamification in the classroom does not

necessarily mean students will play individually and compete with others. You
may want to divide the class into teams
and have the groups compete. Think
Harry Potter and Hogwarts. Students are
divided into four houses. Each house
earns points for accomplishing different
tasks. So in your classroom, let each
team come up with their own name and
symbol/badge/image to represent them.
Each team may be awarded points for
winning a game, tidying up the classroom, helping the teacher, etc... Students who misbehave or dont respect
classroom rules may get points deducted from their team score. At the end of
the year, the team with the highest score
gets a special prize.

GAMIFYING A CLASS MAY SEEM LIKE

A DAUNTING TASK.

DESIGN YOUR GAME BOARD

CREATE AVATARS

How will students be represented

in your game? Design avatars they can
choose from or have them design their
own.

CREATE BADGES
Badges are an essential part of

But it doesnt have to be. I recommend

you start small by gamifying a single goal
or experience. As you gain experience in
gamification, you can build to bigger and
better experiences, and gamify not just
behaviors but also learning outcomes.
Game on!

7 Ways To Use Social Media

in the ESL Classroom
Social media is a big part of my
students lives. Theyre always
checking Facebook updates or
Tweeting to each other inside and
outside the classroom. So the big
question is: should I use social
media in my classroom and if so,
how?
When I started teaching over 20 years
ago, students did not have cell phones.
A few, mostly doctors, had beepers
and pagers. Gradually, pagers gave
way to cell phones, and suddenly it
was not only the doctors who had
them, most students had cell phones.
They became increasingly popular
and annoying. The beeping was replaced by the incessant ringing. Soon
enough, a no cell phone in class rule
had to be put into effect. Years later,
the beeping returned. Students were
no longer getting calls -- they were
getting notifications. Message notifications, Facebook notifications every
kind of notification imaginable. And I
became increasingly annoyed.

THE DAWNING OF A
NEW ERA
For over ten years, cell phones were
turned off during my classes. But as
technology evolves, so do we. We
grow accustomed to a new form of
literacy. We learn to communicate
through different media. What was
once unnatural becomes second nature. Social media may still be annoying to some, but it certainly has its use
in the ESL classroom and its disadvantages. Lets consider both sides of
the social media coin.

ADVANTAGES OF
USING SOCIAL
MEDIA IN THE ESL
CLASSROOM

Social media engages students.

It encourages participation as students have the chance to express
themselves through media they
feel comfortable using.
Social media enhances student
collaboration. Students can eas-

ily interact and share information,

work together on projects, and
communicate freely and easily.
Social media allows the teacher
to share resources like images,
worksheets and websites effortlessly and effectively.
Social media has tremendous potential for creative and engaging
homework tasks.
Social media helps keep parents
and family members in the loop.
Teachers may reach out to parents with comments, feedback
and suggestions. Groups may
share class activities, post photos
and publish their work online.

DISADVANTAGES
OF USING SOCIAL
MEDIA IN THE ESL
CLASSROOM

It is necessary to supervise student activity, and monitor comments and posts for inappropriate
content, remarks or even cyber
bullying.
Social media can be a huge distraction. Students may stray from
the tasks at hand and use social
networking sites for personal interactions or to play online games,
for example.
Social media relies more heavily on written, rather than spoken,
interactions. Students ability to
interact face to face may be affected.

Lets suppose youre determined to incorporate social media into your ESL
classes. Lets address the how.

HERES HOW YOU

CAN USE SOCIAL
MEDIA IN YOUR ESL
CLASSROOM

KEEP ME POSTED

Create a Twitter account or

Facebook page/group for your class.
Students compose Tweets or posts
about something theyre learning, for

example, Thanksgiving traditions in

North America, for family and friends
to read.

ESL BLOGGERS

Create a blog for your class

and have students contribute regular
posts. Students then share their posts
on several social media sites. They
may also reply to comments to their
posts.

CONNECTED CLASSROOMS

Reach out to classrooms/

schools in other cities/states/countries. Use social media to facilitate
interaction among ESL students from
different cultural backgrounds.

YOUTUBERS

Have a YouTube channel for

your class. Create and upload videos
of your students acting out role plays,
interviewing each other or putting on
a show. Share videos with family and
friends.

DIGITAL CITIZENSHIP

More and more companies

and college admissions boards are
checking social media profiles when
researching candidates. With the advent of online resumes, ESL students
are in dire need of digital literacy, as
well as English fluency. Teach ESL
students how to write a professionallooking LinkedIn profile, or discuss
what to post and what not to post to
their Facebook profiles.

HANG OUT!

Google Hangouts can be an invaluable resource for students who

need to work on a project but cant
work out a schedule to meet at the
same place, at the same time. You
may also choose to host a special
Hangout outside class hours.

GO SOCIAL WITH EDMODO

If youd rather not use Facebook

25

or other popular social media sites,

Edmodo is an excellent alternative.
Often referred to as the Facebook for
schools, Edmodo is basically a social
media platform that allows you to create a digital classroom where you can
post assignments, announcements
and interact with your students, as
well as ESL teachers located throughout the globe. If you havent tried Edmodo yet, I highly recommend you
check it out.

NO SOCIAL MEDIA
SKILLS? NO PROBLEM.
Some teachers are reluctant to use
social media in the classroom because they are not comfortable using
it themselves. How can you use social media responsibly when you can
barely handle the basics? This should
not be an excuse. There are any
number of resources and free online
courses resources for social media
beginners. Check out, for example,
this handy Teachers Guide to Twitter:
http://www.edudemic.com/guides/
guide-to-twitter/
or this really useful Teachers Guide
to Pinterest:
http://www.edudemic.com/guides/theteachers-guide-to-pinterest/

SOCIAL MEDIA IS HERE TO STAY.

You can ignore it or embrace it the

choice is yours. It can be a distraction,
but it doesnt have to be not if you
dont let it become one. Its simply another great tool you can use in your
ESL classroom to make your classes
more engaging. By sharing through
social media, your classrooms
boundaries are extended so you can
include family and friends on your students journey.

26

What Works Best with Online

Skype Lessons?
One of my private students has
moved abroad but wants to continue
taking classes via Skype. Ive never
given online Skype lessons before.
What tips/advice can you offer?
About ten years ago, someone asked
me if I saw myself teaching in front of a
computer, and I said, No way! There
are certain things you can only convey
when you have the person sitting right
in front of you and certain activities you
can only do in a classroom. But you live
and learn, and Ive been teaching online for over three years. Although I was
skeptical at first, I gave it a try, and I
must say Ive never looked back.
There are students who dont have
the time to travel to a language school
and online lessons offer a great deal of
flexibility in that regard. Students and
teachers may schedule lessons to suit
their needs and everyone is happy. Yes,
there are technical difficulties you must
overcome. Yes, there are limitations.
There is a variety of software you can
use some paid, some free. But for the
purposes of this article, lets focus on
the most popular free videoconferencing tool, Skype, and how you can make
the most of it for online lessons.

ONLINE SKYPE
LESSONS: WHAT
WORKS BEST

THE SKYPE CALL

You have the option to Call or Video Call your student. The Call option allows you to communicate via audio only.
You can use the Video Call feature, but
this might affect the quality of the call.
Some students may specifically request
video calls, others might not even care
as long as they are heard and are able
to hear you loud and clear. In my experience, you should be connected via
cable and not WiFi the WiFi connection may be too unstable and cause the
audio or video to be choppy.

THE IM FUNCTION

Dont think that the Instant Messaging function is no longer useful just
because youre talking to your student.

I always keep the IM or chat box open,

and here are some of the things I like to
do during class:
I type in new words or anything that
is hard to spell.
I write down mistakes that the student makes (with the corrections).
I write down the mistake the student has made and ask him/her to
correct it.
I paste a URL I want the student to
click on or if its a site I recommend.
So, you can see that you can type in
anything youd normally write on a
whiteboard, with the added benefit that
when the class is over your student
will have a copy of the conversation. In fact, I encourage students to
copy and paste it to another document
so they can review, study and go over
mistakes. The only thing you cant do
is draw, something the artistically-challenged (like me) wont miss.

SEND FILE FEATURE

The Send File feature (in my current version of Skype, the option is
found within the + plus sign menu) allows you to instantly share any file you
want your students to see. Lets look at
some examples of things you can do in
class via file sharing:
Send your student a photograph or
image you want them to describe or
ask questions about.
Introduce new words with pictures.
Say youre introducing new food
words related to seafood. Simply
send a picture of a lobster to introduce the word lobster. This feature
works great if you have a set of digital flashcards and illustrations.
Send a copy of a worksheet you
want your student to do for homework.
Send a copy of a text you want to
read in class.
Send an MP3 file for a listening exercise you want your student to do.
So you get the idea. If you have it in
your computer, you can send it and use
it in class.

THE SHARE SCREEN

FEATURE

The Share Screen feature (also found

in the + plus sign menu) is handier
for looking at websites and PowerPoint
presentations. As the name indicates,
you basically share your screen with
your student, which means he/she will
see exactly what youre seeing. You
can use this feature to:
Draw on a whiteboard like Microsoft
Paint
Go to a website and read/discuss
what you see
Watch a video
Show your student a PowerPoint
presentation
Now, having presented these options,
I have some recommendations. I find
that theres quite a bit of lagging during screen sharing things run slower
than usual. Unless youre a real techie
and figure out why this happens, or you
have an uber modern laptop, I recommend that you simply paste the URL of
the website you want to go to in the IM
chat box so your student can click on
it. If you want to watch a video online,
simply wait till you both have the page
and video loaded, and hit play at the
same time.
Will there be technical glitches? Surely! But students know this can happen
anytime no matter what theyre doing
online. Be sure to work out an agreement with your student: for example, if
your connection is down for less than
15 minutes, you extend your class to
make up for it. If your connection is
down for over 15 minutes your student
has the option to reschedule the class.
Work out a policy that works and is fair
to both of you.

THERES AN EXCITING, NEW WORLD

OUT THERE FOR ESL TEACHERS.

We have the opportunity to teach students who live anywhere in the world,
who come from cultures that are very
different from ours. Dont be afraid to
embrace new technologies. Naturally,
youll lose the physical proximity with
the student. But you stand to gain a lot
more than what youll lose.

27

How Do I Teach a Special

One-Week Summer Class?
Somehow I ended up recruited to
teach a summer ESL class even
though I have NO IDEA what Im
doing! The class is going to be for
Chinese students ages 10-16. Its
only a week long - I have no clue
what to do! HELP! HELP! HELP!
Few situations have the potential to
drive ESL teachers into desperation,
and the situation described above is
one of them. First things first. If you
have accepted to teach a special class,
whether its a one-week class given
over a long holiday break or a monthlong session given over the summer,
one thing is clear: youve accepted the
job, and no amount of worrying or hair
pulling will help you out. Youve got to
take the bull by the horns and plan.
And heres how:

TEACH A SPECIAL
ONE-WEEK SUMMER
CLASS EXPERTLY

GATHER INFORMATION

In the case mentioned above, the

only thing the teacher seems to know
is the students nationality and age
range. Not a whole lot to go on, Im
afraid. Youll need to find out a lot more
than that if you want to plan a weeks
(or a months) worth of activities. These
are the blanks youll need to fill in:
Age (check!)
Nationality (check!)
Number of students (10 or 20? Not
the same thing!)
English proficiency level(s) (This
one could be tricky, but more on
that later)
Purpose/Goal of the class/session

CONSIDER THEIR PROFICIENCY LEVELS AND AGES

Lots of times, these types of winter/

summer sessions are given in Englishspeaking countries to students who
have recently arrived and dont speak
the language. Im guessing this is the
case with the Chinese students mentioned above. So, if youre lucky, they
will all be beginners and should make
the class a lot easier to plan. But what
happens if they have different proficien-

28

cy levels? It also complicates things if

they are kids in different age groups.
In a group of kids between 10 and 16,
youre mixing grade-schoolers with
teens! Big difference! It also stands to
reason that the 15/16-year olds might
have some knowledge of English while
the 10-year olds probably have none.
Bottom line: if you have students in
different proficiency levels and age
groups, youll have to split them up
into smaller groups/teams. Id group
them based on age and not level. Its
easier for them to bond and participate
in peer-based activities if they are the
same age, no matter what their individual differences are.

PREPARE FOR THE WORST:

What happens if, for some reason or

other, you wont know what their proficiency level is till the first day of class?
No need to panic. Make the first day a
Getting to Know Each Other session.
Have them sit in a circle and ask them
questions. Make a mental note of how
much each one knows. Can they answer basic questions? Say yes or no?
Nothing at all? Also, see if there any
students who know a bit more theyre
your best allies and may be able to
help you by leading group activities.

CONSIDER THE GOAL /

PURPOSE OF THE CLASS

The big question you should ask yourself is: why is this particular group
of students taking this class for one
week/month? Are we talking about a
group of foreign businesspeople who
want to prepare for a conference/trip/
English-speaking event or a group of
foreign children who have just arrived
to the country and dont speak a word
of English? What if its simply a Summer Camp type of course where they
just want to have fun learning English?
(Ive taught several of those!) Always
have the goal topmost in your mind.
It will help you decide your main plan
and which activities to include to help
them meet this goal.

PREPARE
YOUR MAIN PLAN

Your main plan should be focused on

helping your students achieve their

main goal. Consider the number of
days they have to achieve this goal
and devise a series of steps or daily
goals. For example, if you need to
teach a group of 10-16 year olds who
dont speak English and need to know
the basics to get around (main goal),
think about what those basic should be
and come up with a series of daily lesson plans:
Day 1: Introduce yourself and talk
about yourself (name, age, nationality)
Day 2: Talk about likes, dislikes, preferences and routines (I live/work, speak,
like, dont like, eat, drink simple present)
Day 3: Making requests, saying thank
you, etc...
Day 4: Etc.

PLAN
YOUR DAILY ACTIVITIES

Once you know what your goal is for

each day, its smooth sailing ahead!
Depending on your students goal, activities should be more or less gamebased. For example, in a kids summer
course, we always had lots of games,
crafts and movies, because the goal
was to have fun with English. If your
students need to learn basics to get
around, you should add plenty of roleplaying to help them practice.

BE REALISTIC

This is perhaps the single most

important thing you should do. If youre
given one week to teach a group of students, you cant perform any miracles.
But theres plenty you can achieve! If
you focus on the daily goals youve set
out for them, youre setting yourself
(and your students) up for success.

THESE ARE STEPS IN AN ACTION

PLAN AND BY NO MEANS GUARANTEE THERE WONT BE ANY
SURPRISES.
Be ready to shift and adjust your daily
goals as specific needs arise. Focus
on your students and their success,
and youll have a summer session
youll never forget.

What Is the Best Way to Deal

with Students Parents?
Ive been an ESL teacher for several years, but this year, I will be
teaching children for the first time. I
feel confident in my ability to teach
young learners, but I have zero experience in dealing with parents,
and the thought of talking to them
fills me with anxiety. Id appreciate
some tips!
Students parents should never be
feared. Fear will get you nowhere, -however, respect will get you far.
Its not about being afraid of how they
will react to certain situations: the key
lies in knowing how and when to communicate certain things. So, if the
thought of talking to your students parents paralyzes you with fear, stop this
fear dead in its tracks and replace it instead with strategies you can use in different parent-teacher scenarios.

LEARN HOW TO DEAL

WITH THE PARENTS:
4 SCENARIOS 4
STRATEGIES

SCENARIO 1 THE LANGUAGE ISSUE

You want to talk to one of your students

parents to offer some recommendations for things the child can do at home
that will help him/her improve listening
comprehension. Theres just one little
problem. You dont speak the parents
native language, and they dont speak
English.
The Strategy: You might be tempted to
ask the student to act as interpreter, but
this is not a good idea, not because the
child might lie or sabotage the interview,
but because youll want someone who
can convey the information in a more
objective manner. Also, there are things
that need to stay between the teacher
and the parents. Youll need to find
someone (preferably another member
of the teaching staff) who is bilingual.
The important thing to remember in this
case is this: dont let the language barrier become an obstacle when communicating with parents. Dont let it stop you
from setting up a meeting if you feel its
necessary. Try to get someone to help
you instead.

SCENARIO 2
THE SLOW LEARNER

You have a student who cant seem

to keep up with the rest of the class.
He/she is the last one to complete the
worksheets and exercises, and does
not seem motivated to participate in
speaking tasks.
The Strategy: This is something every
ESL teacher faces sooner or later. And
you will have to talk to the parents about
it. The question is: how? First, you must
identify exactly what the problem is. Do
you suspect there might be a learning
disability? Is the student simply too shy?
Or do they simply have trouble learning
at the current pace (because they have
their own pace)? Consider what suggestions, recommendation and tips you
will give the parents to help their child
improve. Whatever the reason is for the
students difficulties, be clear on what it
is and what youll need to communicate
to the parents in terms of steps to follow.
During the meeting, try to avoid negative statements with cant,wont, or
doesnt, and dont ever refer to the
student as slow, unmotivated or
problematic. Always start the meeting by accentuating the positives: the
student has good potential, rich vocabulary, is a good speller, anything
and everything that the student is good
at. Finally, talk about the problem areas
but phrase them as areas that need
improvement, instead of problems.
Use statements like: the student would
benefit from, needs to reinforce/practice/work on, etc. Give the parents an
action plan and your recommendations.

SCENARIO 3
THE ILL-BEHAVED STUDENT

You have a student who does nothing

but disregard the classroom rules. He/
she is disrespectful to classmates, and
on occasion throws things or pushes
other students. Youve already given
him/her several warnings, but there
doesnt seem to be any change in the
childs behavior. Its time to notify the
parents.
The Strategy: Children who behave this
badly in class must be dealt with, and
there are cases in which youll need

to enlist the parents help and support.

Firstly, you wont want to enter the
meeting guns blazing and fire off one
complaint after another remember
youre enlisting the parents help, and
you wont get their support if you refer
to the child as the devil incarnate. Be
sure to start by mentioning some of the
childs positive traits first. Is the child
creative, imaginative? Does the child
have a potential that he/she is not capitalizing on because of the constant disruptions? Next, describe the disruptions
in detail. Try to come up with solutions
together, as a team.

SCENARIO 4
THE CONTROLLING PARENT

A student does badly on a test and gets

a low score. The mother blames you
for the childs poor performance, and it
doesnt end there. She accuses you of
playing games all the time. She ends
the tirade by saying that she does not
see any progress and that she expected more from the class.
The Strategy: Fortunately, we are not
faced with controlling, unreasonable
parents like this one on a daily basis,
but it could happen. We have parents
who are not involved at all, and then
parents who are too involved. And the
best strategy for dealing with this kind
of parent is to prevent this from happening. How do we prevent this? By
holding a parent-teacher conference,
where you explain exactly the types of
activities youll do in class and what the
main learning goals are for the course.
Address parent expectations from the
start, and set them straight if theyre too
high. When you have nasty confrontations like the one above, you can simply
refer back to what was discussed at the
start of the course, and offer some suggestions for things the student can do to
get back on track.

YOU CAN TELL FROM THE STRATEGIES

PRESENTED ABOVE THAT COMMUNICATION IS KEY, AS IS TIMING.
Treat all parents with respect, understand youre talking about their babies,
and you wont help the situation if you
attack them. Instead of giving them
problems, give them tools to help their
child, and you might just see your student improve by leaps and bounds.

29

What Is the Best Advice You Can

Offer to Newbie Teachers?
Ill be teaching my first ESL class
very soon, and Im a bit nervous. Ive
completed my teacher training and
certification, so I know technically
how to teach. But Im curious about
the aspects of teaching you dont
learn about at school. What words of
wisdom would you share with a newbie teacher?
You might think this is an easy question
to answer if you have 20+ years of experience teaching ESL, but how do you
condense over 20 years of hits and misses, successes and failures into bite-sized
pearls of wisdom? Lets give it a try. The
bits of advice Ill share below are things
Ive touched upon in different articles
over the years, all in one convenient list.

WHAT IS THE BEST

ADVICE YOU CAN
OFFER TO NEWBIE
TEACHERS?

KNOW YOUR STUDENTS

You can plan your entire course

with just your book and syllabus. But if
you start teaching without knowing more
about your students, youll probably be
teaching to the wrong crowd. Before you
shoot an arrow, you aim, assuming you
want to hit your target. So how can you
start planning, how can you start teaching, how can you aim a course when you
dont know where your target is? And if
you think that knowing your students
ages and proficiency level is enough,
think again. Theres a lot more you need
to know about your ESL students.

KNOW HOW TO ASK QUESTIONS

Any ESL teacher can get his or her students to ask questions. Questions with
ever, questions with did, questions with
the present or past perfect. Theres a lot
of focus on making students ask questions correctly. But a really good ESL
teacher asks the right questions him or
herself. And Im not just talking about
the questions you ask students to get
to know them. You need to ask the right
questions to get them to speak more,
to elaborate on answers, to get them to

30

think in English. (Tip: Always ask why?

It will maximize student talking time, any
time.)

BE CONSISTENT

Sadly, this is a mistake newbies

and pros often make. It is really important to be consistent with your ESL class.
If you set your own classroom rules, follow them. If you say youll be giving them
homework every Friday, do it. If you say
nobody is allowed to speak the native
tongue in class, youd better be the first
to set the example. Consistency gives
the class a structure, a backbone: it allows students to know what to expect
from you and what you should expect
from them. Without consistency, youre
leaving the door wide open to chaos and
improvisation.

KNOW WHEN TO SPEAK

And know when to shut up. Way

too many ESL teachers ramble on an on,
and dont give their students the chance
to chime in. Others interrupt students because theyre too eager to correct. And
yet others dont give students the time
they need to answer and complete their
phrases. We make these mistakes, and
its very hard sometimes (and its still
hard for me because I can be a real chatterbox), but you need to curb your enthusiasm and focus on giving your students
the chance to speak.

CONNECT WITH OTHER

TEACHERS

Teaching might seem like a lonely endeavor in that the teacher is solely responsible for what goes on in the classroom. While this may be true, fellow ESL
teachers may offer a wealth of resources,
suggestions and success stories when
youre in a bind. They can also offer support and encouragement when youre
down. So, hang out with other teachers
before, during and after school. Or join
ESL teacher forums. It is important to understand, especially when youre new to
a teaching gig, that youre not alone.

PLAN AND PREPARE

ESL students come to class with

specific goals in mind. And to help them
achieve those goals, planning and preparation are key. Be sure to keep the
learning goals in mind during the planning phase and design activities that will
help your students reach those goals. On
the other hand, youll need to prepare the
materials (worksheets, flashcards, toys,
games) that youll use in class. Needless
to say, you cant plan and prepare for
a lesson the night before a class. Youll
need to work out a schedule that works
for you, and stick to it, or planning chaos
will ensue.

SET GOALS FROM THE START

Ive just mentioned that students

come to class with a set of learning
goals, most of which can be quite general: speak English better. One of the
keys to success in the ESL classroom
is setting specific goals, goals that students can keep track of, goals that can
be ticked off a list. So if you have a class
that wants to speak English better, help
them come up with more specific goals
like, communicate better with my boss/
girlfriend/pals abroad.

EXUDE CONFIDENCE

This is one particular piece of advice I cannot stress enough. When youre
a newbie at anything, you dont feel confident. Confidence comes with practice,
right? Still, its not necessary for your
students to know that youre a nervous
wreck because its your very first class.
If you act confident, you will feel confident, and your new students will notice
that, too. Remember you have received
the training, you have a plan, you have
tools and materials, and youre prepared
to use them. You have plenty to feel confident about.

FROM AN OLD VETERAN TO A TOTAL

NOVICE, THIS IS MY FINAL PIECE OF
ADVICE: READ THE TIPS LISTED ABOVE,
BUT FOLLOW YOUR OWN PATH.
You never know where it might lead.
And before you know it, youll be the one
passing on advice to a new colleague.

Are Native Speakers Better Teachers than Non-Native Speakers?

Im a non-native ESL teacher, and
Im afraid Im at a disadvantage
when compared to native English
speakers. Do you think native English speakers are better teachers
than those of us who learned English as a second language?
This is the subject of debate in every
ESL teacher forum I have ever visited. Logic would state that, yes, when
it comes to teaching something, those
who are experts are better qualified, and
who could be better qualified to teach
English than those whove learned it as
their native tongue? But the answer is
not that simple. Before I state my humble opinion on the subject, lets consider
the advantages of each:

LETS LOOK AT THE

ADVANTAGES THAT
NATIVE SPEAKERS
HAVE OVER NONNATIVE SPEAKERS

THEY HAVE
NATIVE PRONUNCIATION

This is the most obvious advantage. Native speakers have the target pronunciation and while they may have their own
local accent (British, Australian, American), they dont have any other foreign
accents. For this reason, they are good
pronunciation models for ESL students.

THEY GRASP SUBTLETIES

Native speakers understand how

different words have different meanings
in different contexts. They understand
sarcasm, irony and subtle jokes.

THEY USE COLLOQUIALISMS

NATURALLY

Have you ever tried to use slang in a

foreign language only to have the locals
laugh in amusement? It takes a great
deal of practice to use colloquial expressions, slang and informal language
correctly and with confidence. Native
speakers are better equipped to correct
students and redirect their efforts when
using informal language.

NOW LETS SEE WHAT

ADVANTAGES NONNATIVE SPEAKERS
HAVE OVER NATIVE
SPEAKERS

THEY UNDERSTAND
STUDENTS BETTER

At some point, non-native speakers

had to learn English and went through
everything their students are going
through now. This makes them better
equipped to anticipate problems before
they happen.

The only problem I see pertains to pronunciation. ESL students should have
good models. Native speakers have
the advantage in this regard. But there
are non-native speakers who have excellent pronunciation, as well this is
something that can be improved. Also,
we must consider the fact that in todays
globalized world we must interact with
people from different countries, with different accents, all the time. It is indeed
better for student to be exposed to different accents, including foreign ones.
But I must insist. If you focus on being a
great ESL teacher, you cant go wrong.

HOW TO BE A GREAT
ESL TEACHER, NO
MATTER WHAT YOUR
BACKGROUND IS

This is, naturally, if teacher and students

share the same L1. The non-native
speaker is bilingual, and understands
and is able to foresee the problems students may encounter specifically due to
the characteristics of L1.

THEY UNDERSTAND
THE DIFFERENCES BETWEEN
ENGLISH AND L1

THEY UNDERSTAND
THE STUDENTS
CULTURAL BACKGROUND
Again, this is so if teacher and students
have the same cultural background.
The non-native speaker might understand which aspects of the students
culture may not be compatible with
English-speaking cultures, things like,
for example, greetings and customs.

QUESTION: ARE NATIVE SPEAKERS

BETTER TEACHERS?
MY ANSWER: NOT NECESSARILY

Each side presents advantages and

disadvantages, that much is clear. As
far as native English speakers are concerned, the main advantage is that they
are able to speak English clearly, confidently and with excellent pronunciation. But that does not mean they are
able to teach. Speaking English well
and teaching English well are entirely
different things. By the same token, the
fact that you speak English with a foreign accent does not mean you cant
be a great teacher. ESL teachers have
to teach. It helps if they speak English
perfectly. But you can still be a great
teacher even if you dont.

Work on improving your main weakness. So your pronunciation is not

so good... improve it. Not good at
teaching? Never taught a class in
your life? Take a course. Get your
TEFL certification.
Obtain qualifications. Once you are
TEFL, TESOL or CELTA certified,
theres no stopping you. You will
have earned the tools you need to
start working as an ESL teacher.
Gain experience. Its not that some
teachers are good, and some
teachers are bad. I see it differently.
Some teachers are experienced
and some are inexperienced. You
have to be patient when you start
out. But as you gather more experience under your belt, youll feel
more confident in your skills and
ability to teach, no matter if you are
native or non-native.
Continue learning, especially if you
only speak English. Native English speakers can learn valuable
insights from learning a second
language, as they go through a process that is similar to what their students are going through.

ARE YOU GOOD AT TEACHING ESL?

DO YOU REALLY ENJOY TEACHING? IF
YOUVE ANSWERED YES TO BOTH OF
THESE QUESTIONS, THERES NO STOPPING YOU. BE THE BEST TEACHER YOU
CAN BE. NO MATTER WHAT YOUR
ACCENT IS.

31

What Can I Do To Reduce

the Stress of Teaching?
This has been a very rough year
for me. I started the school year
full of excitement and anticipation,
but now Im ending it totally burned
out. Lesson plans, report cards,
staff meetings, parent-teacher
conferences, etc... all added to the
daily work of actually teaching and
managing a class have made this
a particularly stressful year. What
can I do to reduce the stress of
teaching?
We all know why we get into teaching. Its tremendously rewarding
and something we do well. But soon
enough, the thrill of teaching a new
class wanes and is replaced with hectic juggling. Juggling classes, worksheets, reports, lesson plans. You
wake up early to teach and go to bed
late because you have too many tests
to correct and grade. Yes, teaching
can be stressful, but no more so than
any other job on the planet, at least,
it doesnt have to be. Here are some
ways to reduce the stress and maximize the joys of teaching.

DO THE FOLLOWING
TO REDUCE THE
STRESS OF TEACHING

KEEP IT ORGANIZED

You start the year with a clean,

tidy desk, but it will get cluttered with
papers, books and teaching materials
faster than you think. It is essential
to have a place for everything right
from the start. Invest in a file cabinet or hanging file frames you can
install into a big drawer so you can
keep all of your attendance sheets,
reports and school memos organized.
Clean out one shelf or drawer where
you can keep all of your flashcards,
CDs, videos and other teaching materials. Dont keep things scattered
throughout the house. Form the habit
of putting everything back in its place
after you use it. Do this whether you
keep materials in your classroom or
at home.

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DONT LET IT PILE UP

One of the most stressful things

for any teacher is to have endless
piles of homework, writing assignments and tests to correct. You can
cut down on the homework you need
to correct by correcting it in class or
assigning other types of homework
that might do more for your students
than pages and pages of worksheets.
As for the papers you do need to correct, try to get it done a bit at a time,
over lunch or coffee breaks for example. Try to get things corrected and
handed back to students as fast as
you can. Dont let papers sit on your
desk for too long. Chances are, the
pile will only get bigger, and before
you know it, youll have accumulated
several hours of work.

PLAN IT AHEAD OF TIME

When planning lessons, there

are several things youll have to consider. First of all, you should plans all
lessons in advance the night before
wont cut it. There are things you simply cant get ready overnight. Also,
bear in mind that some lessons may
need to be planned further in advance
than others, for example, special holiday lessons. So while you might plan
most lessons a week in advance, you
might have to plan the special Christmas lesson a month in advance, if
you want to get your hands on all of
the materials youll need. You wont
want to add the stress of planning a
Christmas party to the usual holiday
rush!

TAKE TIME AWAY FROM IT

Yes, we love teaching and really

enjoy surfing the internet for hours,
looking for the right materials, videos and worksheets for our students
(FYI... if you need worksheets for your
class, theres no need to waste your
valuable time searching for them online: look no further than BusyTeacher.
org). But even though you may enjoy
this, it is absolutely essential to step
outside and get some fresh air. Take,

at the very least, the weekend off to

spend time with family and friends.

TAKE IT IN STRIDE

Unexpected things can happen,

any day, any time, no matter how
well youve planned your lessons.
Although any number of unwelcome
surprises, from a simple technical
problem to a full blown power failure,
can send your stress levels through
the roof, the key lies in the way you
react to these setbacks. So, if youre
ready to accept the unexpected and
take minor setbacks in stride, you
wont feel as stressed.

BE REALISTIC ABOUT IT

Few things are more stressful than biting off more than you can
chew. Do you have time to organize
a special Christmas party and grade
all of your students tests? If youve
already got too much on your plate,
your best course of action might be
to pass on other activities that are
less important. Be realistic about how
much you can do and prioritize if there
is too much going on. Your body will
thank you for it. Your mental sanity will
thank you for it.

IF YOU READ CAREFULLY, YOULL

SEE A TREND IN THE TIPS PROVIDED
ABOVE.
Good, solid habits do wonders when
it comes to keeping your stress levels low. By doing things systematically, you cut down on the times you
have to run around looking for something or catching up because youre
behind. We always want our students
to be disciplined, but we need to be
disciplined ourselves. It may be hard
to develop them at first, but in the long
run, solid routines will turn you into a
well-oiled teaching machine.

How Can I Evaluate if My Lesson

Was a Success?
I can tell when Ive taught a particularly good lesson or if a class was a
complete disaster, in general terms.
But is there a more specific way to
evaluate the success of a lesson?
This question brings up a very valid
point. Most of us know what its like to
feel good about the way a lesson went.
We can tell when were headed in the
right direction. On the other hand, we
may easily identify things that went
wrong. We may even be able to rate
a particular lesson on a scale of one
to ten. But is this enough to truly rate
the success of your lesson? Not really.
Evaluating a lesson is a lot more complex than that. You need to consider a
number of things. Ask yourself a series
of questions. You may think your lesson
was a resounding success, but heres
how you can truly know.

EVALUATE
YOUR ESL LESSON
ASK YOURSELF

ABOUT
THE PREPARATION:

1. How hard was it to plan this lesson?

What made it easy/hard to plan?
2. Were you able to follow your lesson
plan? Did you have to make any unplanned changes? Did you discard
it completely? How useful was the
lesson plan?
3. What changes would you make to
your lesson plan for the next time
you teach this lesson? What activities would you add/take out?
4. How hard was it to gather the materials you needed? What made it
easy/difficult/time-consuming
to
find the right worksheets, videos,
games, toys, realia, etc.?
5. How useful were the materials you
planned to use? Did you use all of
the material? If not, why did you
choose not to use it?
6. Would you use the same materials
next time? What would you change?

ABOUT
THE LESSON ITSELF:

1. Did you set the lesson goal(s) at the

start of class?
2. Which activity/part of the lesson
worked particularly well/was very
well executed?
3. Which activity/part of the lesson did
not work so well/was not well executed?
4. Which activity/part of the lesson
was particularly difficult/challenging
for you?
5. Which activity/part of the lesson
was rather easy for you?
6. Did you manage to keep all/most of
the students engaged?
7. Which tools (blackboard/whiteboard/smartboard/TV/video/computer/etc) did you use? Were
they effective in getting your point
across?
8. Did you practice reading, writing,
listening and speaking? Which did
you practice more?
9. Did you speak only English? How
much of the students native language did you speak? If you spoke
your students L1, could it have
been avoided? How?
10. Do you think you taught this lesson
better than how you taught it before? If not, why?
11. Did you confirm the lesson goal(s)
at the end of the lesson? Did your
students successfully achieve the
goal(s)?
12. Did you assign homework at the
end of the lesson? Why or why not?

ABOUT YOUR STUDENTS:

1. Were any of the activities/tasks too

easy for your students?
2. Were any of the activities/tasks too
difficult?
3. Which activities/tasks did they enjoy the most?
4. Were there any problems regarding behavior? If so, which? How did
you deal with them? How can these
types of problems be avoided in the
future?
5. Did all of the students participate
actively? If there were any who did
not participate, what aspects of the
lesson do think failed to engage

them?
6. Did all of the students meet the lesson goal?
7. Can you pinpoint specific problems
that some students had during the
lesson? (comprehension, pronunciation, fluency, etc.)
This kind of self-evaluation comes in
handy after a particularly difficult lesson.
It helps you pinpoint what went wrong
and makes it easier to come up with
better alternatives to some activities or
tasks that were not as effective as you
thought they might be. But you might
also want to ask yourself these questions after a lesson that was a huge success. A thorough self-evaluation should
give you insights into things you might
want to replicate in future lessons.

WHY SELF-EVALUATE?
Were all familiar with student assessment. Were prepared to evaluate every tiny aspect, from student fluency
to pronunciation. Every now and then,
however, we need to look to ourselves
and evaluate all of the aspects of a lesson, both the good and the bad. If you
make self-assessment a routine, youll
soon see patterns developing and discover where your strengths and weaknesses lie. You might see, for example,
that youre not particularly comfortable
teaching writing or that its an area that
your students seem to struggle with.
Some weaknesses you may try to improve on your own, while others may
require teacher training. If you identify
your strengths, on the other hand, youll
have an arsenal of tried and tested strategies you can always turn to. Whichever way you look at it, a self-evaluation of
your lessons is a win-win, for you and
your class.

ITS A LOT EASIER FOR US TO FOCUS

ON WHAT WENT WRONG AND BERATE
OURSELVES FOR NOT DOING BETTER.
Which is why its also very important to
analyze what did work out very well. So
be sure to pat yourself on the back every
now and then for a job well done. Dont
dwell on past mistakes. Learn from
them. And recreate your successes.

33

How Do I Become
a More Effective Teacher?
Sometimes I feel my students could
be learning a lot faster. They would
accomplish a lot more if only I could
guide them better towards increased
English fluency. What can I do to become a more effective teacher?
Effectiveness is the capability of producing a desired result. As ESL teachers, what result can we hope to obtain?
Naturally, we want our students to feel
more confident when speaking English. We want them to speak better, to
speak more. We want them to learn to
communicate effectively in English. So,
what does it take to produce this result?
What does it take to truly be an effective
teacher? Lets find out!

DEFINING
EFFECTIVENESS
WHEN TEACHING ESL
If effectiveness is the capability of
producing a desired result, what does
teaching effectiveness involve? Firstly, effective ESL teachers motivate and
stimulate ESL learners. Highly effective
teachers may even get students really
excited about learning and thoroughly
engaged in class activities. Effective
ESL teachers also guide students towards acquiring the language, tools and
strategies they need for good communication. But they also encourage learner
autonomy. Effective ESL teachers understand that the end goal is for ESL
learners to go out into the real world and
communicate with real people, on their
own. Now, lets see different ways to become a more effective teacher.

CHECK THESE 10 WAYS

TO BECOME A MORE
EFFECTIVE TEACHER

PUT THE STUDENTS

(AND THEIR GOALS) FIRST

Dont focus on teaching the book or

completing the course. The coursebook is an accessory, a tool that helps
give your course a structure, a backbone. Focus instead on guiding your
students towards increased language
proficiency, step by step, with specific
goals for each step of the way.

34

KNOW WHEN TO SPEAK

(AND WHEN TO SHUT UP)

Sometimes, ESL students dont speak

because we dont give them the opportunity to speak. Dont finish their sentences. Dont interrupt them with immediate
corrections. Dont provide the answer
when theyre taking too long. Hold your
breath. Resist the urge. Wait. See what
they can come up with on their own.

OFFER PRAISE

ESL students are sometimes very

sensitive to corrections and criticism.
Lets not lose sight of the fact that selfconfidence is essential to good communication. If you correct them too much
you risk shattering their fragile self-confidence (I cant speak English! My English is horrible!), and you dont want to
do that. So, offer praise, whenever you
can, for a great example, a word theyre
using correctly or a complicated question they managed to answer. ESL students need our encouragement as much
as they need our corrections.

BE CONSISTENT

If you say there are consequences

for breaking the classroom rules, youd
better follow through on those consequences. If you say you will have the
tests corrected by Friday, youd better
deliver. Do what you say you will do.
Your students will respect you a whole
lot more for it.

USE VARIETY

Out in the real English-speaking

world, ESL students are faced with variety: a variety of accents, a variety of
communication tools, a variety of settings and circumstances. The effective
ESL teacher prevents students from getting accustomed to a particular way of
doing things so they have the flexibility
to adapt to different scenarios. Moreover, adding variety helps keep things
interesting.

SHOW, DONT TELL

Effective ESL teachers dont teach

a new topic by explaining how it works.
Instead, they give examples and guide
students towards comprehension: they

help them come up with answers on

their own.

TEACH IN CONTEXT

Does it make sense to give students a list of irregular verbs and their
past forms, and start practicing from
there? Whats the setting? Whats the
context? Effective ESL teachers dont
copy down lists of verbs or words to
memorize or study. They help students
place themselves in a real life setting, a
scenario that will help them see how to
use the language: You see your friend
again on the first day of class and you
want to tell him/her about your holidays.

BE PREPARED

Do you have all of the materials,

worksheets, photocopies and flashcards
you need for class? Do you have them
ready days before class and not at the
last minute? Do you prepare lesson
plans well in advance? Do you have a
Plan B in case something doesnt work
out? Effective teachers know how to plan
effectively so they are not overwhelmed
by last minute preparations.

SET CLEAR GOALS

Students are aware of the overall

goal they know full well why theyre
taking the course (communicate in English better). But seeing the big picture
does not necessarily help them move
forward. They move forward in a series
of smaller steps, and these are the very
same steps you need to outline for them
(Step 1: Talk about yourself. Step 2: Talk
about your family / what you do for a living, etc.).

10

CATER TO A VARIETY
OF LEARNING STYLES

Some students are more visual, others

are clearly musical learners. If you plan
activities that predominantly cater to one
type, then you wont be reaching learners with other learning styles effectively.

ABOVE ALL, BE SURE TO CREATE AN

ENVIRONMENT THAT IS CONDUCIVE
TO EFFECTIVE LEARNING.
Keep you lessons upbeat and positive.
Emphasize the importance of treating
each other with respect. What could be
more effective than that?

5 Simple Things That Will Make

You A Better Teacher
A TEACHERS WORK IS NEVER DONE,
AND THATS ESPECIALLY TRUE FOR
ESL TEACHERS WHOSE CLASS NEEDS
CHANGE FROM SEMESTER TO SEMESTER AND FROM YEAR TO YEAR.

For as many years as I have taught, I

have never had two classes exactly alike
or two years exactly alike. And with all
the time preparing lessons and materials, who has time for professional development? But investing in yourself as a
teacher is important for both your skills
as a teacher and your mental and emotional wellbeing. Its fortunate, then, that
you can invest in yourself at the same
time as developing lessons and managing your classroom. Here are some
ideas for integrating professional development into your classroom habits to
help you take care of yourself as well as
your students.

5 SIMPLE THINGS THAT

WILL TRANSFORM
YOU INTO A BETTER
TEACHER

MAKE IT MUTUAL

One of your greatest resources

for professional development is just a
classroom away your fellow teachers.
Something as simple as swapping ideas
with one of your coworkers will help both
of you in your professional development.
It will give you new ideas, ideas which
you might not ever have come up with
on your own. Also, since we all tend to
teach to our own learning styles, collaborating with another teacher will help
you round out the learning styles you
teach to. But dont stop with just a one
on one exchange. If you can, encourage
all the teachers at your school to share
ideas. Take over a filing cabinet or a bulletin board in the teachers lounge to
share your best ideas. Better yet, meet
together and demonstrate your lessons
on each other. You will not only improve
your professional abilities, you may just
find a friend who can laugh and commiserate with you with your teaching joys
and struggles.

DEAR DIARY, TODAY I

I dont know whether you keep

a personal diary or not, but I do know
keeping a teaching diary can help you

become a better teacher, and it takes almost no time on your part. If you take
five minutes a day to record some noteworthy events from your teaching day,
perhaps as you are checking your lesson plans for tomorrow, you will begin to
see patterns in what you do. Take some
time at the end of the day to record what
types of activities you did, how your students reacted, and how well they seem
to have retained the information you presented in those activities. After about a
month of recording, take a look back at
what you have written. As you reflect,
you may see trends in the types of activities you are doing as well as types of
activities you are missing. You will see
what your students respond positively
to, and what types of activities just dont
resonate with them. It will also benefit
you to write down any questions you
have about teaching particular material
or certain types of students. When you
see the same types of questions coming up over and over again, it shows you
where you may need to spend some
extra time learning about different methods or what type of seminar to pick at
the next conference you might be lucky
enough to attend.

THE GOOD, THE BAD,

AND THE UGLY

One of the best tools I have found for

evaluating my teaching is reflecting on
what I call the good, the bad, and the
ugly. Sometimes I do this for a unit as a
whole, and other times I take time after
a specific lesson to look back and determine what worked, what didnt, and
what I would change next time I give that
lesson. Its really quite simple. Take a
sheet of paper, title it with what you are
evaluating, and make three columns on
the paper. Label them the good, the bad,
and the ugly. In the first column, write everything that worked: a particular activity,
an object lesson, a way of arranging the
classroom, an excellent guest speaker,
a great field trip, anything. In the second column, make a list of everything
that didnt work. Was a particular test
too difficult? Was an activity too messy?
Did your students just not understand
a lecture you gave or examples you
used? In the third column, write everything that you would change next time.

These changes might be related to both

the good and the bad parts of your lesson, or they might not have come up in
either of the other columns. Once all this
information is in black and white, this paper is irreplaceable. I put it in the front of
my materials for that teaching unit. That
way, the next time I open the folder to
teach the material, I have all my reflections right there on page one and a good
part of my lesson planning is already
done for me.

COLLABORATE
WITH BUSY TEACHERS

Since you are reading this article, you

already know some of the great benefits
Busy Teacher has to offer you. Did you
realize that by reading articles and participating in worksheet swaps you have
a great means of developing yourself?
The more you know about teaching students of English, the better a teacher
you will become. And the better teacher
you become, the better you are able to
objectively look at your strengths and
weaknesses as a teacher. When you
can do that, you see the areas in which
you can improve, and the next step is
seeking out education or help in those
particular areas. Just a few minutes a
day reading an article or looking through
different activities can make a big difference in your abilities and confidence as
a teacher. So next time you are searching for a worksheet or an activity for a
specific lesson, take a few minutes to
read up on the topic as well and learn
what other busy teachers have to say
about it.

COMMITTING
TO YOURSELF

Perhaps the best way to ensure professional development for yourself is to be

committed to it. The unfortunate truth of
the matter is that if you are not serious
about becoming the best teacher you
can be, no one else will be serious about
it either. Make advancing your skills and
knowledge as a teacher a priority in your
career, and your determination alone is
probably enough to make sure it happens. If you dont put yourself on your
own priority list, no one will suffer but
you.

35