Find That Perfect Worksheet

When other teachers, even other ESL teachers, hear I’m teaching an ESL conversation class, they often say it sounds “relaxing,” or “fun” or “easy.” Most teachers will smile at this, of course, recognizing that any teaching, while it may be fun, is almost never “relaxing” or “easy.” And while the conversation class may certainly be less ri ...

This article deals with teaching grammar, the tense forms in particular, from the point of view of of their contrast in meaning with the native tense forms. It concentrates on the differences of languages in teaching grammar and gives some advice on overcoming difficulties.

The verb “to be” is the first verb students learn in their English studies. It is used extensively in the English language and will allow students to create simple sentences with the vocabulary they have learned to date.

Learning a second language is challenging. You need to learn new sound patterns, new rules of grammar, and sometimes you even have to learn a new alphabet to boot. Of all of my ESL students over the years, the majority have been from eastern Asia and the Middle East. And whether they were speakers of Korean, Chinese, Japanese or Arabic, they all had to learn a new alphabet at the start of their English ...

On the first day of class, the halls buzz with excitement. Teachers get ready to greet their students, anxious to get started, and our young, or not-so-young, learners are nervous, wondering what their teacher’s like. Of course, first impressions count, and it’s essential to have a first day of class that will set the tone for what the rest of the school year or course will be like. And it w ...

Amused by the misplaced modifiers in your students’ writing? Frustrated that your students omit commas in direct address? Tired of explaining the difference between your and you’re to your students? Try explaining these often-confused rules of grammar, punctuation, and word usage through pictorial representations. In this article I have shown how five tricky concepts can be explained pictori ...

In many schools, phonics instruction is limited to flash cards and circling pictures on worksheets. While this type of phonics instruction can be beneficial to students, it can also be boring. Instead of keeping students in their seats while learning phonics, make it more fun by incorporating phonics activities that get them up out of their seats and moving, perhaps even dancing, around the classroom. S ...