In this section there are 2,124 articles that cover essential ESL topics such as how to teach grammar, use realia, and teach young learners. There are also a lot of lesson ideas and fun activities included in the articles. This ESL article, for example, is about teaching grammar and describes five great activities. It has been given five stars by other busy teachers so it obviously has useful content. Check it out for yourself or take a look at other articles that relate better to your questions or teaching situation.
There are a lot of dos and don’ts and tips and tricks that many teachers learn through teaching.
Our ESL Essentials section will help you master the basics of teaching English and will help you start teaching like a 'pro'. Every ESL Essentials article provides clear, to-the-point instructions that can be used with the students right away.
At the moment we have 2,124 ESL Essentials.
Sometimes that is the best way to learn but the experiences of others can also help you develop your teaching skills without having to make the same mistakes. If you have a great story or activity, feel free to submit your own article so that you can share your knowledge with others. We would love to hear from you!
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ESL Articles
View our latest knowledgebase articles that will help you become a better English teacher. Learn from
professional teachers and put a bit of your own creativity into it!
Not every teacher will earn a teacher of the year award.
In fact, most of us never will in our lifetimes. But that doesn’t mean we aren’t great teachers. The best teachers don’t ...
We all know our students have different needs.
The question is how different. Sometimes these differences are simple and mostly related to how you practice. For instance, whether to practice spea ...
There’s something about a summer class: the sun is always out, and students tend to be more relaxed.
They don’t have as much anxiety and depression that may occur in the regular schoo ...
Christmas is such a fun and festive time of year. Get your students in the spirit of the season with this vocabulary lesson on Christmas decorating.
Vocabulary List
The holidays have so many int ...
Christmas and New Year are wonderful times of year but as they are major school holidays in many countries, you might find that your students are less focused leading up to the holiday period. The ...
Christmas is coming; the goose is getting fat.
Okay, you may not have an actual goose nearby, but Christmas is coming, and it’s coming sooner than you think. That makes now the perfect time ...
To say we live in a world of technology is an understatement.
Technology surrounds us from the moment our IPhones' alarms wake us up until we fall asleep reading our kindles. So why is it that we ...
Eat. Pray. Love.
They’re more than the title of a Julia Roberts movie. They are verbs, and we couldn’t form a single sentence without them. (Okay, there are exceptions, but you know w ...
Oh the places you’ll go!
Have you discovered what a great jumping off point maps are for interesting and engaging ESL lessons? You can use them to get students talking, evaluate their liste ...
No matter what level ESL you teach, your students need to practice their listening skills. For international students, their at home language instruction often downplays the necessity of listening ...
I hope you know how valuable pictures are for the ESL classroom.
Pictures can be the starting point of all kinds of language activities from creative writing to dialogue development to practicing ...
When most people picture teenagers, they imagine sullen, uncooperative kids who want nothing to do with school.
Your class most likely isn’t like that, but there is something special to tea ...
Turn on any major network at six p.m. and you’ll find the same thing.
The nightly news. There’s one thing that’s true about most human beings. We want to know what is going on. ...
Learning styles…you’ve heard the word.
You’ve thought about how to include them. But if you’re anything like me, when it comes to incorporating every learning style into ...
If you teach adults English as a second language, you know the unique challenges and rewards that come with working with older students.
Adults are often self-motivated to learn. They know that t ...
We all know shy people.
We might even be shy ourselves. Talking to others can be intimidating. What if I don’t have the right things to say? What if I sound stupid? Imagine your worst fears ...
Have you ever felt so overwhelmed you didn’t know where to start?
Perhaps you had taken on a big project or a lofty goal and you couldn’t see the steps it would take to get you to the ...
Among the many things teachers have to face every year there is one in particular most of us dread, how to decorate our classrooms.
There is nothing worse than staring at a bare classroom with bl ...
Don’t you just love it when your students use new words?
When they expand their vocabulary? When their lexicon is growing and growing? I know I do. I get so excited when a student uses Engl ...
Don’t you love it when you have the perfect lesson plans simply given to you?
When you can follow along in the book and just do the exercises the curriculum’s author set forth? When y ...
Why are your students interested in studying a second language?
If you don't know the answer to this, you should. Understanding what motivates your students to learn a second language is, in fact ...
In addressing second language issues in student writing, most often considered are concerns such as run-on sentences and fragments.
These are indeed problems—actually for both the native sp ...
One of the challenges of teaching is teaching multiple classes within your discipline rather than multiple sections of the same class.
Teaching multiple classes means having different class prepa ...
Whether it’s VHS or the digital version of your favorite film, everyone loves movie day.
Movies are entertaining. If they weren’t Hollywood wouldn’t be the big business that it ...
Are you ready to tackle the subject of gerunds in your ESL classroom?
Here is everything you need to know to teach these verbish nouns to your students.
What Is a Gerund?
Simply put, a gerund i ...
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