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!
For English Language Learners who are preparing for study in American universities, the development of effective note-taking strategies is among the most essential skills for academic preparedness ...
If you’ve ever used an ESL coursebook (and most ESL teachers have), you’ll probably agree that the listening tasks are often lacking.
Not in terms of audio quality – most course ...
Creative writing can be a powerful tool for increasing your students’ vocabulary.
Having fun whilst learning is an objective that most teachers aim for and this can be achieved during a les ...
The term “adverbs” encompasses a lot in English.
You can break this large category of speech into four smaller groups to make learning easier for your students. Here are the four type ...
No matter what culture you are teaching, it is probable that, if you teach beginner to intermediate level young teens (13-17 year olds), you find that they are suddenly shy, unresponsive, do not l ...
Why do we give ESL learners listening exercises?
To boost listening comprehension, of course. Our ultimate goal is to help students understand native English speakers, not only for the mere purpo ...
Picture this scene: a woman walks into a store and carefully looks around.
After a couple of minutes, she realizes that what she needs is either not on display or not available at the store. She ...
Have you ever wondered why housewives are so desperate?
Running a house is sometimes tougher than running a company. They have a lot of responsibilities, and balancing family life with new and un ...
How often do you use group work in your ESL classroom?
Every day? Every class period? Maybe you’ve never thought about why you do it. Maybe you have. Regardless, group work is just a natura ...
What would you do in a given situation? What would your students do? When your class is learning and practicing conditionals in English, it’s a good time to get to know each other better.
T ...
As your ESL course progresses, you might start asking yourself some questions.
How are my students really doing? Are they truly meeting all the objectives? At this point, you realize you need to ...
We all know, and I’m sure we can all agree, assessment is a very important part of any class.
It gives us a much needed chance to go over, identify and clarify doubts or misunderstandings. ...
Advanced level ESL classes of any kind have the danger of falling prey to boredom and ennui, as students wonder, “Why am I here?”
This is especially true of ESL Advanced pronunciation ...
Fitness coaches always stress the importance of warming up.
It not only prevents injury, it also gets athletes’ bodies prepared for the strenuous activity to come. Although chances of injur ...
Practicing superlative adjectives gets your students thinking about the best of the best.
These activities will give them the chance to share their opinions about themselves, their classmates and ...
Who is the best of the best among your students? Who’s the brightest?
These answers may be tough to find, but that doesn’t mean your students can’t brag about themselves a littl ...
For teachers, flexibility is essential. In fact, you could almost say teachers need to be good at educational improv – not only having answers ready for a question at any moment, but also be ...
Business projects are very present in the world of work.
As a matter of fact, business people might even have two or more projects going on at the same time. As ESL teachers, we have to be aware ...
At one point in my teaching career, I didn’t think much about the difference between academic English and business English.
My ESL students, no matter what classes they were taking, were st ...
Modal verbs make frequent appearances in ESL classrooms, and one of the most common uses for modals in English is giving advice.
Advice giving can be straightforward. Someone has a problem and he ...
Not in the mood to teach the subjunctive mood?
The subjunctive is used when expressing a command, a suggestion or a wish. Although this is not exclusively so, the subjunctive is most often used w ...
Whether your ESL class is full of international travelers or just those dreaming of travel one day, a unit on geography is a great option for the English classroom.
With a little planning, you ca ...
Sometimes in life things turn out a little differently from what we expect and also would like.
This of course happens in our classrooms, too. When we think about teaching an ESL course for kids, ...
Time is always an issue, isn’t it? Normally we never have enough and occasionally but not often, we have too much.
In the world of work in general, everyone is obsessed with time. Deadlines ...
Year end poses an interesting challenge for most business students and their teachers.
This is when important work-related events and activities take place. A good example of this is the all-time ...
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