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!
Ask a student to describe someone in their family.
Answers vary from the basic use of adjectives (tall, short, intelligent) to a complete loss for words. Rarely do they give good, solid descripti ...
If you think that teaching preschoolers is a piece of cake just because they learn the alphabet, colors and a few simple phrases, think again!
It takes a great deal of patience and commitment to ...
Many instructors, when approached about teaching in a one-on-one setting, may think first of the negatives: the isolation from colleagues, the lack of a standard curriculum, and the dearth of mate ...
Some of the most difficult classes I have taught in my ESL career are those with students at multiple levels.
I have taught conversation classes, vocabulary classes, TOEFL prep classes, movie cla ...
Classroom management may not be a term you hear very often in educational programs.
Though many programs do offer some instruction on the subject, most people, myself included, find that not enou ...
If you’ve taught for any length of time, you’ve probably experienced it: the colleague who stops to you in the hall with glowing reports of her own class.
Or she might give veiled cri ...
No man is an island.
And this couldn’t be more true of ESL students today. Learning English is more than a series of acquisitions that a student obtains alone. It’s more than a list o ...
English as a Second Language (ESL) students are among the fastest-growing groups in the nation’s K-12 public schools.
From the late 1990s to 2008, the number of ESL students jumped about 60 ...
Given that we are in the midst of a huge shift in society, one based more on electronic communication than face-to-face, the average teacher will probably be asked to teach an online class at some ...
The crowd is roaring. They’re going mad with anticipation. Eyes are wide open. Hands are up. Soccer fans at the World Cup final? Nope. A group of young learners trying to guess the right ans ...
Ah, young learners just love to move.
They’re not as self-conscious as teens are – not afraid to look silly as adults are. They’ll dance, race and jump with gusto, relishing in ...
Making connections.
It’s a good idea in the work place, but it’s absolutely essential when you are in the classroom. In math class, a simple plus sign is all that’s needed, but ...
“Here’s the book you’ll use for class. I need your lesson plans by tomorrow.”
This was my introduction to teaching ESL. My supervisor gave me a book and little else and ex ...
Every now and then we are faced with the arduous task of teaching ESP.
No, not extrasensory perception (ESL teachers are gifted at many things but mind reading is not one of them). ESP stands for ...
You’ve probably seen them, those students who perhaps remind you of yourself in your first year of college: they come in late.
They spend ten minutes trying to organize their materials. Whe ...
The Internet has come a long way and a lot of things have changed – but email has been there right from the start.
Far and wide, it has become the medium of communication of choice, which i ...
It probably hits an ESL teacher several weeks into a semester: ESL students are diverse.
This probably seems so much a truism as to be laughable, but we sometimes forget it: even a relatively &ld ...
In today’s day and age, students can practice almost anything they need to improve their English online.
They can read authentic material, listen to real audio, complete a dictation online ...
The world is in the midst of a technological revolution the likes of which it hasn’t been seen since the Renaissance: the amount of electronic innovation just over the last five years in ter ...
Time management is an issue that comes up in all kinds of work environments, so it shouldn’t be a surprise that teachers have to think about time management in their classrooms.
In fact, ti ...
You can see it in their faces. The textbook is too easy. They breeze through the readings, dialogs and exercises. A task that should take 15 minutes is done in five. What now?
Should you change t ...
Grammar is a keystone in ESL programs everywhere.
Learning the rules of language can be exciting and energizing and…well, boring. Grammar teachers around the world struggle to make this te ...
They hum to themselves.
They tap rhythmically on the desk with their pencils. They love silly rhymes and chants. These learners don’t just like music, they connect to it on every level beca ...
Teachers tend to think of their most important professional relationships to be with their students, or other teachers, or their administrators—and with good cause.
These are the people the ...
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