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!
It’s no big secret that English vocabulary is essential to your students’ success, not only when it comes to doing well on tests, but also if they wish to improve their overall English ...
When told you’re going to teach ESL composition (again) you may inwardly groan. Not again!
Not another semester of hauling home 30 drafts of papers filled with mangled verb tense and droppe ...
Many ESL students, particularly international students who are new to the U.S. but may have studied English for years in their home countries, come to college having some academic vocabulary, abil ...
Review lessons are very important and often a wonderful opportunity to consolidate everything your students have learned. But let’s face it. They are usually very boring.
So boring in fact, ...
Teaching listening skills presents a series of challenges. It is perhaps the most ephemeral of language skills, hard to understand, teach, and assess.
How do you really know that someone understo ...
Speaking English in day-to-day situations is often a source of frustration for ESL students – imagine how frustrating it is for them to take a speaking test.
Tests in which ESL students are ...
Most ESL teachers who have been teaching for some time are comfortable being assigned a reading/writing class or one that focuses on speaking and listening. We’ve been there before; we know ...
It’s the end of a unit, and you need to make sure students have grasped the information you covered. You assign a review worksheet for homework, and students file into class the next day to ...
"How are you today?" "I’m fine." Those words “I’m fine'” will be delivered quite differently when spoken by friends in good moods or by friends who are angry with each othe ...
What exactly is a “review lesson”? You’re not teaching anything new, but you’re not testing your students’ knowledge, either. Review lessons are located in this limbo ...
Sigh… It’s time to review again. That glorious moment when you get to show your students just how much they have learned and what still needs a little work before the test.
If you ar ...
Though it is probably most students’ least favorite part of education, testing is necessary.
In almost any language program, at one point or another, students will have to take tests. And s ...
Everybody makes mistakes. It’s a fact of life, and we all have to take a moment to express our regret from time to time.
So how do you teach your ESL students how to apologize in English? A ...
A, some, much or many? If your students are asking themselves these questions, you are likely studying noncount nouns.
The objects in English require a counting word to express plurality. For exa ...
When your ESL class starts discussing a limitless future full of potential and why what could have been wasn’t, you and your students are entering the world of English conditionals.
Conditi ...
Many ESL students, particularly young ones, come to class with fairly strong conversational English skills, which they have learned from interactions with their peers on playgrounds, in parks, and ...
Presenting our 2012 ESL Hall of Fame!
Top 10 BusyTeacher ESL Articles in 2012
1
No, It’s Not Arbitrary and Does Make Sense: Teaching the English Punctuation System
Did you know tha ...
Have you ever had students who were truly “hands on”? The kind who want to touch everything, gesticulate wildly and find it hard to sit still for extended periods of time?
Then, you h ...
Almost every ESL teacher has experienced it: you walk in the first day, and find a sort of Balkanization going on in your class already, the students divided into two camps, the Soviet students on ...
There is a tendency to think of the classroom as removed from the rest of the world and isolated from change.
To some extent, this is true - many of us are in classrooms that Socrates himself alm ...
Every year new teachers arrive on campus overflowing with enthusiasm for their new craft, unable to wait to practice it.
They have new ideas, love for their students, good relationships with thei ...
So you’ve just finished college and landed your first probationary assignment as an ESL instructor.
You enjoy teaching and your class, but you remain concerned on whether you’ll find ...
As an ESL teacher, you’ve probably noticed that students learn in different ways, and more than that, you’ve started seeing some trends.
Do you have students who consistently ask you ...
In learning English, adult ESL students often find themselves caught in a “Catch-22.”
A Catch-22 involves two contradictory outcomes, such as the one made famous in the novel by the s ...
We’ve all had the “unreachable” student who doesn’t seem quite “there,” mentally or physically. He sits in the back of the room, doesn’t respond to questi ...
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