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!
Try These 7 Speedy Activities for Teaching the Past Progressive
1
The Luck of the Draw
Write several past times on small slips of paper and put them in a hat. Have students draw a time fr ...
Try These 7 Easy Lessons for Teaching the Present Progressive
1
Charade Call Out
Charades can be used for many activities in the ESL classroom. For your lesson on the present progressive, ...
Try These 7 Simple Activities for Teaching the Simple Present
1
Daily Routine
Have your students talk to one another about their daily routines. What do they do in the morning? What do ...
Question: Are your ESL learners confident in their English-speaking skills?
How can you tell? Confident learners participate more, speak more, don’t necessarily make fewer mistakes, but fee ...
Few things can be so boring and deadly as the writing class filled with reluctant writers. And few people are so unmotivated and reluctant as the reluctant writer.
Reluctant writers often have ha ...
Accountable: (of a person, organization, or institution) required or expected to justify actions or decisions; responsible – from The New Oxford American Dictionary
In sports, the c ...
Are you the kind of ESL teacher that tends to explain, then explain some more, and then over-explain?
Explanations are all fine and dandy, but sometimes we need to pick up a board marker and orga ...
Your class is a quiet class. Your students file in at the beginning of a session, quietly take their seats, obediently take notes, and then get up and leave at the end, also quietly. Sure, sometim ...
How do your students’ email writing skills stack up? At this day and age, ESL students who are not learning good, professional email writing skills will be at a serious disadvantage in compa ...
Any teacher knows that there are few things more boring and deadly to a class than a lot of teacher fronted activities with students sitting in neat rows, silent, not causing any trouble, but not ...
What is the single best way to obtain information about someone’s habits, preferences or experience?
Why, a questionnaire, of course! That’s why we complete questionnaires when we go ...
What would ESL teachers do without the coursebook? It’s our very own GPS for guiding our students towards the ESL fluency they so desire. Or is it?
Could it possibly show us the wrong turn ...
Of all of the skills ESL students need to develop to improve their overall English fluency, listening is probably the most frustrating.
Think about it. They can take as long as they need to read ...
I currently am teaching an ESL student who has a great deal of proficiency in conversational English, and he has expressed interest in learning the language for conversation, specifically commonly ...
ESL students come in all shapes and sizes, from adorable little preschoolers to senior citizens who want to learn another language in their free time. In the middle, we have all sorts of students, ...
Oftentimes an advanced student will feel fairly comfortable with the English language but still have concerns with understanding and fitting in with American culture.
For example, at a recent tut ...
Sports are something of an obsession in American culture, and discussion of them is not limited to the sports fanatic.
In fact, some knowledge of sports may be required even of people who don&rsq ...
Whether you’re stumped as to how to get your students more engaged, teaching with a really boring coursebook, or dealing with a roomful of unmotivated teens, celebrity photos might just be y ...
Anyone who had been teaching for awhile has experienced it. One of your students shuffles up to your desk and claims to be unhappy with his grade.
Often there is an excuse—sick uncle, dead ...
Recently I received an email from a student. She had not been coming to class—in fact, not all term, and this was the first I had heard from her, not a particularly unusual situation when de ...
“Oh, no! There’s a scheduled test on Friday? I forgot all about it! What am I going to do?” “Well, you could go through the book and get material there. Sometimes the Inter ...
Some years ago, there was a popular television show in the U.S., a romantic comedy about the trials and tribulations of early married life, called “Mad about You”.
An interesting titl ...
It probably occurs at some point to most native speakers while going through a typical conversational routine: “Hello! How are you? How’s the family?” and so on that there is lit ...
Sometime after the high beginning level or a year of study, something happens to many ESL students.
Formerly attentive eyes glaze over; always before enthusiastic students now are lethargic; abse ...
Last semester, I was teaching an online class for ESL teachers and future ESL teachers.
There were about 10 students in class and one no-show—a student that failed to come to any of the liv ...
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