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!
You know what they say. Don’t be a bump on a log. A rolling stone gathers no moss. Put idioms on the menu. You don’t have to beat them into the ground, but at least take them home and ...
Are you tired of creating artificial reasons for your students’ conversation practice? Are you looking for a means for your students to talk to native speakers in an authentic setting? Surve ...
Compound? Complex? Compound complex? Any sentence can seem complicated without knowing the difference between an independent and a dependent clause.
Use this simple object lesson with your class ...
A box of odds and ends is more than a simple container for scraps and extras. It is a treasure trove of great crafts supplies, all the more treasured because it gives us a chance to re-use and rec ...
We all want our students to succeed. We try to encourage honest learning and do not just teach to the test.
We do assess our students, but can we influence their success merely by the test questi ...
What do you get when you combine a child, a disposable plastic cup, some soil and marigold seeds? A child who is as pleased as punch to give his mother a gift full of potential.
Like those seeds, ...
The unreal and real conditionals (sometimes referred to as First and Second conditionals) are an important part of academic language: the conditional is the way we speak about possibilities or pro ...
Teachers of ESL instinctively and unknowingly change their natural pronunciation and speech patterns to increase their students’ comprehension.
Studies show that teachers use motherese (the ...
Collocation, or how words occur together in speech and writing, is an important part of speaking and writing fluently. To be able to produce native-like speech and writing, students need to know w ...
Imagine this: you are trying to give a lesson on the past progressive tense.
You stand up at the white board talking about agreement between the subject and the helping verb and that this tense i ...
What does drama have to do with ESL? A lot.
Drama is about dialogue, about language, and interacting with others in specific “scenes” with appropriate language--all activities we as t ...
In an ESL classroom, a pile of old magazines can be a godsend. Magazines are highly versatile resources and offer amazing potential not only for classic clipping, collage and art projects, but als ...
With the Jim Carey feature film set to be released June 17, 2011, penguins will be popping up all over this summer.
This live action movie is based on the book Mr. Popper’s Penguins written ...
Most teachers are creative people. We have to plan for multiple classes each day keeping our methods and activities fresh and interesting for both our students and ourselves.
Not many, though, wo ...
When you are teaching a class of students from all over the world, you are bound to run into cultural clashes from time to time.
A clash may come because one nationality has a bad historical rela ...
There are many benefits to the student-centered class discussion although it’s sometimes a challenge to develop. There are a number of potential pitfalls, including students talking off-topi ...
One of the fantastic things about ESL teaching is that it can be incredible for both the student and the teacher. Compared with other subjects, such as maths, chemistry or physics, languages can b ...
The sky is blue. The white clouds float past high overhead. The birds chirp enticingly calling, “Come outside. Come outside.” The teacher in you says to be responsible, but the forever ...
Families are something that almost everyone has experience with. Most everyone was born into a family, fulfilled roles in that family and at some point, has left that family to grow and experience ...
Most beginner ESL classes teach a unit on food, but there is no reason to limit yourself to a food unit to teach with cooking.
There are many ways and many reasons to bring fresh flavor to your E ...
When it comes to speaking, confidence is the key, password, login and biometric security that students need in order to succeed at speaking with ease. Once a student builds the confidence to speak ...
We could go on and on about how rewarding teaching ESL students is. But the truth of the matter is, like in any profession, it's sometimes hard for ESL teachers to get up in the morning, too. We m ...
When we look at the ESL business and the major breakthroughs that have taken place, one of the biggest would be the photocopier, which has allowed teachers to simply and easily provide student wit ...
One of the best ways to educate students across all skills is via the means of television. While many teachers and parents are probably under the impression that their child or student is NOT lear ...
Some of us are lucky enough to love what we do. We cherish our time spent with our students, and enjoy all of the energy and enthusiasm they bring into our classroom. Nothing compares to the satis ...
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