There’s a common misconception that teaching conversation classes or conducting speaking activities with intermediate to advanced level learners requires less effort than teaching, say, grammar to a beginner student. While we’d agree that working with a student who has a strong foundation of English can feel a bit more comfortable, conducting speaking activities with them […]
How was your weekend? Ah, that old tried and true question you ask at the beginning of class. It doesn’t matter if it’s Monday morning or Wednesday afternoon, if you’re meeting with your student for the first time since the weekend, it’s a natural question to ask. But week after week of the same intro […]
When you’re preparing to teach a new student, it’s important to consider the learner’s intended use of the language. If a learner is studying a foreign language for fun or travel, they’ll likely be looking for vocabulary within the context of meeting new people, entertainment, locations and establishments, directions, food, etc. If, however, they are […]
You just finished the last activity in your lesson plan and you’re feeling great about both your students’ performance in class as well as your own. The lesson flowed well, your students were engaged and were quick to learn the target language and now you’re ready to wrap up the lesson. Then you notice, there’s […]
A big part of being a great teacher is learning. Teachers who learn how to perfect their skills, understand their students’ learning styles, and appreciate the learning process better ultimately have the most engaged students and deliver the best quality lessons. Getting to that point takes time though, and often, the process is filled with […]
English grammar is quite a beast and knowing all the ins and outs of every grammar point is not something that is expected of you as an EFL teacher. However, it’s important to come to class prepared so that you can clearly express to your learners how the lesson’s target language works and how to […]
As many of us have learned from previous years, New Year’s resolutions tend to fall flat if there isn’t a firm plan in place to support them. No matter how motivated you may be on January 1st to achieve all of your 2022 goals, things may seem quite different by the end of the month. […]
It’s no secret that teaching can be an incredibly fulfilling job, but creating a positive learning environment and delivering stellar lessons day after day requires a high level of effort, commitment, and heart. All of that hard work can wear us down and take a toll, so if you’re feeling worn out and lacking inspiration […]
We all make mistakes sometimes, especially when we’re learning new things. And for some reason, a lot of us have developed this idea that making mistakes is embarrassing, uncomfortable, and just plain bad. If you’ve ever received quality feedback or guidance on how to improve something, you know just how helpful error correction can be […]
Are you a newly certified EFL teacher ready to transform TEFL theory into practice? If so, congrats and welcome to the growing global workforce of EFL/ESL teachers! Now that you’re here, you might be ready for a teaching job, but maybe you’d like to wear your new EFL teacher title a little more modestly and […]
We put so much time and effort into preparing for our lessons but we can sometimes forget about an equally important part of teaching – reflection. But what is it? Self-reflection is the process of evaluating a lesson you just taught. When you practice self-reflection after a lesson, you think about everything that went into […]
Have you ever had that cringe-worthy moment in front of your students where you gave instructions to an activity, expecting them to get started with it, and then right before your eyes, NOTHING HAPPENS?! There’s complete silence and your students are looking around for clues about what they should be doing. The problem, like most […]
Pronunciation might not seem like a vital part of learning English, but to your students, it’ll be the thing that determines if they are understood by others when they’re using English outside the classroom. As teachers, we often focus on making sure our students are using proper sentence structure, verb forms, and the right vocabulary […]
We’ve most likely all had a social experience where we felt the effects of the dreaded ‘awkward silence’. One minute you’re engaged in conversation and suddenly, you reach a dead end. AWKWARD! In social situations, these moments of silence may feel uncomfortable, or even painful, but in the classroom, they are anything but! The moments […]