If you’ve done a great job prompting your students to talk about themselves in class, chances are, you know a lot about them. You may know what they do for work, what their hobbies are and how they spend their free time. You might also know about their family, favourite foods, music, TV...

Adult learners often have very specific ideas about how they’ll use English as their foreign language and why they need it. That, in turn, leads to sometimes specific requests. Sometimes they’re REALLY specific– intellectual property legal terms? Salmon farming vocabulary?...

Language learning as an adult is a huge challenge to undertake. It doesn’t help that there is tons of marketing out there, from institutes to apps and everything in between, that says there is a proven, painless method. For those of us that work in language education, and especially those...

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...

If you’ve been in the classroom for any amount of time, you’ve probably heard from other teachers, your own teacher training, or other places that authentic material is a must for English language classes. But what actually counts as authentic material, and how can you use it...

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,...

Part of being an effective teacher is being able to make a decision on the spot to extend an activity or increase the difficulty right then and there. Fortunately, this is a skill that you can hone with a little practice and the tips we’ve put together for you on this list.

If you’ve...