Not every student loves to read, but there are benefits missed by not including any reading in one’s studies. Of course, some degree of reading is unavoidable, for example, one has to read a homework assignment or a short email announcement. But extended reading? That has to be a conscious choice. Let’s see if we…
Understanding Maiden and Married Names: Do your students know the difference?
One thing I love about teaching ESL is that my students around the world remind me that you can’t always make assumptions, especially about cultural issues. Take names, for example. In quite a number of countries, the name you’re born with is the name you die with. The lyrics to “An English Teacher” from the…
More Good Reads: 5 Short Stories
I shared a list of thought-provoking short stories in another post. (See February 2018 post.) If you work with advanced students who challenge you to find good reading material, you’ll go through that first list in good time and then be in need of new titles to choose from. Allow me to share five more….
Moving with the Times: A Cool Movie Clip-Based App
I’ve been recommending YouGlish as a listening and pronunciation tool for quite some time. It’s wonderful to hear different speech models and consider the various contexts a word or phrase is used in. However, the search results don’t include movies, TV shows, or music videos. What if there were a similar app that did include…
Is There a Place for Profanity in the Classroom?
Last month I made the decision to offer a YouTube lesson on swearing in English. I managed to say quite a lot in a 15-minute lesson without saying any strong curse words. So what exactly did I teach? Alternatives. It’s more a lesson on how not to curse. There are quite a lot of online lessons that…
What Does It Mean to Be Polite?
This month on YouTube I continue to explore topics that boost conversational skills, such as expressing surprise and giving compliments, and I find myself asking whether everyone has the same definition of polite. The concept of good manners can vary from culture to culture, and even from one social circle to another, people’s understanding of…
6 Tips for Teaching Conversational Expressions
I received a persistent request on YouTube for more lessons on conversation, so I decided to hold off on my plan to cover more modal verbs and offer a series of short videos in which I present and explain conversational expressions. Usually I offer such suggestions during my live lessons with private students because teachable…
Happy Holidays! See you in 2019!
Thank you for another year of sharing ideas in the wonderful world of ESL! I hope you’ll continue to follow my ELT blog in 2019. There’s still so much to explore together. Happy holidays to you! May the New Year bring you and your learners success and shared joy. Photo credit: Snowflake, Ornament by jill111….
Teaching Modals: What Can and Can’t Be Done
Is it possible to teach modals separately, one by one? Of course, you could, but why? Their uses and meanings tend to overlap, so it makes sense to teach modals together in small sets, for example, may and might for possibilities. However, it’s very likely that at least one student will ask a question such…
The Need to Learn by Doing
A student recently asked about the differences between need to, have to, and must. Sometimes an explanation clarifies such doubts, but often one learns much better through practice with some feedback. If you’d like short sets of tasks to study differences in structure and meaning, check out my Need to.Have to.Must_handout. Key points include: – Need to expresses what…
The First One to Figure Out This Tricky Grammar Wins!
No, this isn’t a contest, but if you can shed additional light on some tricky grammar topics, you’ll have my gratitude! #1. Infinitives as Complements A grammar question recently came from a new Instagram follower. Yes, there’s one more place you can follow me and/or send students to. All my video clips (all six of…
Comparing Apples to Oranges: Pronunciation Variations That Can Make You Go Bananas
“Do you say day-tuh or dah-tuh?” “What’s the right way to say ‘orange’?” “Why did you skip the ‘i’ in ‘foliage’? Isn’t is foh-lee-ij? That’s what my dictionary says.” Have you heard any questions or comments like that? I get them from students and my own children. Not surprisingly, my kids are bolder with their…
