Teaching skills

Teaching Listening: How to make the most of your lessons

Teaching listening comprehension is challenging for ESL learners, especially in the East Asian context. This is due to a range of factors: firstly, reading and writing skills are typically given greater importance in language learning at school as compared to oral/aural skills. In addition, Chinese, Japanese and Korean learners are typically more… All categories, Teaching skills, How to..., Certificate courses, ESL activities

How to teach grammar clearly: an introduction to the basics

*Final revision by Bryan Holmes, James Pengelley and Tom Garside Hear from some new teachers talking about their CertTESOL experience. Often new teachers are filled with anxiety when teaching grammar. Here we outline the basic approach to clearly staged grammar lessons with a communicative, student-focused outcome. This approach is… All categories, Certificate courses, How to..., Teaching skills, ESL activities

5 Ways to take feedback and correct mistakes

Post-task feedback is the stage of an ESOL class where much of the real learning happens; it is during feedback that students reflect on their ideas, correct their mistakes and apply the language that we teach in a restricted, experimental and discursive setting. However, feedback stages are all too often focused on the product of the task (the… All categories, Five ways to, Certificate courses, Teaching skills, How to..., ESL activities

English pronunciation: variation or error?

Following on from last week's post on using the IPA with your classes, this week we ask: does your accent matter? Teachers often get asked who speaks better English; the British, Irish, Australians, New Zealanders or North Americans?  Actually, the question itself is meaningless as currently, English has many variations (grammatically… All categories, Certificate courses, How to..., Teaching skills, Diploma courses