In my opinion the modal verb CAN is one of the easiest grammar points in English to teach. That is why I have not produced a post on this topic yet. However, this is going to change, as I am in need of one and I am going to share it here with you. In…
Sometimes easy does it. Two days ago I was assigned to teach a short dialogue to a group of students with learning disabilities and problems. I created a set of three activities and I did not held any high expectations. However, it turned out that the students liked the activities and many of them actually…
I have always believed that questions are one of the most important things in a language. That is why I devote quite a lot of my teaching time to teaching questions. I have already written several posts on teaching questions: Forming questions in Past tense Questions with like ADVERT: [showmyads] Questions with WAS and WERE…
Giving directions in English is one of the most useful functions there is. Everyone understands that this is the function they are likely to use on the street, literally, and therefore the motivation is usually quite easy. To be able to give directions you need to learn a set of phrases which you later combine…
It is really important that students learn to form questions in the past simple tense. If they don’t, they won’t be able to ask about the things that happened in the past. And as most conversations deal with the things that already happened it is vital to be able to ask about the details they…
The following post on the usage of articles with proper names is not going to be 100% grammatically correct. It’s not that I’m going to insert typos here and there. What I mean is that the rules stated here are just rules of thumb and will not work all the time. I am not a…
Recently Fluency MC and I worked on a post about body parts. In the post we presented about thirty parts of the body. We used a wonderful rap song by Jason Levine, an infographic and a quiz to teach these words. Then Jules from English Through Music Madrid contacted me and informed me that he…
I was looking for some short and useful activities which I could use in class. For a long time I could not find any interesting, yet extremely short texts which I could use if I had between five and ten minutes to spare. And then I encountered Pope Francis’ tweets and I tried to convert…
The school year is starting and the summer holiday is over. Students are returning to their classrooms and we have to teach them. And I think that many of us would like to teach better than last year. So let’s start with a great speaking activity about the summer holiday. ADVERT: [showmyads] The original idea…
For a long time I felt that I was missing a post on this site on parts of the body. But I wasn’t inspired enough to close this gap. Fortunately, a few days ago Jason Levine from FLUENCY MC published a wonderful video dealing with the relevant vocabulary. It got me started. This post is another result of…
Yesterday English Through Music published an awesome song called “How are you?”. As the song is easy to remember and sing, I contacted Jules and asked him for a permission to write a post around the song. He kindly agreed and here you can see the result. ADVERT: [showmyads] This post is mainly for beginners…
A few days ago Tekhnologic published a wonderful post on Telling time in English. What I liked immediately was the powerpoint presentation which was capable of showing the time on a clock with hands. I asked for a permission to modify the presentation and use it on my blog which was kindly granted. In this…
Possessive adjectives are extremely important for learners of English. Words like my, your, his, her, their and our belong among the most frequent ones in English. Thus, you have to know them. Moreover, you have to learn them early to be able to understand and communicate in the foreign language. ADVERT: [showmyads] To help your…
For ESL students and pupils in Great Britain, India, Australia, New Zealand and many other countries, it is crucial to learn the parts of speech in English. In fact, this knowledge is very useful for EFL learners too, as it helps them get more information from dictionaries and grammar books. And as this topic is…
A few days ago my friend Shanthi Cumaraswamy Streat publised a great post called “20 Phrasal Verbs with ‘BRING’ – Let’s Explore“. I liked it so much that I contacted Shanthi and she kindly agreed to my turning her post into infographics and games. And here you can see the final result of our great…
The third conditional is the most feared grammar point I know. Students of English think that it’s hard to form and understand. Therefore, when they start learning the grammar they are paralysed with fear. And as a result, they fail to learn it. Thus the third conditional keeps its reputation. ADVERT: [showmyads] But the truth…
Have you ever used poetry to teach English in your class? If you have you can probably confirm that it was not a great success. The majority of your students were probably bored and didn’t share your passion for the poem. And thus they found your lesson boring and useless. Therefore, it may seem that…
Recently, in the post called Questions with Like, I asked you to choose the activity you would like me to write about. Most of you voted for a Speaking activity, so I prepared a set of speaking activities to practice the prepositions of place. I have already created a post on prepositions, so this time…
The word LIKE is one of the most productive words in English. However, many students often confuse the meaning of the questions with LIKE and they give completely wrong answers. Especially pre-intermediate students of English find these questions really difficult. ADVERT: [showmyads] The aim of this post is to explain the meaning of different questions…
Speaking activities are the most important component of English courses using communicative approach. However, it is very difficult to find quality speaking activities that would work. That is why I would like to publish a speaking activity here once a week. All the activities will be based on the recommendations given by Keith S. Folse…