How to get students speaking
In this text I suggest a method of teaching speaking and I explain why it should be done in this way.
Two Tools to Save Preparation Time
Lesson preparation can take a lot of time. Here you will find two Microsoft Macros that will save some time for you.
How to Teach Telling Time in English
Here I hope to teach my students tell the time in English using both digital and analogue clocks.
This set of materials contains two videos, two speaking activities and a graphic organiser.
Adverbs of Frequency – Word Order
Master Yoda never bothered with the word order. But when my young padawans do the same I am not really happy. I yearn for a lightsaber precision. Especially adverbs of frequency should go in the right places. So here I would like to share a set of materials to help you teach this grammar.
Present perfect vs. Past simple – new activities
The present perfect tense is one of the most difficult tenses for my students. Therefore, I have spent a lot of time creating various materials to teach this tense. To save your time, I share the materials here.
Two Simple Online Tools to Teach English
Grammar Pac and Dictate are two online tools which help me teach English. Both of these tools are online and they are made for interactive whiteboards. Both of them provide a simple way to practise the things which have already been taught.
Free Speed Reading App
Unfortunately students don’t like reading. And what is even worse, they hate re-reading. It is next to impossible to make them re-read an article . They will complain, they will pretend or they will go to the toilet, but the majority won’t read the text again.
Countability – How Much x How Many
I have not created a new infographic for quite some time. I have been pretty content using the materials here. But when I saw the materials for HOW MUCH, HOW MANY, LITTLE and FEW I realised that I would like to have something better. Therefore I created the following materials to help my students understand…
Teaching with Lego Bricks
During my summer holiday I spent some time creating these lovely boxes. Do you want to know what is inside?
What Do We Know About Teaching?
I am not a really good teacher. But I would like to be. That is why I study a lot. Recently I read two books which tried to sum up what the scientists know about teaching and learning. The first one is called What Does This Look Like In The Classroom?: Bridging the Gap Between…
Past simple tense – the form
Some students find it difficult to learn all the forms of the past simple tense. The following worksheets will help them learn this grammar easily.
Students’ Autonomy – Spelling Rules
Autonomous students are intrinsically motivated, willing to take responsibility for their own learning and aware of their preferred learning strategies.
Past tense of regular verbs
It has been known that people remember grammar rules best if they come up with their own explanation. Therefore, the teachers should try to design their teaching activities in such a way that they will help students create their own rules.
Was and Were
The verb to BE in the past tense is one of the most important grammar points in English. As both WAS and WERE belong among 100 most frequent words in English, it is paramount that students know and use them correctly.
Have got – board game
Recently my colleague noticed that our textbook contains too few exercises to practise the verb HAVE GOT. To bridge this gap I decided to create a board game. A board game will allow my students practise the grammar in a fun way and this activity can be used repeatedly.
Colourful Teaching
Imagine that even your most challenged students understand new grammar? Imagine that they discover the rules themselves? Imagine that your students ask you to test them on the topic you have just taught. All these things have happened to me after I started to use colourful teaching.
Magic Grammar Cards for Learners of English
Recently I introduced Magic Grammar Cards in my classes. These cards are extremely versatile, easy to prepare and simple to use. Moreover, I believe that they are a great way to revise grammar and they support independent learning.
9 Most Frequent Irregular Verbs in English
When learning English, students are usually given a list of irregular verbs to memorize. This list usually consists of 60 to 100 verbs. There is nothing wrong with this approach but I think that it would be much more useful to give students a list of the most frequent verbs in English and the chunks…
7 ESL Activities That Worked in the Past
In this post, I would like to write about seven activities that were common in ESL classrooms in the past. However, these activities went out of fashion but there is no reason why they should not return. They worked in the past and if used wisely there is no reason why they should not work…
The Other Aunt – Harry Potter fanfiction lesson plan
Harry Potter is extremely popular among students. Students know and like the stories. Why not use this affection? Let’s give them what they want and teach English at the same time.