Today we have a guest contribution from Victoria Hughes. Victoria has been a TEFL teacher for 5 years and has lived in Poland, China and Turkey. She writes about job hunting, lesson planning and the joys and frustrations of teaching. Enter Victoria I was watching the...
You've been asked to give a private TEFL lesson to a new student. You know virtually nothing about them but you know you'll be sitting in a room with them, one on one, for an hour and half. This article is all about how to prepare for a First Private Lesson. What...
Intonation in Practice is a simple exercise which you can do with almost any class to help them understand what intonation is and how it works in English. It's easily adaptable to all learner levels and abilities. Explain that in English you have to give stress (or...
A Lexical Chunk is a unit of language which is made up of two or more words. Here are a few examples of lexical chunks: Good morning. Nice to see you! What's the time? Other lexical chunks can include phrasal verbs, idioms, collocations and so on. Lexical chunks...
Most teachers are old in comparison to their students. And because most teachers choose materials for their class, this often means that the materials they use are old. And by old, I mean stuck in the past and out of date. When a TEFL teacher decides to use music in...
Word Bag is a fun game which helps with semantic fields and vocabulary in general. It's quick to set up and ideal to keep the class occupied for 10 minutes at the end of a lesson and it is very good for all ages and levels of students. Running the Game To start,...
Lip Reading is a fun activity which can be used with all ages and class levels. On the one hand it teaches the "speaker" to carefully pronounce words and on the other it helps the "listener" in predicting what is going to be said. Both these skills are useful when it...
Truth or Lie is an activity which is used to practice the Present Perfect Simple and also giving students practicing making questions. Preparation Prepare a number of flashcards on which you have written a present perfect simple question, have you ever... Have you...
This is a "show and tell" activity for the TEFL teacher who wants to encourage young learners to produce language in a natural way and create a more spontaneous response than the traditional "repeat after me" approach. How it works Take a large cloth bag (a black bin...
Songs and Music are great tools to use in the TEFL classroom. Everyone likes listening to music and the right song can not only be fun for the students (and the teacher) but also be used in an effective way to teach. Popular song lyrics are often very simple and...
Role Plays or Simulations are an extremely valuable method for learning and practicing the English in your TEFL/TESOL classroom. Essentially the students are placed in a certain fictitious situation where they must use English. It allows creativity on the part of the...
QVC is a tv shopping channel which is famous for showing short segments where presenters talk about a product for several minutes, describing it in detail and explaining everything one could possibly want to know about it. The concept can be transferred to the English...
This is an Example TEFL Lesson Plan which illustrates some of the ideas presented in the article on TEFL Lesson Planning. It will give you a good idea of how to approach the subject and lay out your plan. Obviously what we show here will need to be tweaked and...
Talking Pictures is an activity for your TEFL class which involves the students from the outset and is guaranteed to interest them as they provide the impetus for the class. This is important. Often students can feel left out of the class; in this activity they are...
Just a Minute is a very popular British radio quiz game which is ideal for the TEFL classroom and great for practicing speaking skills. It's very simple to prepare and great fun to play. Best for small groups but it can be played with larger groups if you prepare it...
Detective Reading is a simple reading exercise to give your students practice in intensive reading. The students will check for details and clues in the text to answer several questions. Preparation Find a text which is of suitable length and level for your class. It...
Have You Ever? is a simple game to practice the Present Perfect Simple verb form using the "have you ever" question construction. It's very easy to set up and run and is ideal for reinforcing when we use and how we construct the verb form. To begin, write up on the...
Speak as if... is a great speaking activity which gets the students talking and repeating without realizing it. It is a great as a five minute filler activity or to use anytime you want to practice a certain few phrases with the class. It works with almost any class...
Split Personalities is a fun TEFL activity which helps students practice their speaking skills, specifically in describing how people look, their clothes and so on (although it can also be adapted and used for other descriptions). It is ideal for lower level...
Take a Letter is a simple dictation practice which allows your business English students to practice the form and style of business letters. Business letters are often formulaic, using set words and phrases and layouts. This exercise gives your students practice with...
Lyric Lineup is a fun game for young learners. It's useful to practice listening in TEFL. Preparation First choose a song suitable for the class. This means it needs to be the correct level in terms of vocabulary and grammar and also suitable subject matter. For...
Irregular Threes is a quick game to practice and remember Irregular Verbs- it's ideal for a younger class: it's noisy, chaotic, energetic and great fun, too! (There are some quieter versions of this game at the bottom of the page, however!) Running the Game Firstly go...
Brain Teasers are ideal classroom activities and can be used in loads of different ways. They're easy to adapt and you can tweak them to be just right for your TEFL class. Basically a brain teaser is a puzzle where your students have to think to find the solution....
PoS Swap is an activity to practice different parts of speech. For TEFL teachers it's well worth using as it requires little or no preparation and can be used any time there's a slight uncertainty amongst the students over a particular PoS. Running the Activity Write...
Quick Spell is an ideal activity if you find your class has problems spelling a particular word. If you notice that the same spelling mistake crops up again and again it's time to play this game! The idea behind the activity is making the spelling of this word so...
Spelling Mix is a simple TEFL activity for students to practice the spelling of words in a semantic field. It's suitable for any age and level as long as the words the students are looking for are of the right level. Preparation Select a group of words of a suitable...
Good News, Bad News is a simple game you can play with almost any level of class. It's useful to practice both listening and speaking. Students need to listen carefully to what was said before and prepare their own ideas as well. With your class, go through the...
Wipeout is a simple end-of-class activity which is good for practicing pronunciation and speaking. It is a good activity for low level classes and can be used from beginners up. It's better with smaller classes but with a little variation can be used for large classes...
Conditional Mashups is a simple activity to have your class practicing conditionals. It also encourages your students to use their imaginations which is never a bad thing! Preparation For this you'll need loads of slips of paper. Each slip should have a dividing line...
Yes/No is a simple game that helps get your class asking and answering questions and doing plenty of speaking and listening. The beauty of it is that it can be extended! Gameplay Write up on the board YES and NO in bold letters. Now tell your students that these...
