Resource centre - Ideas and classroom techniques
Robert W.F. Taylor shares a few ideas for using art in the ESL classroom.
Julio Foppoli shares his views on why the approach to teaching grammar is more important than the question of whether or not it should be taught.
Do you get frustrated when your students don't grasp a new grammar point or vocabulary straight away? Julio Foppoli suggests a solution.
One of the most difficult situations for the language teacher is a group which includes students of different levels. Sue Swift shows us how to design a lesson to meet all their varying needs.
An effective warmer could make the difference between an alert class, and a group of zombies catching up on the sleep they missed out on the night before. Nadia Zehni shares her favourites.
Short stories and folktales can be used in the EFL classroom to practise both listening and speaking. Sue Swift shows us how.
Some classroom activities are fairly complex in terms of the way they're organised. Sue Swift shows us how to make sure that our instructions are as clear and comprehensible as possible.
If you have a large class you need a few things up your sleeve to bring the class into line when things get a little over-heated. Shelley Vernon has some tips and ideas to help you manage your large class.
Class projects are a great way to put into practice skills that have been learnt during an English course. Nadia Zehni shares her project ideas.
How often do you find yourself preparing a class, racking your brain for something different, a new activity to liven up a group of tired students? Keith Taylor has 10 ideas to get you started.
Songs have long been a favourite resource among EFL teachers. Larry Lynch shares his ideas for getting the most out of music in the classroom.
Grammar. The very mention of the word strikes fear into the heart of the staunchest language learner. What are we to do? Larry Lynch has a few ideas.
The use of drama is often overlooked by teachers searching for new ideas. In this article, Larry Lynch highlights a few ways of using drama as a resource in the language classroom.
In his first article in this series, Larry Lynch looked at some ways of using drama in an EFL classroom. Here, he suggests some more, including "Improvised dialogues" and "Double Talk dialogues".
The basic principle of mind-maps is that the mind dislikes traditional, linear note taking and thus anything we write should start in the centre of the page with related ideas branching out in all directions. Jon Lewis explores how mind-maps can be an asset to language learners.
Have you ever wondered how to use movies in your ESL classes, without just sitting your students down in front of the screen, hitting 'Play' and sitting back to watch. Keith Taylor has a few ideas to get you started.
Here are a few more ideas for using video in ESL classes, using very short extracts from movies to present and practise new language, and develop communicative skills.
Larry Lynch has a look at some of the ways you can use your favourite cartoons and comics in the language classroom.
Larry Lynch tells us why songs should be an integral part of any EFL teacher's repertoire of resources.
How can we get our students to speak? Larry Lynch suggests that a little controversy should be on the menu in an EFL conversation class.