TEFL Teaching Articles

Teaching English to Absolute Beginners: 8 Best Tips and Strategies
Altiné Moumouni
It takes patience and creativity to break down the fundamental concepts and communicate them to learners without prior knowledge

10 Free Resources That Every ESL Teacher Must Use
Altiné Moumouni
Whether teaching online or tutoring, finding the right resources can help improve your experience as a teacher and enhance your students’ level of engagement

Top 5 Books That Will Make You a Better TEFL Teacher
Altiné Moumouni
It is almost the end of my summer vacation, a perfect time to read. Here are a few books that have helped me hugely as a teacher

Barriers to ESL Reading Literacy Every Teacher Should Know
Armando Pannacci
Teaching reading to ESL students can be more complex than teaching it to native English speakers for a variety of reasons. ESL students face challenges reading English that they don’t typically encounter with their native language because there are many different cognitive processes taking place when reading in a second language. For this reason, every […]

7 Online Free Tools Teachers Often Underutilize
Altiné Moumouni
These tools will help you become efficient as a teacher and increase your students’ participation. What I like the most is that these tools make it easy to access all your teaching materials, including students’ grades, and assessments, online anywhere and anytime

How to Effectively Make a Noisy Class Quiet
Altiné Moumouni
Imagine entering your class and noticing that class is noisy; what do you do? One of the greatest fears most teachers have is being perceived by other colleagues or administration as incapable of managing classes or as a bad teacher

9 Signs You Are a Bad TEFL Teacher
Altiné Moumouni
I met a lot of teachers who lost their jobs or got flagged as “bad teachers”. Here are some of the characteristics they share

My 7 New Year’s Resolutions as a TEFL Teacher
Altiné Moumouni
So, why should a teacher make New Year’s resolutions? Because habits make good or bad teachers and are the key to success. As a teacher, your habits will make or break your lessons and inspire or demotivate your students.

7 Tips for Teaching Pronunciation
Altiné Moumouni
Use these seven tips for teaching pronunciation to help your students build confidence in speaking English and succeeding in other areas of their lives

7 Tips for Teaching Reading Comprehension to ESL Adults
Altiné Moumouni
Properly learning to read and comprehend written words is essential because reading is a doorway to advanced and higher education, including in science and language

The Pros and Cons of Using Tech in the Classroom
Armando Pannacci
If used effectively, technology can make your lessons more engaging for students, can increase both student and teacher productivity, and can lead to greater English acquisition in learners.

7 Tips for Teaching Mixed-Ability ESL Classes
Altiné Moumouni
With these seven tips for teaching mixed-ability ESL classes, you will create a favorable learning environment for all your students

7 Tips for Teaching Writing
Altiné Moumouni
With these seven tips for teaching writing, you will help your students enjoy your writing class and make them successful in their chosen careers

7 Tips for Teaching ESL to Complete Beginners
Altiné Moumouni
Teaching beginners might sound easy but is challenging when done effectively

7 Things ESL Students Struggle with (and How to Help)
Altiné Moumouni
Top seven nightmares for English learners

7 Tips for Teaching English
Altiné Moumouni
Because of the long-lasting impact a TEFL teacher can have on students, teaching English is both a challenging and rewarding job. And, to reap the rewards that come with teaching, many teachers must go through tough times in learning the ins and outs of the job.  Rest assured, with these 7 Tips for Teaching English […]

7 Marketing Tips for Freelance TEFL Teachers
Altiné Moumouni
Start implementing these seven proven marketing tips and reap the amazing benefits of freelance TEFL teaching.

How to Teach English Online as a Non-Native Speaker
Chad Emery
This article offers advice for non-native English teachers looking to jumpstart their careers teaching online.

Summary/reflection on Literacy Development in Successful Men and Women with Dyslexia
Aytaged Zeleke
A summary and reflection on literacy development in successful men and women with dyslexia. And implications for teaching reading.

Summary/Reflection on “Sharing Time”: Children’s Narrative Styles and Differential Access to Literacy
Aytaged Zeleke
A summary and reflection on discourse strategies in sharing turns/time used by a teacher and students who were ethnically mixed

How to Influence Students to Entertain Themselves
Todd Persaud
This is an article that I wrote about my teaching experience. It’s about how to influence students to entertain themselves.

Creating the Best Mindset for Lesson Feedback
Jeanette Barsdell
The article explores how to create the best mindset for giving constructive oral lesson feedback to a teacher whose lesson you have observed.

A Philosophy of ESL Teaching and Learning
Howard Mayo
A comprehensive ESL philosophy relative to what is needed on the road toward “successful” teaching and learning

Battling Burn-Out for Teachers
Samuel Owens
Your life force is running out.

Dyslexia in the Foreign Language Classroom
Ania Krzyzak
A practical guide for teachers

Accounting For Learning Style
Paul Meehan
How an understanding of individual learning styles can pay dividends in class

Make Your Own Worksheets with Worksheet Generator
Tara Benwell
Save time making your own worksheets online with TEFL.net’s easy-to-use Worksheet Generator.

Reconsidering Running Around Games in EFL
Alex Case
How to achieve better discipline and learning than you would with running around games as they are usually done.

Making Current Affairs Lessons Timeless
Alex Case
Making sure your lessons and their results last longer than the news cycle.

How To Teach A/An
Alex Case
Advice and classroom activities for teaching the two forms of the indefinite article and the difference between them.

How To Teach Have/Have Got
Alex Case
Presentation and practice of the language of possession.

How To Teach the Academic Word List
Alex Case
What to teach about the most used academic vocabulary, and how to do so – vital for IELTS, EAP, pre-sessional, study abroad and Academic Writing classes.

How To Teach the Future Continuous Tense
Alex Case
When and how to present and practise will + be + v + ing for points in time and certain future events.

How To Teach the Future Perfect Tense
Alex Case
What to teach about will + have + PP and how to do so, plus three practice activities.

How To Teach English For Architects
Alex Case
A summary of issues and solutions for an area that there is little specific material for.

Teaching With Video
Renaud Davies
Renaud Davies looks at practical ways of getting students more involved when using video in the classroom.

How To Teach Present Perfect With Unfinished Times
Alex Case
How to approach Present Perfect with “this year”, “in the last couple of days” etc.

Management of Angry and Passive-Aggressive Students
Hazel Morley
Hazel Morley looks at ways of identifying and responding to anger and passive aggression in students.

How To Teach Present Perfect With YET And ALREADY
Alex Case
Practical advice for teaching Have + Past Participle with “yet” and “already”.

How To Teach Present Perfect For Experiences (Have You Ever)
Alex Case
The first use of Present Perfect to teach and how to do so.

How To Practise Used To
Alex Case
Adding a little more when teaching Used To. Really practical activities for practising Used To in class.

What Your Students Need To Know For IELTS Academic Reading
Alex Case
How students can improve their scores in the Academic version of IELTS Reading.

How To Teach FCE Use Of English Part One
Alex Case
Exam tips and stimulating classroom activities for the Cambridge First Certificate multiple choice cloze task.

Teaching Benefit Classes
Alex Case
Tips and strategies for dealing with in-company classes where the students have different motivations for studying

Combining Collocations and Pronunciation
Alex Case
Ways of practising the two tricky points of words that commonly go together and pronunciation more easily and more productively

General Explanations For English Future Forms
Alex Case
One grammar explanation that can be used to explain almost all future tenses, plus a debunking of two common but inaccurate attempts to do so

Ideas on Teaching Public Speaking Skills
Dr. Sarah Elaine Eaton
Speaking in public can be a terrifying experience, and even more so in a second language. Here are some ideas to augment your teaching of presentation skills to learners of English.

Teaching Perfect Tenses
Alex Case
Ways to teach the Perfect tenses together to make both the more common tenses and the less common ones easier to understand and remember

Discourse-based Teaching
Eman Elturki
How spoken and written discourse can be an effective tool for teaching the four language skills combined

Teaching Continuous Tenses
Alex Case
An explanation of the similarities and differences between all Continuous tenses, and how to explain these to students in ways that make all the tenses easier

Are Your Students Blogging?
Tara Benwell
Thinking about going paperless? Get blogging!

Finding a Balance in the Use of Competition
Alex Case
How to deal with over-competitive classes without losing the positive effects of points etc

Thinking Time in ELT
Alex Case
Thinking time in the classroom can be both a positive and a negative thing. This article argues that the two sides are closely linked and gives ideas for accentuating the positive, reducing the negative, and choosing which half to concentrate on in particular classes.

Level Tests Versus Placement Tests
Alex Case
“Level test” and “placement test” are often used interchangeably, but “placement test” may be a better name. This article explains why and gives practical advice regarding such testing.

Making Sure Students Understand Your Instructions
Alex Case
19 ways to save class time and help everyone’s confidence by improving your classroom instructions

Your First Day with a New Class
Michael Berman
What do you do first day with a new class? Clearly this depends on their level and whether they already know each other or not. Here is something for classes from Intermediate level upwards – first day questionnaires. Four different sets of questions are used to ensure variety in feedback.

More Ways of Classifying Classroom Questions
Alex Case
A teacher asks millions of questions over their teaching life, and this can result in the types of questions being repeated all the time without too much thought

More Ways to Bring Lucky Chances Into Your Classroom and Lesson Planning
Alex Case
Like good jazz or improvisational comedy, it takes a lot of skill and practice to discover and exploit lucky chances

Still More Ways to Boost Your Teaching Confidence
Alex Case
15 ways to give yourself a pep talk

Easy Ways to Bring Change Into Your Classroom
Alex Case
How to introduce change in ways that are realistic and easy on the teacher, the students and the school structure

Almost Certainly the Final 15 Ways of Avoiding Misunderstandings in Your Classroom
Alex Case
How showing your grandmother how to send an SMS can help your classroom technique

More Ways to Make Sure Students in Your Classes Understand You
Alex Case
From making it longer to making it shorter, these techniques will help avoid misunderstanding in your classes

More Ways of Simplifying Your Classroom Language
Alex Case
15 suggestions for clarifying your classroom language

Simplifying Your Classroom Language
Alex Case
15 ways to make the instructions you give students clearer

Kids Class Blues
Dante Cuevas
Kiss disciplinary problems goodbye

20 Presentation Tips for Your ESL Students
Josef Essberger
Helping learners to give presentations is an excellent way to encourage fluency

English Speaking Practice Through Presentations
Josef Essberger
Public speaking in the ESL classroom

Using Video Cameras in the Language Classroom
Josef Essberger
Because it is so close to language reality – containing visual as well as audible cues – video is an excellent medium for use in the language classroom