Hi everyone,

I was wondering, how/where do freelance or teachers working for language centres find partners for eTwinning-like projects? My students really want to try an international Christmas card exchange but since I work for a language centre and not a school, I don't have access to the official eTwinning platform.

Thank you!

I have this Chinese student that I’ve been teaching for almost a year now. She still struggles to form complete, correct sentences on her own and sometimes doesn’t understand basic questions or tasks I give her. She often seems disconnected or bored during lessons, and I’ve been racking my brain trying to figure out how to keep her mentally engaged with the book.

She told me her challenge is knowing how to answer correctly in English, even when she already knows the answer. Usually, she’ll type her answer in the chatbox, and she’s often right. But when it comes to saying those same answers aloud, she struggles.

I’m using Junior Free Talk 1 because I thought it would encourage her to speak more and help her get familiar with everyday questions and how to answer them.

For those who’ve taught similar students, what would you suggest? How can I help her get better at forming sentences and expressing herself verbally?

PS: This isn’t just about one student. I’d love to learn strategies I can apply to other students with similar difficulties.

I tutor EFL students in Spain from 4th grade to 10th grade, and my students have all studied/memorized regular and irregular past simple verbs. They do great when we’re doing a past simple-specific game like a baamboozle or making sentences in the past tense, but when we’re just doing normal conversation practice they rarely use it. How do I get them to use it more in conversation without interrupting and overcorrecting, which I know is bad?

Bespoke Video Lesson Maker: Free YouTube Quiz & Listening Lesson Creator | Modern English Australia

I am a teacher of 12 years who was always doing something creative on the side. I've been building a bunch of tools to simplify and create beautiful professional and engaging lessons for students, that you don't have subscribed to or fiddle with messy buttons and logic.

This is a tool whereby you cut and paste a Youtube URL into the page, and write the lesson using the windows, then you can save it, download and/or share it with your students.

This is a brand new tool on my website and I would love it if some teachers could try it and give me some feedback.

Bespoke Video Lesson Maker: Free YouTube Quiz & Listening Lesson Creator | Modern English Australia
Thanks in advance.

Hi guys, I have been approached about doing some online work teaching IELTS classes. The only experience I've had is teaching in person, which of course is quite straightforward regarding preparing materials. Having a PowerPoint, worksheets and speaking in person is very straightforward.

Before I accept this position, I'd like to hear from some of you guys who do regular online classes. How do you approach teaching these classes? What software is key to providing good lessons? Do you screen share?

If you could share some websites or resources that I can look into, just so I can learn more about how to best present my lessons in an online setting that would be great.

Thank you!

I work in a high school as a non-licensed English teacher and recently I've been thinking about trying to facilitate some kind of language exchange for my students. I am particularly interested in giving my students the chance to communicate with other students who are also learning English so they can broaden their perspective on English as a lingua franca.

To be honest, I don't think I could pull off a large scale exchange in my current position, but is there anyone in this sub who would be interested in trying to do a small exchange with their students? Maybe like 10 students or so, just to test waters and make getting permission easier.

I've found that while textbook exercises can be helpful, students don't always get the opportunity to practice what they've learned in real conversations with native speakers. On top of that, everyday conversations with friends and family can be quite different from the situations and dialogues covered in textbooks and other learning materials.

Hey everyone,

I'm not a teacher. Just a builder who likes solving problems.

I built this because I watched someone close to me burn out on lesson prep. Hours every week creating comprehension questions for YouTube videos. Pausing, typing, rewinding, formatting.

So I made VideoQuiz, a Chrome extension that turns any YouTube video into a quiz in about 30 seconds. Works directly on YouTube, no tab switching. You pick the number of questions, type, difficulty, and output language. Export to PDF, Google Forms, Quizlet, or Kahoot.

Free tier is 10 quizzes/month. No credit card.

Screenshot of it in action below.

Link: https://videoquiz.app/

I'm sharing it here because I want to know if this actually solves a problem for you, or if I'm solving a problem only the teachers I know have.

Would love honest feedback, including "this is useless."

Thanks.

I exclusively teach adults and quite enjoy the British Council’s “speaking lessons” (B1 and B2 levels especially) for my small group lessons. They are video-based lessons on functions and vocabulary like “Talking about advantages and disadvantages”, “Challenging people’s ideas”, “Expressing opinions” and so on…

Does anyone know of anything similar on the American English side? I’m not a fan of Voices of America and the CBC’s English learning material is not fantastic? Over half my clients are based in Canada and prefer practicing with accents closer to what we hear here.

I'm the developer, sharing something I made for ages 3–7. TaleBloom is a set of short picture books narrated in English with each word highlighted as it's read, so early readers can follow along.

The part that might help newcomers: every book can be switched to Spanish, Chinese, Japanese or French on the same page. A child can hear the story in their home language first, then in English.

Three books are free with no account or sign-up: https://talebloom.page

- Ada and the Sleepy Seed (how seeds grow)

- Romi and the Wobbly Wheel (shapes, why wheels are round)

- Milu and the Moon Pocket (bedtime, asking for help)

The other 12 need a paid membership. If you try it with a student, I'd really like to know what would make it more useful in class.

so there are so many things that come together to drive me crazy, but because i'm unexperienced I thought that maybe there are methods to manage that i simply didn't know about, first and foremost, this school that I teach in has a weird system that, you have to teach any number of students that show up, meaning, if there's only one student, you still have to teach them, which technically becomes a private lesson, meaning more efforts and naturally more pay, one that i don't get, i just have to teach whatever lesson comes

I don't know why but I feel like I've been through this so much that I even forgot why It's bad, and now I can't even explain it because it's always been a natural thing to simply cancel class when there aren't many students, especially if it's just one person, but i can't explain it it's like having to explain why we breath, it's been the default your whole life so now you can't just go in and analyse why it doesn't make sense to do otherwise, but the point is, it's so painful to do

now here's the catch, i'm foreign, i'm teaching where I barely know the mother tongue, and that would've been okay if the levels i were teaching are a bit advanced, but they're not, they're either beginners or kids, and I have to go through all this pain not even really knowing how to explain stuff to them

the way this school is labeling me is "speaking teacher" meaning i don't get lesson plans like other teachers, students just come to me and i help them practice speaking, so letting a student go to a lesson specifically dedicated for speaking, without enough level to do that, is just borderline painful for me as a teacher because yeah sure I can review the topics they already did with other teachers, but that would be more like just reviewing vocabulary and repeating phrases, it's not speaking, not really, but even with that, there's only so much you can do before you run out of material, you can do all the activities you want, be creative all you want, in the end, it's you and a bunch of students with a huge language barrier between you

another problem is that sometimes they mix up levels and you end up teaching a few students where one doesn't know anything at all while the other is advanced, so the former is confused and the latter is bored, I have a class where a student literally doesn't know the alphabet, and they just put him there because they didn't have a new group, now what am I supposed to do dedicated certain classes for him and the alphabet?

the idea that the students just study something and then come to me to practice speaking within that topic, is lovely at first, it sounds nice, but overtime, it's exhausting, and sometimes they've only seen one topic that week, but have multiple speaking classes, so let's say the topic this week is countries and nationalities, I'm supposed to hold speaking classes, 4, 5 or 6 of them, with students who only studied countries, with the possibility that only one student shows up, and in a class of students with different levels, while handling so many groups at the same time

here's the thing, I always thought that maybe i'm biased because i hate the school, maybe i just couldn't handle it well, maybe i'm even being lazy and just don't want to come up with new activities and exercises every single day, so teachers all around the world, what do you think of this, is this school really as unhinged as I find it to be or am I just not managing it well, I tried, I really did, the last few months all I've been doing is trying to manage and come up with a good program or schedule or style, you name it, but the moment i enter the class and there is just one student, I really get a feeling of being extremely underwhelmed and sad

as for being creative with activities, sure maybe you can but the kids are just not learning new things, you can't keep coming up with creative activities forever about the same few topics

Get your students talking about the stars with this engaging astrology conversation activity pack for ESL and EFL learners. Designed for intermediate and advanced English learners, Astrology explores the zodiac, horoscopes, natal charts, and the debate between believers and skeptics through short readings, targeted vocabulary, and open-ended discussion questions about personality, identity, and belief.

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Conversational-English-for-Adults-Astrology-17873431

Hi all! New to posting here, I'm a teacher based in Barcelona. I currently run an FCE preparation course for a centre here which provides the coursebook but I need to provide the assessment material. They require a full Cambridge FCE practice exam for the end of each term, which ends up being 4x exams with the same students. I have already used the two provided on Cambridge's own website already, does anyone know where I could find more? Ideally full exam, printable...

Thank you :)

People in Western countries, particularly English-speaking but also in countries where other languages are spoken are told huge lies about how by spending a few hundred to a few thousand dollars, they can attend classes and get a diploma that will let them travel the world and experience life in a new country, learn a language while making a salary comparable to the folks back in your country. The first promise is absolutely true, the second is partially true (your colleagues will be mainly other expats or locals that studied English at university level so you have to actively seek opportunities to learn the language in your free time) and the last is simply not true at all. ESL teachers either go back when they've had enough of living in a crappy flatshare or end up having lived abroad for many years without any savings.

It needs to be made clear to young adults that TESOL is not a long-term career unless they get qualifications which can be used to get a job in a public school (which can be very hard to do once you leave your own country) or have the funds and skills to start a private business and have people teach for you while you take a share of the profits. I personally live well but I am not and will never be the main breadwinner in my family. Meanwhile many are living in poverty abroad with no clear route to improving their own circumstances.