Adapting childhood games for the ESL classroom can result in a learning experience that is simultaneously constructive and fun. Games are a good way to reinforce speaking and listening skills, and students as well as parents will inevitably appreciate the effort devoted to incorporating games into class. Newcomers to the field of ESL teaching quickly learn of the importance of playing games. In situations where the students speak a different language than the teacher, games

It can be quite difficult for young ESL students to get comfortable using English, especially given the notoriously daunting nature of English grammar. With the specific parts of speech and extensive array of tenses, each with specific uses and rules, it is no wonder that students find themselves frustrated in English classes. For teachers, the use of grammar games and activities is a highly effective yet often overlooked way to teach English grammar. In many

There are a number of reasons why teaching ESL might be a profession worth considering. Teaching ESL can be rewarding, enjoyable, and quite profitable, and it comes with a number of interesting benefits. However, a career in ESL teaching is not for everyone. The following will help you decide if this is the right area for you. First of all, teaching ESL is a great way to travel the world, experience new cultures, and broaden

The best way to locate useful ESL resources for teachers is simply to spend one’s free time searching. This means not only surfing the internet for ESL worksheets, ESL games, and ESL activities, but also going to the librFindiary to browse the local ESL section and see what is available. Bookstores provide the most up to date and best-selling materials, which are often the most useful for a wide variety of classes. In addition, the

Ways to Learn Thinking in a Foreign Language: Guest Blog by Sophia Anderson Although most people don’t really pay attention to it, we all have our own internal monologues going on all the time. It is this very ability that can help you improve your knowledge of any foreign language. But, learning to think in another language is easier said than done, which is why we have put together a list of 7 practical exercises and

Guest Post by Brenda Savoie In a very popular TED conversation, game designer Jane McGonigal explored important questions: why are games so attractive, and how can we get as much from our games as we’re giving them? As a collective, people spend 3 billion hours a week playing video games. Older generations take those numbers for granted, and they are devastated by the way young people are wasting their time. However, educators have found great ways

For ESL students who have grown up with little exposure to the English language, English can be either a fun subject to learn or a source of frustration and nightmares. Teaching ESL to kids requires a teacher who knows how to have fun with the language, teach in a lively manner, speak in simple English while using gestures and body language, and incorporate songs and games into the classes. When teaching kids ESL, perhaps the

Teaching the present perfect tense to ESL students can be tricky, as this tense relates to the past as well as the present. Following are some simple tips for teaching students how to use the present perfect tense properly. 1. Explain the conjugation It is relatively easy to conjugate present tense verbs. Simply use “has/have” and the past participle of the verb. For regular verbs (whose past tense is formed by adding “-ed), the past

When entering the ESL teaching profession, it can at times seem daunting to create a classroom environment this is fun and productive. It is not enough to be simply a native speaker; successful ESL teachers must take certain steps to earn the respect of their students and lead enjoyable classes. Below are seven key steps to becoming an effective ESL teacher. 1. Learn the rules of the English grammar It should go without saying that

Recently, in an elementary school in the small Asian city where I live, the students were being orally tested on some basic sentence patterns. One of these involved the pattern, “My favorite…”, with the students being quizzed about their favorite food, favorite place, favorite singer, favorite teacher, etc. After finishing this test, the teacher who administered the test came up to my girlfriend, who is a native English teacher in the school. “I have to