EFL Teaching Recipes

Doodle songs/videos are a great activity you can do with your class! They really promote contextualized learning and motivate students because you have a final product and of course – there is music!

Most enthusiastic language teachers “Go To Pieces”, meaning they literally use material that is in pieces and compels students to practice and communicate. At its heart, “pieces” is a way of teaching that puts communication at the core of language … Read More ....

The blank dialogue is a very “natural” teaching approach. Something intuitive about it. I used it in my early days of teaching – just pausing a dialogue on cassette tape and asking students to respond. You had to get skilled … Read More ....

Writing storybooks or making picture books is a great way to reinforce grammar and vocabulary. It also gives students confidence and pride in “producing” something visible and tangible to measure their English language learning experience.

There are several steps to … Read More ....

One great recipe is to play a video with vocabulary content. Not flashcards but something real and beautiful.  Then, students either write or speak or brainstorm all the vocabulary from the video in the specific category you mention. 

An example … Read More ....

Story chains are simple ways to keep students telling a story. Start a story and then students keep adding lines to continue. They can even be done with only words, students relating words to other words through association.

One higher … Read More ....

I’m sending out a call to all practicing teachers for some recipes!  Short, simple ideas that can help all teachers but especially those new to the profession and just getting their toes wet and their chalkboard dirty.

I’ve simplified this … Read More ....

Everyone loves movies!

This is a great idea and a great way to have a very light but powerful lesson.

1.   Write some names of movies on the board.    Then give students 4 hints about one movie.  See if they … Read More ....

This is an excellent video to study places in a house.

As the video plays, you can have students note the places in the house.  Check by replaying.  Ask the students how the place has changed, what was happening in … Read More ....

If you have a screen and projector – using video in class brings amazing power – the power of context, into your teaching. The classroom no longer has 4 walls!  Here is one quick idea.

For example. Use the video  … Read More ....