Teacher Discussion Forums

Where?
You might have one or two keen students who do their own work with textbooks or online courses and just come to you for the conversational aspect. I would ask more questions to find out what they really mean

Check on the books by Beverly Deriwianka of Australia.

I used to take the text and write it in simpler language and with straightforward sentences - subject, verb right through. You could do it with him and print it out. You probably won't be able to do all the articles during your two hours but at least he will have some that he understands and can com...

I wonder if she has an internal hearing problem. I have the opposite and my voice is so low that people can't hear it. For talking to a class I feel that I am yelling so my internal hearing is not on. I wonder if she doesn't hear her internal voice and so her external voice is really loud. Not that ...

I used to use chants. There is a series of book - Jazz Chants and so on that are great. The students learned the chants by heart and really enjoyed them and they came up in conversations naturally. I encouraged them to bring in their favourite English songs and we learned the words. At holidays, esp...

if the student knows how to take the tests they will do better so it would be unfortunate not to show them how the tests are constructed. There are only so many things in English that are difficult so it is good for them to know about these things for their use no matter what they do with English in...

Hard to get subtitles. He can do that and you can check if he is right. Any good news organization from a country that normally does not speak English will provide short news items that you can subtitle. I used to get the news printed out from major radio staions. They have a kind of shorthand- tho ...

Youtube.

The main things are telling a powerful and personal story, eye contact, effective gestures, asking questions instead of making statements and positive energy. She has to give up thinking of herself and think of the audience and what they want to learn about the subject. Just keep telling her that it...

It works great. What are your facilities for cooking? There are lots of no_bake cookies and bars.

If she won the first time, doesn't she have a chance this time? You might want to video yourself giving the talks so she can see your gestures. That is what makes an English speech more authentic along with trying to include the audience in some way. It might make it easier to memorize as well. Is s...

Does the student get the topic beforehand? Can they memorize their speech or does it all happen without preparation? Remember to greet the audience. Ask questions frequently instead of just giving statements If you can make a joke it helps Lots of connecting words to make it flow = first, next, then...

Look up fluffyhamster for Hallowe'en. He taught in China and has some great ideas. If you type in fluffyhamster and Halloween you will get loads of possible games for next year or the next holiday.

There are many parts to reading comprehension. The students need practice in all of it. First they need to read and understand the questions. Questions are often tricky and can be misinterpreted so they need a lot of practice in answering the different kind of questions. They need to understand each...

If I can't understand the word or sentence then I try to guess what the student is saying and say it out loud as long as I know the student won't react. If the student is shy or sensitive I would usually let it go but make a note and try to practice with the class in some fun game or chant. You can ...