What actually is TESOL/TEFL?
Before getting started, it’s a good idea to really get to grips with what TESOL/TEFL
is, what it involves, and some of the other acronyms you’ll see.
TESOL stands for Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages
TEFL stands for Teaching English as a Foreign Language.
These different acronyms are generally used to describe the same subject. A
TESOL/TEFL course covers the key knowledge and skills needed to effectively
teach the English language to non-native speakers.
TESOL vs TEFL
Traditionally, a TESOL course would be more suited to teaching people who speak
one language, but move to an English-speaking country and need to improve their
English language skills. This could mean a student from Germany that moves to
study at university in the UK, or perhaps a family that recently moves to Australia for
work – their children would need help learning English.
TEFL courses, on the other hand, were traditionally developed for people teaching
English in a country that doesn’t use English as its first language. For example, this
could be somebody flying to Thailand and teaching English there.
Nowadays, the industry has evolved quite a lot and the terms have generally grown
to cover the same overall skillsets needed to teach English in either setting. They’re
now interchangeable terms. For a job that requires a TESOL certificate, a TEFL
certificate would generally be usable too – as long as it’s of equal quality.
Course types
TESOL/TEFL courses often come in a range of lengths and can be studied online, at
a learning center, or a combination of both. While class-based courses can offer a
great experience, for many people they can be difficult to afford and inconvenient to
attend. This is where online courses can bring great convenience and accessibility.
To ensure that online courses still provide the high level of training needed, there are
accreditation organizations that examine the content and teaching practices of these
courses. Only those which meet the strict standards set by these organizations are
able to gain accreditation. This course has been accredited by ACCREDITAT – we’ll
cover this in more detail later in this introductory module.
After completing the course, you’ll receive a TESOL/TEFL certificate which shows
the training you have covered. This certificate has long been an essential
requirement sought by ESL employers around the world and for online teaching too.
In recent years, many governments have also started to require foreign English
language teachers to have a 120-hour TESOL/TEFL certificate in order to qualify for
a work permit. So for those wanting to move overseas and teach, gaining a
certificate can be very important.
Course content
By the end of this course, you’ll have covered the essential knowledge and skills
needed to prepare and successfully deliver an English language lesson (commonly
known as an ESL class).
It’s important to note that while this course will touch on areas of the English
language such as grammar and pronunciation, a TESOL/TEFL certificate is not an
assessment of your personal English language skills.
Instead, it proves to your future employers that you understand how to actually teach
the language and manage a classroom. This requires a different set of skills and
know-how.
For example, take a moment to consider the following
questions:
●
●
●
●
●
What are the best ways to introduce new words to students?
How can I improve my students’ listening skills?
How do I ensure my students have truly understood the lesson?
How should I structure a 60-minute lesson?
What techniques can I use to manage a class of 30 young
students?
● How can I keep the attention of a student during an online class?
These are all things which you’ll be able to do by the end of this course. As we move
through the different modules, the distinction between English language skills and
teaching skills will become clear.
Language in the course
To help make the course easy to read through, we’ve kept the language as plain and
simple as possible – just as you should do when teaching. At times we’ll use
acronyms (such as “ESL” mentioned at the start of this page), but we’ll make sure to
explain them for you.
If you take your time and read through the materials at a slow and steady pace, you
should be able to get through without any issues � .
To get from sitting at home with your notepad, to standing in front of a class we’ll
need to cover a lot of content. But don’t worry, to make this journey more
manageable, this TEFL course has been divided into several bite-sized parts.
There are 8 main sections in this course. Each section contains several modules,
and within each module you’ll find a range of lessons. Here’s how it breaks down:
Module 1: Introduction
Module 2: English words and punctuation
Types of words used in the English language, how they’re formed, and how they’re
used along with punctuation.
Module 3: Sentences and tenses
Module 4: Language skills
Module 5: Preparing for lessons
Module 6: Managing your class
Module 7: Teaching English online
Module 8: Assessment
Course accreditation
Accreditation is a formal and intensive review to ensure that an educational course is
capable of delivering high-quality and effective training. These reviews are
conducted by independent organizations known as “accreditation bodies”.
When completing any course it’s important to check the accreditation behind it.
Below, we’ll help to explain the accreditation details of this course.
This course’s accreditations:
World TESOL Academy is a registered learning provider and has won awards for the
academic rigor of our courses. We are delighted that this course is accredited by not
one, but two internationally-recognized accreditation bodies.
When you complete this course, you’ll be earning an education certificate that’s
accredited by both ACCREDITAT and CPD Certification Service.
ACCREDITAT is an internationally-recognized accreditation body, part of the Training
Issues education group (established in 2002), which has been providing in-depth
evaluations of ESL courses and organizations for over 10 years.
These reviews are conducted by highly experienced professionals with unrivaled
experience. Their advisory team includes formal civil servants, Cambridge Examinations
moderators, and experienced teachers.
ACCREDITAT is also registered under the UKRLP (UK Register of Learning Providers),
number 10065351. This means that they’re verified as a recognized legal education
source.
Established in 1996, the CPD Certification Service is a CPD accreditation body that
oversees the accreditation of thousands of professional skills and training courses from
industry-leading organizations and educational institutions around the world.
The accreditation process involves a full review of our courses, learning platform,
assessments, and accessibility features to ensure that they achieve their intended
purpose – providing a thorough understanding of how to teach the English language to
non-native students – and that we have systems in place to enable our students to study
with ease.
Further details and our proof of accreditation can be found here: Accreditation
details.
What does all of this mean?
In short, this means that your 120-hour TESOL/TEFL course has been through a
range of very thorough inspections, and our organization has been examined to
ensure that we are capable of providing an efficient and skilled service.
World TESOL Academy checklist:
✅ This course is dually accredited by both ACCREDITAT and CPD.
✅ We’re a registered learning provider in the UK (UKPRN: 10087431).
✅ The course is guaranteed to be accepted by all major online teaching companies.
✅ It can be used to teach English overseas too (valid in China, Japan, Korea,
Thailand, Vietnam, and more).
✅ It’s guaranteed to pass through Foreign Common Wealth Office (FCO)
legalization – for use with overseas in-class teaching.
.
Knowing all of this, you can rest assured that you’re studying a thorough and
internationally-recognized 120-hour TESOL/TEFL course.
Milestones
At key points through the course, you’ll find short tests designed to check your
understanding of the lessons you’ve covered. These are great opportunities to really
see how well you’ve understood the material, and to highlight areas that you should
review in more detail.
(picture example of a quiz)
To pass these tests, you will need to achieve a score of over 80%. You’ll need to
pass all of these tests to complete the course.
Don’t worry if you get stuck at any point and can’t pass one of the tests, or if you
don’t quite understand the reason behind an answer. You can simply use the chat
icon to get in touch with one of our tutors.
If you find yourself regularly struggling with these quizzes, we suggest getting a
notepad and writing down notes as you proceed through each lesson. This can help
to form a stronger mental bond with the lesson content, and often makes it easier to
recall the right answers.
Studying techniques
To squeeze the most benefit out of this course, it is important to make sure that
you’re using suitable techniques while studying.
It can be tempting to skim through the lessons, briefly reading the information before
moving on. While this can feel like you’re making great progress, and you might be
able to glean the meaning of each lesson while reading through, it’s difficult to really
store information to memory without taking your time. Studying in this way often
leads to difficulties during the quizzes and final exam at the end of the course.
Here are some tips which we recommend following to help you really master the
lessons and their content.
Study with care:
When it comes to reading through the lessons we would recommend the following
process:
Study process:
1. Carefully read each lesson from top to bottom – twice.
2. Make notes on paper during the second read-through.
3. Take time to consider the different notes which you’ve made. Ask
yourself if they raise any other questions which you’d like
answering.
4. At the end of the module, check back and see if there are any
notes which you’ve made, but weren’t able to find the answers for
during the module. If there’s anything which you’d like some more
info on, our tutors will be happy to help.
Prepare your workspace:
Studying online requires a degree of self-discipline. When studying, we recommend
setting yourself up for success:
Workspace preparations:
● Turn off any televisions or similar devices around you.
● If you’re studying on your laptop/pc then we also advise logging
out of Facebook, and closing down any other distracting websites
or apps.
● Only log in and start studying if you have a minimum of 20-minutes
available.
● Have a notebook at hand.
Do the exercises:
You’ll see boxes containing exercises at several parts throughout the course. These
exercises set challenges for you to do and are a great way of forming pathways in
your brain to help you recall the information at a later date.
We strongly advise taking the time and effort to try these exercises, and if you get
stuck you can always check with a tutor for help.
By considering these different tips, you’ll be setting yourself up with the best potential
to succeed with the course assessments and to store the course materials in your
long-term memory.
Life as an English teacher
Teaching English opens up a huge range of opportunities in life. Depending on your
own personal goals and interests, there are many different career paths that you
could follow.
It could help to take a few minutes and think about which of these career paths might
be of interest to you.
Common paths for English teachers:
🗺️ Traveling teacher
Also known as the TEFL nomad, the most common path for TEFL graduates is to
travel around the world while teaching. Many teachers will spend a year or two in
each country, indulging themselves in language and culture as they go.
This can be a great option to set yourself up with a new career path, to build up
some savings, or just to see some of the world after completing university/college.
While this lifestyle can be a lot of fun, you should keep in mind that you’ll still have
responsibilities as a teacher and will need to ensure that you provide valuable
lessons for your students.
� Expat teacher
Once you discover teaching English overseas it can be hard to give it up. Many
teachers find a country which they truly feel comfortable in, and choose to call it
home for good. Such teachers are often known as “expats” or “ex-pats” (short for
“expatriates”).
This can be an incredibly rewarding lifestyle as you’ll start to develop a deeper
understanding of your new home, learn the local language, and adjust to life
overseas.
As you gain experience, it can also be possible to find jobs at reputable schools or
even universities, bringing new challenges to your work as you get to focus on more
academic teaching.
� Homeland teacher
It might surprise you to hear, but it could also be possible to find ESL teaching
positions in your home country. This means that you could potentially start a new
career without needing to travel overseas.
If you live in a country that doesn’t already speak English as its native language,
there should be lots of local students learning English either at school or through
private language classes.
If you live in a country that already speaks English as a native language then don’t
worry – there could still be lots of opportunities close to home. Foreign ex-pats,
overseas students, and even refugees can arrive in countries such as the UK,
Ireland, US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa with limited English skills.
English language classes are a great way to help them better assimilate to the local
environment, and improve their communication with the locals.
� Online English tutor
Teaching English via the internet has become incredibly popular over the past 5
years. Thanks to increasingly widespread internet access, it’s now possible to teach
children and adults from around the world without needing to leave your home.
Most online teaching positions just require you to be fluent in English, have a
computer with a webcam/microphone, and to have a stable internet connection.
Online teaching is something that we’ll look at in the final module of the course.
�� Private English tutor
If you aren’t a fan of online teaching then a great side job could be to teach English
as a private tutor.
Many teachers start private tutoring to earn some extra money, and eventually spin it
into a full-time job of its own. Private tutoring can offer great flexibility, allowing you to
choose your own hours (within reason), and earn a great rate of pay – in some
regions you can earn up to $20-$30 per hour!
You’ll also be able to experience what it’s like to teach on a 1-on-1 basis instead of
having to split your attention among a class full of students.
� Non-teaching career
Another great advantage of teaching English overseas is that many foreign
companies have a demand for people with strong English skills.
This is especially important for companies that target native-speaking customers, or
those that want to give off an international image. It’s common to hear of people
transitioning from teaching English to copy-writing, journalism, marketing, sales, or
other positions.
There truly are a lot of possibilities with teaching English. Whether you’re looking for
an exciting experience, a long-term job, or a springboard to a new career, there are
plenty of opportunities out there
Destinations
English language teachers are in demand all over the world, and most new teachers
head overseas within 3 months of finishing their TEFL course. With so many options
on the table, one of the hardest parts of the move can be deciding where to go.
From schools by the beach in southern Thailand, to rural outposts by the rice fields
of Yunnan, China, and back to the bustling city of Barcelona, there’s a need for
qualified English teachers almost everywhere.
Check out the map below for info on our most popular
destinations:
Some countries such as the UAE or Korea have higher requirements than others
and may be more suitable after having a year or two of teaching experience under
your belt. Others are relatively easy to land positions in – such as Thailand, Vietnam,
and Cambodia – and can be great targets to start your teaching career in.
You’ll have to consider what you’re looking for and put some time into researching
which destination is right for you. If you’re not quite sure, you can always get in touch
with our tutors and we’ll be happy to share our personal experience and insight with
you.
Wages
Aside from being able to live and work in exotic locations around the world, the
salaries can also be another big perk of the TEFL lifestyle.
With different countries you’ll find wages vary quite a lot. In countries such as the
UAE, and Saudi Arabia you’ll often find positions advertising around $2,000 per
month, and sometimes up to $4,000. While in China, Thailand and Vietnam you’ll
see positions around $1,000 up to $2,500, and in other countries you may see jobs
around the $800 mark.
Here’s a rough breakdown of the job market:
Upper-tier
UAE, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait.
Mid-tier
China, Taiwan, South Korea, Japan, Thailand, Vietnam,
Turkey.
Lower-tier
Cambodia, Argentina, Myanmar, Peru, Laos, Nepal.
One thing to keep in mind however, is that living expenses in each region are often
reflected in your salary. So while you’ll earn more money in the UAE or South Korea,
your daily expenses will often be much higher than in other regions.
For many first-time teachers, the mid-tier countries offer a great compromise. They
can still be relatively easy to find jobs in, and you can often enjoy a comfortable
lifestyle while still saving some money each month. If you’re used to traveling on a
budget and are looking to head off the beaten path, then a lower-tier country could
be an incredible experience worth more than a salary can pay. The choice is yours.
Class types
Before heading overseas, you may not be aware of the different types of classes
which you could find yourself teaching in. The first thing that comes to mind for most
people will be a high school class, similar to what they’ve experienced themselves.
It’s true that high school classes are a large part of the education market, but there
are other types of ESL class which serve a range of different students.
Here are some of the most common class types which
you’ll come across:
Public schools: Classes serving children with ages ranging from 4-16,
who study English as part of their school studies. Class sizes are usually
around 20-35 students, and follow a pre-set curriculum.
Cram schools: After-school classes run by private companies that aim to
help students raise their grades and prepare for exams. Class sizes can
range from around 10-20 students, but sometimes can be in smaller
groups. Larger cram schools may have their own curriculum which you’ll
teach, while others may be more flexible.
Universities: Many university/college students will study English as part of
their degree or through extracurricular classes. Teaching these classes
can be especially rewarding, and give a greater degree of flexibility to
explore the intricacies of the English language (they also look great on
your CV!).
Business classes: Held for professionals who want to improve their
ability to communicate for business purposes. Sometimes, companies will
require employees to take such classes and sponsor their tuition fees to
boost their work skills.
Private tuition: One-to-one, or small group classes used to focus on
specific aspects of language for a range of goals. These can be great to
earn extra money.
Each of these class types requires different teaching approaches. What works well
for a weekly business class of adults might not work quite as well with a public class
of 30 teenagers.
Good teachers are able to adapt their teaching styles, activities and materials to fit
the type of class that they’re teaching. Through this course, we’ll cover these skills,
and by the end you’ll be able to plan a suitable lesson for any type of class you walk
into.
Module 2: Words and punctuation
Types of word – Introduction
You’ll likely already be aware of some of the topics we’ll cover here – such as verbs
and nouns etc. However, when it comes to teaching them to students, there are
certain techniques that are useful to learn. For other topics, such as sentence
structures and tenses, it may be daunting how much there is to remember.
It’s important to note here that early on in your TEFL career, you won’t be expected
to have full mastery of every intricate detail about the English language. There are
countless grammar patterns, phrase structures, word roots, rule exceptions and
more. Your knowledge of these will build as you gain more classroom experience
and will add to your value as a seasoned teacher.
What is vital, however, is that you’re familiar with the frameworks and foundations of
the language, and can use this understanding to prepare lessons for specific topics
as you encounter them in your syllabus.
Types of word – Introduction continued
The first parts of the English language which we’ll cover are the different types of
words that exist.
The English language is made up of nine different types of word, each with its own
name, rules of use, and roles. These are commonly referred to as “parts of speech”
or “word classes”.
In the following pages we’ll explore these words, and address several useful
approaches for introducing them to students:
Noun
Verb
Adjective
Pronoun
Adverb
Preposition
Conjunction
Interjection
Determiner
Exercise: Above are the different types of words used in the English language. See if
you can define, and write down 3 examples for each one before we start the lesson.
At the end, you can come back and check your notes to see how well you did.
In the next few pages we’ll look into these in further detail.
Types of word – Nouns, verbs, adjectives
Nouns, verbs and adjectives are usually the first types of words that your students
will come across when starting to learn English. Below, we’ll cover what they are,
and ideas on how to present them to students.
Nouns
Nouns are naming words and are used for things, places, people or ideas. They are
often the very first things taught to English learners and are the most basic type of
word.
Here are some examples of nouns:
Pen/pencil
Home/street
Girl/boy
Love/hate
One of the great things about nouns is that they can be easily shown to students,
and often learned quickly. A great way to begin teaching nouns can be with concrete
objects which can be brought into the classroom, or with images on flashcards. This
way, students can easily build an association with the new word, and the object or
idea which it represents.
There is also a subcategory of noun known as ‘proper nouns’.
Proper nouns
Proper nouns are the names of specific people/places/organizations, and come with
a capitalized first letter.
Examples of proper nouns:
Jack, London, Asia.
Proper nouns will usually be taught after regular nouns, as they require additional
instruction to capitalize the first letter.
When introducing them, it can help to provide plenty of contrast between generic
objects such as ‘ball, cat, house’ and specific nouns such as ‘Lucy, China, Nike’.
Verbs
Verbs describe an action, or the state of a subject. There are several categories of
verbs that exist which we’ll cover later in this course.
Here are some simple verbs to start with:
Eat, sleep, jump, watch.
Think, feel, daydream.
One thing to note about verbs is that they often change to reflect time or duration –
for example: eat/ate/eaten/eating. Because of this, they can be one of the more
challenging parts of your students’ learning.
When teaching verbs it’s important to give clear examples to ensure that your
students understand the action or state that’s being described. Key ways to do this
can include acting out the verb, showing video clips, or clear images. It’s also a
common practice to first teach the present tense of a verb, to avoid confusing
students. Then afterwards introduce the past and future variations.
To get beginners started with verbs, it can also help to pair their learning with a
simple sentence structure such as ‘I like to…’ Or ‘I can…’. These sentences are
immediately useful and give students a chance to practice the new verbs without
having to worry about tenses.
Adjectives
Adjectives are used to describe nouns. They are useful for adding accuracy, interest,
deeper information and imagination to communication.
Here are some examples of different types of adjectives:
Red, blue, yellow.
Hot, cold, windy.
Pretty, ugly, expensive.
New English learners will often start by learning colors as it’s simple to create a
context for this kind of lesson, and it gives students a way to describe most objects
and people.
Types of word – Pronouns, adverbs, prepositions
The following three types of words are often introduced after students have an initial
grasp of the language, and when they can already form basic sentences.
Pronouns
Pronouns are words that are used in place of nouns. These words act like nouns and
refer to something that was already identified during the conversation. Some of the
most useful types of pronoun are personal pronouns, which are used in place of
people or things.
Examples include:
I/we/you/she/he/it/they
These words allow us to speak more freely, without needing to keep repeating a
noun that has already been identified.
For example, instead of saying: “Jack was hungry, so Jack opened Jack’s backpack
and took out a sandwich”
We can say: “Jack was hungry, so he opened his backpack and took out a
sandwich”.
Depending on their native language, gender pronouns may be difficult for some
students to learn, as many languages do not have gender-specific ways to refer to
others. An example of this can be seen with Mandarin, where the words ‘he’, ‘she’,
and ‘it’ all use the same word ‘tā’. The written forms use different characters (‘他’, ‘她
’, ‘它’) but the pronunciation and structure of the words stay the same.
To counter this, it can help to use plenty of context when introducing how these
words change in English. You can first introduce the concept of ‘he’ and ‘she’ with
visual aids showing boys and girls doing different activities. As they grasp this
concept, you can add additional people to the diagrams to introduce ‘they’, and build
on from here with a range of different scenarios to show personal possession such
as with ‘his’, ‘her’, and ‘their’.
Prepositions
Prepositions express relationships between other words. They can exist as single
words, or as prepositional phrases which contain several words together.
Here are some examples:
In, on, under, behind, in front of.
Prepositions are a great stepping stone to take students from simple sentences, to
more complex and useful ones. One way to demonstrate and teach them can be
through using classroom objects and asking where certain objects are located in
relation to others. You can also add an active element by having students move
around the classroom and describe where they are standing by using these
prepositions.
Adverbs
An adverb is a more advanced part of speech that changes a verb or adjective with
reference to place, time, manner or degree.
Examples of adverbs:
Very, thoroughly (degree)
Here, there (place)
Badly, wonderfully (manner)
Later, earlier, yesterday, tomorrow (time)
Adverbs are often introduced after students have an understanding of basic
grammar, and a good amount of vocabulary to work with. One approach to start
introducing adverbs can be to discuss activities, using how, when and where to get
your students to describe the actions in further detail. By doing this, you can lead the
students into using sentences that need adverbs, and can prompt them with the
correct words when they get stuck.
Types of word – Conjunctions, interjections, &
determiners
These final types of words are often small in form, but can be useful in very different
ways once mastered by students.
They’re a little bit more complicated than the previous words we’ve covered, but if
you read through their descriptions and examples carefully, you’ll soon build
familiarity with them.
Conjunctions
Conjunctions are words that are used to join together sentences, ideas, phrases, or
clauses. They are usually fairly small words and many of them are taught early to
new English learners.
Examples include:
And, if, but, or, for.
Conjunctions fall into two groups – coordinating conjunctions and subordinating
conjunctions.
Coordinating conjunctions link items that have equal status/importance
grammatically. The commonest coordinating conjunctions are and, or, but.
Examples of coordinating conjunctions:
Uncomfortable but happy
Apple pie or jelly
Their parents arrived, and they called room service.
I thought it would snow, but it didn’t.
You’ll be able to notice how in these examples, the joined halves are equal in
value/importance. One way to teach coordinating conjunctions can be to give
students a simple sentence such as “I want to eat…” and then having students add
to this sentence with ‘and’, or give alternative options using ‘or’.
If the two items being linked do not have equal status/importance grammatically,
then a subordinating conjunction is used. Common subordinating conjunctions
include before, since, till, unless, whereas, whether.
Examples of subordinating conjunctions:
Businesses fail because they can’t pay their bills.
I passed the test although I didn’t study.
In these examples, the first halves “Businesses fail” and “I passed the test” are more
dominant, and the resulting halves “they can’t pay their bills” and “I didn’t study” are
weaker and rely upon information from the first half.
A technique for teaching subordinating conjunctions can be to ask students why
something happens and then help them to form a reply. An example here can be
seen by asking “Why do you drink water?”, to which a student would reply “I drink
water because I get thirsty”.
Interjections
Interjections are small comments that have specific meanings often caused by
strong emotions. Interjections may not be essential to your students’ learning in
terms of examinations, but are still important to help them better understand native
speakers.
Here are several common interjections:
Oh dear, uh oh, huh.
A fun and effective way to introduce interjections can be to ask your students to
notice the emotions on each other’s faces. You can then have the students try to
match these emotions with appropriate interjections. Another approach could be to
call out interjections and have students to try act out a suitable emotion. This is a
sure-fire way to inject a little fun into your class.
Determiners
Determiners are words that are placed before nouns to help show which noun is
being referred to. It might sound quite complicated, but don’t worry, it’s actually quite
simple.
Look at this sentence:
“I want to eat apple” – It’s not really clear what the speaker is referring to.
However, if we add different determiners, the situation becomes much
more clear.
Now look at these sentences:
“I want to eat the apple”, “I want to eat an apple”, “I want to eat that
apple”, I want to eat this apple”, I want to eat those apples”, I want to eat
many apples”, I want to eat ten apples”, I want to eat another apple”.
All of these words are determiners: an, that, this, those, many, ten, another. They
help us to understand the context surrounding the nouns used in sentences.
You can help students to learn about determiners by asking them questions involving
“which” and “how many”. Examples of such questions could be “How many apples
do you want to eat?” and “Which apple do you want to eat?”
Types of word – Grouping different word classes
Now that we’re familiar with the different types of words that exist in the English
language, it can be useful to understand how they’re often classified into two groups
– major words and minor words.
Major/content/lexical (or open) word class
There are five types of words included in the major (often referred to as “lexical” or
“open”) class.
Major (open) words types:
●
●
●
●
●
Verbs
Nouns
Adjectives
Adverbs
Interjections
They are termed major, content, or lexical because they carry most of the content or
meaning of a sentence. They are also called open because new words can still be
added to these classes.
For example, recent new nouns added to Merriam-Webster’s dictionary include:
● Crowdfunding: obtaining funding (as for a new enterprise) by asking for
contributions from a large number of people, especially from the online
community.
● Freegan: an activist who scavenges for free food (as in waste receptacles at
stores and restaurants) as a means of reducing consumption of resources.
● Catfish: a person who sets up a false social networking profile for deceptive
purposes.
Each year, hundreds of new words like these are added to popular dictionaries such
as the Oxford English Dictionary and Merriam-Webster’s dictionary.
Minor or grammatical (or closed) word class
There are four types of words included in the minor (often referred to as “closed”)
class.
Minor (closed) words types:
●
●
●
●
Conjunctions
Determiners
Prepositions
Pronouns
They are termed minor or grammatical because they tend to perform grammatical
functions such as relating expressions to each other. An example here could be
seen with how “of” relates “the back” to “house” in the following: “back of the house”
These are also called closed classes as no new words will be added to these groups
in the future. They are also sometimes referred to as structure words because their
function is to contribute to the structure of phrases, clauses, and sentences, rather
than to add to the meaning.
When teaching English, you’ll often see words referred to as content/structure words.
This might be when certain grammatical patterns are being taught, or when
explaining certain aspects of how we use the English language (“sentence stress” is
one such topic which we’ll cover later in the course).
Types of word – Recap
Don’t worry if some of these terms were new to you. For native speakers, and those
who have been fluent in English for a long time, these different types of words are
often used without conscious thought. Part of becoming an English language teacher
will involve deconstructing the language you already know, and piecing it back
together with strategies and new understanding.
As a recap of the things we’ve just learned, this table can provide a good reference:
Word type:
Example:
Teaching tips:
Nouns:
Pen/pencil
Use concrete objects –
realia, pictures etc.
Naming words used
for things, places,
people or ideas.
Home/street
Girl/boy
Love/hate
Pronouns:
I/we/you/she/he/it/the
y
Start with introducing
people and
possessions.
Eat, sleep, jump,
watch.
Use visual
demonstrations, and
start with the present
tense.
Used in place of
nouns, referring to
things previously
identified in
conversation.
Verbs:
Describe an action
or state.
Think, feel,
daydream.
Adjectives:
Red, blue, yellow
Used for describing
nouns.
Hot, cold, windy
Pretty, ugly,
expensive.
Prepositions:
In, on, under, behind,
in front of.
Use objects and ask
where certain objects
are in relation to
others.
And, if, but, or, for.
Have students compile
lists of objects using
‘and’ or alternatives to
someone else’s
suggested objects
using ‘or’ or ‘but’.
Very, thoroughly
(degree)
Introduce activities
and then use ‘how’,
‘when’ and ‘where’ to
get your students to
describe the actions
further.
Used to express
relationships
between other
words.
Conjunctions:
Used to join together
sentences, ideas,
phrases or clauses.
These can be split
into coordinating or
subordinating
conjunctions.
Adverbs:
Describe the
manner, time,
degree or place in
which a verb is
done.
Start with learning
colors, or giving basic
descriptions of
previously learned
nouns.
Here, there (place)
Badly, wonderfully
(manner)
Later, earlier,
tomorrow (time)
Interjections:
Oh dear, uh oh, huh.
Pair facial
expressions, emotions
or actions with suitable
interjections.
The, an, that, this,
those, many, ten,
another.
Use questions
involving “which” and
“how many”, then have
students reply.
Highlight the different
determiners that could
be used in their
replies.
Small comments
that have specific
meanings usually
caused by strong
emotions.
Determiners:
Placed before nouns
to help show which
noun is being
referred to.
Exercise: Compare this table with the notes that you made at the start, and consider
how well you did. For further practice, try again without using the table above.
By being aware of these different types of words yourself, you’ll be able to teach your
students about their uses, and how to form sentences with them. Next, we’ll look at
the different types of verbs which exist.
Types of verb – Introduction
As mentioned in the Types of Words lessons, verbs are words that describe an
action or state of an object – whether physical or mental.
With such a wide range of uses, verbs can be organized into the following
categories:
Action
Stative
Transitive
Intransitive
Auxiliary
Modal
Phrasal
Regular
Irregular
In this section we’ll cover the above types of verbs along with approaches that can
help you to teach them to your students.
� Exercise: Before starting – write out a list of 5-10 different verbs. As you read
through the next few pages, try to identify which category (or categories) they fall
into.
Types of verb – Transitive, intransitive, auxiliary, modal
Transitive/Intransitive, Auxiliary, and Modal verbs can be more challenging for
students to grasp. Identifying these types of verbs will require students to look
deeper at the context of the sentence and the intended meaning.
As such, it’s recommended to make sure students have a good understanding of
basic verbs before explicitly teaching these.
Transitive and intransitive verbs
Transitive verbs are those which need to be accompanied by a direct object when
used in a sentence.
For example:
The phrase “I love…” has to be followed by something; “I love puppies/ice-cream/my
mother“.
Just the phrase “I love” on its own doesn’t make sense. It doesn’t form a complete
thought.
Intransitive verbs don’t need to be accompanied by an object to make sense, for
example:
“She laughed.” or “We talked.” are full sentences that don’t need any extra
information.
Click for more examples
It’s important to note that not all verbs are strictly transitive or intransitive. Some
verbs can be used either way depending on the context of the sentence. For
example, “She walked for hours in the rain.” “walked” is intransitive because it does
not require an object. However, in the sentence “She walked her dog”, the
verb “walked” is transitive because it requires the object “dog” after it.
🙋 How to check if a verb is transitive or intransitive:
All you need to do is check if the verb is followed by a direct object. For example, in
the sentence “She bought a new car“, the word “car” is the object, and “bought” is
the transitive verb. You can also try to remove the object and see if the sentence still
makes sense – “She bought” wouldn’t make a complete sentence so the verb must
be transitive.
Auxiliary verbs
These verbs are used to support the ‘main’ or most dominant verb in a sentence.
Read these sentences below and try to identify which are the main, and which
are the auxiliary verbs (hover your mouse over for the answers):
He is reading a book.
I have never seen Star Wars.
The three most common auxiliary verbs in English are “be”, “do” and “have”, and
they are often used for grammatical reasons, rather than introducing a direct change
to a sentence’s meaning.
When teaching auxiliary verbs to students, it can help to ask students to underline all
the verbs in a series of sentences, then pick out which verb gives the sentence its
meaning and which are the ‘extra’ verbs.
Modal verbs
Modals are a type of auxiliary verb which express ability, permission, or possibility.
Examples of common modal verbs are:
Can, could, might, must, should, will and would.
When introducing these to new learners, it can help to group them by certain
themes.
Grouping modal verbs by theme:
💪 Ability – teach can and its past tense, could, as in “I couldn’t play the piano but
now I can.”
👮 Permission – teach can and may, as in “Can I/ May I open a window?”
🔮 Possibility – introduce could, may, might and will as a way to talk about
possibilities or certainties in the future.
� Obligation – discuss the difference between could, should and must and compare
how strongly the speaker feels. “You could ask the doctor about your rash”, “You
should ask the doctor about your rash” and “You must ask the doctor about your
rash” all have a different sense of urgency.
By adding some context that the students can relate to, it can help to clarify the
subtle differences between these verbs, while also providing them with phrases that
they can put into use in their daily lives.
Types of verb – Phrasal, regular and irregular
The final types of verbs which we’ll cover are Phrasal, Regular and Irregular.
Students can often find these difficult, as there are no overall rules which they can
use to identify these verbs or construct them for themselves. Teaching these will be
more of an on-going process, requiring lots of exposure to them, in a variety of
contexts.
Phrasal verbs
Verbs which are made up of several words together are known as phrasal verbs.
They are usually formed with a verb combined with an adverb or preposition.
Examples include:
Take off, look into, get away with, or put up with.
Phrasal verbs are often tough for students to understand because it can be difficult
to guess their meaning from the separate parts, and one phrasal verb can have lots
of different meanings.
For example, a student who knows the word “drag” isn’t always going to be able to
guess what “The meeting dragged on.” means. Similarly, a student familiar with “take
off” to mean removing clothes, would likely be confused by the sentence “The
aeroplane took off at 6.30″.
When teaching these, it can be helpful to use lots of different example sentences to
show how these phrasal verbs work in different contexts. And remember that
learning these phrases is an ongoing process as students improve their English –
don’t try to pile them all on at once!
Regular and irregular verbs
All verbs have three different versions; the present, the past and the past participle.
This is something we’ll cover in more detail in the next module.
Regular verbs are those which simply need the addition of “ed” at the end of the
word, to be used in the past, or past participle tenses. For example:
Present
Past
Past participle
want
wanted
wanted
play
played
played
talk
talked
talked
Irregular verbs don’t follow this rule – instead the past forms are all different.
Present
Past
Past participle
eat
ate
eaten
see
saw
seen
know
knew
known
Unfortunately, there are no all-encompassing rules for irregular verbs and students
mostly just need to memorize them. When teaching students about such verbs, it
can help to lay out the different forms as seen in the tables above.
Types of verb – Recap
Verbs are one of the key building blocks which will enable your students to do so
much with the English language. You might not need to explicitly teach each type of
verb in your classes, especially if you’re teaching beginners, but it’s still important for
you to build familiarity with them.
Take a few minutes to recap all the types of verb we’ve just covered:
Verb
type:
Description:
Examples:
Action
verbs
Verbs that
express
physical or
mental
actions.
Speak, play, work, eat, go.
Stative
verbs
Verbs that
describe a
state of
being.
Like, hate, want, see, hear, believe, imagine, and a
ppreciate.
Transitiv
e verbs
Verbs that
require an
object to
make sense.
I love puppies / love ice cream / I love my mother.
Intransiti
ve verbs
Verbs that do
not need
direct objects
to complete
their
meaning.
She laughed / we talked.
Auxiliary
verbs
Verbs used
in forming the
tenses,
moods, and
voices of
other verbs.
The
primary auxili
ary verbs are
“be”, “do”,
and “have”.
He is reading a book.
I have never seen Star Wars.
Modal
verbs
A kind of
auxiliary verb
used to
express
necessity or
possibility.
Can, could, might, may, must, should, shall, will, a
nd would.
Verb
type:
Description:
Examples:
Phrasal
verbs
Verbs made
up of several
words used
together,
usually a
verb
combined
with an
adverb or
preposition.
Take off, look into, get away with, or put up with.
Regular
verbs
Verbs that
follow
standard
patterns of
inflection.
Want/wanted
Play/played
Talk/talked
Irregular
verbs
Verbs that do
not follow
standard
patterns of
inflection –
changing
with tense.
Eat/ate/eaten
See/saw/seen
Know/knew/known
📝 Exercise: To practice these further – try the two exercises below:
1. Write a sentence for each of the 9 types of verb.
2. Write a plan for your day. Then read through it, highlighting the different verbs you’ve
written, and matching them to the correct type.
These exercises can help you to first memorize the different uses, and secondly to
see how they come up in a natural context
Affixes – Introduction
In the next few lessons, we will cover Affixes, which are another aspect of the
English language often used without conscious thought. However, it’s important for
students to learn about affixes as it can help to greatly increase their understanding
of how many English words are constructed.
Learning about affixes will also help students to work out the meaning of certain new
words without relying on a dictionary, which can serve as a great driver of motivation.
What are affixes?
Affixes are essentially just parts that are added to words to alter their meaning or
create new words altogether. The most common types of affixes are prefixes and
suffixes.
Prefixes are attached to the front of a word, with the most common being ‘un’. You
can see the use of this prefix with a variety of verbs, where it alters the original word
to give the opposite meaning:
Undo
Unable
Unafraid
Suffixes are additions at the end of a word that alter the meaning, create a new
word or change its grammatical function. A common suffix is ‘er’, which can be
attached to verbs to create a noun, or adjective:
Trainer
Walker
Happier
Affix examples
There are many types of prefix and suffix in the English language, each with different
meanings and rules of use. Check out these examples below:
Prefix
Meaning
Example:
mis
wrongly, incorrectly
misunderstand, misheard.
multi
many
multitool, multicultural.
pre
before
predetermined, precede, preview.
re
again
relive, revisit, realign.
Suffix
Meaning
Example:
able
ability
likeable, doable.
dom
a state
freedom, boredom.
less
lacking, without
voiceless, meaningless.
Prefix
Meaning
Example:
en
change state, become
broaden, harden.
Affixes – Rules of use
When it comes to teaching students about affixes, there are certain rules and notes
which can be useful to learn.
These rules can enable students not only to decipher the meaning of certain words,
but also to create their own words without help. This might not seem like such a big
step, but it’s a huge moment in a student’s journey when they first piece together a
new word for themselves, and can give them a great sense of achievement.
Prefix rules
Students will often struggle to match prefixes with compatible base words. For
example, it’s easy for a native speaker to see that “unlegal/imlegal” is incorrect,
however, new learners won’t be aware of this.
Luckily, when it comes to negative prefixes (ones that change a word to hold an
opposite meaning) there are a number of rules which can be applied in most
situations for matching suitable prefixes with base words:
Rough negative prefix rules:
Words starting with ‘l’ have the prefix ‘il’ – illegal, illegible
Words starting with ‘r’ use the prefix ‘ir’ – irrelevant, irresponsible
Words starting with ‘m’, ‘b’ or ‘p’ use ‘im’ – impatient, immature, imbalance
This won’t help students to match all base words with a correct prefix, but it’ll help
when dealing with many negative prefixes – which are one of the most common
uses.
Suffix rules
Suffixes can be tricky, as there aren’t many rules that can be widely applied,
however there are a few points that students should be made aware of.
First, students should know that unlike prefixes, suffixes can change the spelling
of the original word. This can often make it difficult for students to pick out the base
word from the suffix itself.
For example:
Beauty + ‘ful’ = beautiful
Second, similar to prefixes, not all suffixes can be applied to all base words.
However, with suffixes there’s less of a structure to which words can take which
suffixes, and your students will have to learn and memorize these on a word-by-word
basis.
Third, each suffix can have a different meaning depending on what type of word it
is attached to, and these will also have to be memorized.
For example:
‘er’ + big = bigger (more big)
But
‘er’ + train = trainer (someone who trains)
As these can be a little complicated for new teachers, in the next page we’ll look at
some further tips for introducing affixes to your students.
Affixes – Teaching affixes
It can help to start by first introducing common ones such as the prefix ‘un’ or suffix
‘ly’. This will ensure that your students encounter them regularly, and can build their
knowledge of how these specific affixes are used with a number of different words.
It can also be overwhelming for students to learn about prefixes and suffixes at the
same time. As such, it can be easier for them to start with prefixes, and then move
on to suffixes at a later point.
Techniques for teaching affixes
Once your students understand what affixes are, you can use some of the following
techniques to help your class practice using them.
💡 Useful techniques:
• Draw attention to affixes when they come up naturally in your lessons. By breaking
words down into their different parts, students will start to analyze words for
themselves and build a greater understanding of how specific affixes are used.
• Divide students into groups, then give each group a pile of word cards and a chart
with three columns. Each group should work together to cut the words apart, into
their root, suffix, and prefix, and arrange them in the appropriate columns.
• Put a number of cards face down on the table. Each card should have a word that
your students know well and can be combined with a suffix or prefix that they also
know. Then have students take it in turns to pick a card and say the word on its
underside, but with an affix added. If correct, they get to keep the card or gain a
point.
• Introduce a specific prefix or suffix and help your students to build a ‘word tree’ by
listing all the different words which can use this affix. This can be turned into a
competition by splitting the class into groups, and having them compete to create the
tree with the most correct words.
Learning about affixes will be an important and ongoing part of your lessons. While
students are likely to find it difficult at first, with enough time, examples, and
patience, they’ll build up an understanding of how to use them.
Punctuation – Periods, commas, and colons
Periods (full stops)
Periods (also referred to as “full stops”) are used at the end of sentences, and are
probably the most common form of punctuation that your students will need to use.
They can also be placed at the end of abbreviations, which are used to shorten the
names of people, places, common objects and scientific terms.
I like to ski.
Mr. Mrs. Ph.D. M.D.
Teaching students to place periods at the end of a sentence can be rather simple –
explaining the rule, providing opportunities for them to practice writing basic
sentences, and then correcting any mistakes.
Another form of this type of punctuation can be seen with ellipses, which are used in
place of words that have been left out of the text. One thing to note here is that when
an ellipsis is used instead of the removed words, the sentence must still retain its
original meaning, for example:
She knocked on the door and waited for a moment but nobody was home.
She knocked on the door… but nobody was home.
For teaching ellipses, it can often be helpful to teach them through awareness of how
they occur in different situations. By allowing your students to listen to taped speech,
you’ll be able to highlight natural pauses for thought, and show your students where
they could use this punctuation in their own writing.
Commas
Commas are generally used as a break within a sentence. They indicate that the
reader needs to take a breath or a pause before continuing their reading, and greatly
affect the tone and flow of a piece of writing. They are also used to separate lists of
items in a sentence. See the examples below:
Although he enjoyed the movie, he didn’t want to watch it again.
I like rice, eggs, chicken, and ham.
When teaching students about commas, it can be helpful to emphasize how their use
has an impact on how the sentence is said out loud.
As they progress, students will encounter more situations to use commas, such as
with different sentence structures. We’ll cover these in the next module.
For additional reading on commas, you can take some time to review this resource
here: Full range of commas uses.
Colons and semicolons
Colons are used to add additional information to a sentence, to add lists, or to
introduce a quote, for example:
She was too late to see the movie: her car had broken down.
To renew your passport you’ll need: 2 photographs, your old passport, and a selfaddressed envelope.
The last thing she said was: “I’ll always remember you.”
Semi-colons are used to connect two independent clauses which are closely
related to each other, for example:
Marsha likes cats; I like dogs.
She moved to Los Angeles; the countryside was too quiet for her.
Choosing between colons and semicolons
It can be easy to remember that when introducing lists and quotes you can use a
colon, but when it comes to joining two independent clauses it can be more difficult
to decide.
One school of thought surrounding this dilemma is to consider commas, semicolons,
colons, and periods on a scale. Commas have the least impact on a sentence’s flow,
and offer only a momentary pause. Semicolons are generally read with a slightly
more noticeable break between the two clauses, colons introduce a larger pause,
and periods have the largest of all these punctuation marks.
Many native speakers struggle with these, so be sure to teach colons and
semicolons using lots of context, and when your students are at a fairly advanced
level.
Punctuation – Apostrophes, question, exclamation, and
quotation marks
Apostrophes
Apostrophes are used in contracted words where they stand in place of removed
letters, or can be added on to the end of words with an ‘s’ to indicate possession.
It’s hot today.
The dog’s bed.
When teaching apostrophes, it can help to teach these two uses separately to avoid
confusion. Once students understand how to use apostrophes, gap fill worksheets
can be great tools for giving them plenty of practice. In such exercises, students will
have set sentences with apostrophes missing, and will need to choose the correct
place to add them.
Question and exclamation marks
Question marks are used at the end of a sentence and indicate that the phrase is a
question and requires an answer. It’s a fairly simple punctuation mark and will be
one of the first that your students learn.
Do you like carrots?
Exclamation marks also go at the end of sentences to indicate heightened emotions,
typically anger, surprise or other types of emphasis.
I hate you!
Teaching these can be rather straightforward and can often be combined with
speaking or listening exercises. For example, having students write dialogues, or
role-plays and then acting them out. Or through listening to recordings and then
writing down whether a question mark or exclamation mark could have been used.
Quotation marks
Quotation marks are used to surround speech in creative writing, or to indicate direct
quotes from other materials in academic writing. Typically, two small marks close
together, one pair on each side of the quoted material, are used for most types of
writing.
“What are you doing?” he asked.
This is a fairly simple punctuation mark to teach. As a basic rule, you can teach
students that if they are quoting someone’s actual words, whether from a text or
spoken form, they’ll need to use quotation marks. Also be sure to take care with your
students’ use of punctuation inside and outside of the quotation marks, ensuring that
they use a period if the quote is used at the end of a sentence.
Punctuation – Hyphens, dashes, brackets, and slashes
Hyphens and dashes
Hyphens are used to link words, or parts of words, to give new meanings. The most
common example of using hyphens can be seen with combining two or more words
that come before a noun that they act to modify, for example:
Sugar-free soda
In this example, the hyphenated words change the meaning of the noun ‘soda’.
📝 Exercise: Get a pen and paper, or open a document on your computer, and try
to make a list of 10 different hyphenated words like the example above.
Having a few examples stored in your memory can be good for when the topic might
come up during one of your lessons.
As for dashes, there are two different types that exist. The en dash is primarily used
to indicate a span of time between numbers or dates, while the em dash indicates a
break in speech or thought:
The material is in chapters 7-9.
The day was finally over – or so she thought.
The primary differences between hyphens and dashes are their use as well as their
appearance. Hyphens do not have spaces around them, whereas em dashes have a
space on either side of them. The size of each type of dash is also different, with the
hyphen the smallest and the em dash the largest.
These punctuation types are not used very often, and are getting less popular with
time. For this reason, they should be taught when they naturally come up in your
lessons, or when dealing with advanced writing classes.
Slashes
The forward slash is used primarily to indicate the word ‘or’ without writing it.
Someone had left his/her phone in the room.
This punctuation type is usually used in informal writing when giving examples or
describing alternatives. It can be useful to explain to students as you may use it on
the whiteboard during your classes.
Parentheses/brackets
These are parentheses (), and are often known as simply being ‘brackets’. However,
the term bracket actually refers to the angular kind [], and has a different use.
Parentheses are used in a number of types of writing, can be replaced by commas in
most cases, and add additional or surplus information to a sentence. In contrast,
brackets are usually used in technical writing or to add extra information that clarifies
the situation.
The party (which was usually held every year) was cancelled because of the storm.
It was the last time their parents saw them [the missing girls].
For most students, learning to use parenthesis to add extra information to a
sentence will be useful enough. However, if you have a more advanced class, you
could practice the different uses of brackets and parenthesis by giving the students
sentences, and having them add certain pieces of information with the appropriate
punctuation. With this, they’ll need to assess if the information was essential to
understand the context of the sentence or not.
Punctuation – Recap
While the majority of ESL lessons will contain little focus on punctuation marks, it’s
still important for you to be familiar with them, so that when you do come across a
mistake, you’re able to identify it and demonstrate the correct use.
Take a few minutes to read over this summary below:
Punctuation:
Periods
Symbol:
.
Uses:
Examples:
Placed at the end of a
sentence.
I like to ski.
In abbreviations to indicate
shortened forms.
In an ellipsis to show
missing words.
Separating lists of items.
Mr. Mrs. Ph.D.
M.D.
She knocked on
the door… but no
one was home.
I like rice, eggs,
chicken, and
ham.
Although he
enjoyed the
movie, he didn’t
want to watch it
again.
,
Used to indicate breaks
within a sentence.
Question
marks
?
Used to indicate that the
phrase is a question and
requires an answer.
Do you like
carrots?
Exclamation
marks
!
Used to indicate
heightened emotions.
I hate you!
Used to add additional
information to a sentence,
to introduce a quote, or to
introduce a list.
To renew your
passport you’ll
need: 2 passport
photos, your old
passport, and an
envelope.
Commas
Colons
:
Punctuation:
Semicolons
Apostrophes
Symbol:
Uses:
Examples:
;
Used to connect two
independent clauses.
I’m tired today; it
was too hot to
sleep last night.
‘
Used to indicate words that
are contracted, standing in
the place of removed
letters, and are also added
onto the end of words with
an ‘s’ to indicate
possession.
Quotation
marks
“”
Hyphens
–
–
Dashes
–
It’s hot today.
The dog’s bed.
Used to surround speech
in creative writing, or to
indicate direct quotes.
“What are you
doing?” He
asked.
Used to link words or parts
of words to give new
meanings.
Sugar-free soda
En dash is primarily used
to indicate a span of time
between numbers or
dates.
The material is in
chapters 7-9.
Em dash indicates a break
in speech or thought, used
for extra emphasis.
The day was
finally over – or
so she thought.
/
Used primarily to indicate
the word ‘or’ without writing
it.
Someone had
left his/her phone
in the room.
Parentheses
()
Often used to add
additional information that
isn’t really vital for the
sentence to be
understandable.
The party (which
was usually held
every year) was
canceled
because of the
storm.
Brackets:
[]
Usually used in technical
writing or to add extra
It was the last
time their parents
Slashes
Punctuation:
Symbol:
Uses:
Examples:
information that clarifies
the situation.
saw them [the
missing girls].
Module 3: Sentences and tenses
Tenses – Introduction continued
While you’ll likely be familiar with the basic tenses – Past, Present, and Future –
when it comes to studying the English language, there’s more detail that needs to be
covered.
Tense categories:
Each one of the basic tenses – past, present, future – can be further split into the
following 4 categories:
Simple
Continuous
Perfect
Perfect Continuous
The full list of tenses includes:
Past Simple, Past Continuous, Past Perfect, Past Perfect Continuous.
Present Simple, Present Continuous, Present Perfect, Present Perfect Continuous.
Future Simple, Future Continuous, Future Perfect, Future Perfect Continuous
In the next few pages we’ll be looking into these in more detail, along with examples
and advice for teaching them to students
Present tenses – Simple and continuous
Present tenses are usually the first ones taught to new English learners. They’re
extremely helpful in giving your students grammar that they can immediately use in
conversations.
There are 4 versions of present tense which we’ll cover here:




Present simple
Present continuous
Present perfect
Present perfect continuous.
Present simple
The present simple is often the very first tense that students will come across. It is
used to describe facts, express habitual or repeated behaviors, and to describe
emotions.
The most basic form of this tense can be created by pairing a subject with the
present tense of a verb:
I run every day
You eat rice for lunch
She/he sings in the choir
They walk to school
A great way to teach this is by introducing general, everyday habits to your class.
From there your students can describe what they do each day as well as what their
peers do, which will introduce different subjects to the basic form.
Present continuous
The present continuous tense is usually taught soon after the present simple. It is
used to describe activities that are occurring at the time that the speaker is talking.
The tense uses the present form of the verb ‘to be’ and the ‘ing’ form of the main
verb, for example:
I am walking
You are singing
She/he is jumping
They are writing
Because the present continuous is usually taught so soon in the language learning
journey, students will often have very little vocabulary to use with it. To counter this
problem, it can help to teach them several simple verbs beforehand, and be sure to
include the verb ‘to be’ so that they know how to use it with this tense.
Once you’ve pre-taught these verbs, it can be easy to introduce the context for this
tense by performing actions and having students describe what you’re doing.
Alternatively, images and video clips can be useful for showing actions to the class,
and having the students describe what’s happening.
Present tenses – Perfect and perfect continuous
Present perfect
The present perfect tense is used to describe actions or situations which started in
the past but have now finished.
This tense is formed using ‘have/has’ with the past participle of the main verb:
I have tasted tofu before.
He/she has sung on a stage before.
As this can be difficult for some students, it can help to simplify things by using
regular verbs at first, as their past versions all end with ‘ed’. This should help to
reduce at least some of the initial confusion.
Present perfect continuous
This final present tense is the present perfect continuous. This tense is used to
describe something that started in the past and continues to the present.
It is formed using ‘have/has’ with ‘been’ and the present participle form of the main
verb:
I have been playing the piano for years.
He/she has been eating junk food for every meal.
They have been driving for a year.
There can often be confusion with English students about the use of the present
perfect continuous, and the present perfect tenses. To overcome this, it’s important
to emphasize that the present perfect indicates situations that have finished – though
their effects may still continue, and that the present perfect continuous is used when
the actions have yet to finish.
Providing lots of examples can help students to see the different purposes, for
example:
I have read a book this week (implies you’ve finished it)
I’ve been reading a book this week (implies you haven’t finished yet)
With enough practice, the difference between these two should soon become clear.
Past tenses – Simple and continuous
Being able to speak about the past will allow English students to talk about their
experiences and to share parts of their history with others.
Just like with the present tense, there are 4 versions of past tense which we’ll
cover in this section:




Past simple
Past continuous
Past perfect
Past perfect continuous
Past simple
The past simple is the most basic past tense, and is used to describe events that
occurred once in the past, reoccurring events in the past, or something that was true
for some time in the past. For example:
He ate salad.
She jumped high.
For regular verbs, the past simple tense is formed by adding ‘ed’ to the end of the
verb. This gets more complex when it comes to irregular verbs, which can form the
past simple in a variety of ways that must be memorized.
He walked home.
He went home.
He ran every day.
When teaching this tense, it can be helpful to create a list of regular verbs that your
students are already familiar with. You can then use these to practice with first
before moving on to irregular verbs.
Past continuous
The past continuous tense is used to describe events that were ongoing in the past.
To create this tense, the past form of the verb ‘to be’ is used with a verb in its ‘ing’
form:
He was flying.
They were singing.
The past continuous tense can be fairly simple for students who have already
learned the present continuous and the past simple. One way to teach this tense can
be to create a daily schedule and ask your students what they were doing at different
times. This should naturally encourage them to use the correct form. From there you
can move on to more complicated uses.
Past tenses – Perfect and perfect continuous
Past perfect
The past perfect tense is used to describe something that started in the past and
continued until a given time in the past. It is useful for clearly indicating the order of
actions in the past.
This tense uses the verb ‘had’ and the past participle of the main verb, for example:
He had swum two laps of the pool before his mother joined him.
This tense can also be used to illustrate how long a past event occurred before
ending at a certain point in the past:
On the twentieth of July, I had worked at the school for ten years.
When teaching this tense, it can be useful to use a timeline, showing when certain
events occurred. This can help to illustrate the context which the students will be
describing. To make things more interesting, you could first ask your students
questions about things they’ve done in the past, and adapt the timeline accordingly.
Past perfect continuous (past perfect progressive)
The past perfect continuous tense is used to express ongoing actions from the past
that continued until another point. Note that this use of the tense does not specify
that the action stopped at the specified past point.
It uses a combination of ‘had been’ and the ‘ing’ form of the verb:
She had been walking for an hour when her phone rang.
This tense can also be used to express an ongoing past event that did stop at a
specific past time:
I had been working at the library for a year when I was fired.
This tense is rarely used in everyday conversations, and may only come up in more
advanced classes, or for lessons focusing on specific scenarios. When teaching this,
context can be a big help – for example, speaking about a much anticipated past
event and the actions leading up to it.
Future tenses – Simple and continuous
Teaching your students to talk about the future can open up a whole range of
possible conversations about their plans and aspirations.
Again, as with the present and past tenses, there are 4 versions of future tense
which we’ll cover in this section:


Future simple
Future continuous


Future perfect
Future perfect continuous
Future simple
The future simple tense is used to refer to specific times in the future. There are two
ways to do this in English, both used in two distinct types of situation.
The first form uses ‘will’ and the present tense of the sentence’s verb. This is used to
express a promise or a voluntary action that will occur at some specific time in the
future:
I will go to school tomorrow.
He/she/they will cook dinner.
The second form of the future simple tense is used to express plans. It is created
using the present tense of the verb ‘to be’ and ‘going to’. For example:
I am going to win some money.
He/she is going to the party on the weekend.
They are going to run a marathon.
Both versions of this tense can be used to express future predictions:
I will win the marathon.
He/she is going to win the marathon.
The key with teaching this tense can be to emphasise the difference between
planned and unplanned future events. The ‘will’ future form is an instant decision,
whereas the ‘going to’ refers to plans. Highlighting the difference between the two
can be a useful approach to help your students grasp the separate uses.
Future continuous
The future continuous is used to describe fixed events or appointments that will
extend over time in the future.
It is created using ‘will be’ and the main verb in its ‘ing’ form:
I will be going to the event on Saturday
He/she/they will be watching the news tomorrow evening
The future continuous is a very polite tense. In casual conversation, English
speakers will often use the present continuous tense to describe future plans or
appointments.
However, for business or academic English, the future continuous is considered
more appropriate, and so must still be learned. One approach for teaching this can
be to introduce future schedules to your students and ask them what you, and they,
will be doing at specific times of the day.
Future tenses – Perfect and perfect continuous
Future perfect
The future perfect tense refers to an action in the future as if it has already been
completed. This can be a difficult tense to master, and even native English speakers
use it rarely.
It is formed using ‘will have’ with the past participle. There can be other forms of this
tense, but this is the most common:
I will have finished my assignment by Monday.
When it comes to teaching the future perfect, it can be useful to use another
timeline-based task. Mark a specific time in the future, such as a special day, and
then write a list of events that might happen before that time. Using these two
elements, your students can then form sentences about what they or others will have
done by the time the special day arrives.
Future perfect continuous
The final future tense is the future perfect continuous. This tense describes ongoing
future actions that will be completed at some time in the future. It sounds
complicated, but it’s actually more simple than some of the other future tenses.
Its most common form uses ‘will have been’ with the present participle.
In June, I will have been living here for a year.
Your students should be at an advanced level by the time they learn this, with plenty
of vocabulary at their disposal. One way to teach and practice this can be to have
students draw up five-year plans and share what they will have done by the time the
five years are over.
� Summary
Mastering these different tenses can seem like a difficult challenge for new teachers.
However, with the right preparation it can be relatively straightforward.
So long as you prepare context to surround a lesson, an appropriate activity, and
have a few examples up your sleeve, then you should be fine.
Tenses – Summary
As a recap of the things we’ve just learned, this table can provide a good reference
for the different present, past, and future tenses used in the English language.
Take a look at the tenses and example sentences that you wrote down at the start of
this module. Consider how well you did, and if there are any additions that you could
now include if you were to try again.
With this exercise, it’s quite common for non-native English speakers to perform
better than native English speakers, as native speakers will often have learned how
to use these different tenses through direct immersion, rather than specifically
studying them and their rules of use.

Past
Tense:
Form:
Example:
Past simple: Used to describe
events that occurred once in the
past, reoccurring events in the past,
or something that was true for some
time in the past.
Past form of
the verb
(verb+ed for
regular
verbs)
He walked home.
He went home.
He ran every day.
Past continuous: Used to describe
events that were ongoing in the past
before and after another action or
time.
Past form of
the verb ‘be’
+ verb in its
‘ing’ form
He was flying.
They were singing.
‘had’ + the
past
participle of
the verb.
He had swum two laps
of the pool before his
mother joined him.
On the twentieth of
July, I had worked at
the school for ten
years.
‘had been’ +
‘ing’ form of
the verb
She had
been walking for an
hour when her phone
rang.
I had been working at
the school for a year
when I was fired.
Past perfect: Used to describe
something that started in the past
and continued until a given time in
the past. Also used to illustrate how
long a past event occurred before
ending at a certain point in the past.
Past perfect continuous (past
perfect progressive): Used to
express ongoing actions in the past
that continued until another point.

Present
Tense:
Form:
Example:
Present simple: Used to
describe facts, express
habitual or repeated
behaviours, and emotions.
Present form
of the verb
I run every day.
You eat rice for lunch.
She/he sings in the
choir.
Present continuous: Used to
describe activities that are
occurring at or around the time
the speaker is talking.
Present form
of the verb ‘to
be’ + ‘ing’
I am walking.
You are singing.
She/he is jumping.
Present perfect: Used to
describe states or experiences
that happened in the past and
continue to hold an influence
or achievement in the present.
‘have/has’ +
past participle
of the main
verb.
I have tasted tofu
before.
He/she has sung on
a stage before.
Present perfect
continuous: Used when
something started in the past
and continues to the present.
‘have/has’ +
‘been’ +
present
participle form
of the main
verb.
I have been
playing the piano for
years.
He/she has been
eating junk food for
every meal.

Future
Tense:
Future simple: Used to refer to
specific times in the future – in two
ways: to express a promise or a
voluntary action that will occur at
some specific time in the future,
and to express plans to do
something.
Form:
‘will’ + the
present
tense of the
verb
Present
tense of the
verb ‘be’
and ‘going
to’
Example:
I will go to school
tomorrow.
He/she/they will
cook dinner. I am
going to win some
money.
He/she is going
to the party at the
weekend.
Tense:
Form:
Example:
Future continuous: Used to
describe fixed events,
appointments or events that will
extend over time in the future.
‘will be’ +
the main
verb in ‘ing’
form
I will be going to
the event on
Saturday.
He/she/they will be
watching the news
tomorrow evening
Future perfect: Used to refer to
an action in the future which will be
completed by a certain event or
time.
‘will have’ +
the past
participle
I will have
finished my
assignment by
Monday.
Future perfect continuous: Used
to describe ongoing future actions
that will be completed at some
time in the future.
‘will have
been’ with
the present
participle
In June, I will have
been living here for
a year.
📝 Exercise: To practice these further, take a pen and paper, and write out three
different sentences. Now, see if you can rewrite these sentences using each of the
tenses you’ve just learned.
It’s not easy, but it’s a taste of what your students will face…
Though English tenses can be complicated at first, as you build up familiarity with
them, you’ll soon be able to produce examples and elicit scenarios with students
which help express their meaning in relatable ways
Sentence structures – Introduction
As your students progress, you’ll be able to start stringing their vocabulary and
knowledge of tenses together into increasingly complex sentences.
This is where students really learn how to communicate in a meaningful way. They’ll
be able to express themselves and their thoughts more clearly, and will also begin to
understand more meaning when listening to others.
There are four basic types of sentence that are essential for students to grasp:
Simple
Compound
Complex
Compound-complex
📝 Exercise: Find the nearest book, leaflet, newspaper, or another item that
contains several paragraphs of writing. Then, get a pen and circle 6 sentences at
random.
If you don’t have any suitable materials at hand, you can alternatively take a pen, or
open a document on your computer, and write down:



2 x short sentences
2 x medium-length sentences
2 x long sentences (see how long you can stretch them!)
At the end of this section, we’ll review these sentences and see how they fit with the
different structures listed above.
We’ll cover these sentence structures in the next few lessons, along with tips for
helping students to understand them.
Sentence structures – Simple and compound
The first two types of sentence we’ll look at are simple and compound sentences.
Simple
Simple sentences consist of one independent clause. This means that they make
sense on their own, and contain a subject and a predicate at the very least:
John jumped high.
I like apples.
As the most basic sentence structure, simple sentences are often the first ones
taught to students. At this stage, they will likely have a limited vocabulary, and little
understanding of grammar.
The most important thing when first teaching sentences is to ensure that students
get the correct word order. You can help them with this by giving them easy predefined structures to begin with. With simple sentences, the easiest structure to start
with is the Subject-Verb-Object (SVO) structure. For example: “I like
apples/oranges/bananas.”
Compound
A compound sentence has two or more independent clauses joined together, usually
by a conjunction. They require your students to have a good understanding of simple
sentences and a reasonable range of vocabulary to work with.
In compound sentences, each independent clause must have its own subject and
predicate, for example:
The girl played but the boy stayed inside.
The girl ran, and the boy jumped.
An interesting way to demonstrate compound sentences can be to have students
each write a simple sentence on a piece of paper. Then, have two students come to
the front of the classroom and try to combine their two sentences into one by using
an appropriate conjunction. This activity can also be adjusted to work with small
groups, with each group getting a pile of sentences and writing down their compound
creations.
Note: Before teaching students this type of sentence, you will need to make sure that
they know a variety of conjunctions including “and”, “but”, “or” and “so”.
Sentence structures – Complex, and compound-complex
The next two basic sentence structures we’ll cover are complex and compoundcomplex sentences.
Complex
Complex sentences contain one independent clause, and at least one dependent
clause.
Here’s an example:
When you’re tired, take a rest.
There are a few things to remember when considering complex sentences. First, the
dependent clause can occur before or after the independent clause. A comma is
used when the dependent clause comes before the independent clause, but not
when it occurs afterwards. For example:
The girl ate an apple when she got home.
When she got home, the girl ate an apple.
The second thing to remember is that complex sentences also always contain
a subordinate conjunction. These provide a transition between the two clauses, often
indicating a time, place or cause and effect relationship. The placement of the
subordinate conjunction also indicates which clause is more important. Take a look
at these examples:
When he fell over, everyone laughed.
Everyone laughed when he fell over.
Complex sentences can be difficult for English learners, both because of the extra
information in the sentences as well as the changing forms. When teaching them, it
can help to ensure students have a good understanding of simple and compound
sentences, as well as a number of subordinate conjunctions such as “where”,
“before”, “once”, “than”, “after”, “until” and “though”.
Compound-complex
This type of sentence combines the characteristics of both complex and compound
sentences. It has at least two independent clauses linked by a conjunction as well as
a dependent clause:
The girl ate an apple and the boy played when they got home.
To start practicing complex-compound sentences, students must have a broad
vocabulary, and a very strong grasp of other sentence types. By this point, they will
likely be advanced enough to start practicing writing small stories. This can provide a
good opportunity to let them be creative, and also practice different sentence
structures.
Summary
Learning to create even simple sentences can seem like a giant leap to your
students. They may feel as if all their work on vocabulary and the pronunciation of
sounds is finally paying off, allowing them to express themselves in ever more
complicated ways. This is why it’s an excellent idea to start them learning these
sentence structures early in their English language journey.
In the next section, we’re going to introduce some more sentence structures known
as ‘conditional sentences’, which can help students advance their communication
skills even further.
Sentence structures – Conditional sentences
Aside from simple, complex, compound, compound-complex, there are other more
advanced types of sentence structure that can be especially useful for students to
learn.
In the next few pages we’re going to look at the following four sentence structures
known collectively as conditional sentences:
Z conditional
First conditional
Second conditional
Third conditional
Conditional sentences can allow students to become more creative with their language.
They will be able to discuss hypothetical scenarios, different outcomes, and make
predictions about the future.
Though these sentence types can be difficult at first, once their purpose is clear they
will become valuable tools that help students communicate on a deeper level. Over
the next few lessons, we’ll look at these in more detail, and provide a recap of all 8
sentence types at the end.
Sentence structures – Z conditional and first conditional
Z conditional
This type of sentence is also known as the Zero conditional. It is used to express
simple truths and is formed using the following structure:
If (clause 1 happens), (clause 2 happens).
Both clauses in the sentence must be in the present simple tense (for example: eat,
take, jump). Also note that the word ‘if’ can usually be replaced by ‘when’ without
changing the meaning. See these two examples below:
If I don’t eat, I get hungry.
When you heat ice, it melts.
Zero conditional sentences can also be used to give instructions. This makes them
great tools that can enable students to take control of real-world situations using the
English language. For example:
If she arrives, tell her to find me.
If he finishes his work, he can join the group.
This type of sentence is most often used to express facts and definite outcomes, and
can be practiced in this context. You might choose to first ask some questions to the
class, and then turn their answers into sentences with words blanked out. Then you
can invite students to come and fill in the gap with the correct words. This fill-the-gap
type exercise can also be used to help ensure students choose the correct tense of
verb.
First conditional
This type of sentence is used to express situations that are real, or very likely could
be. It details a very possible condition and its likely result in the future.
First conditional sentences are formed using the following structure:
If (condition in present tense happens), … will (result in future tense).
See the examples below:
If you come to lunch, I will buy you a meal.
If you drive too fast, you will crash.
When your students are first learning this sentence structure, make sure that they
use this basic form, and expand on it once they are comfortable with it. A good way
to practice this can be with sentence chains, where students work in pairs, with one
student creating the first clause, and the other student completing the sentence with
a likely outcome
Sentence structures – Second and third conditional
Second conditional
The second conditional expresses a hypothetical condition and its probable result.
This conditional is less real than the first, so the condition and its result are unlikely
to occur.
These sentences use the following structure:
If (condition in past simple tense), … would (result in present simple tense).
See these examples below:
If I won the lottery, I would buy a Porsche.
If I lived in Los Angeles, I would be a famous actor.
One potential problem with this conditional comes with deciding whether to use ‘was’
or ‘were’ for all subjects, for example:
If I was rich, I’d buy a house.
If I were rich, I’d buy a house.
Academic usage requires ‘were’ but ‘was’ is more common in casual conversation
and is generally accepted as correct. What you teach your students depends on their
reasons for learning English as well as their academic aspirations. If they are
studying English to build basic conversational skills, then using ‘was’ would usually
be fine. However, if the students are preparing for an English-language exam such
as the IELTS exam, you may want to encourage them to use ‘were’.
Activities for teaching this type of conditional can be fun for students, as you can
have them invent wild scenarios that meet their dreams – think superheroes,
millionaires, and film stars.
Third conditional
The third conditional is a speculative one. It advances the idea of an unreal past
condition and its likely past result, and is great for expressing hindsight. It uses the
following structure:
If (past condition), … would have (result using the past participle).
See the example below:
If I had known that she didn’t have any money, I would have bought her dinner.
The third conditional should be taught last as it is the most complicated structure and
can be difficult to learn.
To get your students to practice it, it can help to have them discuss past regrets and
what they would have done differently if they had known better. Obviously, do not
push your students to reveal anything they are uncomfortable talking about. One way
to avoid this can be to first show a short video clip or music video, and ask what the
characters might have wished they had done differently.
� Summary
Learning to use conditional sentences will allow your students to entertain
hypothetical and real situations, along with their potential results. They are also a
vital component of academic language, so will be necessary if your students have
professional or academic intentions for their English learning.
However, these can be complicated forms to master, so ensure that your students
completely understand the use of each sentence structure, comparing and
contrasting whenever possible, before moving on to the next.
Sentences – Recap
As a recap of the things we’ve just learned, this table can provide a good reference:
Sentence:
Description:
Simple
Consist of one independent
clause.
Examples:
John jumped high.
I like apples.
Sentence:
Compound
Description:
Two or more independent
clauses joined together, usually
by a conjunction.
Complex
Contain one independent clause,
which can stand on its own, and
one or more dependent clauses.
Compoundcomplex
At least two independent clauses
linked by a conjunction as well
as a dependent clause
Z conditional
A clause and its result, both in
the simple present tense.
First
Conditional
‘if’+ present simple, ‘will’ with the
future tense.
Second
Conditional
‘if’ with the past simple, ‘would’
with present simple tense.
Third
Conditional
‘If’ with the past perfect, ‘would
have’ and the past participle.
Examples:
The girl played, but the
boy stayed inside.
The girl played, and the
boy jumped.
The girl ate an apple when
she got home.
When she got home, the
girl ate an apple.
The girl ate an apple and
the boy played when they
got home.
If I don’t eat, I get hungry.
If you heat ice, it melts.
If you come to lunch, I will
buy you a meal.
If you drive too fast, you
will crash.
If I won the lottery, I would
buy a Porsche.
If I lived in Los Angeles, I
would be a famous actor.
If I had known that she
didn’t have any money, I
would have bought her
dinner.
Teaching vocabulary – Meaning, form & pronunciation
Your technique for introducing new vocabulary to a class is one of the most
important parts of your teaching practice. If you don’t introduce it thoroughly, your
students may have trouble remembering or using the new words from that point
onward.
Different teachers have different methods and approaches for introducing new
vocabulary, but there is one rule of thumb that governs teaching of vocab on the
whole. That is, when teaching any new words you should always introduce
their Meaning, Form, and Pronunciation.
Here, we’ll look at exactly what this means, and how experienced ESL teachers
introduce these aspects of new vocabulary to their students.
Meaning
The meaning of a new word is usually the first thing introduced to students as it gives
them a context for the vocabulary and its use. This can be done in a variety of ways.
The most common way of introducing the meaning of a word – especially for nouns –
is through flashcards or images. Some teachers also like to use realia as a way to
give students the chance to interact with the items in a way that involves all of their
senses. By adding this experience to the lesson it can help students to create a
stronger connection with the new word.
Meaning can also be introduced through Total Physical Response (TPR) or miming.
TPR is a technique that involves students performing physical movements when
reciting certain words/phrases. Both TPR and miming work particularly well for verbs
as they are easy to demonstrate, and also give the students a chance to move
around and burn off some energy. We’ll cover TPR in more detail later in the course.
As students become more advanced, and the language more abstract, new
vocabulary can be introduced through substitution, using a word they know to
describe something first and then substituting it with the new vocab. You can also
use word roots once the students are more advanced, which allows them to think
more analytically about the language and perhaps even relate it to their original
language. We’ll also cover this in the next few pages.
Form
Once your students understand the meaning of the new vocabulary, they also have
to understand its form. This means understanding which type of word it is (noun,
verb, adjective etc), and any variations of the word that might be relevant. If they
don’t know what type of word it is then they will never be able to use it in a sentence
independently.
Even your beginner students should know what verbs, nouns, and adjectives are.
When you introduce new vocabulary, you can ask students to tell you what type of
word it is. Once they know its form, you can then challenge them to use this word
with a sentence they learned in a previous lesson.
Aside from explaining which type of word you’re introducing to them, you can also
explore the base form of the word and any prefixes or suffixes which may be
attached to it. This can help more advanced students to use the new word in a
variety of different situations.
Pronunciation
Finally, your students will need to know how to actually pronounce the new words
which you’re teaching them. We’ll cover some aspects of this in the upcoming
Speaking module, however, for now, there are some key points which can still be
considered.
First and foremost, before you teach new vocabulary you should consider if your
students are likely to have any issues pronouncing it. This involves looking for
difficult sounds, which usually depends on the sounds in your students’ native
language, as well as thinking about problems that your students had with past
vocabulary and whether they are likely to reoccur. By considering these aspects you
can prepare suitable activities to help your students perfect the correct
pronunciation.
Second, it’s important to give your students a good working model. It can be difficult
to say a word in the same way repeatedly, but try to make your own pronunciation
clear and consistent so that your students can copy it. From there you can introduce
games, role plays or readings that will allow students to practice the new language
within a realistic context while you monitor the groups and correct individual
students. If you find that almost everyone is making the same mistake, you can stop
the exercise and correct the error before continuing. We’ll cover more techniques for
practicing speaking later in this section of the course.
There’s no single perfect method for introducing vocabulary to students. The
approach you take will often depend on the particular class you are teaching and
your other objectives. However, the framework above provides a strong foundation
on which you can base your class activities around.
As we move through the course you’ll build knowledge of more types of classroom
activities, and should start to consider how you might adapt these for different
situations – such as for teaching meaning, form, or pronunciation.
Collocation – Introduction
As your English students get more advanced, there are a variety of language
conventions that can be learned to help them better understand and communicate
with native speakers. Collocations are one such convention.
What is collocation?
In the simplest terms, a collocation is two or more words that often go well together.
There is no one reason why certain combinations of words have become an
accepted part of the language. It is often just a case of the words sounding right
together. Here are some examples of word collocation:
Have a good time
Make a difference
Hard-earned money
Go bankrupt
Although collocations are important both to help your students speak, and to
understand others, they are not as vital as other grammar points. If a non-native
speaker doesn’t use a collocation it might sound strange, but their alternative will
probably still be understandable. However, if the wrong tense is used then the entire
meaning of the sentence could be distorted. For this reason, collocations are often
taught after students have a strong grasp of more vital grammar points, or as they
come up naturally in context. See the examples below which contrast mistakes with
collocation vs mistakes with tense:
I did a mess (the collocation is incorrect, but still understandable)
The exam was on Friday (if the exam is actually on the coming Friday, this would
cause problems)
While not imperative for all students, learning collocations might be more valuable to
those studying for certain purposes. For example, a private class of students
learning English for a trip overseas wouldn’t need to focus on collocation so much.
However, for a class of professionals who intend to use their English for business
purposes, collocation could be valuable when talking with English-speaking clients.
Collocation – Types of collocations
Here, we’ll look at some of the different types of word collocation that exist.
Understanding these can help to give you different ways to introduce them to
students.
Strong and weak collocations
There are certain combinations of words that are considered strong collocations
because they are almost always said together, and rarely collocate with other words.
In contrast, words that make weak collocations can collate with lots of different
words. See the two examples below:
Make a wish/fulfill a wish/express a wish (strong collocation)
Big pain/big ocean/big disappointment/big chance/big price/big fight/big gun (weak
collocation)
As we can see, there are limited ways in which wish/a wish can be used in a phrase.
However, the word big can be collocated with plenty of other words. While it may be
difficult to draw the line between a strong and weak collocation, it can still be useful
to be aware of this concept.
Verb collocations
Verb-noun collocations are the most common types used in day-to-day
conversations. They’re used for instructions or to describe actions, and can often
form complete sentences on their own. These can sometimes cause problems for
students if they don’t fully understand the meaning or uses of the verb in question.
‘Make’ and ‘do’ are two verbs that are used often in collocations and if they are used
incorrectly will sound quite strange to native speakers. See the examples below:
‘Make a cup of tea’, / ‘do a cup of tea’
‘Make the bed’ / ‘do the bed’
‘Do the laundry’ / ‘Make the laundry’
‘Do your homework’ / ‘Make your homework’
In such instances, it can be important to make sure students understand the specific
uses of the verbs. In this situation, students should be made aware that ‘make’ refers
to creating something that wasn’t previously there and ‘do’ refers to some type of
activity.
Business collocations
There are a number of collocations that are related specifically to business English
and so may be useful both in your students’ everyday lives and in their professional
endeavors. These collocations can often be specific to certain industries and types of
business dealings, but can also have their place outside of the professional realm:
Open an account
Make a profit
Key in a PIN
Land a deal
If you find yourself teaching students for a specific professional purpose, it can be
useful to do some research beforehand and prepare collocations that will be most
useful to them.
Collocation – Teaching collocations
A large part of teaching students about collocations centers on raising
awareness of their existence.
Once your students have a good level of vocabulary that they can work with, you can
start to introduce the concept of collocations – using words and phrases which
they’re already familiar with.
💡 Example activity:
One activity could involve giving your students a text to read (this could be from a
book, a magazine, an online news article, etc.) and then drawing their attention to
the collocations that you’ll naturally come across.
You can then invite students to find more collocations and make sentences based on
the examples they’ve found.
This extra step of eliciting collocations from students can be a great tool to help
uncover common mistakes which they might make – or to highlight certain verbs
which they need more understanding of.
Aside from pointing out collocations in written passages, you can also introduce
some specific collocations into your standard classroom language. These
could include examples such as ‘on the other hand’ or ‘do homework’. As you use
these collocations in lessons, you’ll help your students to become familiar with them
in a more natural way
Word roots – Introduction
With very advanced English students, you can start using more complicated ways to
introduce and explore new vocabulary. This will help them to think about new words
in a more in-depth way, and to make connections between previous knowledge and
new vocabulary.
Adding the study of word roots into your lessons is one such way of exploring
vocabulary on a higher level.
What are word roots?
A word root is the basic form of a word before anything additional is added to it. As
covered earlier in this course, additional parts such as affixes can be used to alter
the meaning of such words.
However, when using word roots as a springboard for learning new vocabulary,
there’s a lot more to consider than the basic affixes we covered earlier.
Latin word roots
For English, many words are created by taking a word root derived from the parent
languages of Latin or Ancient Greek, with modern-day words holding some
connected meaning:
Cent (word root) – meaning ‘one hundred’ in Latin.
Percent (word root with prefix)
Century (word root with suffix)
Bio (root word) – meaning ‘life’ in Ancient Greek.
Biography
Autobiography
Biosphere
While not all of these words are derived from Latin or Ancient Greek, there is a deep
trend here which – in certain circumstances – can be useful to explain to students.
Compound words
Aside from taking word roots and adding a prefix or suffix as mentioned above, some
words can also be formed by joining together two complete words:
Schoolhouse – School+house
Courtyard – Court+yard
Basketball – Basket+ball
These words can often be much easier for students to understand, and to spot for
themselves.
In the next page we’ll look at why learning about word roots can be important for
students, and tips for teaching them.
Word roots – Why they’re important
Teaching students about word roots might seem like opening a can of worms. Your
students are already learning English, and likely won’t want to start learning parts of
Latin, Ancient Greek, and Old English as well.
However, learning about word roots can provide your students with valuable
insight into how the English language has formed over time, and a practical way to
understand new vocabulary.
Once your students understand this concept, they will slowly but surely be able
to start inferring the meaning of many new words by examining their roots and
affixes. This kind of advanced thinking is incredibly beneficial for independent
learning.
♻🗺️ Using “recycle” as an example :
A great example of this can be seen with the word “recycle”.
A student might not have been taught the meaning of this word, however, if they
already know the word “cycle” and the affix “re”, then there’s a good chance they’ll
be able to piece together its meaning.
On the next page, we’ll look into ways of introducing word roots to students – without
needing to go down the path of learning Latin or other ancient languages!
Word roots – Teaching tips
As there are no specific rules governing word roots, or techniques that students can
apply to identify all root words, the teaching of them will be a gradual process.
Getting started
It’s important to first make sure that students are comfortable with the basic prefixes
and suffixes covered earlier in the course. For example, the un prefix used to reverse
the meaning of certain words, and the er suffix used to turn certain verbs into nouns.
At this stage, it can be simple to introduce the fact that many of these words
originated in languages which set the foundations for English – without needing to go
much deeper into the history of English. The key here is to focus on practical
knowledge.
Gradual improvements
From this base, you can gradually build your students’ understanding whenever
introducing new pieces of vocabulary.
You’ll often find certain items of vocab which give an opportunity to demonstrate the
different words which can be created by adding a unique affix, or by joining an
additional word to form a single compound word. An example here can be seen with
the word ‘copy’, where you could also introduce the variation of ‘photocopy’.
In other circumstances, you’re likely to come across certain complex words which
students might struggle to understand the meaning of. These words can provide
opportunities for you to dissect the word on the whiteboard, to explain its different
sections. Common examples here include the words ‘autobiography’, ‘television’,
and ‘omnipotent’. These can seem like complicated and abstract words to students,
but their different parts actually reveal a lot about their meaning.
Activities for practice
As students progress further, and build up more vocabulary, they’ll start to develop a
mental picture of different word families from common roots.
From here, you can base whole activities around word roots.
One such activity can be to split your class into groups, and give each group several
root words. Then, give the groups 3 minutes to create as many new words as
possible using their roots. At the end of the time, the students with the most correct
words would be declared the winners. You’ll find that it’s usually teenage and even
adult students which start to learn about word roots, and this type of activity can work
surprisingly well for both age groups as there’s a competitive element without things
getting too out of control.
For younger students, a fun and collaborative alternative can include making ‘word
trees’. These involve writing down different root words on a sheet of paper and
drawing branches for each possible word which can be formed, similar to a family
tree. The great part about this activity is that it not only helps students to visualize
the links between these words, but they’ll also get a drawing which they can take
home after the class.
Final thoughts
Word roots can seem quite complex at first, but they’re very useful for more
advanced students. While they most likely won’t be a focus of every lesson, word
roots should still be practiced from time to time to ensure students keep them in
mind, and can use them with independent learning.
Teaching reading to beginners – The alphabet
For many beginners, learning the English alphabet will be the first step to master.
Your students’ native language may have a very different alphabet than the English
form, and if this is the case then you’ll likely have to start at a slower pace. If your
students are going to be good readers, they must not only memorize the alphabet
but understand it, and be able to identify letters without stopping to think.
Much of this will be based on repetition and providing a range of different exercises
which challenge students to identify both the lower and upper case variations of
letters.
Alphabet activities
It’s important that your students are able to recognize the different letters, and can
match them with the correct sounds.
You can use activities like the ones that follow to help students practice letter
recognition:
Letter Pairs: Play a memory game by writing the alphabet on one set of cards in
capitals and in lower case on another set of cards. Put the cards face down and let
students take it in turns to turn over a pair of cards. If they turn over two matching
letters, they get to keep the pair. The student with the most pairs by the end wins the
game.
This type of activity is great for helping students to match the visual differences
between upper and lower case letters.
Alphabet Bingo: Set up a bingo game by giving each student a sheet of paper with
several letters written on it. As you read out letters at random, students have to
match the sound to the correct letter, and cross it out. The first student to get a full
line crossed out wins.
This type of game challenges students to learn each letter’s sound in a fun and
engaging way.
You may find that students who have learned to speak a bit of English before your
class will be able to say the alphabet in the context of the alphabet song. However, if
you show them a letter out of context they may need to sing the song through to
identify the letter.
This is an unfortunate side effect of rote memorization, where students learn the
sequence rather than the individual letters and sounds. Exercises like the two
mentioned above can help to push students to identify the letters and sounds outside
of the song which they’ve learned.
Alphabet fonts
Another aspect to consider when teaching students whose native language uses a
very different writing system than English is the different ways in which letters and
words may be written.
Students in countries such as China, Japan, Thailand, and Myanmar have very
unique written forms of language, and may not be too familiar with the small
variations in written English. With these classes, you can change the fonts which you
use in different exercises, to show how some letters can vary slightly. See the
examples below:
These may be things that cause some classes, or particular students, more trouble
than others. However, with a little extra practice they’ll soon master the alphabet,
and move on to more advanced reading lessons.
Teaching reading to beginners – Phonics
After your beginners have mastered the English alphabet, they must learn the
sounds made by combining different letters together. This will allow them to ‘sound
out’ written words that they are familiar with and perhaps even some words that are
new to them.
This process is often referred to as ‘phonics’ – the pairing of letters to form distinct
sounds.
Using CVC words
A good way to begin practicing this can be through CVC words (consonant-vowelconsonant), for example:
Dog, cat, hat, dad, hop.
These basic words are great for getting students used to blending different letter
sounds together to make complete words.
With simple activities you can start to show individual letters, and have the students
recite them back to you. As they mirror the pronunciation successfully, you can close
the gap between these letters, and gradually leave the students pronouncing full
words together:
D____o____g
D__o__g
D_o_g
Dog
While it might seem a bit childish to piece words together in this way, learning how to
bring different letter sounds together is a key skill that students must learn at some
point.
After first introducing this concept, you can use a variety of different activities to
practice these basic reading skills further.
Here are some example activities:
Running dictation: Write CVC words on cards and place them around the
classroom. Then, place students in pairs, and challenge one student to search for
the words, reading out loud the ones they find. Meanwhile, the other student must
write down the words as they hear them. Then swap roles afterwards.
Snakes and ladders: Take a snakes and ladders board game, or draw your own,
and write CVCs on certain tiles. As students roll the dice and play the game, if they
land on the tiles with CVCs on, they must read out the words. It can be extra fun if
some of the tiles have directions such as ‘SING’ or ‘DANCE’ on them.
Both of these activities can be great ways to have students practice reading skills,
and can easily be scaled up with more difficult words.
More advanced combinations
After mastering CVCs you can use similar techniques from those above to move on
to more advanced letter combinations. These will include:
Vowel combinations: sleep, food, great.
Consonant blends: brown, char, swim, think.
Silent letters: what/when/why, knife/know, climb/thumb.
So long as you move slowly, use words that the students are already familiar with,
and use lots of practice, students will soon build their ability to read increasingly
complex words.
The most important thing when dealing with phonics, is to ensure your students are
able to accurately sound out the different letter combinations that they’re reading
For more examples on the different letter combinations you can introduce to your
students, see these resources below:
CVC words
Consonant blends
Silent letters
If you plan to focus on teaching young learners, especially with private tutoring, it
could also be worth investing in the Jolly Phonics Workbook range.
Teaching reading to beginners – Vocab limitations
With beginners, the amount of vocabulary which they know can be one of the main
hindrances during reading lessons. If the students don’t already know the words
which you’re asking them to read in your activities, they’ll soon lose motivation, and
may even stop engaging with the task.
Overcoming vocabulary limitations
To counter this, it’s best to start with very basic reading texts, and to offer lots of
praise when students successfully complete a sentence or passage. This can allow
them to gain a sense of achievement, which can be carried through to more difficult
reading texts.
You should also read these texts yourself before the lesson to assess how suitable
they may be for your class.
If there are any passages which you’d like to use, but they contain some unfamiliar
words, then you can start off the lesson by first pre-teaching these words as a
warm-up activity. By first learning the words, and then using them in context, it can
both help to reinforce vocab memorization, and build your students’ reading skills at
the same time.
Practicing reading with advanced students –
Scanning, skimming & reading for detail
As your students progress, the basic skills of reading and comprehension will
become easier for them. When this is no longer a challenge, the focus should move
towards developing more advanced reading skills.
Scanning, skimming, and reading for detail.
These are three advanced reading skills that can be practiced to emulate situations
that students may face outside of the classroom.
Scanning is a type of reading which involves looking for a specific piece of
information in a written text.
You might scan a text such as an event listing to find when/where it will be held.
Another situation could be looking for when a certain train departs, or searching for a
specific detail from a news article.
To help students practice scanning, it can be useful to base activities around timed
exercises. In such activities, students may be challenged to read a text and find
certain pieces of information before the timer runs out. This will push them to scan
the text rather than read the whole passage carefully.
Skimming is a type of reading which involves quickly reading a text to get the
main ideas and a general understanding.
Similar to scanning, when practicing skimming, it can be useful to base activities
around timed exercises.
However, after skimming an article, a student should be able to explain what it’s
about, and the general tone of the text. Whereas with scanning they’ll likely just be
able to give you specific pieces of information.
Reading for detail is exactly what it sounds like – reading the entire text slowly for
overall understanding.
This is the type of reading used most often in everyday life, and will likely be what
the students are most familiar with from previous lessons. After reading a text for
detail, the students should not only be able to explain what it’s about, but should also
be able to answer a range of questions about the text.
When practicing reading for detail, it’s important to ensure that your students know
they do not have to understand each individual word to understand the meaning of
the text.
By teaching these three approaches to reading, you’ll enable your students to use
their English reading skills in a range of real-world situations. You’ll also be able to
use exercises involving texts of ever-increasing difficulty, to both practice reading,
and test their comprehension of vocabulary at the same time.
In the next page we’ll look at some practical activities which can be used to help
practice these skills in your lessons.
Practicing reading with advanced students – Activities
The activities below can be used to help practice different reading skills, and can
easily be adapted to fit specific aims or preferences of your class.
Skimming activity: Timed previews
Test your students’ skimming abilities by asking them to read only the headlines and
images of an article and then make suggestions about its content.
This is a good exercise to start any reading lesson and encourages greater
independence in your students as they are forced to glean the context and subject
through these visual clues.
Scanning activity: Student summaries
A popular activity to practice students’ scanning abilities can be to hand out a
passage of text to each student, along with a set of questions about the text. Then,
give a set amount of time for students to read the text, before checking how many of
the questions they were able to answer.
When selecting questions, you should make sure to choose questions with definite
answers that can be located within the text – such as asking ‘how many/what
time/who/what happened’, rather than questions that require the student to form an
opinion.
Reading for detail activity: Proofreading
One of the more useful reading activities which you can teach your students is to
proofread their own work.
Proofreading requires that your students read for detail in an exaggerated fashion
and also helps them to become aware of problems in their own writing. Everyone
makes errors, no matter if they’re native or extremely fluent, and being able to spot
mistakes is an essential part of academic and professional writing.
One of the great things about these exercises, is that they can be adapted easily to
fit your classes’ interests and skill level.
If you’re teaching a Korean class who love the latest K-pop music star, then you
could choose an article about this music group. Alternatively, if you’re teaching an
adult class, you might use a lifestyle magazine, or a newspaper article.
Teaching reading – Why some learners struggle
Reading is something that certain students can find particularly difficult. Aside from
neurological reasons, there are perhaps some more practical factors that teachers
should consider.
Reading requires coherence:
Reading doesn’t just rely on being able to pronounce the words, it also involves
understanding the overall connection between sentences being read – this is known
as coherence.
A student’s coherence can be limited by their understanding of grammar patterns.
For example:
“The ship sails on Sunday. She should arrive there in two weeks.”
In this sentence we can see “the ship” in one sentence is replaced by “she” in the
next.
It can also be limited by their knowledge of the world:
For example:
“Alejandro was surprised that his new classmate, Tom, was so good at football. Then
he heard that Tom’s brother is signed up with Real Madrid.”
The second sentence gives us a possible reason why Tom is so good at football,
without it saying so directly. However, we can only figure this out if we know that
sporting attributes often, but not always, run in families.
These examples can help to explain why some students might struggle. You’ll
probably be able to picture a point in the past where you might have had to read a
sentence two or three times to decipher its meaning before you could proceed
through the rest of an article/story. The same experience can be amplified for
students learning to read in a foreign language, especially if they’re younger
students, or if the writing text doesn’t align with their culture/understanding of the
world.
Attention spans can vary:
The length of reading materials (even just in terms of sentences) can be daunting for
some learners. They might have little interest in reading, and a limited attention
span. As such, it’s important to understand your class (and individual students) when
selecting reading materials.
If you can choose materials that challenge your students enough without being too
difficult, they’ll be more likely to engage with your lessons and build stronger reading
skills over time.
Interests, exposure, and home environment:
Some learners fail to see the value of extensive reading. Previous or present cultural
differences between the home and school (e.g. regarding educational values and
expectations) may be the cause.
Alternatively, the issue could lie with their exposure to reading in their home
environment. Your students might have limited reading materials at home, their
parents might have literacy issues (due to socioeconomic problems), or reading
might be a skill that otherwise isn’t given much attention.
Helping to provide useful, interesting, or captivating reading materials, and
demonstrating their value can help to combat difficulties stemming from these areas.
So long as you first identify the level of your students, reading lessons don’t need
to be too daunting of a task.
1. Start with the foundations
For beginners, you can take the approach of first ensuring that they have strong
foundations.
This would involve helping them with the English alphabet and showing how letters
blend together.
2. Introduce specific skills
After students are comfortable with the initial foundations, you can move on to
introducing and then practicing advanced skills.
These skills would include scanning, skimming, and reading for detail.
3. Focus on specific purposes
After your students are familiar with these reading skills, you can start to practice
these skills with specific texts that match your students’ interests and reasons for
learning English.
For example: exam papers, travel brochures, novels, newspapers, etc.
(Click the boxes to view)
By focusing on these three stages you’ll be able to select activities that match your
students’ needs.
One additional tip can be to give students plenty of practice reading both as a group
and individually. This will give the students opportunities to learn from others, and
also let you identify any specific aspects which individual students may need more
help with.