How to English TEFL Podcast

Latest Episodes:

How Can You Teach Pronunciation, Grammar & Vocabulary with X, Y & Z? TEFL Activities – S06E24 Dec 19, 2025

Show notes

How can English teachers turn tricky pronunciation, grammar and vocabulary into activities students actually want to join in with?

In the final episode of Season 6 of How to English TEFL Podcast, Gav and Em complete their A–Z of TEFL with X, Y and Z — combining unusual English words, pronunciation challenges, classroom games, grammar practice and practical teaching tips.

Gav challenges Em with difficult X, Y and Z words including axolotl, xylophone, ylang-ylang, Ypres, zwieback, xyst and zephyr. Along the way, they explore why English spelling and pronunciation can be so unpredictable and suggest ways teachers can adapt pronunciation activities for different learner levels.

Em introduces the Yes/No game, a simple speaking activity that pushes learners to answer questions without saying “yes” or “no”. It encourages longer answers, flexible language and useful alternatives such as “maybe not”, “never”, “I tend not to” and “I’d prefer not to”.

They also explore zeitgeist vocabulary from different decades, from groovy and grunge to selfie, hashtag, lockdown, hybrid work and AI — showing how vocabulary can reflect the time and culture in which it is used.

Grammar gets its turn too. Em uses superstitions to practise the zero conditional, while Gav tests when English uses the zero article with examples involving school, hospital, music and meals. Finally, they try a sentence-completion activity designed to help learners expand their adjective choices and support each other when they get stuck.

Drawing on their classroom experience, Gav and Em keep the focus on activities teachers can adapt rather than grammar rules in isolation.

In this episode:
• Pronunciation activities using unusual X, Y and Z words
• A Yes/No speaking game for longer, more natural answers
• Zeitgeist vocabulary and language change
• Teaching the zero conditional through superstitions
• How to explain the zero article
• Sentence-completion activities for vocabulary development
• Tips for Zoom fatigue, exploring new topics and learning from errors

Teaching resources, episode guides and practical ideas for busy English teachers:
https://www.howtoenglishpod.com/

Support How to English TEFL Podcast:
https://ko-fi.com/howtoenglishpod

Resources:
AI voice: https://elevenlabs.io/
Music: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jt5YsCsv9Sc&list=RDQMRnuMug6asRQ&index=3

Chapters

00:00 – Welcome & Season 6 finale
03:26 – X words and unusual vocabulary
05:00 – X, Y & Z pronunciation challenge
15:37 – Pronunciation patterns and teaching ideas
17:12 – The Yes/No speaking game
21:46 – Why the Yes/No game works for learners
22:35 – Zeitgeist vocabulary through the decades
28:24 – Zero conditional through superstitions
34:19 – Zero articles: school, hospital, music & meals
38:43 – “It was so…” sentence-completion activity
42:26 – Zoom fatigue and Em’s teaching tip
43:19 – Gav’s X, Y & Z learning tips
44:08 – Season wrap-up & thanks

How Can English Teachers Teach WH-Questions, Wish & Word Order? Practical Ideas TEFL A-Z W – S06E23 Dec 05, 2025

Show notes

What can English teachers do when a lesson starts going wrong? How can you teach WH-questions, wish structures and word order in ways that actually get students using the language?

In this episode of How to English TEFL Podcast, Gav and Em continue their A–Z of English teaching with W — moving from worst-case classroom nightmares to practical grammar activities, last-minute lesson ideas, warmers and ways to keep familiar teaching topics feeling fresh.

Drawing on their classroom experience, Gav and Em discuss what to do when students look completely lost during an explanation. Should you carry on, simplify the board work, start again or use stronger students to help establish meaning before checking everyone has understood?

Gav then demonstrates a WH-question activity built around guessing a mystery celebrity. Learners complete questions with who, what, where, when, why, which and how while practising different tenses and building a fact file.

Em explores three useful wish structures:
I wish I were taller.
I wish I had been better at school.
I wish it would stop raining.

They discuss how teachers can help learners understand the difference between present wishes, past regrets and situations they want someone or something else to change.

There is also a real teaching confession from Gav after mixing up “in time” and “on time” during a lesson — and a discussion of how teachers can recover when a familiar language point suddenly refuses to cooperate.

Then comes an emergency cover lesson. With almost no preparation, Em is handed “SVO present simple yes/no questions” and turns it into a student-generated word-order activity involving dragons, bananas, haunted houses, rollercoasters and volcanoes. It becomes a useful reminder that teachers do not always need to provide all the language themselves.

Gav and Em also ask whether teaching the same grammar repeatedly can start to wear thin — and how changing the context, examples and student relevance can keep familiar lessons interesting.

Finally, Gav revisits WH-questions by making them negative: Which superpower would you not like to have? When would you not want to live in history? What film would you not want to be trapped inside? A small change that can make familiar speaking questions much more interesting.

Gav and Em have each spent more than 20 years teaching English across different countries, age groups, levels and teaching contexts. The podcast shares practical classroom ideas, activities and reflections drawn from that experience.

More TEFL teaching articles, lesson ideas and practical tips:
https://howtoenglishpod.com

Support How to English TEFL Podcast:
https://ko-fi.com/howtoenglishpod

CHAPTERS

00:00 – Welcome to the W episode
01:22 – Worst-case English lesson nightmares
08:42 – WH-question activity: guess the celebrity
13:57 – How to teach wish: present, past and would
18:20 – In time vs on time
22:13 – Emergency cover lesson: teaching word order
30:43 – Does teaching the same grammar wear thin?
34:00 – Making WH-questions negative
38:20 – Teaching tip: use a good warmer
39:30 – Welcome, Wait and Watch: advice for teachers and learners
41:00 – Wrapping up W and looking ahead to X, Y and Z

How Can English Teachers Find Their Teaching Voice? Pronunciation, Vocabulary & Activities - TEFL A-Z V – S06E22 Nov 21, 2025

Show notes

How do you find your authentic voice as an English teacher — and keep lessons varied, useful and engaging?

Welcome back to the A–Z of TEFL! In S06E22 of How to English TEFL Podcast, Gav and Em reach the letter V and explore practical English teaching ideas around variety, voice, visuals, victories, vocabulary and vitality.

Drawing on their years of classroom experience, Gav and Em discuss why variety matters in lesson planning and how mixing speaking, listening, reading, writing, energetic activities and quieter reflection can help keep lessons balanced.

Then it gets phonological. How can teachers help learners distinguish /v/ and /w/? Gav and Em experiment with mouth position, voiced sounds, fricatives, minimal pairs, flashcards, tongue twisters and pronunciation games — with words including wine/vine, west/vest and wheel/veal.

Em brings in a visual-speaking activity based on strange coincidences: identical cars, matching step counts and puppies whose spots appear in numerical order. The pictures demonstrate how one visual can generate description, vocabulary, grammar, personalisation and extended conversation.

The discussion then gets more reflective: what does it mean to find your “teacher voice”? Gav and Em compare how they behave with new students, how authority and friendliness can change over time, and the challenge of having a genuine conversation while still listening for opportunities to teach, correct and expand learners’ English.

They also ask what counts as a teaching victory. Is it new vocabulary? More accurate language? A confident student? Or simply finishing a lesson with everyone looking forward to the next one?

Plus: vocabulary vs lexis, idioms, categorising language, a body-action vocabulary game, staying fresh after thousands of lessons, teacher vulnerability and why the volume of new language matters.

☕ Support the podcast and help keep Gav & Em supplied with tea and coffee:
https://ko-fi.com/howtoenglishpod

🌐 Practical TEFL articles, teaching ideas and resources for busy English teachers:
https://howtoenglishpod.com

MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE

Grammar Drops:
https://www.youtube.com/@GrammarDrops

Whizbusters:
https://whizbusters.teachable.com/

Game music:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=951ZpDOP9VY&list=PL170TfEhZz-_GstI3bsghBfuD-u8nlHHD&index=13

CHAPTERS

00:00 – Intro: Welcome to V
01:04 – Variety in English lessons
04:58 – Valued supporters: Grammar Drops & Whizbusters
05:46 – Voiced sounds: teaching /v/ vs /w/
08:00 – Minimal pairs, flashcards & tongue twisters
11:00 – Plosives, nasals & pronunciation
13:06 – Using visuals to generate language
15:00 – The identical-car coincidence
18:00 – Step counts, data & digital habits
21:00 – Puppies, pictures & conversation
22:54 – How do you find your authentic teacher voice?
29:02 – Big and small teaching victories
31:07 – Vocabulary vs lexis
32:00 – Categorising idioms and expressions
35:14 – Body-action vocabulary game
39:48 – How teachers maintain vitality
42:00 – Personalisation, values & keeping lessons real
43:49 – Gav’s tip: vulnerability in the classroom
44:15 – Em’s tip: control the volume of new language
45:15 – Outro & W next week

How Can You Teach Uncountable Nouns and ‘Used To’ Creatively? TEFL A-Z U – S06E21 Nov 07, 2025

Show notes

How can you make uncountable nouns memorable and help students untangle ‘used to’, ‘be used to’ and ‘get used to’? This week on the How to English TEFL Podcast, we tackle U in our A–Z of teaching English—with unusual holiday packing and quite enough U/you jokes.

Join us, Gav and Em, for a playful role play featuring ‘three luggages’ and ‘a happiness’, followed by a sentence-building game you can adapt for your lessons. We explore how humour helps students notice grammar mistakes without putting anyone on the spot.

Can AI help students upgrade their writing? We try different versions of ‘The cat sat on the mat’ and discuss vocabulary work, gap fills and matching sentences to styles for different levels.

We also practise ‘used to’ through gardening and pet-owning scenarios, explore the surprises of ‘under-’, and compare ‘ultra-’, ‘super-’, ‘mega-’ and ‘hyper-’. Gav shares how a coursebook unit worked with his airport students, while Em reflects on moving learners from repeating sentences to using English independently.

Expect practical TEFL activities, real classroom experience and a reminder to stretch your own teaching and learning habits. U first!

📚 EXPLORE THE EPISODE GUIDE AND FREE TEFL ARTICLES

Episode Guide: How Can You Teach Uncountable Nouns and ‘Used To’ Creatively? TEFL A-Z U – S06E21

How to Teach Uncountable Nouns with a Funny Role Play – S06E21

How to Practise Countable and Uncountable Nouns with One Simple Sentence Game – S06E21

How to Teach ‘Used To’, ‘Be Used To’ and ‘Get Used To’ Clearly – S06E21

How Can Students Use AI to Upgrade Simple English Sentences? – S06E21

When Should an English Teacher Use a Coursebook Unit Instead of Planning from Scratch? – S06E21

If you find the show useful, you can send us a thanks:
https://ko-fi.com/howtoenglishpod

Visit https://howtoenglishpod.com for practical teaching ideas and ready-to-use resources.

References: English File, Oxford

Background music:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q83yRKmKKYs&list=PLfP6i5T0-DkKSs8G6YbPHYAR70-f5tP9S&index=21

TIMESTAMPS

00:00 – Welcome and intro banter
01:14 – Under-prefix wordplay
05:54 – Uncountable nouns role play
09:22 – Categories of uncountable nouns
10:33 – Countable vs uncountable game
14:53 – Upgrading sentences with AI
20:09 – ‘Used to’ grammar practice
23:42 – Teaching with coursebook units
26:40 – Prefixes: ultra, super, mega and hyper
30:26 – Tips of the episode

How Can You Bring English Lessons to Life? TEFL Tips, Timelines and Tasks - TEFL A-Z T – S06E20 Oct 24, 2025

Show notes

How can you help students understand English grammar, speak with more expression and remember what they learn?

Welcome to another tea-fuelled episode of How to English: Teach and Learn with Gav & Em — the podcast for teachers and learners of English as a foreign language. This week, we tackle the letter T: TEFL, timelines, tone, task-based learning and teaching tips from students themselves. ☕️

Drawing on our classroom experience, we share advice for new English teachers: be prepared, give yourself time to build confidence and talk to students when things go wrong.

How can timelines make English tenses clearer? We work through biscuit theft, interrupted actions and perfect tenses, then move on to tone and intonation: how can the same words sound hopeful, impatient or mischievous?

We also hear the student perspective. Why does fun make lessons memorable? What if learners understand a grammar rule but forget it when speaking? Should teachers interrupt to correct mistakes? And do students really need another list of phrasal verbs?

For task-based learning, we discuss escape rooms, planning a holiday, spot the difference and a hands-on guessing game. We finish with “a” versus “an”, transcription and pronunciation practice, and a tongue-twister challenge.

📚 FREE S06E20 ARTICLES

What Advice Actually Helps a Nervous New English Teacher?
https://howtoenglishpod.wordpress.com/what-advice-actually-helps-a-nervous-new-english-teacher-s06e20/

How to Use Timelines to Teach English Verb Tenses
https://howtoenglishpod.wordpress.com/how-to-use-timelines-to-teach-english-verb-tenses-s06e20/

How to Teach Tone of Voice Without Making Speaking Feel Artificial
https://howtoenglishpod.wordpress.com/how-to-teach-tone-of-voice-without-making-speaking-feel-artificial-s06e20/

What Do English Learners Wish Their Teachers Would Do Differently?
https://howtoenglishpod.wordpress.com/what-do-english-learners-wish-their-teachers-would-do-differently-s06e20/

What Counts as Task-Based Learning in an English Lesson?
https://howtoenglishpod.wordpress.com/what-counts-as-task-based-learning-in-an-english-lesson-s06e20/

A or An? Why the First Sound Matters More Than the First Letter
https://howtoenglishpod.wordpress.com/a-or-an-why-the-first-sound-matters-more-than-the-first-letter-s06e20/

🌐 More practical TEFL ideas and resources:
https://howtoenglishpod.com

☕ Support the podcast:
https://ko-fi.com/howtoenglishpod

Timestamps
00:00 – Welcome and tea talk
01:06 – TEFL tips: be prepared and don’t stress
08:06 – Timelines: visualising English grammar
16:55 – Tone: intonation, emotion and meaning
20:18 – May and Will: wordplay and sentence stress
25:04 – Teaching tips from learners
32:47 – Task-based learning: communicative classroom activities
39:17 – Gav’s T tip: test your articles
42:00 – Em’s T tip: transcription and IPA
43:13 – A tongue-twister challenge
44:22 – Outro and roller disco

How Can English Teachers Teach Small Talk, Syllables & Lesson Staging? TEFL A-Z S – S06E19 Oct 10, 2025

Show notes

How can you teach small talk, syllables and common English mistakes in practical, memorable ways?

In this S-themed episode of the A–Z of TEFL, Gav and Em share classroom activities for English teachers and learners. Drawing on their own lessons, they explore semantics, pronunciation, scaffolding, student confidence, lesson staging and some surprisingly tricky examples of subject–verb agreement.

Em demonstrates how she builds a small-talk lesson by eliciting safe topics, creating useful questions and placing the language in realistic situations such as conferences and trade fairs. Why do learners sometimes need a conversational bridge before asking about hobbies? How can role plays, prompts and structured support help hesitant speakers?

Next, Gav tackles long English words while Em introduces a simple physical technique for counting syllables. They test words including inconsequential, discombobulation and biodegradable, combining pronunciation, meaning and sentence-building in one adaptable vocabulary activity.

They also consider what students can do when a teacher mispronounces their name, they do not understand the homework, they notice a mistake or they arrive late. Then comes “Sentence Slips”: a collection of errors involving bored and boring, sympathetic, constipated, cook and cooker, sensible and sensitive, menu, desert and dessert.

Finally, Em takes Gav through the stages of a real first lesson with an international business English group. They examine how prediction, listening, discussion and free practice can build naturally—and why teachers nearly always spot something they would improve next time.

Expect practical teaching ideas, useful English explanations, honest classroom reflection and the usual Gav and Em tangents.

If you find the show useful, you can send us a thanks at https://ko-fi.com/howtoenglishpod

Visit https://howtoenglishpod.com for practical teaching ideas and resources ready to use.

Chapters

00:00 – Welcome to the letter S
01:18 – Semantics: how context changes meaning
04:48 – How to teach small talk
06:00 – Safe topics and useful questions
07:28 – Small-talk role-plays and realistic contexts
09:17 – Scaffolding hesitant speakers10:32 – A physical activity for counting syllables
11:48 – Long-word vocabulary and pronunciation challenge16:38 – What should students do in difficult classroom situations?17:04 – When a teacher mispronounces a student’s name19:18 – Asking for clarification about homework20:06 – Correcting a teacher and arriving late21:24 – The Silent Way and Suggestopedia22:55 – Sentence Slips: correcting common English mistakes23:42 – Bored or boring?24:28 – Sympathetic and other false friends25:34 – Constipated, cook, cooker, sensible and sensitive27:13 – Menu, set menu, desert and dessert28:42 – What does lesson staging mean?29:48 – Em analyses the stages of a real first lesson33:34 – Reflecting on and improving lesson structure35:19 – Subject–verb agreement challenge38:47 – Final teaching and learning tips
40:07 – Goodbye and a tea-or-coffee request

How Can You Teach English with Realia, Role-Play and Grammar Games? TEFL A-Z R – S06E18 Sep 26, 2025

Show notes

How can everyday objects, improvised phone calls and picture games bring your English lessons to life?

R you ready? We’re continuing our A–Z of TEFL on the How to English TEFL Podcast, and this week it’s the letter R! From relative clauses and root words to realia, role-play and reflexive pronouns, we’ve got plenty to try in your next English lesson.

What is realia, and how can you use it in the classroom? Em shares activities she’s used with her students, including a missing-object memory game and a mystery bag of animals. We also discuss menus, tickets, packaging and ways to use everyday objects when teaching English online.

How do you give clear classroom instructions? We explore rubric, keeping instructions short and checking understanding before putting our advice to the test. Our telephone role-play takes us from a forgotten restaurant meeting to an urgent order for office supplies, with a few laughs along the way. We discuss spontaneous speaking, problem solving and why Em saves error correction until afterwards.

Looking for English grammar and vocabulary games? Join our relative clause picture challenge, tackle some R-word gap fills and complete sentences with reflexive pronouns. There’s also time for surprising word origins, repetition, revision, reading and register. Who knew “nice” had such a past?

If you find the show useful, you can send us a thanks at https://ko-fi.com/howtoenglishpod

Our website, https://howtoenglishpod.com, is full of practical teaching ideas and resources ready to use.

Explore this practical article for more teaching ideas connected to repetition and remembering vocabulary 👇
Spaced repetition: https://www.heylama.com/blog/spaced-repetition

Telephone activity reference
Call Me on my Mobile, In Company, Macmillan, 2nd Elementary, p. 103.

Chapters
00:00 – R: /ɑː/, /rʌ/, or /ɑːɹə/?
01:31 – Relative clauses explained (not Santa Clauses!)
07:59 – Root words: from sandwiches to a shambles
12:49 – Realia in the classroom: menus, toys, postcards and more
17:34 – Rubric: clear instructions and checking understanding
20:35 – Instructions and telephone role-play
28:51 – R-words vocabulary game
32:31 – Repetition, remembering and revision tips
35:29 – Reflexive pronouns: myself, yourself and more
36:49 – Wrap-up and roller disco outro

What Makes a Good TEFL Lesson? Teacher Q&A with Gav and Em – TEFL A-Z Q - S06E17 Sep 12, 2025

Show notes

What makes an English lesson fun, how should teachers respond to difficult questions, and what happens when a class reaches a genuine flow state?

In this Q-themed episode of the How to English TEFL Podcast, Gav and Em ask each other questions about teaching English, working online, planning lessons and producing the podcast.

Drawing on more than 40 years of combined classroom experience, they discuss memorable moments from teaching in different countries, including Gav’s experiences in the heat of southern China and the freezing temperatures of northern and eastern Europe. Em shares a creative grammar activity in which learners physically arrange themselves into sentences, helping them explore word order together.

What should you do when a learner asks a grammar question you cannot answer? Em remembers being caught out by a question about subject questions early in her career—and explains why experienced teachers still sometimes need to say, “I’m not sure, but I’ll find out.”

Gav and Em also consider the advantages and disadvantages of teaching English online. Is something lost when teachers and learners no longer share a physical classroom? Can digital lessons still create meaningful professional relationships?

You’ll also hear their thoughts on making lessons fun without forcing the humour, protecting learners from embarrassment when mistakes sound funny, and knowing when to step back while a successful speaking activity flows.

Along the way, they revisit favourite podcast guests and episodes, explain how AI helps Gav create the show’s cover art, reveal how they have used podcast extracts in their lessons, and imagine the events they would enter at the TEFL Teacher Olympics.

The episode ends with a rapid-fire teaching quiz: lesson plan or wing it? Pair work or group work? Online or face-to-face? Tea or coffee?

If you find the show useful, you can send us a thanks at https://ko-fi.com/howtoenglishpod

Visit https://howtoenglishpod.com for practical teaching ideas and resources ready to use.

Chapters

00:00 – Welcome to Q: questions and answers
01:42 – The placement-test mystery of “remote control”
02:42 – Gav’s favourite countries to teach in
05:14 – A creative physical grammar and word-order activity
07:14 – Gav’s dream podcast guest
08:13 – Student questions that left Em speechless
10:27 – The disadvantages of teaching English online
13:27 – When learners make hilariously wrong mistakes
14:46 – What actually makes an English lesson fun?
16:19 – What to do when a class reaches a flow state
17:54 – Gav and Em’s favourite podcast episodes
19:41 – Podcast episodes that changed their teaching
21:15 – The best compliment a teacher can receive
21:48 – Is teaching more tiring than podcasting?
23:27 – Creating podcast artwork with AI
25:04 – Using podcast extracts in English lessons
26:20 – The strangest places to plan a lesson
27:55 – Reliable activities and ready-made materials
29:24 – The TEFL Teacher Olympics
30:40 – Rapid-fire teaching choices
32:50 – Next time: the letter R

How Can PPP, Placement Tests and Present Perfect Improve Your TEFL Lessons? TEFL A-Z P – S06E16 Aug 29, 2025

Show notes

How can we help students put new English into practice instead of falling back on the language they already know? This week on the How to English TEFL Podcast, we’re exploring the letter P, from presentation, practice and production to placement tests, pronunciation and the present perfect.

Em shares why she’s partial to PPP, and we discuss what happens when a carefully planned production activity becomes a lovely chat with none of the target language. How much prompting do students need?

Then Gav takes the student’s seat for a picture-story placement test. There’s a suspicious shopping trip, some teacher feedback and a reminder of how much pressure learners can feel. We discuss what picture stories reveal about someone’s English, how nerves affect performance and whether students need preparation time.

Need a way to explain present perfect simple versus continuous? We compare example sentences about painting, sending emails and working, exploring how context changes the focus. You’ll hear ideas for helping students notice meaning before discussing grammar rules, with extra support for lower-level learners.

There’s also a “P or no P” spelling and pronunciation game, plus classroom reflections on peer correction, lesson pacing, paraphrasing, personalisation, pre-teaching and prediction. Expect plenty of Ps, a few questionable jokes and teaching experiences you might recognise from your own lessons.

If you find the show useful, you can send us a thanks at https://ko-fi.com/howtoenglishpod

For more classroom inspiration, https://howtoenglishpod.com is full of practical teaching ideas and resources ready to use.

Chapters
00:00 Welcome to our letter P episode
01:00 PPP: presentation, practice and production
03:00 Helping students use the target language
05:00 P or no P: spelling and pronunciation game
13:00 Placement tests and picture stories
15:00 Gav tries a picture-story speaking test
17:00 What teachers listen for in a placement test
19:00 Student nerves and preparation time
21:00 Present perfect simple versus continuous
24:00 Quantity, duration and overlapping meanings
26:00 Helping students discover grammar through examples
28:00 Peer correction and checking accuracy
29:00 Lesson pacing and varied activities
30:00 Paraphrasing in students’ own words
31:00 Personalisation and preparing learners for tasks
32:00 Pre-teaching and prediction
33:00 A positive attitude to teaching and learning
34:00 Putting new language into use
35:00 Goodbye and next time: the letter Q

How Can Teachers Correct Errors Without Overcorrecting? TEFL A-Z O – S06E15 Aug 15, 2025

Show notes

How can English teachers correct mistakes without interrupting fluency or damaging a learner’s confidence?

In this O-themed episode of the How to English TEFL Podcast, Gav and Em explore overcorrection, on-the-spot grammar, one-to-one teaching and practical speaking activities. Drawing on their classroom experience, they discuss which errors deserve immediate attention, which can wait and why correcting every mistake may distract both the learner and the teacher from meaningful communication.

Through a deliberately painful overcorrection role-play, Gav interrupts nearly every error Em makes while describing her fictional company. They use the experience to consider how teachers can prioritise recurring problems, give delayed feedback and avoid overwhelming nervous learners—particularly during a first lesson.

You’ll also hear the advantages and disadvantages of teaching one-to-one English lessons, including personalised materials, clearer goals, closer relationships, cancellations and the limitations of mixed-level groups.

Looking for adaptable classroom activities? Gav and Em demonstrate an on-the-spot grammar correction game, a one-minute speaking challenge and an onomatopoeia lesson featuring slurps, sighs, giggles, sobs and groans. Em explains how removing the options from a gap-fill can turn it into a productive open-cloze activity, while Gav suggests offering learners clear choices instead of asking broad questions such as, “What do you want to do next class?”

Along the way, they answer questions including:

How should teachers correct errors during speaking activities?
Should every learner mistake be corrected?
What are the benefits of teaching one-to-one lessons?
Why do we say “much money” rather than “many money”?
How can teachers check understanding effectively?
What is an open cloze?
Why should teachers offer learners clear options?

If you find the show useful, you can send us a thanks at https://ko-fi.com/howtoenglishpod

Visit https://howtoenglishpod.com for practical teaching ideas and classroom resources ready to use.

Chapters

00:00 – Welcome to O: TEFL Words and Teaching Ideas
00:58 – One-to-One English Lessons: Benefits and Drawbacks
05:02 – Correcting Grammar on the Spot with Error Cards
09:00 – Why Do We Say “Much Money” and Not “Many Money”?
10:11 – Overcorrection Role-Play: How Not to Correct Speaking
14:00 – Which Learner Errors Should Teachers Prioritise?
18:07 – One-Minute Speaking Challenge for Fluency
21:30 – Teaching Onomatopoeia Through Everyday Sounds
25:06 – Objectives, Outcomes, Observations and Other TEFL O Words
27:46 – Open-Cloze Activities Without Multiple-Choice Answers
29:36 – Better Ways to Check Understanding
31:32 – Offer Learners Options Instead of Open-Ended Questions
32:46 – Final Thoughts and a Preview of the Letter P

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