ELT Experiences

Experiences of an English Language Teacher

Category: Teacher Tips (Page 1 of 14)

My Experience of Teaching on Preply for 2 Years

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It has been two years since I started tutoring students from around the world on Preply, and I guess it all stemmed from a lack of teaching opportunities during the midst of a pandemic. Despite registering with Preply back in July 2016, it took almost 5 years to finally complete the registration and making my profile live. Unfortunately, it was perhaps the least suitable moment to find an alternative means of earnings during the pandemic, but I was keen to make it work.

Setting Up My Profile

During the initial stages of setting up a Preply Profile, I was required to send documents which would confirm my identification and proof of address. I suppose organisations of any worth are expected to ensure the proper checks were in place and within half an hour, Preply had received a scan of my passport and a proof of address. All this was done via a smartphone application and the whole process was rather seamless.

Once my registration was accepted, I was able to make a start on setting up my profile. Creating an eye-catching and engaging profile takes time, and is something I spent a few days on. I wanted to make my profile as professional as possible, and to do so requires a bit of time and research.

Fortunately, as the Preply platform is open for all, you are able to view other profiles and see how more successful tutors are marketing themselves online. I wrote down some initial ideas and starting to formulate them into something a little more suitable. I guess one has to consider the learners that you one is attempting to market and teach, while also writing something that is graded for that potential client.

The other aspect that I noticed during my research was that tutors were marketing their profile with a headline such as “Professional IELTS Tutor” or “Qualified English Language Teacher”. Looking at the written introduction certainly helped create an eye-catchy headline for potential students.

Creating an Introduction Video

Once, I had created an engaging and click-able (if that is a word) profile for Preply, I had to spend a bit of time crafting an introduction video. I decided to watch a few introduction videos from fellow Preply Tutors, and learned many ways not create such a video.

Here are a few recommendations that I suggest for those that are willing to create an introduction video, whether it is for Preply or on alternative platforms. I hope it helps.

  • Record your introduction video in landscape rather than portrait mode, with the smartphone or camera placed at either eye-level or slightly higher – no one wants to look up your nostrils!
  • Record your introduction video with light facing behind the camera rather than light facing in-front of the camera. It would cause the exposure to over compensate and make things unviewable for potential students.
  • Keep your introduction short and to the point. No one wants to hear your ramblings. Also, grade your language! You are speaking to potential students.
  • Organise your introduction into threes: 1. About yourself; 2. What you offer; and a 3. Call to action.
  • Spend some time recording or re-recording your introduction video until it is the way you want it.
An example of my introduction video for Preply.

There are various other recommendations on Preply with recording an introduction video. However, I have included my introduction video above, where I hope to offer some inspiration and attempt to incorporate recommendations above.

Initial Student Bookings

A few weeks after setting up my profile, I had my first message and booking from a potential student. I was filled with slight disbelief as I held little to no hope of getting any students. However, I was quite unsure what to do during the trial lesson, so I decided to attend a free webinar session via Preply, which are aimed to help tutors out when first starting on the platform. In fact, there are lots of webinars and recordings to help new or seasoned Preply Tutors.

The support webinar, which I attended, gave me the confidence to understand how to deal potential new students and possibly sell a course. So, I created a PowerPoint to structure first lessons and provide a sense of professionalism. Essentially, I attempted to achieve the following with initial/trial lessons:

  • Develop rapport with learners, so I better understand the learners and they are able to get to know me
  • Determine student aims with their English learning
  • Any potential challenges that students encountered with their English
  • Introduce students to my methodology when teaching
  • Expected equipment students need to attend lessons
  • Demonstrate an example lesson with a variety of tasks
  • Provide feedback for any student utterances and scaffold language
  • Offer an opportunity for potential students to ask questions

I spent a few hours crafting a PowerPoint and then taught my first trial lesson. The initial feedback that I had received from the student was along the lines of, “I have never received such a professional first lesson on Preply!”. And with that, I had decided that I had a template for any potential trial lesson and have used this template for all trial lessons. In fact, I have recorded examples of trial lessons and shared on YouTube which are available to view below.

Here is an example of a Preply trial lesson with an Intermediate level student of English
Here is an example of a Preply trial lesson with an Advanced level student of English

If you would like to look a thorough procedure of a possible trial lesson, then I would suggest that you consider looking at Joanna’s post on the experiences of her very first trial lesson.

Preply Statistics

A post such as this would not be considered suitable without sharing key information from the platform such as total number of lessons taught, number of students, overall earnings, and other relevant statistics.

At the time of writing this, I have a 0.33% conversion to trial rate with potential students. I get this figure by how many times a student has booked a trial lesson with me (73 times) divided by how many times a potential student has viewed my profile (a total of 21,875).

Preply also automatically calculates (somehow), your profile and I have amended my profile from time-to-time, but I always revert back to my original profile image as this seems to have some impact to the automatic assessment of my Profile Score, which currently stands at 100%.

Obviously, at the time of this post, my profile position is 1075 with an availability of 35 hours per week. I like to organise my availability according to my own personal circumstances, so this is reviewed every few months.

Now looking at the statistics related to current or new students on the platform, I have a conversion rate of 60.27% with an average number of lessons of 5.9 hours. Of course I have taught a number of different students a range of lessons with some having at least 50 hours of classes, while some students book a few hours and move on.

Currently, I have 84 active students that book lessons with me. Typically, students book between one or two lessons per week, with lessons lasting usually sixty minutes. My overall trial lessons rating on Preply is 4.9, with no trial lessons missed. There is a note that I have cancelled 2 trial lessons, which was something that I don’t typically do or recommend.

Unfortunately, when I booked a Christmas holiday, there is a function on Preply where you can cancel all scheduled lessons during a set period to allow for holidays and this then blocks out your availability. When completing this process, I completely forgot that I had two trial lessons booked for the Christmas period so these got cancelled. I would recommend that tutors reschedule trial or normal lessons rather than cancel them altogether, and explain to students the reason.

In terms of overall achievements with Preply, I have earned a total of $16,741 during the past two years with a total number of 1,030 tutoring hours. If you divide the earnings by the tutoring hours, there is an average of $16.26 per hour. To explain the discrepancy between my tutoring rate and the rather low hourly for the past two years: firstly trial lessons are unpaid with 100% commission to Preply which are included in the total tutoring hours and secondly there is a commission to Preply for all hours taught on the platform which depends on the number of lessons taught.

The average rating for my profile is 5.0 with a total 31 reviews, with a total zero absences (again I prefer to reschedule all lessons rather than cancel or miss classes). I have taught a total of 164 students for the past two years with an average of 6.3 hours.

With the graph above, you can start to see an overall pattern in terms of earnings with my winter months being my most lucrative. However, this has continued this year earnings being above $1,400 per month since March to date. This is obviously all before tax and there is a conversion to UK Sterling which needs to be taken into account.

During my initial months on the platform, I earned $26.80 in April 2021, followed by $393.20 in May 2021. Earnings is not guaranteed on Preply but the more you dedicate to the platform, the lucrative it can be, with many students switching to online courses since the pandemic.

Memorable Students with Preply

Having taught a broad number of students over the past two years, I hope to have gained an insight into the teaching with the Preply platform. I have had a wonderful opportunity to tutor many students over the past two years. Some students that come to mind include helping a Polish young adult learner with their IELTS preparation and she had lessons with me for around a year and a half. She was fluent in Spanish, French, had just started learning German and had decided to become more proficient in English.

The other student that I remember was a Chinese adult learner who wanted to study at a UK institute, so she needed to pass the IELTS at Band 6.5 overall with no less than 6.5 in Writing. She had taken the IELTS in the past but found it difficult to achieve the much needed 6.5 in perhaps all aspects of the examination. After much preparation, she took the IELTS, gained the required band, and was accepted to study at post-graduate level with the University of Exeter.

A third and final memorable student that I am currently teaching include a pair of young learner twins from France. They currently study Chinese and English but obviously speak French as their first language. I decided at the beginning of 2023 to start teaching young learners and these were the very first children that booked lessons with me. I have now taught quite a few lessons with them, focusing on stories, CLIL or other interesting topics. They are very patient and keen to share what they have done during the week with me. Perhaps, they are the easiest students to teach as they carry the lesson themselves and I correct them or give them some engaging games to do with me. Their mother is very keen to communicate with me and is happy to share any updates about what they do or where they visit together. It is so nice to chat with them and I am so pleased to have decided to teach young learners this year.

The Future with Preply?

I shall not be reviewing this platform as extensively as I have done before – there is actually a video that I created and shared previously and is available to watch below – but where do I see myself with Preply in the coming years? To be honest, I love the flexibility of scheduling the hours that can be arranged other commitments, whether it is full-time work or life getting in the way. And because of this, I shall be continuing with to teach with the Preply platform.

This was a review of Preply after one month of teaching! I hope this gives you some insight into the platform.

There is quite a big update which I shall be sharing in the coming months, so Preply will certainly help when it comes to such a large change in my life. I have also been able to meet so many students from around the world such as Thailand, Peru, Germany, Switzerland, France or China, and it is such a pleasure to make so many connections or to be recommended to other potential students.

It is also a great opportunity to supplement and diversify your income, particularly with the cost of living crisis now affecting so many of us. I have yet to meet any of my students or fellow tutors face-to-face but I am looking forward to seeing, should they wish to meet up and have a coffee together.

So would I recommend this to other professionals? Of course! There are plenty of opportunities to carve out a specialist niche, and I am now sharing an opportunity for fellow online tutors who wish to develop the necessary skills to deliver quality lessons and create an engaging profile for potential students.

If you would like to join our ELT Experiences Online Community via YouTube, then all you have to do is click here for more information.

The following ELT Experiences Community Membership will offer those to join a meeting with me every two weeks to chat about online teaching and to answer the questions that you have when it comes to teaching online or face-to-face.

Anyhow, had I not decided to work with this platform, I wouldn’t have been given the opportunity to share get involved with Teacher Training or to create a variety of videos – paid of course – for fellow Preply Tutors. So the whole platform has great potential to promote and develop your online tutoring business.

“Academic Writing: Mastering Citation and Referencing” by Paul Murphy

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“Academic Writing: Mastering Citation and Referencing”, written by Paul Murphy, is Prosperity Education’s latest publication with it being geared towards learners on pre-sessional university courses or for teachers who are teaching the principles of academic writing and skills. The author, Paul Murphy, is a teacher who has taught on various English for Academic Purposes (henceforth EAP) programmes in the UK as well as abroad. Paul has also co-written the “IELTS Academic Reading Practice”, along with Peter Clements, for Prosperity Education.

Contents list of “Academic Writing: Mastering Citation and Referencing” by Paul Murphy (2023 pp.4-5).

There are a total of ten chapters within this book, with each unit focusing on a particular skill in relation to academic writing. Prior to the ten separate units, there is an Introduction which guides the student (or teacher) into the intricacies of referencing: in-text citations, reference lists, the different reference styles, as well as the use of sources used in the publication being fictitious (purely used to demonstrate and offer opportunities for the reader to practise academic skills). The topics selected for each unit offer students the breadth of reading that would be expected for undergraduate or post-graduate studies. It is no wonder that Murphy has selected a variety of engaging topics to guide each of the skills, with those including World Languages, Human Rights, Film, or Business.

The introduction to the book is possibly the most important aspect for academic writing as it provides a suitable reminder for the teacher, should they feel a little out of practice about the intricacies of academic writing and style. For the student, it helps explain the rules surrounding in-text citations, reference lists (or bibliographies), as well as the different styles of citation and referencing.

A brief explanation by Murphy (2023) about the expected style of in-text citations within academic writing (p.7).

In fact, while preparing for an academic skills lesson, I referred to the introduction as it was logically organised and structured effectively. This helped me develop a lesson and it was a useful source to refer to. What is helpful for both tutor and student is the fact that examples are provided, much like above, with Murphy also including the particular differences, which are sometimes assumed or missed, between the differences and similarities between quotations and paraphrasing, and its implication towards in-text citations. Nevertheless, more detail is obviously provided in the main chapters within the book.

Within each unit for this book, the reader is introduced to the related skill or topic with the example above related to the various parts of speech (p.37).

As you will recognise from this publication, the author attempts to present information in a logical and predictable format with more emphasis on presenting key information. After the presentation of this information, the reader is guided into practising that related skill. For example, within the third Unit, about Climate Change, the reader is introduced to reviewing different parts of speech such as nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs. This leads naturally on to an activity where students must complete a word family table.

After the introduction or presentation of the task, the reader is then provided with ample opportunity to practise that corresponding skill, much like the task above asking EAP students to complete the word family table (p.38).

The predictable connection with this area of English and, in the context of EAP, is the aspect of paraphrasing and using greater use of noun forms, particularly within an academic context. The following tasks within Unit 3 provide greater practice for the EAP student to look at rewriting a paragraph from an essay on page 41 – something that will aid learners to develop the skill related to paraphrasing sources, which obviously conclude within this chapter.

Reference list unscrambling task (Murphy, 2023 p.138).

Each Unit follows the anticipated format with key information being introduced initially, followed by further practice and consolidation of such information. The Units themselves guide the EAP tutor or student through the complexities of academic writing, whether it is using suitable academic sources, paraphrasing sources or referencing using the expected style.

The final chapter, which is connected to the topic of Business, encourages readers to combine all skills, that have been covered previously, so they are able to complete an essay. There are a total of three practice activities before the reader/student is guided to complete an essay. One of my favourite activities within the final chapter must be the referencing unscrambling task, where students have to organise their references by the expected standard – refer to the image on the right.

After the final chapter, there are recommended or suitable answers for all the various tasks throughout all the ten units. Once students have completed their task, they are able to review them using the suggested answers within the final part of the publication.

Some Final Thoughts

The key components that make this a very good book for those involved in EAP include:

  • The predictable and logically organised structure
  • Various explanations and practice exercises which are provided throughout
  • The logical development for the EAP student where they enhance individual skills related to academic writing until they are able to complete an essay
  • How the book is suitable for either experienced or inexperienced EAP teachers as well as EAP students
  • The possibility of utilising the tasks and activities within the publication during a pre-sessional programmes or academic development courses

However, despite the positives, which there are many, I do hope that there is some development in future editions towards the following:

  • A potential Unit on analysing essay questions (i.e., noticing keywords which would aid search skills with synonyms, common question words in essay questions, or developing ideas about the topic of the essay)
  • How to plan and structure an academic essay (i.e., the different parts of a paragraph such as topic statement, argument for, argument against, conclusive statement)
  • A glossary of terms or language used within an EAP-context, such as common question words used for academic essays or with more specific language used throughout the book (i.e., synonyms, word family, paraphrasing, etc.)
  • A short aspect about the grammar of writing within an academic context (i.e., noun phrases, hedging, cohesion, etc.)
Adapting material from ‘Academic Writing’ (2023) with UK students that are on an academic development course.

Nevertheless, Academic Writing is certainly a useful resource for EAP tutors and students, and it will certainly assist those teachers that are keen to get involved within academic courses at higher educational institutes.

Funnily enough, I decided to trial some of the material within an academic develop class with students from the UK, and the response was immediately positive. Students were required to discover the mistakes with in-text citations and referencing, and attempt to correct this. It certainly helped develop learner awareness and demonstrated that this publication could be suited for not just international students but for UK-based students that are completing academic development courses. Overall, I recommend Academic Writing for those involved with EAP courses and it will provide some inspiration towards developing engaging activities.

Total Score: 4.9 / 5

Three Ways to Use Chat CPT with Students

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If you have been living under a rock for the past few months and unsure what is Chat GPT, then this is essentially an online AI tool that can be used to generate requested content. There have been many English teachers recognising the potential with language learners, and I thought I would share my experiences so far with private English students with some tips for use in an educational setting.

1. Create Exam Questions

The first idea that teachers could use for Chat GPT for is to generate essay questions, particularly for IELTS students. All you have to do is ask Chat GPT to generate some essay questions for English students and in seconds it provides some inspiration. If you are preparing students for IELTS or a range of Cambridge Examinations, and do not wish to use previously delivered model questions with them, Chat GPT could be used to generate a range of questions for learners.

I asked Chat GPT to create a question for IELTS Writing Part 2 and it produced 5 potential questions!

With the example provided in the image on the left, you could select a question at random or give learners an opportunity to choose. There is also a brief reminder for potential students of the time constraints for the IELTS Writing Part 2 being 40 minutes.

2. Create Model Answers

As well as just creating exam questions for students, you could use this online tool for generating potential model answers. Why would you bother doing this? If students wish to compare their written work with potential models, then Chat GPT generates a potential opportunity to model different bands – see the suggestions below.

In the example above, I requested Chat GPT to generate a potential response for a Band 4 model answer. This could be used to help students develop awareness of structure of potential answers, cohesive devices or synonyms from the exam question. However, what would a Band 8 answer look like?

Chat GPT responded to such a question by producing a model answer. You could do a couple of things with students with each of the texts. Firstly, you could either combine both answers, cut up all the paragraphs, with students having to reconstruct, and decide which answer is a Band 8 and what is considered (by the AI tool) to be a Band 4. Secondly, they could compare their answer with a suggestion and grade their own writing. Thirdly, learners might find it useful to notice the language that has emerged from the AI tool and they could use this to re-write their answer.

It should be noted at the moment, that there is the question regarding originality of student language should learners depend on Chat GPT on creating written work on behalf of them. This is a whole different aspect regarding AI tools being used to complete homework for learners. However, it should be noted that for language learners, it would become pretty self-evident if a student was not able to provide further information or to expand on a point that they had submitted.

3. Correct the Written Work

The final idea that this online AI tool could be used is for students to correct written work. I asked Chat GPT to recreate the writing for the Band 8 model answer but to include spelling and grammatical errors.

Obviously, you will still have to go through the text, but getting students to go through and proofread work would offer learners the opportunity to develop skills associated with attention to detail.

A sample from a private student of their draft writing

I used Chat GPT to correct my private student’s piece of writing, essentially to allow my learner to differentiate between their writing and what was suggested. You could apply a similar technique to get learners to check their writing compared to an AI suggestion. Again, this raises the issue of originality and whether there is an ethical approach to using AI tools within writing.

Here is the suggested improvement from Chat GPT

So these are three ideas for using Chat GPT with students or in class. What teaching ideas do you have for using such a tool with your class? Would you consider using such tools with your students? Where does this leave the teacher within the writing process? Just a few questions to get you thinking.

Meanwhile, what does Chat GPT have to say about this? Well, here is their answer!

17 Years of English Language Teaching

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The New Year is always a great opportunity to personally reflect on the previous year, but it is particularly important for me as a teacher. This is mainly due to the fact that I started teaching back many years ago in December in South Korea. I have now been teaching English in some capacity for over 17 years and have many fond memories. So where did this all start me?

I was really forced into TEFL in South Korea in the winter of 2005, as I had been job hunting for six months after graduating and had failed to secure any form of employment in the UK. As I was married to a South Korean national, it seemed fitting that we try our luck in her country. We packed our things, shipped them to the other side of the world, and then caught a plane to Seoul. It seems another time entirely.

In the classroom during Halloween with young learners in Anseoung, South Korea.

I arrived in this exotic country, with absolutely no knowledge of Korea, an undergraduate degree in International Business, and renewed enthusiasm to secure employment, doing what I could to support my young family. Anyone who has had the opportunity to travel to South East Asia would particularly understand that the only field that is really available for arrivals – particularly in the early 1990s and 2000s – was to teach English to young children. I was able to secure employment almost immediately with a private language institute (also commonly known as a ‘hagwon’), which was completely different to what I failed to achieve back in the UK for six months.

When first starting teaching in South Korea, I was based in a very small town (about an hour and a half away from Seoul) where I felt like the only foreigner there. Most jobs in the local area for locals were working in factories or in local convenience stores. Back in the winter of 2019 (prior to the pandemic), I recently met up with my boss and had a chance to see how the town had changed. It is now completely different to how I remembered it, with many new towns popping up. Many of the rice paddy fields have now gone now and it resembles more of a small city rather than a remote town.

Anyhow, when I first started teaching children in the winter of 2005, I had no certificate in English language teaching other than completing a weekend course, prior to my departure to Korea, which barely gave me the necessary skills or confidence to teach. However, I bought Grammar in Use, spent all evening planning my first day of classes, and felt like a nervous wreck upon entering the classroom. After a few weeks of planning, and getting used to my new adopted country, I refined my lesson planning, having realised that I had six classes of lessons per day and could plan one lesson per day.

This one lesson could include a variety of tasks within 50 minutes and usually my first lesson would involve elementary students with my final class being with intermediate learners. I could cover the same topic, have the worksheets all prepped within 30 minutes and have an idea of what to do in each class by grading the difficulty or activities. And that was my introduction to English language teaching in South Korea.

A whiteboard filled with flashcards and vocabulary.

After fourteen months of teaching young learners, I really wanted to take my teaching to the next lesson and decided to undertake a CELTA at the British Council in Seoul. The whole process of applying can be a separate post, but I remember starting the first day after commuting a couple of hours to the centre. The CELTA Tutors were incredibly supportive and patient to all trainees, and I still keep in touch with them.

Now fast forward 17 years and I am now based in the UK teaching a range of classes – EAP, Business English, General English, IELTS Preparation to name just a few. I have met many students, taught thousands of hours to both young learners and adults, received many gifts from students, and had the chance to make many new friends. This career has been very rewarding with highs as well as a lows.

Nevertheless, here is to another 17 years.

Lesson Ninja: A Simple Tool for English Language Tutors

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With the increasing popularity of online tutoring, there is a growing demand for online tools for tutors to create engaging and interactive activities. Personally, I found it ever so difficult to create automated gapfill or matching exercises within an online environment. However, this is where Lesson Ninja attempts to bridge that gap (no pun intended) and offer intuitive tools for the benefit of tutor and student. In this post, you will learn more about this valuable tool which could support those that are involved in language tutoring.

I was fortunate enough to have interviewed Maciej Szwarc, co-founder of Lesson Ninja, and this video is available to watch below. In this video, Maciej shares his website as well as the tools that are available.

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How To Teach ‘Too’ and ‘Enough’

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In this brief post / video, I share how I go about teaching the difference between ‘too’ and ‘enough’ with pre-intermediate or intermediate learners of English. These are some tips and feel free to either adapt or ignore this as what may work for me might not work for you.

1. Introduce Adjectives

The first step is to introduce common adjectives to learners with the use of flashcards. Print off some flashcards which represent common adjectives such as cold, hot, expensive, etc. and then elicit from students the language. While language is being elicited, board it up and check pronunciation by nominating students.

2. Students Predict Situations

Get students to think of particular situations with the selected adjectives, for example with the image of someone tired they could have worked for twelve hours. Give an example to all students with one flashcard and ask students to work together in pairs or small groups, noting down possible situations. Once students have written down some ideas, nominate groups to share their ideas, writing down them on the whiteboard.

3. Creative Dialogue

The next step is to get students to create a dialogue based on their predicted situations. Provide an example for all students to get them started: referring to the picture related tiredness:

  • Person A: Could you write the report for me by tomorrow morning?
  • Person B: Sorry, I am really tired!

Get students to work together in small groups or pairs, thinking of potential dialogue using the adjectives and scenarios as an idea. Give learners some time and then monitor them, helping where necessary. Check whether any learners have used the target language with ‘too’ or ‘enough’ so that you can nominate them for later. After ten minutes or so, ask students to read out their dialogue in pairs or small groups and share them with the rest of the class.

Make a note of any particular language such as the example dialogue above or the target language and write this up on the whiteboard for all students. If none of the students use the target language, you will have to present it to the class. For example, write the situation above and write the start of the sentence ‘I am too tired to … as I didn’t get enough sleep’ and get students to complete the sentence in small groups.

4. Using Target Language

Ask students to use the language ‘too’ and ‘enough’ with the images and situations, working together in small groups or pairs. After a short period, nominate groups to provide their example sentences using ‘too’ and ‘enough’. You could highlight the grammatical structure with the target language so students are aware of how to construct it.

The next step is for students to consolidate understanding and to review with the use of a gapfill exercise. Get students to complete this individually, and monitor or assist learners where necessary. Once students have completed this, get learners to compare answers in small groups or pairs. Here is an online gapfill activity which you could get students to complete.

5. Situational Complaints

The final task for students to undertake is for them to complain about certain situations using the target language. Hand out or board up some situations for students to share their complaints with others. Monitor learners and then provide feedback where necessary. I have included some topics in the Word document below which could be used with students.

‘Too’ and ‘Enough’: Situational ComplaintsDownload

I hope you found this grammar teaching post / video useful and that it gave you some ideas for teaching the language point, ‘too’ and ‘enough’. If you would like a future grammar teaching series to be included, kindly let me know in the comments.

Happy Teaching!

Returning to the Physical Classroom

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I have returned to the physical classroom after two years of teaching remotely in the confines of my own home, and teaching face-to-face was, if I could be honest, a struggle. In this post (and corresponding video), I share some of the difficulties I encountered after returning to the physical classroom.

Returning to the physical classroom has not been easy

Challenge 1: Classroom Management

One of the initial challenges I encountered was classroom management. I am naturally not so good at remembering student names and it takes me a while for names to stick – thankfully I don’t forget my wife’s name! When returning to the classroom, I had to draw a classroom map and then write the names on this. I referred to this during lessons and it helped me remember student names. Within an online environment, remembering names is something which is not given much thought as many students have their name appearing next to their corresponding image on the screen, so I guess I became lazy and decided to rely on the image and the visual cue for student names.

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Teaching About British Food: Full Lesson Plan

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Hello all and welcome to a brief post featuring a full lesson with materials and lesson structure which you could use for your class. This lesson is geared towards Intermediate to Advanced learners and should last 60 minutes.

1. Lesson Introduction

Start the lesson by asking students there favourite food in the home country, as well as what food they like from the UK. Write up some of the language on the whiteboard and scaffold vocabulary where necessary. Choose one food that is from the student’s country and ask them to explain it in English, write up language and correct where necessary.

Tell students that they are going to learn a little more about British food and the type of food that is either cooked at home or ordered at a British pub. See what English food they know and tell them that there is more to food than just fish and chips.

2. Picture Matching

Explain to students that the first task is to match the name of the food to the corresponding picture. Tell them not to use smartphones or tablets to search for the food online but to guess, and not to worry about mistakes. Hand out the first task to students, explain that they should complete this alone, and monitor where necessary.

Once students have finished matching, ask them to compare their answers with each other for a few minutes. Finally, elicit potential answers from students, writing up their ideas on the whiteboard, and correct where necessary.

3. Description to Name Matching

Tell students that they are now to match the description of food, and that they should try to match the name and picture to this. Use the first description as an example and read it out to students, get students to predict the name of the food. Once you receive the correct name, tell them that they must write the name in the right-hand column on the worksheet.

Tell students not to translate any language at this point but to try to understand it from context. Hand out the worksheet and monitor learners assisting where necessary. Once students have finished, mix the learners up in class and get them to compare each other’s answers, before eliciting and sharing the correct answers with each other.

4. Language Review

The next step is for students to review some of the language from the reading. Tell learners to highlight or underline any language that they struggled with but to not check a dictionary or translation tool yet. Once students have highlighted language from the reading, get them to check with each other first to see if their peers know the language and vice versa.

The next step is to highlight ‘-ed’ endings with some of the language and to review pronunciation (i.e. ‘mixed‘ /t/ ‘pickled‘ /d/ ‘roasted‘ /id/). Create a table on the whiteboard and get students to highlight words with ‘ed’ endings and to decide what their pronunciation is; /t/, /d/, or /id/. Review as a class and assist where necessary, drill and correct.

Finally, handout Exercise 3 to the class with the key language, with students needing to decide what the word form is (noun, verb, adjective, etc.). You can hand a monolingual English dictionary out to students and ask them to look for definitions or ask them to head over to Google and ask them to type ‘Define [word]’. Google will provide a brief explanation of the word as well as an example sentence.

Once students have found a definition, tell students to predict the possible translation in their L1 before they check the translation. This in itself develops learner confidence and usage in their L2. The more times learners are correct in predicting possible translations, the more confident they will become.

5. Review Vocabulary

You could review vocabulary by asking students to get into two groups in single files and playing a ‘broken telephones’ style game where learners whisper a word from above to the person in front and the student at the front of the class has to write the chosen word. An alternative to reviewing the vocabulary with this game is by playing ‘hangman’ or ‘pictionary’.

Lesson Material

The material for this lesson is available to download below. It is available in Word format and can be adapted to suit your teaching context.

British Food Lesson MaterialDownload

If you do find this lesson useful or have feedback, please let me know in the comments. It would be great to know what you thought of it.

Using WordSift to Analyse Academic Articles and Essay Questions

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I happened across a website called WordSift the other day, which offers teachers and learners the assistance to visualise vocabulary (and connected language) in a memorable and pleasing manner, and thought that this would be a useful tool for assisting students with their academic vocabulary development as well as offering teachers an additional resource. In this post, I shall share a few initial ideas that I have had about incorporating WordSift into possible future EAP and preparatory courses.

Analysing Academic Articles

The first thought that I had was for students to analyse the language within selected academic articles (related to potential student readings) that they have discovered from their initial research. In this example, I decided on an academic article, ‘Assessing academic writing on a pre-sessional EAP course: Designing assessment which supports learning’ written by Seviour (2015).

I selected all text from the article, and then pasted this into WordSift, which provides an immediate review of all language in the form of a WordCloud. This WordCloud provides an instant visualisation of the most commonly used language within a given text. Each word can then be clicked upon to in the WordCloud and below connected lexis is given. For example, I clicked on the word ‘assessment’, which was used 47 times in the article, and a visualised thesaurus was offered.

As well as a visualised thesaurus, or what the website calls ‘WordNet Visualization’, related language is available to view with an ‘in context’ view. Such language includes ‘appraisal’, ‘judgement’, or ‘classification’. However, what I am more interested in are the chunks of language that allow teachers (and students) to analyse such lexis. Patterns are recognised promptly, with so much potential being offered. From a brief minute of analysing the word ‘assessment’, I discovered the following language chunks:

  • assessment activities
  • formative assessment
  • summative assessment
  • a particular assessment task
  • feedback on assessment
  • various assessment criteria

So how could this help learners? Well my thought is that EAP students could import particular reading related to a provided essay title which would allow them to discover the most common academic language by marking vocabulary from the Academic Word List, with such language being highlighted in blue.

Students could then analyse the most common academic language within context and build up their awareness of lexical chunks. This in turn would aid the academic writing process with students now using the most common lexical chunks that would be most natural within an academic essay.

Using Essay Titles

The final thought about WordSift is that students could use this to analyse essay titles to help them develop synonyms and other lexical connections to key words. Such language could then be used to search for suitable and related academic articles. I chose an essay title from a previous EAP course to see how this would fit with this process, this being related to national education and the aid of international agencies.

I copied and pasted the essay title/question into WordSift. This very brief analysis (of only 21 words), provided some insight into even the most common Academic Language, with 4 words being picked up from the Academic Word List. Such language highlighted from the visualised thesaurus provided potential synonyms which could then be used within an academic article search by students. It was an interesting exercise and I would very much like to incorporate WordSift into future EAP courses, and to see how student uptake is regarding this tool.

It would be interesting to see what other EAP practitioners think about WordSift and whether it has any potential in an EAP context. Share your thoughts and practical ideas of using this tool in the classroom in the comments – it would be good to hear what others would have to say.

How To Complete IELTS Task 1: Bar Charts

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IELTS Academic Writing Task 1 can be rather complicated for students but as we know, there are a variety of graphs or data that needs to be reported – one of which are bar charts. In this post, we shall look at the elements required for completing IELTS Academic Writing Task 1 and reporting Bar Charts.

Despite a video tutorial being available to complement this post, I will also refer to the following bar chart below regarding Coffee Consumption Habits in Italy during 2019.

There is a recommended outline for writing IELTS Task 1 regardless the data, and this includes the following.

General Statement

I always recommend all my IELTS students to write a General Statement to guide the reader into the topic. If your data is to report on coffee consumption, it is best to write a brief sentence introducing the topic; i.e. ‘Coffee is now widely consumed by many people around the world.’

Introduction

In the introduction, you need to explain to the examiner what you will include in your written report; i.e. ‘In this brief report, I will look at how regularly coffee is consumed between males and females in Italy during 2019’.

Overview

Within the overview, it is recommended to write briefly about possible patterns or trends that you notice in the chart. For example, you could write ‘From the chart above, you may notice that the vast majority of male and females consumers of coffee purchase two or three times a day, while the least frequently are more than five times per day.’

Detailed Paragraph 1 and 2

This is where the candidate provides more information about the data and compares or contrasts information offered, so you could write ‘Despite those least frequently purchasing coffee for both male and female consumers, that being 5% and 6% respectively, there is minimal change for those that never purchase coffee with each being 8% and 9% respectively. Women typically consume more coffee compared to the male counterparts with those purchasing coffee either 2-3 times (53% to 48%) or more than five times per day (6% to 5%). However, most male consumers typically purchase coffee more than women once (18% to 17%) or 4-5 times per day. (21% to 15%).’

Final Points and Complete Writing

There are just a couple of points to remember. Try to write within the limit that is set. Normally, during the IELTS Task 1 Writing examination, candidates are expected to write no less than 150 words. It is important that you 150 words or more, but how much is too much? I would suggest that if you are writing more than 250 words, then it is too much. Here is the complete writing as suggested following the aforementioned structure below, with a total of 155 words.

Coffee is now widely consumed by many people around the world. In this brief report, I will look at how regularly coffee is consumed between males and females in Italy during 2019.

From the chart above, you may notice that the vast majority of male and females consumers of coffee purchase two or three times a day, while the least frequently are more than five times per day.

Despite those least frequently purchasing coffee for both male and female consumers, that being 5% and 6% respectively, there is minimal change for those that never purchase coffee with each being 8% and 9% respectively. Women typically consume more coffee compared to the male counterparts with those purchasing coffee either 2-3 times (53% to 48%) or more than five times per day (6% to 5%). However, most male consumers typically purchase coffee more than women once (18% to 17%) or 4-5 times per day. (21% to 15%).

As you can see above, there is a specific structure to IELTS writing regardless what you are reporting. Nevertheless, there is also a suggested video that demonstrates how I respond to a possible IELTS Academic Task 1 question related to bar charts below. This will offer a little more information regarding how to structure and include the aforementioned points into IELTS academic writing tasks.

I hope the post helps either students or those English teachers that wish to learn a little more about how best to prepare students for IELTS Academic Writing Task 1. If this did indeed help, don’t forget to let me know in the comments as this would be greatly appreciated.

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