Ep.73 Describing Performances
Want to plan a lesson on performances? A live recording of this episode on site at our Millfield summer course Rock festival my co-teacher and I bring you a list of some of the word worth including in any ‘Performance’…
Category ESL trailblazer videos
A matter of taste
This episode is about tastes. Too often English speakers overuse ‘good’ for everything these days. When discussing or expressing opinions on films, food, plays, books and theater it’s important to distinguish aspects that might be tasteful for some but not…
Mass media: biased and influential vocabulary
This episode covers language for advanced and fluent learners of English who are looking for words related to the media and expressing bias as well as fame. This is an extremely hot topic at the moment because of fake news…
Fluency difference maker: versatile idioms
This episode covers fluency game changing vocabulary for English learners and teachers related to weather. Though we think of this topic as a general English intermediate level one there is actually some advanced idioms and collocations really worth looking at…
Essential fluency through physics
This episode offers some great fluency collocations that can be used in a variety of contexts and situations, either professional or social. I took them all from a physics chapter in my IELTS lessons because I was surprised at how…
The art of persuasion: Advertising 2/2
This episode(68) is a follow up to last week’s. It covers language related to the topic of advertising but can be used in many other contexts as well. If you need to improve your English fluency these words can seriously…
Ep.67 Speaking about advertising in English
This episode covers vocabulary for describing ads as well as the different types of ads we are exposed to, especially online. The language is pertinent because we are bombarded by marketing campaigns and advertising everywhere all day long. The words…
Ep.66 Fluency game changer: Describing Attitudes
This episode(66) focuses on the most common adjectives that an English speaker can adopt when describing attitudes in a debate, heated discussion-type scenario. Of course in any conversation these ‘attitude’ adjectives can be utilized to improve fluency, and allow the…
Ep.65 The consumer society
This episode covers a lesson idea that is incredibly practical and relevant to our students today. Teachers can find a treasure trove of resources to use for putting together a lesson but I have focused on the vocabulary that you…
Ep.64 Tackling Issues, finding solutions
This episode covers synonyms and language related to problems and also collocations that go with these incredibly practical words. There is also quite advanced vocabulary related to fixing problems or making them worse. All the language can be used in…
Ep.63 ‘Incredibly successful’ lesson tips
This episode focus on how teachers can establish and maintain positivity and contribution by students in the ESL classroom. The ideas are based on my experience working with ESL students of a variety of ages and levels and by experimenting…
Ep.62 Teacher reality check
This episode focuses on teacher roles and styles and ways we can improve our teaching in the ESL classroom. Mindset and creativity are essential.
Ep.61 ESL lesson topic ideas
Here are some ideas to freshen up the topics you cover in your ESL class. Too often the topics are out of date and impractical. These should stimulate your students to contribute in class and share opinion with each other…
Ep.60 Money Talks 2/2 – Investing
This episode covers introductory language for ESL students and teachers on investing. The topic of money is too general and so I’ve broken it into two areas of focus that are closely related. The first was on ‘financing’ (episode 59)…
Ep.59 Language of money – Free of Charge
This episode, the first in a two-part series titled ‘Money talks’ is about the language of money and financing. I also give some practical advice on bargaining and debt because it seems important to mention dos and donts on such…