This blog post explores what criteria should be used to evaluate activities in an ESL classroom.

One of the most important concepts to cover in the use of the board is that of “dead time”. This is the time we are writing on the board and nothing is being said. Here we look at 7 top tips to reduce the dead time to a minimum.

In any lesson the four skills of reading, writing, listening and speaking are important. When we focus our activities on speaking, how should we approach the issue of speaking fluency versus speaking accuracy? In this blog we will consider these two factors and look at where they apply in real lesson examples.

Whenever you bring or use a technological device to the classroom, you can, by Murphy’s Law, expect it to malfunction in some way. In this blog we will consider what you should be aware of with different technologies and how you can be best prepared for their use in the classroom.

The teaching of Business English has a number of differences from teaching regular classes in a school. The student groupings are often mixed and they will be learning English for a whole variety of reasons. In this blog we look at some of the do’s and don’ts of teaching BE.

Discipline in the classroom is an important aspect of the overall rapport you build with your classes. In this blog we will look at some of the major factors that can affect how our classes behave.

When using the ESA methodology, there are a number of lesson formats available. In the third of this series we look at a Patchwork lesson. What does a Patchwork lesson look like and for what level of student is it most appropriate?

When using the ESA methodology, there are a number of lesson formats available. In the second of this series we look at a Boomerang lesson. What does a boomerang lesson look like and for what level of student is it most appropriate?

In this blog post, we will look at an actual example of an ESA straight arrow lesson plan. We will include examples of the activities used and their purpose. You can adapt this plan to a variety of other uses and levels.

We explained in the previous ESA blog how Harmer had realized that the ESA format would become predictable if that was the only type of lesson. Here we explore the other two types of format he suggested, what they involve and who they are generally for.