Usingenglish.com articles by Alex Case

About 344 articles on almost every aspect of teaching and learning English. These are also all arranged by subject on my articles by topic pages. If you like anything here and want more, please support TEFLtastic.

How to teach C2 Proficiency Use of English Part Two – NEW

62 typical mistakes with IELTS letters 

How to make IELTS Listening easier for your students

How to teach IELTS Listening Part 3

16 IELTS General Writing Task 1 formal letter model answers

How to teach C2 Proficiency Speaking Part One

How to teach writing business reports

6 fun writing business reports activities

How to teach meeting people

9 fun English for security guards activities

How to teach English for the insurance industry

How to teach third person -s 

Fun writing group emails practice activities 

How to teach writing group emails/ memos

Teaching emailing problems and solutions

How to teach English for the packaging industry

How to add pronunciation to IELTS Listening classes

How to teach Present Simple Passive

Analysis of official IELTS Listening Part 1 tests

How to teach IELTS Listening Part 2 map tasks

Analysis of official IELTS Listening Part 2 map tasks

Student questions in small classes problems and solutions

First lessons with one-to-one students

How to teach the Present Simple of be

(Really) teaching in free conversation classes 

7 fun looking at both sides activities

Analysis of official IELTS General Writing Task 1 letter tasks

How to write formal and informal emails 

How to teach daily routines

Analysis of IELTS Academic Writing Task 1 tasks

How to teach HR vocabulary

Analysis of official C2 Proficiency Reading Part 6 gapped text tasks

How to teach business socialising 

Analysis of official IELTS Speaking Part 3 questions 

Pairwork activities in small classes

Analysis of official IELTS Speaking Part Two tasks 

Time management for ESL teachers problems and solutions 

Learning English grammar problems and solutions 

Analysis of official IELTS Speaking Part 1 questions

Revision and recycling in one-to-one classes

Cutting down on cutting up time 

Analysis of official IELTS General formal letter tasks 

How to write formal IELTS General letters 

Reading English with your child problems and solutions 

Speaking English problems and solutions

Teaching three students problems and solutions

9 IELTS General informal letters model answers

Reading in English problems and solutions 

Groups of three in pairwork activities 

Listening in English problems and solutions 

12 learning vocabulary challenges 

How to teach starting and ending meetings 

Writing in English problems and solutions 

10 learning English grammar challenges 

How to start and end IELTS General letters 

Analysis of official IELTS informal letter tasks 

Learning English vocabulary problems and solutions 

How to read English books with your child

How to use English songs with your child (article for parents)

How to make listening to English easier

How to make learning vocabulary easier

How to make learning grammar easier

Grammar lessons on the topic of Valentine’s Day

How to teach Valentine’s Day vocabulary 

Teaching grammar in Xmas lessons article 

Teaching tenses in Christmas lessons article 

How to read graded readers

How to read the news in English 

21 reading in English challenges

Groups of three in EFL classes

How to write in English more quickly

How to read more quickly in English

How to read in English outside class

What to read in English outside class

How to write in English outside class

What to write in English outside class

Being polite on the phone – a step by step guide

Formal and informal language games

How to be friendly in emails

How to thank people in presentations

How to introduce yourself in presentations

100 IELTS Listening tips

100 teaching IELTS Speaking tips

100 IELTS speaking tips (for students)

The 100 most useful phrases for IELTS Writing Task 1 map tasks

100 IELTS Writing Task 2 teaching tips

The 100 most useful phrases for IELTS Writing Task 1 pie chart tasks

100 IELTS Writing Task 2 tips (for students)

The 100 most useful phrases for IELTS Writing Task 1 line graph tasks

100 IELTS Writing Task 1 tips (for students)

The 100 most useful phrases for IELTS Writing Task 1 tables tasks

The 100 most useful phrases for IELTS Writing Task 1 flowchart tasks

100 Writing Task 1 teaching tips

How to teach senses vocabulary

How to teach like as a preposition

How to teach copula verbs/ link verbs

How to teach like and be like

How to teach like, be like and look like

How to teach verbs of senses

How to teach consonant clusters

How to teach defining relative clauses

How to teach reduced relative clauses

How to teach non-defining relative clauses

How to teach a, an, the and no article

How to teach defining and non-defining relative clauses

How to teach a/ an and the

How to teach relative pronouns

How to teach much, many, a lot, etc

How to teach quantifiers

How to teach some and any

How to teach too and enough

How to teach the zero article

How to teach indefinite articles (including a and an games)

How to teach used to, be used to and get used to

How to teach be used to and get used to

How to make a personal connection in presentations

How to be friendly on the phone in English

100 common mistakes with starting and ending emails

Writing emails checklist

Cultural differences in emailing

How to deal with difficult questions in a presentation

100 polite telephoning dos and don’ts

100 common telephoning mistakes

How to teach silent letters

How to teach English greetings

35 ways to say hello in English

41 ways to say goodbye in English

How to teach question formation (with games and other practice activities)

How to teach verb plus gerund and infinitive

How to teach conversational reactions (including conversational reactions games)

How to teach reporting verbs

How to teach starting and ending conversations

How to teach imperatives

How to teach subject questions (with game ideas)

Unreal Past games

How to teach Social English

How to teach indirect questions

How to teach restaurant language

How to teach positive and negative connotations

Aptis Speaking Part Two preparation tips

How to teach advice, suggestions and recommendations

How to teaching making and responding to invitations

How to teach small talk

How to teach small talk questions for how

CPE Use of English Part Three tips

CPE Use of English Part One tips

Aptis speaking part one preparation tips

How to use body language and gestures in EFL classes

How to teach international body language and gestures

A guide to rude, insulting, offensive and taboo gestures

Using body language and gestures to teach pronunciation

Using body language and gestures to teach grammar

52 TPR grammar games

The top six grammar points for IELTS

How to teach British and American English (summary of the articles below, with activities that work with a mix of grammar, vocab, functions, etc)

How to teach  British and American times, dates and numbers

How to teach British and American vocabulary

32 bad IELTS tips

How to teach British and American spelling and punctuation

How to teach British and American grammar

How to teach British and American functional language (with differences in requests, small talk, etc)

How to teach directions

How to teach TOEIC listening part two question response

How to teach present time expressions

How to teach feelings vocabulary

How to teach past time expressions

How to teach future time expressions

How to teach prepositions of time

How to teach English plurals

How to teach the time in English

How to teach irregular plurals

Teaching ordinal numbers to EFL learners (with ordinal number communication games)

How to teach dates in English

How to teach months

How to teach days of the week in English

Blocks games for different language points

How to teach short answers

How to teach Yes/ No questions

How to teach country and nationality words

How to teach comparative and superlative

How to teach Latin abbreviations

How to teach abbreviations

How to teach acronyms

The most effective error correction games

How to teach colour vocabulary in ESL classes

Classroom activities for colour vocabulary

How to teach colour word recognition

How to use colouring-in in EFL classes

The best picture books for EFL young learners (and what to do with them)

The bluffer’s guide to level checking

How to teach opposites

Classroom activities for teaching opposites (with many game ideas)

How to teach gradable and extreme adjectives

How to teach ed and ing adjectives

How to teach shopping language

British and American phone calls

Cultural differences in telephoning

50 ways to answer the telephone (in English and other languages)

Offensive, insulting and aggressive gestures in the UK

British body language

80 British gestures

Differences between British and American emails

How to complain and deal with complaints on the phone

25 stupid things about Cambridge First

How to leave and take telephone messages

How to end phone calls smoothly and politely

20 things wrong with most self-study materials

How to start phone calls in English

The most useful can/ can’t for ability activities

How to teach can/ can’t for ability

How to teach FCE sentence transformations

How to teach possessive adjectives

How to teach zero conditional

How to teach English syllables

How to teach Cambridge First Certificate Listening Part Four

Fitting learner training into your syllabus

Why does my teacher not speak more slowly?

40 telephoning activities

Favourites in EFL classes

How to teach FCE Listening Part Two

How to teach like and would like

How to teach telephoning

How to teach frequency expressions

How to teach FCE Writing Part One essays

How to teach There is/ There are

36 fun classroom activities for Present Simple and Present Continuous

35 fun classroom activities for Present Continuous

Games for IELTS Speaking Parts One, Two and Three (on their own or together)

56 fun classroom activities for the Present Simple

21 negotiating in English games

19 simple, fun and effective ESL board games

15 ways to teach English with blocks and stacking games

57 ways to improve your fluency

Using ball games to teach English

How to teach the language of trends

How to teach FCE Use of English Part Two open cloze

How to teach comparing and contrasting

How to teach hedging and generalising

How to teach advantages and disadvantages/ looking at both sides

21 classic TEFL card games

How to teach supporting your arguments

How to teach FCE Speaking Part Three

First lessons for Academic Writing classes

How to test and teach detailed comprehension

How to teach the language of likes and dislikes

Sharing personal experiences in EFL classes

Passives games

First lessons for FCE classes

How to teach FCE Listening Part One

How to teach FCE Speaking Part Two

How to teach FCE Speaking Part One

The ESP approach – theory and reality

The three keys to doing well in speaking exams (article for students and teachers)

How to teach transport vocabulary to young learners

How to teach turn taking

How to teach and use the language of newspaper headlines 

How to teach checking/ clarifying

30 ways to get ahead in ELT publishing

Getting published in TEFL – why, what, where and how

Getting writing work from publishers

How to write and publish TEFL articles

70 easy articles that every TEFLer could write at least one of

How to teach the Past Simple tense

How to use the topic of inventions in EFL classes

Teaching It is…/ They are…

How to teach English for engineers

Advantages and disadvantages of authentic texts in class (with how to use the advantages and avoid the disadvantages)

Stimulating practice for chunks of language

Stimulating practice for comparatives

Problems with brainstorming in EFL (with solutions)

Teaching and talking about free time with kids

Boosting students’ confidence in the teacher

Olympics Ideas 2: Beyond sports

Teaching English for and through sport

Dealing with students who don’t ask questions

Different ways of doing a listening

How to teach IELTS Speaking Part Two

Teaching countable and uncountable nouns

Teaching Travel English

63 ways to improve your BULATS writing score

Why does my teacher make me correct my own answers?

Why does my teacher stop me using my dictionary?

A good balance of stand up and sit down activities

A well balanced use of warmers and fillers

When the demands of people who are studying and paying clash

The advantages and disadvantages of blind observations

A well-balanced use of pairwork

Checklist for teaching kids

Planning a kindergarten first class

Preparing for your first preschool English class

Preparing for your first Business English/ ESP class

First lessons for IELTS classes

How to learn English with your young child

How to improve your pronunciation outside class

Activities for conversation exchanges

How to correct yourself outside class

How to choose English classes for your young kids

Video tasks for practice past tenses

Video tasks for present simple and continuous

Video tasks for specific language points and skills

An A to Z guide to Cambridge Delta Module 2 – DELETED

Cambridge Delta Module 2 by numbers – DELETED

Classroom language for teaching pronunciation

Video tasks for future and conditionals

Glossary of football words and expressions

Football and World Cup EFL teaching ideas

Classroom language for arts and crafts

The big list of discipline classroom language

Setting up a Self-Access Centre – DELETED

Classroom language- Phraselist for praising, encouraging and consoling

Useful classroom language for moving around

The big list of ending the lesson language

The big list of language for playing games

Language for talking about lessons

Classroom language when using texts

Activities and topics about history for ESL classes

Classroom language for finishing classes

Prehistory and ancient history for ESL classes

Combing history topics and English grammar

History-themed art, craft and project ideas for English through history

The advantages and disadvantages of eliciting in the EFL classroom

Why did my foolproof activity just fail with that class?

Classroom language when doing listenings

Classroom language when using the board

Classroom language for starting lessons

Preparing to teach your first EFL exam class

A well balanced use of L1 in class

A well balanced use of error correction

Why does my teacher make us work in pairs?

Why does my teacher use games in an adult class?

Why does my teacher make us read difficult authentic texts?

Why does my teacher skip exercises in the textbook?

Why does my teacher make me use an English-English dictionary?

Why does my teacher make me learn English grammar words?

Why does my teacher make me read silently?

Why your students overuse their dictionaries

Why doesn’t my teacher correct all my mistakes when I am speaking?

70 characteristics of a good grammar presentation

Why your students don’t want to do pairwork

Why does my teacher make me learn the phonemic script

Why your students still make mistakes with grammar they know well

Advantages and disadvantages of peer observations

Things to put in a Self- Access Centre or Student Library

Why do my students question me?

Why your students have problems with listening comprehension

Why your students speak L1 in class and ideas on how to use that and/ or stop it

Why your students don’t do their homework, and how to respond

Setting up a TEFL certificate course- Advantages and disadvantages

How to set up a TEFL certificate course

How to break into teacher training

The perfect job reference for a teacher trainer

The perfect CV and cover letter for an EFL exam teacher

The perfect CV and cover letter for TEFL young learners teacher

The perfect CV and cover letter for an EFL manager

The perfect CV and cover letter for a teacher trainer– tips for TEFL job applications, career planning and career development

The perfect CV and cover letter for a Business English teacher

Present Perfect Games and Activities

70 ways to improve your English– self-study and motivation tips for students (also useful for teachers advising students on improving their English outside the classroom)

IELTS Academic reading locating information task tips for teachers– game ideas, tips to give students etc.

TOEIC FAQ- for teachers and students, including updated exam

Choosing a good TOEIC class and good TOEIC teacher– tips for students, but could help you write your CV or ad if you are a good TOEIC teacher, or interview teachers if you are a DoS

100 ways to improve your TOEIC listening– advice on how to approach the exam and self-study for students, but also useful for teachers

The 24 hours before your TOEIC exam– advice for students on last minute preparation, relaxation etc. that you might want to pass onto them in class

21 ways to get more out of your TOEIC class– tips for students on how to make the most of class time

Making textbook listenings manageable and fun

The perfect CV and cover letter for a TEFL teacher– in terms of clicks, one of my most popular articles!

TOEIC exam problems and solutions– focused advice on typical particular student questions and difficulties

Fun for all the family 3- A few fun ways to practice articles and determiners– games for all ages and learning styles

Putting the grammar back into Xmas– lots of fun ideas on how to combine a Xmas lesson with your textbook syllabus

Doing something with Xmas songs– making Xmas songs in adult classes useful for grammar and vocabulary points and skills development

Fun for all the family 2- 26 alphabet and spelling games– reading, writing and spelling games for ESL learners of all ages

100 ways to improve your TOEIC score for students

Combining Xmas with a young learner syllabus– mainly for very young learner (pre-school) classes

Christmas vocabulary you can mime– making Xmas vocabulary fun, interactive and easy to remember for small and very small kids

Tips for the IELTS Academic Reading- Locating information task

Getting published in TEFL Part One- Choosing a route

Career Paths in ELT Publishing Part Two– The Workshops man

Testing and Reviewing New EFL Materials– writing reviews on TEFL websites and in TEFL magazines, and discussing new materials and choosing the best ones for your school

Tips for the Automated Teacher– How to keep your motivation up as the years go by

Career Paths in ELT Publishing– The Articles Man

Why and how to use songs with young learners

Fun for all the family 1- 22 games for teaching numbers for young learners, adults, business English and technical English students all in one- “Fun for all the family!” – UPDATED

IELTS Academic Reading Tips- Matching Headings to Paragraphs Task- Tips for Students and Tips for Teachers

TOEIC Listening Part One Photos Task- Tips for Students and Tips for Teachers

Updated 30 August 2026

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