Category Archives: Speaking

Guest post: 11 tips for teaching controversial topics in the ESL classroom

A great post from Alice of Hot Take English, hopefully re-starting the once numerous and always popular TEFLtastic guest posts. For a lot of English language teachers, the mere thought of teaching a so-called “controversial” discussion topic in class is … Continue reading →

Posted in Alternative teaching techniques, Lesson planning, Speaking | Tagged | Leave a comment

21 discussing your week(end) to practise particular language activities (TEFLtastic classics Part 43)

Discussing your week and weekend to practise grammar Discussing your week and weekend to practise tenses Past, present and future weekends storytelling – NEW LINK Weekends Past Perfect and Past Continuous Next weekend and future tenses – LINK UPDATED Weekends questions … Continue reading →

Posted in Photocopiable worksheets, Speaking | Tagged | Leave a comment

The (mildly) autistic TEFL teacher

While adding two new articles and a list of useful phrases to my rapidly expanding small talk for EFL learners page, it suddenly struck me how ironic people who know me would find it that I’m teaching small talk, let … Continue reading →

Posted in Social English, Speaking, Teaching English as a Foreign Language | 1 Comment

How students can improve their fluency

… including things that they can do while and just before speaking, things that they can do while studying on their own, and things they can do with a teacher or conversation partner: 57 ways to improve spoken fluency I’d imagine … Continue reading →

Posted in Speaking | 1 Comment

Why does free con continue?

I’ve taught plenty of students whose progress stopped years ago but still insist on the same “method” of chatting on random topics in class, and few if any where it was the best possible way of improving their English in … Continue reading →

Posted in Speaking | 5 Comments

Discussion questions for brainstorming (or brainstorming for discussion questions)

Another one of those things that are so simple that it’s difficult to believe I’d never come across them or come up with them before. Simply design discussion questions to also be used after to brainstorm specific vocabulary. For example, … Continue reading →

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New page with my 26 articles on teaching speaking

My articles on teaching speaking There are also links from there to pages with my many articles on teaching functional language and oral practice for particular grammar points.

Posted in Speaking, Teaching English in Bosnia, Teaching English in Thailand | 2 Comments

Avoiding correction of spoken errors

… or at least avoiding ending each and every stage or lesson by writing a list of mistakes up on the board. Whatever your attitude to that CELTA-tastic activity, having alternatives has got to be a good thing, I reckon. … Continue reading →

Posted in Error correction, Speaking | 2 Comments

8 step by step roleplays (TEFLtastic classics Part Five)

Not quite a game, but a lot more fun and useful than it sounds. If you like this and want more, please support TEFLtastic.  Students do a short and easy roleplay, then the next roleplay card asks them to do … Continue reading →

Posted in Complaints, Roleplays, Telephoning | Tagged | Leave a comment

because teaching conversational English does not require much work

“Arief Rachman, a prominent education expert… says that the proliferation of native English speakers in the country, many of whom have no formal teaching qualifications, is because teaching conversational English does not require much work. ‘All they have to do … Continue reading →

Posted in Speaking | 3 Comments