Author: Sourov
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Academic Discussion Language: Agreeing, Disagreeing, Hedging
⏱ 5 Minutes · B2/C1 📖 From Experience At the immigration office in France, I once politely disagreed with an official — in French — and managed to change a decision. The key was not what I said but how I said it. ‘I understand your position, but I wonder if…’ Academic discussion language is…
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Body Language and Communication: What You Say Without Words
⏱ 5 Minutes · B1/B2 📖 From Experience In hospitality, a guest’s body language told me more than their words. Arms crossed? Not happy yet. Leaning in? Interested and engaged. Looking around? Waiting for something. Understanding body language — and knowing how to describe it — is a real communication skill in English. 📚 Useful…
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Numbers and Time: Tell the Time in English
⏱ 5 Minutes · A1 · Kids & Adults 🕐 Why This Matters Asking and telling the time is one of the most useful things in English. In Sydney, I had to be on time for every shift — and I had to understand when customers asked me what time things closed. 🕐 How to…
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Colours in English: More Than Just Red and Blue
⏱ 5 Minutes · A1/A2 · Kids & Adults 🌈 Why Colours Matter Colours are some of the first words we learn — and some of the most useful. But English has lots more than just ‘red’ and ‘blue’. Let’s explore! 🎨 Basic Colours + Shades red salmon crimson blue turquoise navy green mint forest…
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Action Verbs for Kids: Jump, Run, Swim, Fly!
⏱ 5 Minutes · A1 — Starter · Kids & Adults 🏃 Action Verbs Verbs tell us what someone does. Action verbs are easy — they describe movement and activity! ✨ 12 Action Verbs to Know jump 🦘 run 🏃 swim 🏊 fly ✈️ eat 🍎 sleep 😴 read 📖 write ✏️ dance 💃 sing…
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Lesson Staging: A Lesson Has Stages, Not Just Activities
⏱ 5 Minutes · Teacher Training 📖 From Experience One observation feedback I received during my 120 supervised teaching hours stayed with me: ‘The activities were good, but I couldn’t see why they were in that order.’ A lesson is not a pile of good tasks. It is a sequence: each stage builds on the…
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Error Correction: Fix It Now or Let It Go?
⏱ 5 Minutes · Teacher Training 📖 From Experience I made errors in French every day for three years. The best teachers let me talk first and corrected me after. The worst interrupted mid-sentence and I’d lose the word, the idea, and the confidence. Error correction is a skill. Knowing when NOT to correct is…
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Eliciting: Teach It Without Telling It
⏱ 5 Minutes · Teacher Training 📖 From Experience The best moment in any class I taught was when a learner produced the language I was trying to teach — before I had written it on the board. That is eliciting: drawing language from learners rather than presenting it to them. It is harder than…
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CCQs vs ICQs: Stop Asking ‘Do You Understand?’
⏱ 5 Minutes · Teacher Training 📖 From Experience My trainer said it in week one and I’ve never forgotten: ‘Do you understand?’ is the least useful question in a classroom. The only honest answer is ‘yes’ — because ‘no’ is embarrassing. You want to KNOW if they understand. So you ask something they can…
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Writing Effective Lesson Aims: The One Sentence That Drives Everything
⏱ 5 Minutes · Teacher Training 📖 From Experience In the feedback room after a lesson observation, the first question is always the same: ‘What was your main aim?’ If you can’t answer in one clear sentence, the lesson was probably unclear. I had to learn this the hard way during 120 supervised teaching hours.…