Action Verbs for Kids: Jump, Run, Swim, Fly!
Verbs tell us what someone does. Action verbs are easy — they describe movement and activity!
Category: English Teaching
Lesson Staging: A Lesson Has Stages, Not Just Activities
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…
Error Correction: Fix It Now or Let It Go?
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.…
Eliciting: Teach It Without Telling It
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…
CCQs vs ICQs: Stop Asking ‘Do You Understand?’
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…
Writing Effective Lesson Aims: The One Sentence That Drives Everything
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…
Vowel Sounds: The Secret to Clear Pronunciation
English has about 20 vowel sounds but only 5 vowel letters. When I arrived in Sydney, I couldn't hear the difference between ship and sheep, or pull and pool. These are not the same words.…
Intonation: Use Your Voice to Mean More
At the casino, tone of voice was everything. The same sentence — 'Is there anything else I can do for you?' — meant entirely different things depending on how I said it. A falling tone…
The ‘th’ Sound: Nobody Warned Me About This
When I first started speaking English seriously, the /θ/ sound — 'th' as in think — was physically strange to me. Bengali doesn't have it. French doesn't have it. You have to put your tongue…
Connected Speech: Why Fast English Sounds Different
When Vanessa and I first met, she spoke French fast and I spoke English fast — and neither of us could follow the other at full speed. Fast speech is not just quicker. The words…