Travel and Transport Vocabulary (A2)
🎙 From the classroom: My life has been a series of journeys: Chittagong to Sydney (plane, 13 hours, two suitcases, age 19). Sydney to Paris (plane, 23 hours, with Vanessa). Paris to Saint-Pierre, Réunion (plane…
Tag: ELT365
Food and Restaurant English — Ordering and Describing (A2)
🎙 From the classroom: I spent years as a sommelier and barista in Sydney — The Ivy, Establishment, Uccello. Wine vocabulary was my second language before French. The fastest way I found to teach food…
Jobs and Workplaces — Essential Vocabulary (A1)
🎙 From the classroom: I've been a hotel manager, a sommelier, a barista, a hospitality trainer, and now a language teacher. Every job has its own English. Learning vocabulary through real jobs makes it stick…
Modal Verbs for Advice: Should, Ought to, Had better (B1)
🎙 From the classroom: The best advice I ever received in a kitchen: 'You should taste before you season.' Twenty years later I still hear it. Modal verbs of advice are the grammar of good…
Second Conditional: Imagining the Impossible (B1/B2)
🎙 From the classroom: If I were still managing restaurants in Sydney, I would never have become a teacher. That sentence is my whole career change in one grammar structure. The Second Conditional is the…
First Conditional: Real Possibilities (B1)
🎙 From the classroom: When I was job hunting in Réunion, every conversation was conditional: 'If I speak better French, I will get more interviews.' That sentence kept me studying. The First Conditional is the…
Present Perfect: Connecting Past to Now (B1)
🎙 From the classroom: After years in Sydney, I moved to France, then Réunion. I now speak four languages. The Present Perfect captures all of that in one tense: 'I have lived on three continents.'…
Past Simple: Telling Your Story (A2)
🎙 From the classroom: I arrived in Sydney in 2005 with two suitcases and what I can only describe as horrible English. My first month, I spoke in gestures more than words. The Past Simple…
Present Simple: Talking About Habits and Routines (A1)
🎙 From the classroom: When I arrived in La Réunion and started teaching, my first lesson was Present Simple. I used my own morning as the context: I wake up at 5am. I drink black…
Writing Learning Aims — What Makes a Good Lesson Objective?
🎙 From the classroom: My lesson plan from week two of teacher training had this aim: 'To improve speaking skills.' My observer handed it back. 'What will they be able to do by the end?'…