I love teaching this grammar point. Using modern technology, it is very easy to show the difference between these two tenses, and students usually understand everything quickly. However, it is important to follow a specific sequence to teach the difference effectively. I will start my sequence by assuming students already know the past simple tense. Here’s…
I usually deal with complex grammar points, but this time I will share a set of activities focusing on just one verb: HAVE TO. It is quite simple, and students pick up the grammar quickly. However, it HAS TO be taught, and the following activities will hopefully help you. In this post, you will find…
English teachers looking to teach question formation in the present simple tense will find a variety of helpful activities here. These resources include a speaking activity called 444 Grammar Questions, a board game, an instructional video, and several interactive online exercises. All these activities are free to use in your English lessons and are designed…
Learning the -s ending for third-person singular verbs can be tricky. Here are three engaging activities that use Van Patten’s input processing method to help students grasp this important rule. 1. Video Activity: Guess the First Word This activity is designed to focus students on verb forms to determine subject pronouns. How it Works:In a…
As an English teacher, I’ve discovered a few activities that work very well when teaching the present simple tense and daily routines. In this post, you will find some tried-and-tested methods I’ve used to help my students learn these. Vocabulary Video This video introduces students to 16 common phrases in the present simple tense while…
Graded readers are an excellent way to learn and improve your English. They offer stories with vocabulary and grammar appropriate for your level, allowing you to practice the language and build fluency. Additionally, you encounter new words in a clear context, which helps expand your vocabulary. The stories are also engaging, making the learning process…
Recently, I searched for a simple listening exercise to practise the prepositions of place with my students. I looked through five elementary textbooks and I found no suitable listening. That was why I decided to create my own exercises. In this post you will find two worksheets and listening exercises. Each time students listen and…
Speaking activities are the best thing in teaching and learning a foreign language. However, students sometimes run out of ideas about what they should say or the language they use is far from the one we try to teach them. To solve the problem, I designed the CARD SPEAKING activity.
Recently I have created a set of videos to teach the past simple tense in English. There is a video that helps students learn to form the past tense in the following situations:
Textbooks often don´t offer enough speaking practice. If the book is good it gives you two speaking activities per unit and nothing more. Then the teacher has to search high and low to find some more. To make the search shorter, I share three speaking activities you can use to practise the past simple tense….
Do your students struggle with the past simple tense? Do you want to make your teaching more effective and fun?
Grammar is very important. But grammar revision is often boring.
So this is Christmas. And once again I am looking for some interesting materials to use in my lessons. But I don’t want to recycle as the students often remember very well what we did last year or the year before. Lucky kids, as I can hardly remember what I did yesterday :-).
What is the best way to practise English? There is no universal answer. If you need to practise speaking, speak. If you need to practise listening – listen. And if you want to practise reading – read.
Sometimes it is necessary to teach the very basics because students often believe that they know it, but they don’t. Numbers 1-10 are a typical example of superficial knowledge students often have. Even at a young age, they can count from one to ten, but once the numbers don’t go one after another, they are…
When I was teaching my classes online, we couldn’t practice speaking. We had to use Google Meet and the interaction was pretty limited. Once we returned to our classes I flooded my students with speaking activities. In this post, I would like to share the ones that I used to practise the past simple tense.
Play with your students this board game to practise the verb CAN. Students play the game and practice the grammar.
Recently I wrote a post where I share two macros which help you make a simple vocabulary revision tests really quickly. You just type the list of words, run the macros and print the tests.
In this post, I would like to share the materials I have created recently to teach the verb HAVE GOT.
The aim of this activity is to expose your students to the grammar I am going to teach (in this case it is the present simple tense). Moreover, this activity adds a lot of listening comprehension as the students have to understand and answer the questions.