You can find helpful hints and advice under these categories.

Getting students speaking
Working in the classroom
Using materials
Special times of year

Getting students speaking

			Introducing yourself Advice on how to get to know a new group of students
			Reluctant talkers 1 Tips on how to get your students talking
			Reluctant talkers 2 More tips on how to get your students talking
			Drama techniques to get students talking Drama techniques to get across meaning using physical signals as well as words
			Short projects to get students talking Group projects to get students talking, with interesting topics, a little research and presentations
			Improvising discussion lessons Tips on how to get students to talk, control their own discussions and practice formulating opinions
			Getting the whole class talking Activities to get everyone talking for all different levels
			Fluency activities for lower levels How to encourage learners at lower levels to speak whilst providing support and structure
			Fluency activities for higher levels Encouraging learners beyond intermediate level to speak at length, tapping into their interests and sense of fun
			Getting adults and children to talk Tips, activities and tasks to get children and adult learners to talk
			Getting teenagers talking Tips and stimulating discussion topics to get teenagers to talk

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Working in the classroom

			Using dictation Dictation is an incredibly useful and effective teaching tool, and this tip shows you many of the different ways it can be used in the classroom.
			Using the board effectively Whether you have a blackboard and chalk, whiteboard or interactive whiteboard, thinking about how you use yours can bring benefits to you and your students.
			Monitoring When your students are speaking where are you and what are you doing? Here you'll find four simple tips to make your monitoring more efficient.
			Grouping students This tip looks at the advantages and disadvantages of the three main ways of grouping students.
			Classroom layout When you're planning lessons do you ever think about classroom layout? This tip is about how you can use the space and furniture in your classroom to your advantage.
			Memory According to research (the Von Restorff effect) we are more likely to remember something that is surprising or out of the ordinary. We all know that when things are a bit bizarre or weird we tend to remember them.
			Student motivation Keeping your students motivated can be quite a challenge. Find out how to meet that challenge.
			Jazzing up grammar Teachers and students often find grammar rather dull and boring, but here are some ideas to make it more interesting and fun.
			Establishing the ground rules Some helpful hints on how to establish discipline and encourage good behaviour in your classroom.
			Error correction Some tips on how and when to deal with your students errors.
			Teacher motivation Some tips and advice on how to stay motivated and make sure that your teaching develops.
			Recycling vocabulary English has more words than any other language in the world. Helping your students to not only learn, but also remember words can be very helpful for the. Here are some tips to help you with this.
			First classes Tips and advice for when you first meet your students
			Activities for first lessons 1 Useful activities for fist lessons with lower levels
			Activities for first lessons 2 More useful activities for first lessons with higher levels
			Working with teachers Tips on how best to get along with the teacher and develop a good working relationship
			Encouraging more use of English in class How to encourage you students to use English in class
			Strategies for keeping attention Reasons why your students' attention may wander and ways to keep your students on track
			Questioning techniques and strategies Tips to help you get the most out of your questions
			Checking comprehension Tips for helping you to make sure your students understand
			Dealing with discipline Some strategies for 'ticking off' students and avoiding confrontation
			Round up activities Revision activities for reminding students what they have studied and reinforcing a sense of learning
			Student progress Tips on how to give students feedback on their progress
			Last lessons Fun activities and advice for ending the year on a positive note

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Using materials

			The teacher's toolkit When you’re packing your bags for your time abroad as a language assistant it may be tricky to know what to take in the way of useful items to help with your time in the classroom. Here are a few ideas of things you may consider popping in your bag.
			Class magazine Making a class magazine is a project that will appeal to most groups as it allows individuals to work on what interests them.
			Using poetry The reasons for using poetry are similar to those for using songs and many activities that you do with songs can be adapted to poetry. Any authentic material exposes students to some ‘real English’ and can be very motivating for your students, provided they are supported throughout the task.
			Lesson planning As a language assistant, when you are faced with planning whole lessons on your own for the first time it can seem like a daunting task. Where do you start? How do you choose a topic? Which order do you do the tasks in? What if you run out of time?
			How to exploit Essential UK In this teaching tip you'll find out how best to understand and exploit the materials supplied on the Essential UK part of the site.
			Realia Realia’ in EFL terms refers to any real objects we use in the classroom to bring the class to life. In this tip I’d like to offer a few suggestions for activities using realia and to consider why we may want to bring things into the class.
			Using graded readers Graded readers or ‘readers’ are books that have had the language level simplified to help second language learners read them. The language is graded for vocabulary, complexity of grammar structures and also by the number of words. They are made to cater for all levels from beginners through to advance.
			Video 2 Video is a great resource to use in class and there are an endless number of ways to exploit it to create motivating, memorable classes with a high level of language production. Your choice of video may well be limited depending on what you have available to you wherever you are so the suggested activities have been kept deliberately general.
			Trivia Quizzes and trivia games can make a nice change from more typical EFL style activities and it may give students who aren’t the best at English a chance to shine in another area. It can be the case that some of the least able English students are really good at general knowledge, so tasks using trivia can help to boost their confidence and increase their motivation levels.
			Proverbs and Idioms Before deciding to teach your students proverbs or idioms it may be worth considering the following
			Adapting materials for different age groups In the last teaching tip we looked at how to adapt materials for mixed ability groups. This is the most common type of adaptation that teachers have to do. However, there are times when you may have to adapt materials because of the age of your students.
			Adapting materials for mixed ability classes All classes are mixed ability to one extent or another. Extreme cases, when you have near native level speakers with beginners, can be very challenging for the teacher.
			Using music and song Advice on how to use music to improve the atmosphere in class and tasks that can be used with songs.
			Using poems, quotations and proverbs Advice on how to use these popular features to develop you students' language abilities
			Using cartoons and comics Advice on how to use cartoons and comic strips for language practice
			Having fun with dialogues Advice on how to use dialogues to support language learning
			Using plays in the language classroom Advice on how to use plays and drama to develop you students' speaking abilities
			Using songs Choosing songs and planning lessons based around songs
			Using film clips How to exploit video materials to motivate your students
			Using magazines Advice on how to help students handle authentic English publications and use magazines to stimulate interest in British culture

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Special times of year

			End of year activities This tip has three suggestions for possible end of year activities.
			Christmas tips This is a collection of tips and ideas for activities to do around Christmas time.
			Activities on the theme of summer 1 Tips on themes relevant for summer
			Activities on the theme of summer 2 More tasks to get you students in the mood for summer
			Festive resources Tips and activities to do around Christmas time

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