ESL with Jannah

It used to feel like a serious chore coming up with interesting topics to talk about week after week in conversation classes with my advanced ESL adult students. Can you relate? I think I felt like, if someone is paying me for classes, I need to bring my A-game: create activities and content from scratch, build a whole personalized lesson, etc.  Then, I realized I was seriously overcomplicating lesson planning. I don't need to re-invent the wheel, I just need to find a current topic and ask some thought-provoking questions. Now, classes take waaaay less time to plan and my students are always commenting that they love our conversation and the articles I send them. Honestly, they end up being some of the best conversations I have all week, too! So, I'm here to share my tried-and-true formula for planning a successful conversation class with my B2/C1 students who have expressed a desire to focus on vocabulary, particularly idiomatic expressions and phrasal verbs (I avoid gramma...

 I love using Youtube videos in my conversation classes. They allow my students to hear authentic English in context, often spoken in a different accent than mine. They're also a perfect learning tool because they offer limitless potential for vocabulary exercises, grammar practice,  and stimulating conversation. Read on for my process of choosing a video and developing a class around it. How do I choose the right Youtube video? 1. The topic itself should be interesting on its own and provide plenty of opportunities for conversation.  2. The video should not be made specifically for English language learners; I only choose videos with authentic English. 3. The video should be relatively short, say 7-8 minutes max. Anything longer than that can be assigned as homework and then discussed during the next class (this strategy is also known as "flipped classroom"). 4. The video should be appropriate for the student's age and level of English. The pace and clarity of the na...

 1.  Yes, you need to know how to explain grammar.  Okay, obviously. However, most TEFL certification programs are condensed and don't have in-depth grammatical instruction built in to their syllabi. For my fellow native English speakers, many of us were not actually taught grammar in school--one's first language is learned through immersion, right? In that case, you'll have start from zero and learn how the English language is constructed, what each piece is named, and how it is manipulated. Your students will expect (and deserve) adequate responses when they ask questions like, What's the difference between "well" and "good"? and What's a phrasal verb? Furthermore, your response to a why  question should never be  because it sounds right  or that's just the way it is. If you don't know how to respond to a question, though, don't panic. It happens to all of us at some point. Be honest, and tell the student you'll have an answer ...

I have left classes with students after such refreshing, thought-provoking conversations that I’ve found myself thinking, did they really just pay me for that hour ? Many EFL students in Chile—and I suspect throughout the world—don’t get much face time with native English speakers, so they are often thrilled to pay in exchange for authentic conversation. That’s great news for us English teachers; there’s little-to-no prep required for this type of class. However, the lack of apparent structure shouldn’t be an excuse to let complacency set in. We must be diligent in incorporating effective methods and genuine learning experiences even in classes that resemble coffee with a friend. Here are my suggestions for hosting quality conversation classes with minimal effort, even when they're online: Don’t interrupt the student; instead, discuss mistakes at the end of class . I find that making immediate corrections can damage a student’s self-esteem, hinder their fluency, and cause the...

You guys. Making friends as an adult is HARD. It’s probably harder than any other challenge I’ve encountered in my adult life. I would sooner date than try to navigate the dynamics of a new female friendship. How soon after meeting someone is too soon to ask them to hang out with me? How often can I ask them to hang out without seeming clingy (is twice in one week too much)? If we had a nice chat at a party, will they actually remember me the next day? How do I balance on that impossibly-thin line between unapproachable and desperate? I struggled and mostly failed when I moved to Kansas City, and struggled again when I moved to Santiago. Thankfully, this time around I found some workable solutions for me that’s kept the insecurity at bay and resulted in several dear friends. Although I’m living abroad, these ideas aren’t exclusive to being an expat: I would repeat the same formula wherever in the world I live next.     Get a hobby and join a club . It’s a low-risk env...

...Suddenly, life is normal. Mundane, even. You walk through the same neighborhood to work every morning. Days pass and you forget your other world exists. You forget to call your family; anyone you’re not confronted with in your routine is pushed deep in the recesses of your mind. Even things that were very abrasive to you when you arrived as an outsider have gradually been worked into this new normal. Struggling to communicate still happens, but subsides, becomes less frequent, and no longer feels difficult. You’re accustomed to converting Celsius to Fahrenheit, pesos to dollars, kilometers to miles; more often than not, you don’t need to convert at all to get the gist. Even among other foreigners you stop using words that are strictly American, like grocery store and college and automatically use supermarket and university instead. The things that were initially special have become commonplace. You get used to taking the bus to the beach every weekend to see your boyfriend...