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Classroom Management Strategies for ESL Teachers

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Classroom Management Strategies for ESL Teachers

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Classroom Management Strategies for ESL Teachers | Go Overseas

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Some things are beyond your control as an English teacher abroad. Your classroom might not be a model of proper behavior, with perfectly silent, diligent students providing you with their undivided attention every day, and that's okay. And maybe you don't want that!

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10 Tips for Expert ESL Classroom Management 

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10 Tips for Expert ESL Classroom Management 

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by Joyce B 48,552 views

Heightened classroom management skills are essential for anyone wishing to be successful as a teacher and a language instructor.

Apply these 10 tips for expert ESL classroom management and you will be golden.

Try These 10 Tips for Expert ESL Classroom Management

1. Be Repetitive

Building upon what students already know and reviewing those topics frequently will lead to increased language retention and confidence. Focus on what they know whenever possible and review grammar, vocabulary, and syntax often and with variety. Repetition doesn't have to be boring or rote. Find new and interesting ways to practice old topics, introduce stories with a range of grammar points, and play games that allow students to review many topics at once.

2. Grammar Discussion

English language learners are notoriously book smart when it comes to grammar. Sometimes though their application of that knowledge can be a bit more challenging. Encourage students to ask questions, and engage in regular dialogue about the nuances of grammar. If students want to learn about the hows and whys of grammar, you can take their learning to a whole new level by indulging them.

3. Incorporate Interests

Find out what motivates your students, what interests them, and what will get them talking. Do activities where students define their preferences, and listen carefully to student conversations. Learn about their goals and hopes. You can tailor exercises and games to the group when you have a gage of what will move them to participate.

4. A Global Perspective

Exploring other cultures fits wonderfully into the framework of the ESL classroom. This especially holds true in multi-cultural classes where students can share their own cultural perspectives while learning about classmates. Take opportunities to examine global cultures including topics like food, clothing, manners, and similarities as well as differences.

5. Tap Into Experiences

ESL students of every age and every level have past experiences that you can utilize to make learning more meaningful for them. Allow your students to share their previous knowledge so they can grow into better speakers and gain confidence. It is always a good idea to showcase each student's strengths, and focus on what your students can contribute by allowing them to express opinions, talk about topics that are relevant to them, and share their experiences with language learning, or English specifically.

There are lots of elements to remember for effective classroom management.

Take these 10 golden tips and make them your own for awesome student responses!

P.S. If you enjoyed this article, please help spread it by clicking one of those sharing buttons below. And if you are interested in more, you should follow our Facebook page where we share more about creative, non-boring ways to teach English.

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The Golden Rules: 10 Tips for Expert ESL Classroom Management

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by Joyce B 48,552 views Apply these 10 tips for expert ESL classroom management and you will be golden. Building upon what students already know and reviewing those topics frequently will lead to increased language retention and confidence. Focus on what they know whenever possible and review grammar, vocabulary, and syntax often and with variety.

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How It All Begins

When you enter an English as a Second Language (ESL) classroom for the first time, you will notice how quickly things can go off the rails if classroom management practices are not in place. Classroom management refers to the manner in which teachers create and maintain appropriate behavior of students within a class or school setting. If classroom management is missing, students will find it difficult to attain their academic and language objectives.

In this lesson, we will go over different classroom management techniques that will help you create an effective ESL learning environment for your students.

Build a Classroom Community

You will want to begin by creating an environment that promotes accountability and belonging. To do this, you need to create a classroom community where students learn to respect, value, and support one another. An ESL classroom community should encourage mistakes. Allow students to see you make mistakes, and cheer students on for trying; no one should ever be ridiculed or mocked for errors made when learning a second language.

Some techniques for developing a classroom community are:

Have students create guidelines together so they know what behavior is allowed in the classroom.

Let them be part of the decision making process; this reinforces the notion that their opinions, ideas, and input is valued.

Make sure you also follow the guidelines put in place; lead by example and display the behavior you wish to see.

When followed, the guidelines should help everyone feel safe, respected, and supported.

Develop a Structured Routine

Fundamental to a successful classroom community is to make sure students know what is expected of them. Having a structured routine in place will ensure students know what they are supposed to be doing, and when they are supposed to be doing it. A structured routine eliminates frazzled transitions, constant questioning over what is coming next, and worries about what supplies need to be prepared.

Here are some tips for setting up a classroom routine:

Create a classroom routine with times and images; keep it displayed at all times.

Let students know when a transition is about to take place, and what that transition will be.

Allow students to help call out the routine each morning, so they know what is planned.

Inform students right away when changes to the routine have to be made.

Ask for Feedback

Once you have your classroom routine in place, be aware of what is, or is not, working for your students by providing opportunities for feedback. Listen to your students, and take their feedback into consideration. Never make assumptions about why a student may be acting out; rather, find out what might be causing the issue. Further, maintain communication with families so you are always aware of any additional needs, transitions, or important issues that may change the student's behavior or dynamic.

Here are some ideas when asking for feedback:

Keep a communication journal with students or email messaging system with parents.

Listen to students and ask them what you can do to help them.

Be open about the importance of sharing struggles and needs so you are aware of any issues that may be affecting the class.

Discuss and make changes based upon student feedback to see if class management improvements can be made.

Use Reward Systems

Rewards for following the classroom routine responsibly can help your classroom management. Regardless of age or grade level, students love recognition for a job well done. Develop a reward system with ESL students so they have something to work toward. Knowing there is a reward, even if it is just a sticker or a free pass from homework, will motivate students to stay on track and manage their behavior.

Some tips for implementing a successful reward system include:

Display the reward tracking system for all to see and follow.

Do not take away achievements once they are earned. Lapses in behavior should not undo previous hard work.

Celebrate a student's positive behaviors, even when the reward is small.

Use achievements for motivation by acknowledging progress after students get off track.

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effective esl classroom management: techniques & strategies | study.com

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Effective ESL Classroom Management: Techniques & Strategies | Study.com

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When you enter an English as a Second Language (ESL) classroom for the first time, you will notice how quickly things can go off the rails if classroom management practices are not in place. Classroom management refers to the manner in which teachers create and maintain appropriate behavior of students within a class or school setting.

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8 Crucial Elements of Superb ESL Classroom Management

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8 Crucial Elements of Superb ESL Classroom Management

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Teaching is only the half of it.
As an ESL educator, a large part of your "teaching" time will be spent not developing lesson plans or introducing new material, but doing something else entirely.

This time will be spent simply figuring out how to manage your classroom in a way that works for you and your students.

Without having clear routines and procedures established, it's impossible to give your students the maximum learning opportunities that scheduled time affords.

Unfortunately, there's no such thing as a simple set of tips that will work in all situations.

To really get to the heart of how to effectively manage an ESL classroom, we'll have to go deeper.

In this article, we'll examine crucial elements that we, as educators, need to consider when deciding on our own approaches to classroom management.

Where to start? Let's take it from the beginning.

What Is Classroom Management?

It's worth taking a moment here to define exactly what we mean when we talk about classroom management. To my mind, there are a number of key concepts to consider. Namely, preparation, procedures and behavior. The end purpose of effective classroom management is to optimize the students' learning experiences by creating and sustaining an environment conducive to providing the best learning experiences.

The ESL classroom can offer its own peculiar challenges in this regard. Communicating expectations, enforcing discipline and even establishing simple classroom routines may pose special problems due to the language barrier. Cultural norms may differ, too, especially when teaching abroad. Fret not, however! Here we'll take a look at the crucial elements you need to take your classroom management chops to the next level.

1. Planning and preparation

It seems obvious only because it is. But it cannot be overstated: Thorough preparation is essential to maximizing the learning opportunities afforded your students. Tight planning allows for effective transitions between activities, and transitions can often be the time when class discipline is at its most vulnerable.

All too often I have seen teachers, trainees and experienced teachers alike come out of a lesson and bemoan the behavior of their students.

Mistake #1! The teacher is the authority figure in the classroom, whether you like it or not. You need to own that position of responsibility, as it shortchanges your students if you don't.

The first step in taking charge is ensuring you have adequately planned and prepared. Ensure you have clear learning objectives and sufficient relevant activities. Got enough photocopies? Double-checked your USB memory stick? Flashcards on hand? Ample pencils or pens? Know where your visual aids and props are? Extra activities ready to go in case you have time left?

One convenient way to ensure you always have enough appropriate material to keep things moving is by using FluentU, an online immersion platform that takes real-world videos-like music videos, movie trailers, news and inspiring talks-and turns them into personalized language learning lessons.

FluentU makes classroom management simpler by providing you and your students with a wealth of authentic English-language learning material that is both engaging and comprehensible.

Once again, the importance of being fully prepared cannot be overstated. Fumbling and confusion on the part of the teacher opens windows of opportunity for student misbehavior. Don't let this happen. Keep them busy and keep them engaged.

2. Transparent expectations

Communicating clear expectations to your students is crucial in maintaining an atmosphere conducive to learning. Make sure that your students are aware of what is expected from them at each stage of the lesson. This can take the form of sharing the lesson objective with them from the start, modeling the activity with volunteers in front of the class before they undertake it themselves or by scaffolding examples of what you would like the students to produce.

It is also important to remember to keep instructions brief and sequential. You can differentiate the language and/or the detail here dependent on your students' abilities. When the task is complex and requires extensive instructions, consider whether or not you can break those instructions into chunks and deliver them stage-by-stage.

3. A teaching persona ("Fake it till you make it")

For new teachers, especially those who may not be much older than their students, developing a teaching persona is extremely important. Now, if you are one of those lucky people who are at home in their own skin in any environment, you may slip effortlessly into any classroom as comfortably as you would an old pair of pajamas. But for many of us, the classroom is a trial.

As mentioned at the outset, the teacher is the authority in the room and so is responsible for the creation of an environment conducive to learning.

When I trained as a teacher many years ago, I found myself on placement in a class of high school students studying literature. I love literature. I was so excited to teach Shakespeare and George Orwell-I couldn't wait! Well, the reality in the room full of hormonal, disinterested and at times downright rude teenagers nearly broke me. They were not much younger than me and I found myself uncomfortable playing the role of the authority figure-too much Pink Floyd as a boy! I almost quit before gaining my teaching qualification. It was only the sound advice of my battle-scarred, wise old Welsh mentor that saved me.

His advice amounted to this: Don't take it personally.

You owe it to your students to take charge. If it doesn't come naturally to you then you need to create a teaching persona. Now we know persona can mean "mask," but I don't believe this is a dishonest act. It's about finding a register, establishing a professional relationship with your students that ultimately creates an environment for them in which they can optimize their learning. After all, isn't that what teaching is all about?

4. Smooth transitions

To maximize teaching time, it is crucial that we find effective strategies to transition between the distinct parts of a lesson. Clumsy transitions can lead students to become distracted and open up possibilities for misbehavior. This can be especially problematic in an ESL classroom, where communication may already be difficult.

Visual prompts can be a great aid here, especially with younger learners. Having photographs of what you require the students to do can make for easy communication. For example, pinning photographs above the board of the class lined up, tidying up or in pairs and groups can help you organize your students by merely pointing to the appropriate picture.

Use simple, consistent instructions. When you want your students to sit in groups, for example, use the same simple language every time. There are numerous ways to tell your class to get into groups. But you should pick one and stick to it, at least to begin with. You can begin to vary your instructions as the students gain understanding in the target language.

Establishing these routines early on will ensure the students are clear on what you expect from them. You can even make a game of it. One useful trick I frequently use during transitions is to display a countdown clock on the computer, set for 30 seconds or whatever length of time is appropriate. I stop the clock when the students have completed the transition. I record the number of seconds the class has "saved." I add up the "saved" time over the week, and then on Friday this time is used to play fun language games I know the class enjoys.

This motivates my students to make the most of our time together and we all look forward to the fun ( and educational!) time at the end of the week.

5. Appropriate sequencing of activities

It is worthwhile giving some thought to the sequencing of activities. Think about the time of day your lessons are taking place. Are the students "up" after a PE class? Do you need to start the class off with a more sedate activity to get things under control? On the other hand, a Friday afternoon may not be the most rewarding time to undertake a hardcore grammar lesson.

Consider sequencing within the structure of your own lessons, too. For example, it may not be the wisest choice to schedule high-paced games prior to instructing the class to undertake a piece of extended writing. Reflect on the success or otherwise of your previous lessons with this in mind. Use what you learn about your students over time to effectively schedule your various activities.

6. A wider support network

Every school will have its own school culture. It is important to bear this in mind when we consider our approach to classroom management.

Check to see whether your school has a whole-school behavior policy. Not only will this ensure you don't overstep the mark, it will point you in the direction of support within the school. It's also important to get a feel for the local teaching culture when teaching abroad. It is sometimes the case that difficulties are best resolved by a local teacher.

When possible, cultivate good working relationships with your colleagues. They can often offer invaluable advice and support. Parents can be helpful, too. It is important to approach all discipline issues with the aim of maximizing learning for each student. Playing the "blame game" can have a detrimental outcome for all concerned, particularly if we ignore certain cultural mores.

For example, ignoring the concept of "face" by loudly chastising a student in front of his peers may make you an enemy for life in several Asian countries rather than correcting unwanted behavior! On the other hand, dealing with behavior in a manner sensitive to the concept of "face," e.g., by speaking to the student quietly after class, may be appreciated and encourage positive behavior in the future.

7. Employment of your students' mother tongue

I know, I know! The dominant mantra of English language teaching for many years now has been to avoid this very thing. However, I would argue that, used judiciously, a student's mother tongue can be a very effective classroom management tool. If you don't speak the mother tongue of your students, learning a few key phrases can help you manage your classroom. This may well give you insight into some of the difficulties your students face in acquiring English, too.

You can also acknowledge your students' native language(s) with multilingual and bilingual decorations and other content for your classroom. Language Lizard has posters and other classroom materials that come in a variety of language combinations.

8. Damage control readiness

Ignoring low-level disruptive behavior disturbances in the classroommay at times be necessary. It may seem counter-intuitive, but sometimes teaching, like politics, becomes "the art of the possible."

While it is not ideal for a student to be off-task, it can be the lesser of two evils. There are occasions when a particular student becomes something of a black hole for our attention. This can be unfair to other students who are eager to learn. It is incumbent upon the teacher to make decisions about which behaviors to deal with and which to ignore. If a student is stubbornly refusing to engage with the lesson, and you have exhausted all other avenues, it may serve the rest of your class better to continue on regardless.

Of course, we don't give up on a student, but we cannot always find a "quick-fix" solution in the middle of a lesson. Instead, we may have to build rapport with problem students over time.

Often students who appear disinterested, or even hostile, can be encouraged back into participation by the building of rapport. Take a little time out of your day to do this.

If you're interested in improving your ability to deal with behavioral and learning issues in the classroom, you can consider taking the Educator's Fundamentals Series from ed2go, a set of online courses that include discipline skills and working with students who have ADHD.

We seldom know the full reasons for misbehavior. It may be that students just don't like your class, but we should be sensitive to the possibility of other reasons. Find out what they are interested in and try to engage them in a little conversation when you see them. Take it slowly at the start, and have patience. A minute or two of conversation on a regular basis can go a long way toward improving your relationship and bettering the learning environment for the whole class.

Remember, classroom management is more of an art than a science.

There are no easy answers.

It takes time to develop your bag of tricks.

And not all tricks will work with all classes.

Always reflect on what is working and adapt your approach accordingly.

Good luck!

And One More Thing...

Searching for fun, authentic videos to show your ESL students? Check out FluentU!
FluentU takes real-world videos-like music videos, cartoons, documentaries and more-and turns them into personalized language learning lessons for you and your students.
It's got a huge collection of authentic English videos that people in the English-speaking world actually watch on the regular. There are tons of great choices there when you're looking for songs for in-class activities. You'll find music videos, musical numbers from cinema and theater, kids' singalongs, commercial jingles and much, much more.

On FluentU, all the videos are sorted by skill level and are carefully annotated for students. Words come with example sentences and definitions. Students will be able to add them to their own vocabulary lists, and even see how the words are used in other videos.

For example, if a student taps on the word "brought," they'll see this:

Plus, these great videos are all accompanied by interactive features and active learning tools for students, like multimedia flashcards and fun games like "fill in the blank."

It's perfect for in-class activities, group projects and solo homework assignments. Not to mention, it's guaranteed to get your students excited about English!

The full FluentU video library is available on any computer or tablet, and users can even download the app at the iTunes and Google Play store.

If you liked this post, something tells me that you'll love FluentU, the best way to teach English with real-world videos.
Bring English immersion to your classroom!

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Get it Together, Teach! 8 Crucial Elements of Superb ESL Classroom Management

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Teaching is only the half of it. As an ESL educator, a large part of your "teaching" time will be spent not developing lesson plans or introducing new material, but doing something else entirely.

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10 Free Resources on the Internet for ESL Teachers

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10 Free Resources on the Internet for ESL Teachers

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Being an ESL teacher can be a difficult, yet rewarding, job. Textbooks can be very helpful. There are plenty of great textbooks out there, but many ESL learners cannot afford to spend a lot of money those big and thick workbooks. Fortunately, there are many fantastic online free resources that you can easily implement into a lesson plan. Here are some of the most useful educational resources and teaching ideas available on the internet for ESL teachers.

Plenty of scientific research has shown that many people learn best when their lesson is set to a tune. TEFL Tunes has lessons based on songs that help students to understand grammatical concepts such as the present perfect tense. Their free section has a wide variety of works by artists ranging from Beyonce to the Beatles.

The Purdue Online Writing Lab (OWL) is a great educational resource for adults and students. It provides creative writing prompts that encourage learners to use English to express their thoughts and opinions. This resource also provides quizzes, games, and tutorials to help people learn how to write longer essays in English.

ESL Galaxy has an incredibly wide variety of ESL lesson plans for both adults and young kids. Altogether, they have over two thousand worksheets that ESL teachers can print out for their classes. The worksheets often take the form of crossword puzzles or other simple games that make learning fun without being juvenile.

Here you can find a variety of articles about English lesson plans. A creative teaching idea for classes can be spotted throughout the blog posts. You can find a range of stories in the world of second language teaching. That said, not only you are able to add value into your lesson plan, you can also develop your skills in language teaching.

Their website may not be flashy, but it provides breaking news articles that can be viewed in a variety of different learning levels. Breaking News English helps to provide real information and give students a chance to discover useful terminology instead of just reading endless paragraphs crammed with vocabulary words. Adult students will appreciate ESL lessons that do not make them feel like schoolchildren.

The main goal of ESL at About is to promote communicative ESL skills. They provide excellent techniques for both educators and learners. This site is a good place to read articles about education trends and ESL Issues. There are also many worksheets with talking points and discussion questions that can lead a class to discuss interesting and stimulating topics.

The main benefit of TEFL.net is that it is extraordinarily customizable. Teachers can generate their own worksheets and quizzes quickly and easily. Though the website does provide many ready-made worksheets and lesson plans, it is nice to be able to create your own unique teaching resources.

This website is useful for students who are trying to better their listening and speaking skills. Randall's ESL Cyber Listening Lab provides listening quizzes for several different learning levels, from beginning to advanced. The listening quizzes are extremely valuable for ESL classes with less literate people, and they also provide useful information about common conversations that ESL students will encounter.

This website provides a vast amount of resources for adult ESL teachers. The lessons are based on life skills, such as finding an apartment or using a subway, and BBC Learning English also provides lessons on business English. They even have humorous online television series centered around various grammatical concepts.

If all of the students in your class have access to computers, this is a fun website for everyone to visit. ESL Games World has interactive computer games, such as Snakes and Ladders or Wheel of Fortune, which also teach English. The site's wide variety of games includes ones for children and ones for adults. In addition to the online games, teachers can also print games for classroom usage.

These resources will ensure that your students get all of the instruction and information that they need to learn English. The websites within this list provide everything a teacher needs to share with students, including grammar, vocabulary, pronunciation, and even life skills. The internet is a wonderful source of knowledge that makes learning English fun and interesting for ESL students, and the vast collection of lesson plans and worksheets are extremely helpful for an ESL teacher.

The list of free resources is suggested Alicia Hill. Through Point to Point Education, Alicia has had an opportunity to teach ESL Students in Thailand and Korea, along the journey of her teaching jobs in Asia, she has learned that even the most quality textbooks turned out even more amazing with a little supplementing from the internet.

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10 Free Resources on the Internet for ESL Teachers

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Being an ESL teacher can be a difficult, yet rewarding, job. Textbooks can be very helpful. There are plenty of great textbooks out there, but many ESL learners cannot afford to spend a lot of money those big and thick workbooks. Fortunately, there are many fantastic online free resources that you can easily implement into a lesson plan.

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11 Best ESL Resources for Teachers | GoAbroad.com

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If you're an ESL teacher, you only have so much time and energy after long hours in the classroom. Keep your classroom fresh with ideas from these fabulous E...

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Recommended Resources For English Language Teachers

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Recommended Lesson activities include games, puzzles, and warm-ups, as well as activities to teach and practice each of the core skills of language learning: speaking, listening, writing, reading, grammar, and vocabulary. These activities can be used as a component of a lesson, as homework for extra practice, or they can be developed into a complete lesson.

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We all know that class.

The one that never listens unless you have just the right activity or lesson.

Or, on the opposite end of the spectrum, that special class that does well with everything-but really thrives when given a truly engaging activity, the one you work extra hard to please.

Whether you have the former or latter class (or both, as usually is the case), it's important to have a collection of tried and true go-to online resources for your ESL lesson planning.

If you've ever googled "ESL teaching resources," you know that there's no shortage of resources online. But how do you know what works?

What sites should you trust? To what will your students best respond? What exercise will both capture the attention of the struggling student and-at the same time-challenge your top students?

Download: This blog post is available as a convenient and portable PDF that you can take anywhere.Click here to get a copy. (Download)

The ESL Teacher's Tool Belt

What's in your tool belt? Maybe it's flashcards you take to every class. Or an ice-breaker activity or game that you play at the start of class. Or maybe it's a listening exercise that gets your students tuned in to English. All students are different, and learn in different ways.

To reach the many different types of ESL learners, it's important for every teacher to have a tool belt, stuffed with all the essentials for teaching English through reading, listening, speaking and writing.

Of course a few tools all ESL teachers need are patience, a good attitude and genuine passion for teaching English.

But it's also important for your tool belt to include a collection of resources ready for lesson planning at a moment's notice. Take a look at these five fantastic online resources that you can't and shouldn't live without.

1. ESL Library: Dynamic Lesson Plans and Materials

ESLlibrary.com is one of the best, most comprehensive ESL online teaching resources available. While it does require membership (currently $55 for one year, with shorter subscriptions also available), many ESL teachers find this site incredibly helpful.

Membership to the site allows you full access to their lesson plan library, which has more than 500 ready-made lesson plans and more than 2,000 ready-to-print images and flashcards.

The site also takes current events and creates diverse lesson plans. This week, for example, they've taken the hot topic of the Ferguson, Missouri shooting to provide your students with an engaging debate topic. In this lesson plan, your students would read about, discuss and debate the militarization of police forces across the United States. How did police forces acquire so much military equipment and how is it affecting their relationship with local citizens? This topic is very current and the lesson is sure to get your students talking!

The site also has a breakdown of lessons by topic, such as business in English, role plays, writing in English, holidays, grammar stories and more.

2. ESL Printables: Give and Receive

ESLprintables.com is a great website for teachers who have also already made a lot of their own curriculum. It's a resource with hundreds of thousands of ready-made worksheets, PowerPoint presentations and online exercises. The caveat here is that you must submit contributions before you can download them.

Worksheet downloads are conveniently organized by grammar, vocabulary, listening, speaking, reading and writing worksheets. In addition, they offer cinema, television, games and song worksheets. For example, under the "cinema and television" category, you could use a worksheet about "The Simpsons" that talks about hobbies-all that feature Bart and family.

The site also has a forum for teachers, where ESL instructors can ask questions, get advice and share ideas. The form is well managed and up-to-date, making it easy to take part or just skim through for ideas.

3. LanternFish (BogglesWorldESL): Building Vocabulary

I have often used LanternFish for young ESL learners, but it's also a valuable site for teenage and adult learners. With hundreds of worksheets and lesson plans, it's a helpful resource with lots of great ideas to better engage your students.

LanternFish offers flashcards, ESL exercises specifically for adults, a writer's workshop and fun worksheet activities like word searches and crosswords for your students.

The site has a large listing of creative writing prompts, which can be really fun for more advanced students. For example, with Christmas just around the corner, they have a writing prompt titled "Christmas Elves on Strike!" They start the prompt with a paragraph that explains why the elves are on strike (no holidays or breaks, zero wages, terrible uniforms, to name a few reasons). "We, the Union of Workshop Elves, refuse to make any more toys until the following demands are met." The students must then continue the story.

Building vocabulary through flashcards and exercises is one of this site's major strengths. They have a collection of games and vocabulary exercises on a variety of themes from beginner to intermediate students. (FluentU also offers vocabulary lists and videos targeted at every level of language learner!)

FluentU takes authentic videos-like music videos, movie trailers, news and inspiring talks-and turns them into personalized language lessons.

4. BusyTeacher: Warmers and Fillers and More!

BusyTeacher.org is one of the best sites on the web for ESL teachers. It has thousands of worksheets and activities available immediately for free download. No signing up, no membership and no fees (though you can purchase their entire library for about $100).

One especially helpful offering is their 360 free " warmers and fillers " which include warm-up activities and ice-breakers to get your students engaged quickly from the start of your lesson. One of their warmers is the "How Was Your Weekend" activity. Sure, it's boring when you ask it every Monday. But the idea here is to give the students the identity of a famous person on a slip of paper (or let them think of their own). In pairs, the students ask questions and try to guess one another's identity based on what they did over the weekend.

The site also offers great advice for ESL teachers, interesting creative writing prompts and much more.

5. Randall's ESL Cyber Listening Lab: Listen Up!

This online listening lab is the perfect resource for listening exercises in your ESL classroom. Audio is important, and as ESL teachers, we need to introduce other forms of listening exercises to our classes in order to improve student focus.

The audio listening exercises are organized by level of difficulty (easy, medium, difficult) and are listed by topic. Topic examples include "Clothing Styles," "Car Rental," "Breakfast Recipes" and "Friday Night Mishaps."

Each lesson includes a short audio clip (usually less than two minutes), a quiz, vocabulary activities, post-listening exercises and online investigations, which ask the student to research the topic further online.

For example, in the audio exercise "Joe's Hamburger Restaurant," the speakers are a hamburger restaurant worker and a customer. There is an item on the menu called "Everything But the Kitchen Sink," and the customer asks the worker to explain this phrase. The customer continues to place his order. At the end of the audio, there are quiz questions (which can be taken by the students online for a score or read aloud together). Other activities include multiple-choice and short-answer questions, as well as other post-listening exercises.

The site also has 20-minute ESL vocabulary lessons and longer videos that feature more in-depth interviews and conversations, perfect for your more advanced students.

All students learn in different ways, and these five resources can help you find what works best for all levels, and all different learners!

So add these websites to your ESL tool belt today-you'll wonder how you ever got on without them!

Download: This blog post is available as a convenient and portable PDF that you can take anywhere.Click here to get a copy. (Download)

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5 Invaluable Online ESL Teaching Resources You Can't Live Without

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We all know that class. The one that never listens unless you have just the right activity or lesson. Or, on the opposite end of the spectrum, that special class that does well with everything-but really thrives when given a truly engaging activity, the one you work extra hard to please.