What makes a good English lesson — and what do learners actually want from their teachers?

In this episode of How to English TEFL Podcast, Gav and Em put students at the centre of the discussion.

Drawing on 40+ years of combined English-teaching experience, they compare their own classroom ideas with direct feedback from learners. Some of Gav’s students even join the episode to explain why they are learning English, what motivates them and what helps them improve.

The reasons are varied: business, meetings, career opportunities, travel, entertainment, football, living abroad and simply enjoying the challenge of learning something new.

Em also asks her students what makes a good English lesson. Their answers highlight a positive atmosphere, plenty of speaking time, relevant topics, appropriate challenge and clear lesson structure. Gav and Em discuss Teacher Talk Time, group size, learner feedback and how teachers can adapt lessons to students’ needs.

Gav’s students share practical learning tips too: don’t be afraid of mistakes, use English regularly, watch programmes, read in English, follow subjects you enjoy and make learning part of everyday life.

The episode also looks at error correction and why some learners want teachers to identify repeated mistakes, help them reformulate and give them chances to use new language again.

Sometimes the best way to discover what students need is simply to ask them.

Support the podcast:
https://ko-fi.com/howtoenglishpod

Teaching resources:
https://www.howtoenglishpod.com/

References:

CEFR table and “Can Do” statements:
https://www.coe.int/en/web/common-european-framework-reference-languages/table-1-cefr-3.3-common-reference-levels-global-scale

English File, Oxford

“I am still learning” quote:
https://www.maryellencarsley.com/blog/i-am-still-learning-misattributed-to-michelangelo-di-lodovico-buonarroti-simoni

Statistics on language learners:
https://www.elc-schools.com/blog/4-reasons-why-learning-english-is-so-important/

Why are students learning English?
https://www.knowblereader.com/why-learn-english

The world’s languages:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2015/04/23/the-worlds-languages-in-7-maps-and-charts/

2 billion English learners:
https://www.internationalteflacademy.com/blog/report-from-tesol-2-billion-english-learners-worldwide

How many people speak English?
https://www.babbel.com/en/magazine/how-many-people-speak-english-and-where-is-it-spoken

Positive adjectives:
http://www.cytss.edu.hk/cytss97pyl/car/testimonial%20reference.pdf

Negative adjectives:
https://www.speakconfidentenglish.com/describe-people-negatively-english/

TIMESTAMPS

00:00 It’s All About the Students
01:35 How many people are learning English?
04:15 Why do people learn English?
09:10 Real students explain why they are learning
12:50 What makes a good English lesson?
15:10 How many students should be in a class?
16:05 Should students talk more than the teacher?
19:10 Do English lessons need a clear structure?
20:15 Why topics should be relevant and interesting
21:45 How difficult should an English lesson be?
24:30 English words used in other languages
25:40 Students share their best English-learning tips
29:00 Using books, TV and lessons together
30:05 Learning from mistakes and teacher correction
31:50 What makes a good student?
35:15 Make English enjoyable, not a chore

How can English teachers make environmental topics interesting, practical and relevant to learners?

In this episode of How to English TEFL Podcast, Gav and Em explore both meanings of “environment”: the spaces in which we teach and learn, and the environmental issues we can bring into English lessons.

They discuss how changing an online teaching background, using real websites, maps and virtual locations, or even taking learning beyond the classroom can create fresh opportunities for communication. They then turn to practical ways of teaching environmental English through personal questions, quizzes, statistics and everyday choices rather than relying only on abstract discussions about “saving the planet”.

Topics include the three Rs, eco-guilt, reusable bags, recycling, water use, transport, paper versus e-books, reusing coursebooks, the environmental cost of online searches and video streaming, carbon footprints, and ways teachers can turn these subjects into speaking, vocabulary and grammar work.

Gav and Em also share examples from their own lessons and discuss why environmental topics can generate stronger conversation when learners are given information they can question, compare and relate to their own lives.

☕ Support How to English:
https://ko-fi.com/howtoenglishpod

🌐 Free TEFL articles, teaching ideas and practical classroom activities:
https://www.howtoenglishpod.com/

TIMESTAMPS

00:00 Introduction
00:45 Why talk about “the environment”?
01:45 Changing your teaching environment
03:25 Community as classroom and learning beyond the classroom
05:00 Using real websites, maps and virtual environments
06:20 The three Rs and environmental awareness in lessons
08:15 The Eco-Guilt quiz
15:55 Turning environmental questions into English lessons
17:30 E-books vs paper books: which is greener?
20:55 Reusing books and reducing classroom waste
23:00 What is the carbon footprint of an online search?
24:05 What is the environmental cost of streaming video?
25:45 Carbon-footprint activities for learners
27:00 Environmental topics students can research and discuss
28:25 Online vs face-to-face teaching environments
29:35 Final teaching tips and recap

REFERENCES

Background ideas for online teachers:
https://tr.pinterest.com/pin/28217935150687259/?nic_v2=1a6Ctya2G

TED Talk by David Barnum – Rethinking Learning Environments: Community as Classroom:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=98F2AxZwGAE

Joe Wicks PE classes:
https://www.youtube.com/user/thebodycoach1

How To Cultivate Environmental Awareness In Schools:
https://www.greenschoolsalliance.org/blogs/60/628

English File, Unit 4A, Eco-Guilt, Upper-Intermediate, 3rd edition, Clive Oxenden, Christina Latham-Koenig, Oxford.
Future perfect / future continuous topic.

E-books or paper books:
https://www.custommade.com/blog/e-readers-vs-print-books/
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2013/jan/06/should-i-buy-an-e-reader

What’s one tonne of CO2?
https://www.aashe.org/one-ton-co2-really-mean/

What’s the cost of watching videos online?
https://www.carbonbrief.org/factcheck-what-is-the-carbon-footprint-of-streaming-video-on-netflix

A carbon footprint quiz for kids:
https://www.gokid.mobi/carbon-footprint-for-kids-some-facts-a-quiz-and-also-a-worksheet/

What are the biggest challenges of teaching English online — and what do experienced TEFL teachers actually do when things go wrong?

In this episode of How to English TEFL Podcast, Gav and Em share the funny, frustrating and sometimes awkward reality of online English teaching. Drawing on more than 40 years of combined English-teaching experience, they compare their own approaches to technology, student behaviour, cancellations, cameras, lesson boundaries and the physical demands of spending hours teaching from a laptop.

Why can online lessons feel more tiring than face-to-face classes? How should you position your laptop? What happens when the audio stops working, a student is late, nobody lets you into the online meeting or a learner suddenly wants to rearrange a lesson?

Em puts Gav through a series of quick-fire online teaching dilemmas. What would he do if a student refused to switch on their camera? How long would he wait for a late learner? Should teachers comment on what they can see in a student's home? What happens when a child, cat or other unexpected visitor appears on screen? And where should teachers draw the line between relaxed online learning and professional boundaries?

Gav and Em also discuss the difficulties of juggling different teaching platforms, including Microsoft Teams, Skype, WhatsApp and online chat tools. They admit that even experienced teachers don't necessarily understand every feature — and consider how much technical knowledge an online English teacher really needs.

Finally, Gav turns the tables on Em with a TEFL.net parts-of-speech quiz covering nouns, adjectives, determiners, pronouns, verbs, prepositions and conjunctions. Can you get 10/10 too?

Whether you're an online TEFL teacher, Business English teacher, private tutor or English learner curious about what happens behind the webcam, this episode offers practical ideas, real teaching experiences and plenty of Gav and Em humour.

☕ Support How to English TEFL Podcast:
https://ko-fi.com/howtoenglishpod

🌐 Visit our website for practical TEFL articles, teaching ideas, classroom activities and free resources you can use in your lessons:
https://www.howtoenglishpod.com/

References:

This week's quiz: ⁠https://www.tefl.net/quizzes/terms-parts-of-speech.htm⁠

⁠https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/microsoft-teams/group-chat-software⁠

⁠https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/skype-for-business/download-app⁠

⁠https://whereby.com/⁠

Chunky book: ⁠http://www.owenhopkins.co.uk/architectural-styles

TIMESTAMPS

00:00 – Welcome to How to English with Gav & Em
01:00 – Messages and feedback from listeners
03:10 – Why is teaching English online so tiring?
05:40 – What equipment do you really need to teach online?
08:45 – Em's shoebox laptop stand and avoiding neckache
11:45 – When online teaching technology goes wrong
15:00 – Cancellations, rescheduling and teacher boundaries
16:35 – Quick-fire: What would Gav do while teaching online?
18:20 – Funny virtual backgrounds in online lessons
19:10 – What if a student won't turn their camera on?
19:45 – How long should you wait for a late online student?
21:55 – Children, cats and unexpected visitors on camera
24:30 – How professional should students be during online lessons?
26:10 – Why can Microsoft Teams be so confusing?
29:00 – Waiting rooms, permissions and getting into online classes
31:00 – How many teaching platforms does a teacher need to understand?
32:20 – TEFL.net and the parts-of-speech challenge
33:50 – Can Em get 10/10 in the grammar quiz?
38:35 – Quiz answers and Em's final score
40:00 – What did you do online this week?

How can English teachers make money a useful classroom topic—and what does money reveal about fairness in the TEFL industry?

In this episode of How to English TEFL Podcast, Gav and Em explore two sides of money in English teaching. Drawing on their own classroom experience, they discuss ways of presenting money as a General English and Business English topic, using questions, vocabulary and coursebook activities to generate meaningful conversation.

The discussion then moves from teaching money to earning it. Gav and Em consider pay differences within TEFL, the opportunities available to teachers from different backgrounds and the effect of “native-speaker” preferences on recruitment.

The episode also features English teacher and podcaster Zdenek Lukas, whose contribution adds another perspective to the discussion of identity, opportunity and equality in English-language teaching. Should teachers be judged by where they were born and which language they learned first—or by their teaching ability, experience and the value they bring to learners?

This episode is for TEFL, TESOL and ESL teachers interested in money lessons, Business English, teacher pay, recruitment bias and greater equality across the English-teaching profession.

Support Gav and Em:
https://ko-fi.com/howtoenglishpod

Find more episodes and free teaching resources:
https://howtoenglishpod.com

Reference: Zdenek's English Podcast: https://zdeneksenglishpodcast.podbean.com/English online as a non-native speaker: https://www.teachaway.com/blog/teach-english-online-non-native-speaker-jobsTEFL Equity: https://teflequityadvocates.com/Money, p. 216, 3C, English File, Advanced, 3rd Edition, 2010, Teacher's BookMarket Leader, Unit 6, p. 54, Intermediate, 3rd Edition, 2010, Student's BookEquity and Inclusion in Pronunciation teaching online conference on the 4th October: https://pronsig.iatefl.org/conf4oct2020/ It's illegal to advertise native only jobs: https://teflequityadvocates.com/2014/04/01/native-speakers-only-ads-and-eu-law/#:~:text=In%20its%20answer%20to%20Question,any%20circumstance%2C%20under%20community%20law.

Timestamps

00:00 Introduction: money in English teaching
02:05 What does money bring to mind?
05:20 Presenting money as a lesson topic
09:10 Money activities and coursebook ideas
12:50 Money in Business English
16:25 Salaries and pay differences in TEFL
20:10 Recruitment and opportunities for English teachers
24:50 Zdenek Lukas on identity and equality
30:05 Final reflections from Gav and Em
31:59 Outro

How can English learners expand their vocabulary, understand word forms and become more flexible when building sentences?

In this episode of How to English TEFL Podcast, Gav and Em explore how words work: from nouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs to prefixes, suffixes, sentence transformations and newly emerging English vocabulary.

They begin with practical word-family activities, turning words such as action, decision and significance into different grammatical forms. Gav and Em discuss whether learners really need terminology such as noun, adjective, adverb and preposition, and how teachers can introduce these terms without making language unnecessarily complicated.
The conversation then moves into sentence transformation: changing the structure of a sentence while keeping the meaning. Gav demonstrates activities commonly associated with higher-level and Cambridge exam preparation, while Em explores how the same ideas can be adapted for lower-level learners using prompts, gap fills and written support.
You’ll also hear simple vocabulary activities teachers can use with minimal preparation, including Em’s “banana” word-replacement game and domino-style activities for practising prefixes, suffixes and word formation. These are the kinds of adaptable classroom techniques Gav and Em have developed and collected through years of teaching different learners and levels.
Finally, Gav and Em look at how English keeps changing. They discuss words entering dictionaries, changing usage, newly popular expressions and the way English turns existing nouns into verbs — from elbowing somebody to eyeballing something and footing the bill.
Whether you teach English, study for an exam or simply enjoy discovering how English vocabulary develops, this episode is full of practical ideas you can try yourself.

Support How to English TEFL Podcast:
https://ko-fi.com/howtoenglishpod

More free English teaching articles, activities and resources:
https://www.howtoenglishpod.com/

References:Calvin and Hobbes, Bill Waterson: https://www.gocomics.com/calvinandhobbes/1993/01/25Buffalo, buffalo, buffalo, buffalo, buffalo, buffalo, buffalo, buffalo: https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/18209/buffalo-buffalo-buffalo-buffalo-buffalo-buffalo-buffalo-buffaloWord forms grids: https://vocabularyhome.com/nouns/nouns-verbs-adjectives-and-adverbs/(Old) English File, Unit 5 B, Intermediate, Bleep Game,  OUP Oxford, 1999New Cutting Edge, Intermediate, Unit 2, Study Practice, p134, Pearson, 2007Inside Out, 9C, "Dominoes", Intermediate, Macmillan Education, 2000https://www.merriam-webster.com/words-at-play/new-words-in-the-dictionaryPodcast about words: https://www.theallusionist.org/The word werewolf: https://qz.com/289884/werewolf-is-the-most-sexist-word-in-the-english-langu Online Dominoes: http://www.onlinedominogames.com/Timestamps

00:00 Introduction – What does “wording” mean?
03:00 Word types: nouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs
05:00 Building word families: action, decision and significance
08:00 Why learners should put new vocabulary into sentences
10:00 Do students need to know grammar terminology?
13:00 Sentence transformation activities
16:00 Adapting transformations for different English levels
18:00 The “banana” vocabulary game
21:00 Prefixes, suffixes and word-formation activities
23:30 How new words enter English dictionaries
25:00 New and changing English vocabulary
27:30 How English turns nouns into verbs
29:00 Final thoughts and wrap-up

In this episode of How to English TEFL Podcast, Gav and Em explore the “evergreen” side of teaching and learning English: the problems, principles and techniques that keep appearing year after year.

Drawing on 40+ years of combined English-teaching experience, Gav and Em discuss recurring classroom challenges such as late students and common grammar mistakes, alongside teaching techniques that remain useful regardless of new technology or trends.

They look at why repetition, practice and plenty of examples continue to matter; how familiar topics such as hobbies, family, music, films, sleep and seasonal celebrations can generate useful conversation; and how teachers can reuse reliable themes without simply repeating the same lesson every year.

Gav demonstrates a simple activity he uses when learners repeatedly make third-person -s mistakes, using examples such as people like, everybody likes and Gavin likes to help students notice the grammatical pattern.

They also ask whether testing will always be part of English education, whether being able to communicate successfully may sometimes be a better measure of progress than a traditional test, and whether online teaching has now become a permanent part of the profession.

For learners, the final message is refreshingly simple: revise what you learn, practise it repeatedly and use your English in speaking and writing.

A relaxed conversation about what changes in ELT — and what probably never will.

☕ Support How to English TEFL Podcast:
https://ko-fi.com/howtoenglishpod

🌐 Free TEFL articles, practical classroom ideas and teaching resources:
https://www.howtoenglishpod.com/

Pop Idol winner Will Young:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T5xLMNbN9V8

Evergreen topics for students:
https://www.fluentu.com/blog/educator-english/esl-discussion-topics-for-adults/

Non-standardized tests in Scandinavian schools:
https://bigthink.com/mike-colagrossi/no-standardized-tests-no-private-schools-no-stress-10-reasons-why-finlands-education-system-in-the-best-in-the-world

Contents & Chapters

00:00 Welcome to How to English with Gav & Em
00:45 What does “evergreen” mean in English teaching?
02:40 Can technology keep English lessons fresh?
04:00 Evergreen classroom problems that never disappear
05:30 Learning online: too much information and too many choices
08:00 When should you stop using a learning resource that isn't working?
10:50 Evergreen lessons: holidays, festivals and seasonal topics
14:35 Conversation topics that learners can always talk about
16:35 Which English-teaching techniques never go out of date?
17:55 Repetition, examples and recurring grammar mistakes
18:00 Will English-language testing always exist?
20:55 The evergreen principles behind Em's lessons
21:20 Is online English teaching now here to stay?
22:55 Should online lessons cost the same as face-to-face lessons?
24:50 Evergreen advice for English learners
25:40 End

How do you keep English lessons fresh when you’ve taught the same students for years?

Gav and Em explore what “keeping it fresh” means in a real classroom. Sometimes it’s as simple as opening a window or changing where everyone sits. Other times it means trying a new activity, updating an ageing coursebook or finding a different way into a familiar topic.

They talk about the lessons they’ve taught repeatedly, the materials they’ve kept for years and the awkward moment when a student remembers an activity you thought was new. Can a reliable lesson still feel fresh? And how do you build on what a long-term student already knows without having the same conversation again?

Gav and Em also compare approaches to planning. One likes the flexibility to respond to what comes up; the other sees value in giving students time to prepare. They finish by asking whether you should announce a lesson’s topic and objectives or let students discover them as the lesson unfolds.

If you find the show useful, you can send us a thanks at https://ko-fi.com/howtoenglishpod. For more practical teaching ideas and resources, visit https://howtoenglishpod.com.

Chapters

00:00 A different introduction and listener feedback
02:07 What does “keeping it fresh” mean?
02:24 Fresh air in the classroom
05:57 Changing your teaching space
07:39 Changing seats and classroom routines
08:46 Is changing your timetable worth it?
11:17 Changing what happens in the lesson
11:54 When coursebooks and materials start to age
16:30 When might a teacher need a change?
19:27 Can you reuse a favourite lesson?
22:04 Keeping lessons fresh for teachers and students
23:18 What if students remember an activity?
25:46 Building on topics with long-term students
27:25 Changing your opening questions
28:50 Should students know the lesson topic in advance?

Reference mentioned: Learning objectives — https://www.edglossary.org/learning-objectives/

How can English teachers introduce, elicit and recycle vocabulary without simply giving students a list of words to memorise?

In this episode of How to English TEFL Podcast, Em demonstrates one of the ways she teaches vocabulary, with Gav taking the role of the learner. Starting with a natural conversation about restaurants, she gradually builds a story and uses definitions, clues, first letters, gestures and questions to help Gav retrieve useful language for himself.

Rather than presenting vocabulary in isolation, Em organises the language around a real-life situation: arriving at a restaurant, reading the menu, ordering food and drinks, talking about meals and dealing with common situations. Gav explains how this logical sequence helped him visualise the experience and remember the vocabulary.

Drawing on Gav and Em’s 40+ years of combined English-teaching experience, they explore how teachers can make vocabulary lessons more engaging, memorable and communicative.

They discuss how to:

• elicit vocabulary instead of immediately giving learners the answer

• organise new language around a clear context

• use stories to keep students actively listening

• give clues without making learners feel pressured

• accept several possible answers rather than insisting on one “perfect” word

• record and recycle vocabulary during the lesson

• move from elicitation into personalised speaking practice

• adapt the technique for one-to-one lessons and groups

• use real menus and restaurant role-plays

• add functional language such as requests and offers

• balance teacher talk with meaningful student participation

• use performance, personality and humour to make language more memorable

Em also reflects on something she has learned from experience: elicitation can become counterproductive if the teacher keeps pushing for one particular word. Sometimes several answers are perfectly good English, so the teacher needs to recognise useful learner language rather than simply waiting for the word on the lesson plan.

The result is a practical look inside an experienced teacher’s classroom thinking — from the initial conversation and vocabulary presentation through to recycling, speaking practice and real-life role-play.

🎧 Support How to English TEFL Podcast:
https://ko-fi.com/howtoenglishpod

📚 Free TEFL articles, teaching ideas, activities and episode resources you can use in your lessons:
https://www.howtoenglishpod.com/

Chapters & Timestamps00:00 – Welcome to How to English TEFL Podcast
01:00 – From “How Gav Teaches” to “How Em Teaches”
02:00 – Starting a vocabulary lesson with natural conversation
03:00 – Building the restaurant context
05:00 – Turning a story into an elicitation activity
06:00 – Eliciting restaurant vocabulary: cutlery and more
07:00 – Teaching “bland” through clues and context
08:00 – Eliciting condiments and related vocabulary
09:00 – Describing wine: dry, sweet and sparkling
10:00 – Reviewing recently introduced vocabulary
11:00 – Expanding vocabulary: plate, dish and food language
12:00 – Categorising meat and food vocabulary
13:00 – Game, venison, pheasant and quail
14:00 – Napkin, serviette and choosing words for the situation
15:00 – Courses, drinks and restaurant vocabulary
16:00 – Still, sparkling and tap water
17:00 – Why elicitation helps learners retrieve vocabulary
18:00 – Why vocabulary needs a logical context and sequence
19:00 – Turning coursebook material into a real conversation
20:00 – Recording, reviewing and recycling new vocabulary
21:00 – Moving from vocabulary input to freer speaking
22:00 – Why teaching can involve performance and animation
23:00 – Does this activity give students enough speaking time?
24:00 – When elicitation becomes too demanding
25:00 – Turning the activity into a full 60-minute lesson
26:00 – Authentic menus, functional language and restaurant role-play
27:00 – Final reflections and teaching takeaways

How can you teach English through natural conversation while still developing grammar, vocabulary and pronunciation?

In this episode of How to English TEFL Podcast, Gav turns a casual conversation with Em into a live demonstration of his conversation-led teaching style. Instead of simply following a worksheet or fixed list of questions, he listens carefully, asks follow-up questions, encourages longer answers and uses the conversation itself to generate language work.

Gav draws on more than 20 years of English-teaching experience, including one-to-one lessons, Business English, exam preparation and general English with learners of different ages and levels. He has taught in Europe and Asia, both in classrooms and online, and explains how years of working with real learners have shaped his flexible, conversation-led approach.

Gav and Em explore how teachers can feed new vocabulary into conversation naturally, use synonyms and rephrasing without making learners feel everything they say is wrong, and help students retrieve language they already know. Gav also explains why he sometimes keeps a thesaurus nearby when teaching online and why unfamiliar expressions should be checked rather than automatically corrected.

They look at how grammar can emerge naturally too. Carefully chosen questions can repeatedly expose learners to the same structure without turning the lesson into a traditional grammar exercise. Em then becomes Gav’s student for an intensive demonstration combining grammar drilling, pronunciation, contractions, connected speech and repetition with the question “How long have you been...?”

It’s energetic, materials-light and highly focused — although Em discovers that being one of Gav’s students can be exhausting!

The episode also asks: does a lesson need to look like a traditional lesson for learning to happen? Drawing on his experience teaching adults, professionals and one-to-one learners, Gav explains how conversation-led teaching can still be combined with worksheets, coursebooks and structured activities when learners need extra support.

Whether you teach one-to-one lessons, Business English, adults or conversation classes, this episode offers practical ideas grounded in extensive teaching experience for turning almost any student answer into useful grammar, vocabulary and pronunciation practice.

☕ Support the podcast: https://ko-fi.com/howtoenglishpod
🌍 Free TEFL resources: https://www.howtoenglishpod.com/

References:
Thesaurus: https://thesaurus.com/
The Direct Method: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zk6HS8RlD98
Andy the English teacher: https://www.instagram.com/parlourlanguageroom/
English File — Christina Latham-Koenig, Clive Oxenden, Paul Seligson, Oxford University Press.

Timestamps

00:00 – Welcome to How to English
01:00 – Em’s online and face-to-face teaching
03:00 – Working from home and “home office”
05:00 – Returning to companies and changing routines
08:00 – Greetings, handshakes and changing classroom habits
11:00 – What face-to-face teaching gives us
13:00 – Eye contact and reading body language
16:00 – Gav reveals his teaching demonstration
17:00 – Follow-up questions and longer answers
18:00 – Should unfamiliar expressions be corrected?
19:00 – Synonyms and activating known vocabulary
20:00 – Feeding better vocabulary into conversation
21:00 – The danger of rephrasing everything
22:00 – Using questions to practise grammar repeatedly
23:00 – Why one-to-one conversation lessons feel intense
24:00 – Do students realise they are learning?
25:00 – When to use worksheets and coursebooks
26:00 – Adapting conversation-led teaching for groups
27:00 – Intensive grammar and pronunciation practice
28:00 – Practising “How long have you been...?”
29:00 – Connected speech, contractions and drilling
30:00 – Why intensive drilling needs concentration
31:00 – Materials-free grammar practice
32:00 – Turning “I did nothing” into conversation
33:00 – The listener question that inspired the episode

How should an English teacher respond when a student disagrees with the lesson, dominates the conversation, refuses to engage or challenges what the teacher says?

In this episode of How to English TEFL Podcast, Gav and Em explore the kinds of conflict teachers can encounter — from disagreements and sensitive topics to dominant students, low-energy classes, cultural misunderstandings and teacher doubt.

Drawing on more than 40 years of combined English-teaching experience, Gav and Em discuss situations they have faced in real classrooms and the quick decisions teachers sometimes have to make.

What should you do when a learner strongly disagrees with a topic or dismisses language you are teaching? Gav and Em discuss how teachers can remain professional, explain why particular language is being discussed and use reliable sources without turning the classroom into a debate about personal opinions.

They also consider culturally sensitive and taboo subjects. How much should teachers know about local customs? When should you continue a difficult discussion — and when is it better to change the subject?

Em shares an online lesson where one student arrived stressed about work while another was barely awake. Should a teacher abandon the lesson plan, adapt it to the students’ mood or continue with the planned language work?

Gav and Em also compare ways of managing dominant students and ensuring everyone gets enough speaking time. They discuss distracted learners, phones in lessons, and whether difficult behaviour should be addressed immediately or privately afterwards.

Humour can create conflict too. Sarcasm, irony and jokes that seem harmless between friends can easily be misunderstood across languages and cultures.

Finally, they discuss internal conflict and teacher confidence. What happens when a learner challenges your understanding of a word or introduces language you have never heard before? Even experienced teachers are still learning.

In this episode:
• Handling students who disagree with you
• Teaching sensitive and controversial topics
• Cultural differences in the classroom
• Adapting lessons to tired or stressed students
• Managing phones and distracted learners
• Dealing with dominant students
• Sarcasm, humour and misunderstandings
• Teaching polite disagreement and negotiation
• Teacher confidence and imposter syndrome

References:
Unit 11 Conflict, New Market Leader, Pre-intermediate, 3rd Edition, Pearson

Taboos and Issues, Richard MacAndrew and Ron Martínez, Thomson, Heinle

Support How to English:
https://ko-fi.com/howtoenglishpod

Teaching resources and articles:
https://howtoenglishpod.com

Timestamps:
00:00 Welcome and introducing conflict
04:49 What kinds of conflict happen in class?
05:24 Physical conflict between students
06:46 Mental, internal and language conflict
06:58 What if a student disagrees with the lesson?
07:24 Sensitive and controversial language
08:59 Responding to student pushback
10:26 Using reliable sources
11:10 Disagreeing professionally with students
12:17 Politics, religion and taboo topics
13:39 Cultural differences and sensitive subjects
15:00 When to abandon a lesson topic
16:25 What if students dislike the topic?
17:31 When the lesson plan clashes with students’ moods
18:13 Teaching stressed and tired students
19:36 Should you abandon the lesson plan?
21:05 When the teacher becomes the therapist
21:59 Different energy levels in the same class
22:21 Student responsibility and participation
22:46 Phones and distracted learners
24:14 Dealing with dominant students
25:21 Different classroom-management approaches
26:19 Talking privately to a difficult student
27:13 Why jokes can create conflict
28:04 Sarcasm, irony and cultural misunderstandings
28:28 Negotiation and polite disagreement
29:45 Teacher imposter syndrome
30:12 What if a student challenges your English?
31:41 Experienced teachers are still learning
32:03 Final thoughts