How can you make uncountable nouns memorable and help students untangle ‘used to’, ‘be used to’ and ‘get used to’? This week on the How to English TEFL Podcast, we tackle U in our A–Z of teaching English—with unusual holiday packing and quite enough U/you jokes.

Join us, Gav and Em, for a playful role play featuring ‘three luggages’ and ‘a happiness’, followed by a sentence-building game you can adapt for your lessons. We explore how humour helps students notice grammar mistakes without putting anyone on the spot.

Can AI help students upgrade their writing? We try different versions of ‘The cat sat on the mat’ and discuss vocabulary work, gap fills and matching sentences to styles for different levels.

We also practise ‘used to’ through gardening and pet-owning scenarios, explore the surprises of ‘under-’, and compare ‘ultra-’, ‘super-’, ‘mega-’ and ‘hyper-’. Gav shares how a coursebook unit worked with his airport students, while Em reflects on moving learners from repeating sentences to using English independently.

Expect practical TEFL activities, real classroom experience and a reminder to stretch your own teaching and learning habits. U first!

📚 EXPLORE THE EPISODE GUIDE AND FREE TEFL ARTICLES

Episode Guide: How Can You Teach Uncountable Nouns and ‘Used To’ Creatively? TEFL A-Z U – S06E21

How to Teach Uncountable Nouns with a Funny Role Play – S06E21

How to Practise Countable and Uncountable Nouns with One Simple Sentence Game – S06E21

How to Teach ‘Used To’, ‘Be Used To’ and ‘Get Used To’ Clearly – S06E21

How Can Students Use AI to Upgrade Simple English Sentences? – S06E21

When Should an English Teacher Use a Coursebook Unit Instead of Planning from Scratch? – S06E21

If you find the show useful, you can send us a thanks:
https://ko-fi.com/howtoenglishpod

Visit https://howtoenglishpod.com for practical teaching ideas and ready-to-use resources.

References: English File, Oxford

Background music:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q83yRKmKKYs&list=PLfP6i5T0-DkKSs8G6YbPHYAR70-f5tP9S&index=21

TIMESTAMPS

00:00 – Welcome and intro banter
01:14 – Under-prefix wordplay
05:54 – Uncountable nouns role play
09:22 – Categories of uncountable nouns
10:33 – Countable vs uncountable game
14:53 – Upgrading sentences with AI
20:09 – ‘Used to’ grammar practice
23:42 – Teaching with coursebook units
26:40 – Prefixes: ultra, super, mega and hyper
30:26 – Tips of the episode

How can you help students understand English grammar, speak with more expression and remember what they learn?

Welcome to another tea-fuelled episode of How to English: Teach and Learn with Gav & Em — the podcast for teachers and learners of English as a foreign language. This week, we tackle the letter T: TEFL, timelines, tone, task-based learning and teaching tips from students themselves. ☕️

Drawing on our classroom experience, we share advice for new English teachers: be prepared, give yourself time to build confidence and talk to students when things go wrong.

How can timelines make English tenses clearer? We work through biscuit theft, interrupted actions and perfect tenses, then move on to tone and intonation: how can the same words sound hopeful, impatient or mischievous?

We also hear the student perspective. Why does fun make lessons memorable? What if learners understand a grammar rule but forget it when speaking? Should teachers interrupt to correct mistakes? And do students really need another list of phrasal verbs?

For task-based learning, we discuss escape rooms, planning a holiday, spot the difference and a hands-on guessing game. We finish with “a” versus “an”, transcription and pronunciation practice, and a tongue-twister challenge.

📚 FREE S06E20 ARTICLES

What Advice Actually Helps a Nervous New English Teacher?
https://howtoenglishpod.wordpress.com/what-advice-actually-helps-a-nervous-new-english-teacher-s06e20/

How to Use Timelines to Teach English Verb Tenses
https://howtoenglishpod.wordpress.com/how-to-use-timelines-to-teach-english-verb-tenses-s06e20/

How to Teach Tone of Voice Without Making Speaking Feel Artificial
https://howtoenglishpod.wordpress.com/how-to-teach-tone-of-voice-without-making-speaking-feel-artificial-s06e20/

What Do English Learners Wish Their Teachers Would Do Differently?
https://howtoenglishpod.wordpress.com/what-do-english-learners-wish-their-teachers-would-do-differently-s06e20/

What Counts as Task-Based Learning in an English Lesson?
https://howtoenglishpod.wordpress.com/what-counts-as-task-based-learning-in-an-english-lesson-s06e20/

A or An? Why the First Sound Matters More Than the First Letter
https://howtoenglishpod.wordpress.com/a-or-an-why-the-first-sound-matters-more-than-the-first-letter-s06e20/

🌐 More practical TEFL ideas and resources:
https://howtoenglishpod.com

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

Timestamps
00:00 – Welcome and tea talk
01:06 – TEFL tips: be prepared and don’t stress
08:06 – Timelines: visualising English grammar
16:55 – Tone: intonation, emotion and meaning
20:18 – May and Will: wordplay and sentence stress
25:04 – Teaching tips from learners
32:47 – Task-based learning: communicative classroom activities
39:17 – Gav’s T tip: test your articles
42:00 – Em’s T tip: transcription and IPA
43:13 – A tongue-twister challenge
44:22 – Outro and roller disco

How can you teach small talk, syllables and common English mistakes in practical, memorable ways?

In this S-themed episode of the A–Z of TEFL, Gav and Em share classroom activities for English teachers and learners. Drawing on their own lessons, they explore semantics, pronunciation, scaffolding, student confidence, lesson staging and some surprisingly tricky examples of subject–verb agreement.

Em demonstrates how she builds a small-talk lesson by eliciting safe topics, creating useful questions and placing the language in realistic situations such as conferences and trade fairs. Why do learners sometimes need a conversational bridge before asking about hobbies? How can role plays, prompts and structured support help hesitant speakers?

Next, Gav tackles long English words while Em introduces a simple physical technique for counting syllables. They test words including inconsequential, discombobulation and biodegradable, combining pronunciation, meaning and sentence-building in one adaptable vocabulary activity.

They also consider what students can do when a teacher mispronounces their name, they do not understand the homework, they notice a mistake or they arrive late. Then comes “Sentence Slips”: a collection of errors involving bored and boring, sympathetic, constipated, cook and cooker, sensible and sensitive, menu, desert and dessert.

Finally, Em takes Gav through the stages of a real first lesson with an international business English group. They examine how prediction, listening, discussion and free practice can build naturally—and why teachers nearly always spot something they would improve next time.

Expect practical teaching ideas, useful English explanations, honest classroom reflection and the usual Gav and Em tangents.

If you find the show useful, you can send us a thanks at https://ko-fi.com/howtoenglishpod

Visit https://howtoenglishpod.com for practical teaching ideas and resources ready to use.

Chapters

00:00 – Welcome to the letter S
01:18 – Semantics: how context changes meaning
04:48 – How to teach small talk
06:00 – Safe topics and useful questions
07:28 – Small-talk role-plays and realistic contexts
09:17 – Scaffolding hesitant speakers10:32 – A physical activity for counting syllables
11:48 – Long-word vocabulary and pronunciation challenge16:38 – What should students do in difficult classroom situations?17:04 – When a teacher mispronounces a student’s name19:18 – Asking for clarification about homework20:06 – Correcting a teacher and arriving late21:24 – The Silent Way and Suggestopedia22:55 – Sentence Slips: correcting common English mistakes23:42 – Bored or boring?24:28 – Sympathetic and other false friends25:34 – Constipated, cook, cooker, sensible and sensitive27:13 – Menu, set menu, desert and dessert28:42 – What does lesson staging mean?29:48 – Em analyses the stages of a real first lesson33:34 – Reflecting on and improving lesson structure35:19 – Subject–verb agreement challenge38:47 – Final teaching and learning tips
40:07 – Goodbye and a tea-or-coffee request

How can everyday objects, improvised phone calls and picture games bring your English lessons to life?

R you ready? We’re continuing our A–Z of TEFL on the How to English TEFL Podcast, and this week it’s the letter R! From relative clauses and root words to realia, role-play and reflexive pronouns, we’ve got plenty to try in your next English lesson.

What is realia, and how can you use it in the classroom? Em shares activities she’s used with her students, including a missing-object memory game and a mystery bag of animals. We also discuss menus, tickets, packaging and ways to use everyday objects when teaching English online.

How do you give clear classroom instructions? We explore rubric, keeping instructions short and checking understanding before putting our advice to the test. Our telephone role-play takes us from a forgotten restaurant meeting to an urgent order for office supplies, with a few laughs along the way. We discuss spontaneous speaking, problem solving and why Em saves error correction until afterwards.

Looking for English grammar and vocabulary games? Join our relative clause picture challenge, tackle some R-word gap fills and complete sentences with reflexive pronouns. There’s also time for surprising word origins, repetition, revision, reading and register. Who knew “nice” had such a past?

If you find the show useful, you can send us a thanks at https://ko-fi.com/howtoenglishpod

Our website, https://howtoenglishpod.com, is full of practical teaching ideas and resources ready to use.

Explore this practical article for more teaching ideas connected to repetition and remembering vocabulary 👇
Spaced repetition: https://www.heylama.com/blog/spaced-repetition

Telephone activity reference
Call Me on my Mobile, In Company, Macmillan, 2nd Elementary, p. 103.

Chapters
00:00 – R: /ɑː/, /rʌ/, or /ɑːɹə/?
01:31 – Relative clauses explained (not Santa Clauses!)
07:59 – Root words: from sandwiches to a shambles
12:49 – Realia in the classroom: menus, toys, postcards and more
17:34 – Rubric: clear instructions and checking understanding
20:35 – Instructions and telephone role-play
28:51 – R-words vocabulary game
32:31 – Repetition, remembering and revision tips
35:29 – Reflexive pronouns: myself, yourself and more
36:49 – Wrap-up and roller disco outro

What makes an English lesson fun, how should teachers respond to difficult questions, and what happens when a class reaches a genuine flow state?

In this Q-themed episode of the How to English TEFL Podcast, Gav and Em ask each other questions about teaching English, working online, planning lessons and producing the podcast.

Drawing on more than 40 years of combined classroom experience, they discuss memorable moments from teaching in different countries, including Gav’s experiences in the heat of southern China and the freezing temperatures of northern and eastern Europe. Em shares a creative grammar activity in which learners physically arrange themselves into sentences, helping them explore word order together.

What should you do when a learner asks a grammar question you cannot answer? Em remembers being caught out by a question about subject questions early in her career—and explains why experienced teachers still sometimes need to say, “I’m not sure, but I’ll find out.”

Gav and Em also consider the advantages and disadvantages of teaching English online. Is something lost when teachers and learners no longer share a physical classroom? Can digital lessons still create meaningful professional relationships?

You’ll also hear their thoughts on making lessons fun without forcing the humour, protecting learners from embarrassment when mistakes sound funny, and knowing when to step back while a successful speaking activity flows.

Along the way, they revisit favourite podcast guests and episodes, explain how AI helps Gav create the show’s cover art, reveal how they have used podcast extracts in their lessons, and imagine the events they would enter at the TEFL Teacher Olympics.

The episode ends with a rapid-fire teaching quiz: lesson plan or wing it? Pair work or group work? Online or face-to-face? Tea or coffee?

If you find the show useful, you can send us a thanks at https://ko-fi.com/howtoenglishpod

Visit https://howtoenglishpod.com for practical teaching ideas and resources ready to use.

Chapters

00:00 – Welcome to Q: questions and answers
01:42 – The placement-test mystery of “remote control”
02:42 – Gav’s favourite countries to teach in
05:14 – A creative physical grammar and word-order activity
07:14 – Gav’s dream podcast guest
08:13 – Student questions that left Em speechless
10:27 – The disadvantages of teaching English online
13:27 – When learners make hilariously wrong mistakes
14:46 – What actually makes an English lesson fun?
16:19 – What to do when a class reaches a flow state
17:54 – Gav and Em’s favourite podcast episodes
19:41 – Podcast episodes that changed their teaching
21:15 – The best compliment a teacher can receive
21:48 – Is teaching more tiring than podcasting?
23:27 – Creating podcast artwork with AI
25:04 – Using podcast extracts in English lessons
26:20 – The strangest places to plan a lesson
27:55 – Reliable activities and ready-made materials
29:24 – The TEFL Teacher Olympics
30:40 – Rapid-fire teaching choices
32:50 – Next time: the letter R

How can we help students put new English into practice instead of falling back on the language they already know? This week on the How to English TEFL Podcast, we’re exploring the letter P, from presentation, practice and production to placement tests, pronunciation and the present perfect.

Em shares why she’s partial to PPP, and we discuss what happens when a carefully planned production activity becomes a lovely chat with none of the target language. How much prompting do students need?

Then Gav takes the student’s seat for a picture-story placement test. There’s a suspicious shopping trip, some teacher feedback and a reminder of how much pressure learners can feel. We discuss what picture stories reveal about someone’s English, how nerves affect performance and whether students need preparation time.

Need a way to explain present perfect simple versus continuous? We compare example sentences about painting, sending emails and working, exploring how context changes the focus. You’ll hear ideas for helping students notice meaning before discussing grammar rules, with extra support for lower-level learners.

There’s also a “P or no P” spelling and pronunciation game, plus classroom reflections on peer correction, lesson pacing, paraphrasing, personalisation, pre-teaching and prediction. Expect plenty of Ps, a few questionable jokes and teaching experiences you might recognise from your own lessons.

If you find the show useful, you can send us a thanks at https://ko-fi.com/howtoenglishpod

For more classroom inspiration, https://howtoenglishpod.com is full of practical teaching ideas and resources ready to use.

Chapters
00:00 Welcome to our letter P episode
01:00 PPP: presentation, practice and production
03:00 Helping students use the target language
05:00 P or no P: spelling and pronunciation game
13:00 Placement tests and picture stories
15:00 Gav tries a picture-story speaking test
17:00 What teachers listen for in a placement test
19:00 Student nerves and preparation time
21:00 Present perfect simple versus continuous
24:00 Quantity, duration and overlapping meanings
26:00 Helping students discover grammar through examples
28:00 Peer correction and checking accuracy
29:00 Lesson pacing and varied activities
30:00 Paraphrasing in students’ own words
31:00 Personalisation and preparing learners for tasks
32:00 Pre-teaching and prediction
33:00 A positive attitude to teaching and learning
34:00 Putting new language into use
35:00 Goodbye and next time: the letter Q

How can English teachers correct mistakes without interrupting fluency or damaging a learner’s confidence?

In this O-themed episode of the How to English TEFL Podcast, Gav and Em explore overcorrection, on-the-spot grammar, one-to-one teaching and practical speaking activities. Drawing on their classroom experience, they discuss which errors deserve immediate attention, which can wait and why correcting every mistake may distract both the learner and the teacher from meaningful communication.

Through a deliberately painful overcorrection role-play, Gav interrupts nearly every error Em makes while describing her fictional company. They use the experience to consider how teachers can prioritise recurring problems, give delayed feedback and avoid overwhelming nervous learners—particularly during a first lesson.

You’ll also hear the advantages and disadvantages of teaching one-to-one English lessons, including personalised materials, clearer goals, closer relationships, cancellations and the limitations of mixed-level groups.

Looking for adaptable classroom activities? Gav and Em demonstrate an on-the-spot grammar correction game, a one-minute speaking challenge and an onomatopoeia lesson featuring slurps, sighs, giggles, sobs and groans. Em explains how removing the options from a gap-fill can turn it into a productive open-cloze activity, while Gav suggests offering learners clear choices instead of asking broad questions such as, “What do you want to do next class?”

Along the way, they answer questions including:

How should teachers correct errors during speaking activities?
Should every learner mistake be corrected?
What are the benefits of teaching one-to-one lessons?
Why do we say “much money” rather than “many money”?
How can teachers check understanding effectively?
What is an open cloze?
Why should teachers offer learners clear options?

If you find the show useful, you can send us a thanks at https://ko-fi.com/howtoenglishpod

Visit https://howtoenglishpod.com for practical teaching ideas and classroom resources ready to use.

Chapters

00:00 – Welcome to O: TEFL Words and Teaching Ideas
00:58 – One-to-One English Lessons: Benefits and Drawbacks
05:02 – Correcting Grammar on the Spot with Error Cards
09:00 – Why Do We Say “Much Money” and Not “Many Money”?
10:11 – Overcorrection Role-Play: How Not to Correct Speaking
14:00 – Which Learner Errors Should Teachers Prioritise?
18:07 – One-Minute Speaking Challenge for Fluency
21:30 – Teaching Onomatopoeia Through Everyday Sounds
25:06 – Objectives, Outcomes, Observations and Other TEFL O Words
27:46 – Open-Cloze Activities Without Multiple-Choice Answers
29:36 – Better Ways to Check Understanding
31:32 – Offer Learners Options Instead of Open-Ended Questions
32:46 – Final Thoughts and a Preview of the Letter P

How can English teachers explain subtle differences between words, practise negative forms and make nominalisation memorable?

In this episode of the How to English TEFL Podcast, Gav and Em reach N in their A–Z of TEFL. They begin with some necessary notes and corrections involving aubergines, acai, postpone, matching activities and the surprisingly important differences between gelato and ice cream.

Em explores linguistic nuance through the difference between bad and wicked. How much detail should teachers give when learners ask about two apparently similar words? And what happens when both words can change meaning in different contexts?

Gav then demonstrates a personalised grammar activity for practising negative answers. Learners respond to deliberately ridiculous questions using forms such as “No, I don’t”, “No, I’m not” and “No, I haven’t” before adding their own ideas. It is a simple way to combine grammar practice, humour and memorable personalised language.

Why do British English speakers often avoid saying no directly? Gav and Em examine softer refusals such as “Maybe later”, “I’d love to, but…” and “It’s very cold outside”. These indirect answers can sound positive to learners who miss the speaker’s real intention.

The episode also includes a fast-paced nominalisation game. Em transforms verbs such as allocate, justify, implement, transmit and oppose into nouns, revealing why nominalisation is useful in academic, legal and Business English.

Finally, AI-generated versions of Gav and Em present eight teaching tips covering lesson aims, learning names, thinking time, boardwork, instruction checking, flexibility, student-generated language and post-lesson reflection. The real Gav and Em then react to their strangely refined digital doubles and consider where AI-generated podcasting might lead.

Drawing on their classroom experience, Gav and Em turn some potentially dry language points into practical activities teachers can adapt for their own lessons.

If you find the show useful, you can send us a thanks at https://ko-fi.com/howtoenglishpod

Visit https://howtoenglishpod.com for practical teaching ideas and resources ready to use.

References

Voice cloning:
https://www.uberduck.ai/voice-cloning

Background music:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W16EsK4JCKM&list=PL170TfEhZz-_GstI3bsghBfuD-u8nlHHD&index=1

Chapters

00:00 – Alphabet confusion and the A–Z of TEFL
01:35 – Notes, corrections and fruit-related facts
05:16 – Matching activities and pelmanism
06:22 – Gelato versus ice cream
08:01 – Explaining nuance: bad, wicked and changing meanings
11:09 – A personalised activity for practising negative answers
14:48 – How British English speakers say no indirectly
17:38 – What is nominalisation and why is it useful?
18:27 – Nominalisation noun-forming challenge
21:17 – AI Gav and Em’s eight tips for TEFL teachers
23:01 – The real Gav and Em react to their AI voices
25:07 – Is AI-generated podcasting the future?
25:46 – Alphabet confusion returns and the episode ends

How Can Memory, Matching Games & Modals Improve English Lessons? – S06E13

How can matching activities, memory techniques and modal verbs make English lessons more memorable?

This week, Gav and Em continue their A–Z of TEFL with the letter M. They examine whether matching exercises are worthwhile or simply time-consuming, before testing a dessert-and-country activity that works visually or as a speaking task.

What should learners do when they cannot remember a word? Em argues that successful communication does not depend on recalling the perfect vocabulary every time. Learners can paraphrase, compare, gesture or describe the idea using the English they already have. Gav explores practical memory techniques including repetition, chunking, visualisation, mind maps, personalisation and meaningful associations.

There are also two adaptable classroom activities. A modal murder mystery gets learners discussing clues and practising past modal forms such as might have been and must have been. Movie Time asks students to predict what happens next, encouraging speculation, present-tense narration and future language.

Drawing on activities they have used with their own students, Gav and Em also discuss micro-teaching for supporting fast finishers and learners who need extra help. Finally, Gav leads a short mindful moment that teachers could use to calm a class and prepare learners for their next activity.

Visit https://howtoenglishpod.com for practical teaching ideas and resources ready to use.

If you find the show useful, you can send us a thanks at https://ko-fi.com/howtoenglishpod

Resources

1. Elementary, My Dear Watson – Advanced Grammar Games, Nelson

Chapters

00:00 – Welcome to M in the A–Z of TEFL
00:56 – Do matching activities help learners remember vocabulary?
04:30 – Dessert and country matching game
10:30 – Mnemonics and the FANBOYS conjunctions
12:14 – What should learners do when they forget a word?
15:55 – Memory techniques, associations and personalisation
18:24 – Teaching past modals through a murder mystery
24:09 – Movie Time: predicting what happens next
28:45 – Micro-teaching and supporting fast finishers
30:08 – A mindful moment for teachers and learners
32:59 – Final thoughts and next week’s letter

🎙️ How can English teachers help useful vocabulary stick, encourage learner autonomy and create lead-ins that actually get students talking?

This week, it’s L for… lots of things! From language attrition and learner autonomy to lesson notes, lead-ins and listening, Gav and Em explore the TEFL world one “L” at a time. 🔤

🧠 They ask whether teachers should spend valuable lesson time on vocabulary learners are unlikely to need. How can a needs analysis help you choose more relevant language, and how many new words should a learner realistically study each day?

📱 Gav and Em also examine the limitations of language-learning apps. Are strange sentences about unemployed dogs, special elephant–turtle friendships and eating in bathrooms memorable, useful or simply clever marketing? 🐕🐘🐢

📝 Drawing on their classroom experience, they share practical ways to keep lesson notes, remember personal details about students and encourage learners to set measurable goals, reflect on recurring mistakes and ask for feedback.

🧹 Em demonstrates how an ordinary moment—such as cleaning a keyboard—can become a natural lesson lead-in. Gav then challenges her with a listening gap-fill that replaces “say” with more precise reporting verbs, including claim, suggest, complain, refuse and promise. 🎧

Finally, they explain why teachers should react to what a learner means before correcting their English and discuss language modelling. Is “Books open” really the best classroom instruction, or should teachers consistently model complete, natural phrases such as “Open your books” and “Please stop there”? 🗣️

Expect practical TEFL ideas, strange app sentences, metaphorical cushions, Mark II and plenty of laughs with language! 🐘🧦

☕ If you find the show useful, you can send us a thanks at https://ko-fi.com/howtoenglishpod

💡 Visit https://howtoenglishpod.com for practical teaching ideas and resources ready to use.

🔗 Reference:
Funny language-learning app sentences:
https://www.boredpanda.com/funny-duolingo-sentences-silvermidnight/

⏱️ Chapters

00:00 Introduction and the letter L
01:42 Language attrition and choosing useful vocabulary
07:55 Limitations of language-learning apps
13:30 Lesson notes and remembering student details
17:05 Learner autonomy and realistic language goals
22:14 Natural lead-ins that get students talking
26:03 Listening gap-fill with reporting verbs
31:45 Why English teachers need to listen
32:27 Modelling better classroom language
36:31 Ko-fi, likes and goodbyes