What should you do when a carefully planned listening lesson runs out of time before students get the chance to speak? In this episode of the How to English TEFL Podcast, Gav and Em explore that familiar classroom dilemma and ask whether a successful comprehension lesson always needs a follow-up discussion.

Drawing on their everyday teaching experience, they discuss how to rescue an unfinished lesson, whether returning to the topic next week really works and how listening can lead to meaningful workplace conversations. Em shares a lesson built around a Cautionary Tales podcast and the Swiss cheese model of accident prevention, while Gav considers whether the listening and comprehension work may already be enough.

They also tackle several practical questions for English teachers. What does business casual mean for face-to-face and online teachers? How can you explain for, since and from clearly when a student asks with only 15 minutes left? Gav demonstrates an eliciting and gap-fill approach, while Em shows how timelines, present perfect and past simple can clarify the difference.

There are more adaptable lesson ideas too, including a virtual tour in which learners choose a favourite city, guide the class around local sights and recommend food or souvenirs. Gav and Em then consider when instruction-checking questions help students and when they risk sounding patronising, especially as a class becomes more confident.

The conversation also covers an important professional boundary: should a teacher accept private work from a student introduced by a language school or company? Gav and Em explain why they direct those requests back through the organisation. They finish by debating food, phones, sleeping, swearing, pets and other classroom behaviour before testing Em on wonderfully strange collective nouns, from a tower of giraffes to a shiver of sharks.

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.

Listen to the transcription with audio:
https://share.descript.com/view/TqxLgkLf8o3

References

Quiz of the Week: Names for groups of animals
https://arapahoelibraries.org/blogs/post/names-for-groups-of-animals/

Shiver my timbers
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shiver_my_timbers

Clever crows and animal intelligence
https://sentientmedia.org/which-animals-are-most-intelligent/

Cautionary Tales Podcast
https://open.spotify.com/show/2yPlb6ynbhTJbziSIcykQd

Chapters

00:00 What happens when a listening lesson runs out of time?
01:31 Listening comprehension and follow-up speaking
06:29 What does business casual mean for English teachers?
10:21 How to explain for, since and from
15:07 A virtual favourite-city speaking activity
17:30 Do instruction-checking questions sound patronising?
24:40 Should teachers accept private students from a company?
28:03 Food, phones and acceptable classroom behaviour
32:36 Quiz of the Week: collective nouns for animals
40:14 Outro

Check out this rerun of an earlier episode – now fully transcribed! Transcription with audio here:

How should teachers respond to differences between British and American English, correct spoken errors during dictation and deal with students who do not complete their homework?

In this episode of How to English TEFL Podcast, Gav and Em compare British and American English in real classroom situations. Should a teacher correct “Did you ever ride a camel?” or accept it as a standard American English alternative to “Have you ever ridden a camel?” They explore differences including shopping centre and mall, skipping rope and jump rope, and different ways of saying dates.

Em shares a speech-to-text activity in which she types exactly what a student says before asking them to find their own mistakes. Gav prefers to leave gaps or question individual words so that incorrect language is not reinforced. Is it useful for learners to see their mistakes written down, or should teachers model the correct form immediately? As the episode title suggests, Gav and Em agree to disagree.

They also compare their approaches to homework. Gav asks students about the work and uses it to encourage questions and further learning. Em makes homework optional and lets adult students complete it in their own time without being put on the spot. Which approach would work best with your learners?

For a practical classroom activity, Gav introduces the Yes I Am game. Students receive short-answer cards such as “Yes, I am”, “No, it isn’t” and “Yes, we are”, then create questions that produce those answers. It is a simple way to practise auxiliary verbs, pronouns, question formation and short answers.

Finally, Quiz of the Week mixes familiar idioms and metaphors. Can Em untangle “Let’s burn that bridge when we come to it” and “You’ve bitten off the wrong end of the stick”?

Whether you are new to TEFL or an experienced English teacher, join Gav and Em for practical classroom ideas, honest differences of opinion and language discussion drawn from their teaching experience.

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.

Transcript with audio:
https://share.descript.com/view/O4pwYUKLxso

References:

Differences between British and American English:
https://preply.com/en/blog/differences-in-grammar-in-american-and-british-english/

Well-Mixed Metaphors:
https://www.wordnik.com/lists/well-mixed-metaphors

Chapters

00:00 Introduction
01:19 Correcting a portmanteau mistake
02:15 British English or American English?
08:51 Using speech-to-text to reveal learner errors
14:54 Should teachers correct mistakes immediately?
19:12 Support the podcast
19:27 The Yes I Am grammar game
22:50 Quiz of the Week: mixed metaphors and idioms
34:24 Outro

How should teachers welcome a late starter, manage an early leaver and keep lessons useful when class numbers suddenly change?

In this episode of How to English TEFL Pod, Gav and Em share practical answers drawn from their own classrooms. Em explains how her organised “Another Folder” helps when she needs fresh lesson ideas, while Gav suggests balancing grammar, vocabulary, listening, pronunciation and speaking activities across a course.

They discuss how to integrate a student who missed the beginning of a course without making them feel uncomfortable. Should everyone introduce themselves again? Can existing students introduce one another? And how can the newcomer’s needs and goals be included?

The situation is reversed when a learner has to leave a course early. Gav and Em consider how teachers can adapt pairwork, prioritise speaking time and keep a lesson working when attendance changes unexpectedly. Em even becomes Student B in a technical jigsaw-reading activity after several cancellations.

You’ll also hear a lively “Have you ever...?” truth-or-lie game from Cutting Edge. This activity practises present perfect questions, past simple follow-up questions, past continuous and modal verbs for deduction. Finally, Quiz of the Week explores learning preferences and how students might discuss the ways they prefer to study.

Along the way, Gav and Em correct some portmanteau mistakes from their previous episode and investigate words including cronut, boxercise, edutainment, mockumentary and snaccident.

Listen to the transcription with audio:
https://share.descript.com/view/hM1VkSnbq7j

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

What Type of Learner Are You?
https://arden.ac.uk/what-type-learner-are-you

Have You Ever...?
Cutting Edge, Unit 4A, Pearson

List of portmanteaus:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_portmanteaus

Chapters

00:00 Support How to English TEFL Pod
00:27 Episode introduction
01:56 Portmanteau corrections and examples
13:03 Finding fresh ideas in another teaching folder
16:51 Welcoming a late starter into an established class
24:24 Adapting a lesson for an early leaver
28:10 Present perfect truth-or-lie speaking game
34:12 Quiz of the Week: What type of learner are you?
41:46 Outro

Check out this rerun of an earlier episode – now fully transcribed! Transcription with audio here: ⁠https://share.descript.com/view/LXojMSqI81c Buy Gav & Em a coffee here: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://ko-fi.com/howtoenglishpod⁠⁠

How long should an English teacher wait when a student cannot answer? When does helpful support become an interruption?

Gav and Em explore classroom wait time and how teachers can give learners space to think without allowing the silence to become uncomfortable. They discuss online and face-to-face lessons, offering choices, inviting classmates to help and teaching learners to use hesitation sounds to show that they are still thinking.

Em shares how a simple question about a favourite machine led to genuinely meaningful Business English communication. Can asking learners to explain familiar equipment, processes and everyday tasks produce better speaking practice than a conventional exercise?

The conversation also considers why students should use English as much as possible during lessons. Staying in English can support fluency, maintain an inclusive classroom and encourage learners to explain unfamiliar words and expressions rather than immediately translating them.

Gav reveals an indirect error-correction technique he uses with advanced learners: presenting a mistake as something made by “other students” and inviting the learner to analyse and correct it. This can protect confidence while involving the learner in the teaching process.

There is also an introduction from Matt Abrahams, host of Stanford Graduate School of Business’s Think Fast, Talk Smart podcast, followed by a look at how Gav creates the podcast artwork using AI and Canva.

Finally, play along with the Quiz of the Week as Gav and Em investigate portmanteau words including brunch, cosplay, electrocute, popsicle and splatter—and enter the strange new world of “Portmantopia”.

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.

Transcription with audio:
https://share.descript.com/view/FAQbQSGJa8K

Think Fast, Talk Smart with Matt Abrahams:
https://mattabrahams.com/english-language-learning/

Resources

AI podcast artwork:
https://playground.com/

Picture editing:
https://www.canva.com/

Portmanteau word examples:
https://www.rd.com/article/portmanteau-words/

Chapters

00:00 Welcome and support the podcast
03:20 How long should teachers wait for an answer?
05:00 Ways to support students who need more thinking time
07:00 Managing interruptions and turn-taking
09:00 Creating meaningful Business English conversations
12:00 Why learners should practise describing processes
13:35 Matt Abrahams introduces Think Fast, Talk Smart
14:18 Why encourage students to speak only English?
17:20 An indirect error-correction technique
21:08 How Gav creates podcast artwork with AI
23:48 Quiz of the Week: portmanteau words
37:01 Outro

Check out this rerun of an earlier episode – now fully transcribed! Transcription with audio here: ⁠⁠https://share.descript.com/view/UomvAQ8jhp1⁠⁠ Buy Gav & Em a coffee here: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://ko-fi.com/howtoenglishpod⁠⁠

What should you do when students cancel repeatedly, attend sporadically or disappear altogether?

In this episode of How to English: Teach and Learn with Gav & Em, we discuss when to contact an absent learner, how to write a polite message and when a frequently empty space in your timetable may need to be offered to somebody else.

Em reflects on breaking free from the tunnel vision she experienced as a new teacher. A lesson plan can provide direction, but what happens when students are bored or the material does not meet their needs? We explore how teachers can read the room, ask for honest feedback and confidently change direction.

We also compare the information we record about learners. What belongs in a student dossier, and which short-term details can be discarded? The conversation leads to practical ideas for remembering students’ lives, recycling language and helping learners master difficult phrasal verbs through repetition and meaningful categories.

Later, we share ways to make a challenging listening activity more accessible. These include slowing down the recording, pre-teaching potentially confusing language, discussing the subject beforehand and asking learners to predict answers.

Finally, Quiz of the Week asks what people should consider before starting a TEFL career. Do English teachers need to be patient, approachable, creative, flexible and resourceful? How important is cultural awareness, and can you explain complicated ideas simply?

Drawing on our own classroom experiences, we offer honest reflections, practical teaching ideas and a glimpse of the everyday decisions behind successful 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 English-teaching ideas and resources ready to use.

Transcription with audio:
https://share.descript.com/view/N0olMRd2DMu

Resources

Quiz of the Week: 25 Questions to Answer Before You TEFL
https://www.teachenglishabroad.co/faqs/25-questions-to-answer-before-you-tefl

Slowing down audio in Windows Media Player:
Open Windows Media Player, maximise the window and right-click. Select Play speed, then choose Fast, Normal or Slow.

Keyboard shortcuts:
CTRL SHIFT F – Fast
CTRL SHIFT N – Normal
CTRL SHIFT S – Slow

Chapters

00:00 Welcome to How to English
00:52 Support the podcast with a cuppa
02:26 How to contact disappearing students
04:55 Breaking free from your early teaching habits
10:01 What to record in a student dossier
13:21 Helping learners remember phrasal verbs
18:30 Managing cancellations and keeping your timetable full
23:27 Building positive, enjoyable lessons
25:25 How to slow down audio for listening practice
26:51 Preparing learners for a difficult listening task
29:56 What should you consider before starting TEFL?
40:32 Outro

Check out this rerun of an earlier episode – now fully transcribed! Transcription with audio here: ⁠https://share.descript.com/view/UomvAQ8jhp1⁠ Buy Gav & Em a coffee here: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://ko-fi.com/howtoenglishpod⁠⁠

Are you taking an English exam? Do you need some tips on passing it? Have you taught TOEFL, IELTS, or the Cambridge exams? Have a listen to Gav & Em break down, and sum up the ins and outs of these exams. Featuring Dino (Koaching) from Udemy - an exam essay writing expert. Welcome followers. This week Gav & Em discuss the topic of learner levels. From beginners to proficiency, what are the differences, challenges and rewards of both teaching and learning at these levels? Buy Gav & Em a coffee here: ⁠https://ko-fi.com/howtoenglishpod⁠ And visit all the shows with transcriptions here: ⁠http://www.howtoenglishpod.com/