TEFL Prague and Abroad

Here's a fun lexis lesson for lower level students. The vocabulary around the lesson deals with hotels. At the end of the lesson, students will create their own type of hotel (in groups) and try to determine which pair/group has the best hotel in the class. Introduction: about 2 minutes Start the class by role-playing checking into a hotel. Play both the guest and the front desk. Elicit from the students what you're doing. Lead in: 5-7 min Demo out these questions and put students in pairs/groups to answer them. 1. Do you like to travel? Where are some interesting places you have been to? 2. Where do you like to stay when you travel? 3. What’s the best/worst place you have ever stayed at? Target Language: under 10 minutes Elicit, CCQ and board these words. a hotel, a bed and breakfast, a resort, a hostel, a guest, a maximum capacity, to be located, a location, a single/double/suite/dormitory, facilities, a quality, staff/the staff, various potential lexis related to...

Here's a lesson plan that is suitable for Intermediate and Upper Intermediate language students with past modal verbs being the focus. The lesson requires only about 15 minutes of prep to pull off and has a heavy focus on speaking. I recommend doing this lesson for groups of students who already have a decent understanding of past participles. Take a look! I also have a video demonstration of this lesson plan in action that I've posted below. Intro: 1 minute Come into class asking students how their day is going. Have a glass of water with you that you are drinking. When you they ask you about your day, spill the water all over yourself. Elicit the concept of having a bad day. Lead In: 5-7 minutes Demo out the questions and put students in groups 1. Do you often have bad days? 2. What are three things that can typically happen to make a day go wrong? 3. What are 4 bad, but funny, things that have happened to you this year? Target Language: 10 minutes  Before i...

Here's a fun lesson you can do with levels as low as pre-intermediate, and up to advanced, depending on the language you want to use. Students will work in groups, create a movie and then pitch it to the class. Lexis: Language related to the film industry/describing movies. Materials:  A few pictures Flip chart paper Paper strips Potentially music to play in the background Introduction: 1-2 minutes  Enter the class acting like a director. You can tell the students to be quiet on the set and start giving them direction. Then mime out pretending to film them. Elicit the concept of a director. Lead In: 5-7 minutes  Demo these questions out and then put students into groups What kinds of movies do you like to watch? Are there any movies coming out that you are excited to see? Who are your favorite actors and directors? Are movies made better now or in the past? Target Language: 7-10 minutes Elicit and CCQ Note: There's a lot of freedom you can ha...

Due to popular demand, I'm posting the listening lesson demo that use on The Language House TEFL certification course . I created this lesson way back in 2004 and I've used it each month to demonstrate how to teach a basic listening lesson. The themes of the lesson deal with advice and doing stupid things abroad. I created the lesson to be specifically geared for people living in Prague, so it can be adapted considerably depending on your students.  Ideally, this suitable for an intermediate class, but uppers/advanced students will also have fun with it. Materials: Worksheets, speakers, the song 'If you're going to be dumb' by Roger Alan Wade, sunglasses. Introduction: 1-2 minutes  Take a black white-board marker and give yourself the best black eye you can. Come into the class wearing sunglasses. Ask students about their week. When they ask you about your week, remove the glasses (shock!) and make up a story about how you got into a fight about some...

Here's a lesson that has a heavy focus on the definite and indefinite article, as well as a strong focus on lexis dealing with businesses and landscape found in a city. At the end of the lesson, students revamp an area of their city (Zizkov in this case) to make it more appealing to up and coming residents. Students work together to create their plans and then share them with others in their class. If you're not located in Prague, pick a dingy area in your city that all your students know about. This will make the lesson more engaging for the students. Materials - A3 paper or flip chart paper                   Pictures of a decrepit neighbourhood Intro 1-2 min  Come into class ecstatic. Get your students curious and have them ask you why you're in such a good mood. Tell them that you not only moved into your dream apartment, but your dream neighbourhood. Tell them that you have some pictures with you and ask if your studen...

Here's the video demonstration for the lesson plan 'The Deadliest Animal'. The class I shot it with was a band new group of students at The Language House TEFL. Each course, the trainers of the program teach a demo lesson for the TEFL trainees with the Czech Students. If you like the video, please leave a comment on Youtube and subscribe to my channel. It helps get the word out there.

   Video Demonstration Coming Soon!  A fun, creative and interactive ESL lesson that uses physical characteristics of animals as the language point. Students first create a new dangerous animal and then debate with other students why their animal is the deadliest. This particular lesson is great for intermediates, but the language can be adapted for lower or higher levels. Special materials needed: Audio and flip chart paper. Introduction: 1-2 minutes.  Tell your class to listen carefully and ask them what they think about when they hear this music. Play the famous theme from Jaws. From the music elicit shark and deadly/dangerous animal. Lead in: 5-7 minutes. Have these questions pre boarded.   1. What is the most dangerous animal in the world? Name three reasons why it's dangerous   2. Name 4 dangerous animals that live in your home country.   3. Have you ever seen a dangerous animal in the wild? What happened? If you haven't, what w...

Don't Be A One- Upper! Here's a grammar/communicative lesson with a New Year's Eve theme. Students will be attending extravagant New Year's parties. They will try to one-up each other on their past experiences using the present perfect and past simple. Ideally, this lesson is suitable for Upper Intermediates, but can probably be used for a strong intermediate class. Intro: a minute or two Come to class with some kind of New Year's paraphernalia. You can also play Auld Lang Syne and enter into the classroom while it's playing. Here's a link to the song if you need it. Elicit the concept of New Year's and tell them that you have to decide on a party. Offer the class a couple of different scenarios with pictures of different people/parties that you are thinking of attending. The class can vote on which one they would like the most e.g. spending time with a small group of friends or going to a fancy party. Lead In: 5 minutes or so Have the st...

A potentially provocative lesson that deals with political art. This is best suited for Czechs, due to the subject matter, but should be successful with other democratic/liberal nationalities. Careful teaching the lesson in countries where political dissent is prohibited. The lesson deals with a reading about David Cerny, a Czech artist, and concludes with students creating and presenting their own political/protest piece of art. The reading is pretty short, but I'm sure there are longer articles on the subject matter that you could use. The article for the lesson can be found here  Provocative art link . Introduction: 1-2 minutes Option 1. Stage a mini protest in your class. Start the class by complaining about a relatively 'light' social problem - e.g. ice-cream is too expensive in the city. Have signs prepared and chants. Tell the students that you plan on taking it to the streets to get your message across and you need their help. Try to elicit the concept of pr...

Comparative/Superlative lesson plan featuring James Bond. Students at the end of the lesson will contrast and compare the different James Bonds on a variety of different qualities and come to a consensus on who is the best 007 of all time. Aside from the grammatical point, this lesson can teach/train a lot of new personality adjectives. Note: For this to work, your students have to have some knowledge of the 007 movies. Check this out beforehand. Materials: James bond theme music. Pictures of different James Bond actors. Introduction: a few minutes.  Version 1: Come into class dressed in a large coat, sunglasses and a hat. Proceed to interact with your students in 'spy like' ways. Try to elicit the concept of spy/espionage. Versions 2: You might just come in playing the James Bond theme music to elicit James Bond/Spies. Lead In: 10 minutes at least with boarding lexis Students in groups answer these questions. 1. Name three famous spy agencies from around the wor...

        Evil Company  Due to popular demand, here's the lesson plan for "Evil Company.' This is the same lesson plan we use as the lexis demo on The Language House TEFL certificate course. This lesson can be used for regular EFL classes or for business English classes depending on what lexis you choose to activate. Intro: Tell the class that you or your school is coming up with a new logo for the company and you'd like their input on which possible new logo the school should use. Show them a variety of logos from companies with a less than stellar reputation. Companies can include Walmart, McDonalds, Marlboro, BP... etc. The logos should elicit a negative response from the students, mainly 'unethical companies'. Play devil's advocate with them and question why they think these companies are unethical. Laugh at their responses in a condescending way. Lead in: Demo these questions with students and then put them in groups. Make sure to monitor...

Here's a lesson that can be used for big and small groups around upper intermediates and up. The Target Language can be modified for lower levels if needed. Without a reading add on, the lesson should take no more than 45 minutes to complete. With smaller class sizes, you'll probably need another activity at the end to take up time, but if you stretch out the activation, you should be fine. Materials:  Cash currency of different denominations. Ideally bring in currency from your own country and host country. If you feel uncomfortable with that, make photocopies. Prep work: Do a bit of research on the currency you are bringing in. Be aware of the iconic figures and symbols on the bills. For me, I used a dollar bill. Here's a great image that goes over some of the symbolism.  Check it out -  1 dollar bill  Alternatively, you can use this reading in the lesson for longer classes. Introduction:  Version 1 for larger classes:  Before class, hide eithe...

Here's a new lesson that deals with a review of family members, personal history, interrogation language, and more complex personal description language. It can probably be used for any level from pre-intermediate, but will shine best with higher levels. For lower levels, you'll have to limit the amount of language. For higher levels it will serve more as a language review with new new language added of course for the activation. At the activation of the lesson, students take either the role of a captured spy or an interrogator. Spies are briefly given fake family trees and description of family members that they have to memorise and answer questions correctly about from the interrogators. Introduction (just a minute or so) Walk in with a long coat and sunglasses and start questioning your class in a stern manner. Ask the class various questions about their life/background: where they work, about their family, where they live... etc.  Do this for a few students and the...

Here's a lesson that you can do with intermediates and up. I just shot the video for it (coming soon) so make sure to take a look at it. The lesson primarily deals with lexis, with the topic of words associated with appearance. At the end of the lesson, students become sketch artists for the police and have to ask questions to a witness about a crime.  The lesson I did took right around 60 minutes but can be lengthened or shortened if needed. Materials needed: Pictures of people (about 10 or so depending on size) Warmer: (I had students ask each other about their weekends) Intro: (just a couple of minutes) Change something about your appearance and ask students to tell you what's changed about you. Elicit the concept of appearance. Lead In: (5-10 minutes) Have these questions pre-boarded. Demo the questions out with the students and then put them in groups. 1. What things about your appearance stand out about you? (you probably have to pre-teach stand out) ...

Love is in the air with Valentine's Day approaching. Here's a listening lesson that deals with these themes.  Just off of the top of my head, I can think of a dozen of different variations of this, so play around with it if you want to. If you want a lesson created for you, just give me any grammar, language point or topic and I'll get one to you. Topic: Dating.  Students listen to Frank Sinatra's 'How about You' (lyrics below). Students then create ' the worst dating agency in the world ' where they pair up the most unlikely of people. Materials needed: Frank Sinatra's 'How about You', Audio (speakers), pictures of different celebrities and horrifically ugly people. You're going to want about 10 or more photos total.  Introduction: about 3 minutes. Enter into the class looking depressed. When the students ask you what's wrong, tell them that you're lonely in the city and want to meet someone. Try to elicit how you cou...

  Here's a lesson for intermediate students and up that involves the students making a mock movie and pitching it to a movie studio.   Introduction: just a few minutes.  Come in pretending to be a director and mime filming the class. Elicit the concept of movies or film.  Lead in: around 7 minutes. Demo these questions out and put students in groups to answer them. 1. Do you like watching movies? What is your favorite movie? 2. What good movies have you seen this last year? 3. Who is your favorite actor and director? Why? 4. What well known movies have been made in your country? Lexis: around 10 minutes. Elicit and CCQ the following an actor, a star, a lead role, a supporting role a director a producer a plot a cast a setting a genre a thriller a horror movie a comedy, a black comedy, a romantic comedy a drama a documentary to pitch (a movie) a twist Study 1: around 5 minutes. Matching with strips. Students match the definition with...

Here's a lesson for solid intermediates and up with a language focus on the passive voice and crime lexis. At the end of the lesson, students take the roles of police officers and have to give a press briefing to the media about a crime scene that they witnessed. Ideally, you will need an empty room to set up a crime scene for the activation and a language school that is ok with you trashing things around a bit. There are other ways to get around this, if this is not possible. * I create tailored lesson plans for anyone who wants them. If you want me to create you a lesson from scratch, contact me, and I'll do one for you. Please follow my blog on the right to show your support. Introduction: just a couple of min. Do any of the following. 1. Show a clip from a movie that shows a police officer giving a press briefing to the media 2. Come in and immediately address the class as if they are police officers 3. Have a picture of a police chalk outline and ask students wh...