Everyone benefits when teachers share their "best practice" ideas with one another; novice and seasoned teachers alike are delighted to add successful lessons to their repertoire. Besides giving teachers something tried and true to work with, successful lesson plans help teachers reflect upon what makes an approach to language teaching effective…

While an extensive body of literature in TESOL studies the different paradigms that drive second language (L2) teachers' conceptualizations of their professional identities and practice, there is still a need for more research into how L2 supervisors construct the realities of supervision and how their interpretations of those realities inform…

In this article, the author describes ten of his favorite tools and explains how they can be employed in various ways: (1) to manage the classroom better; (2) to jump into fun activities with little or no preparation; or (3) to promote student-created art and materials. All of these teaching tools are affordable--even cheap. In the event that some…

On any fall weekend across the United States, football reigns as the nation's favorite sport. Thousands of high school teams, the pride of communities from coast to coast, compete under the lights on Friday nights. Saturdays feature the tradition and pageantry of college football. Sundays belong to the 32 professional teams that play in the major…

Professional development is an ongoing process, one that evolves as teachers assess and reexamine their teaching beliefs and practices. This article highlights some reasons for teachers to pursue professional development. It also suggests techniques that help teachers feel empowered and motivated in their English language classrooms. She includes…

As students move from writing personal essays to writing formal academic texts in English, they face several new challenges. Writing tasks in higher education often require students to draw upon outside sources and to adopt the styles and genres of academic discourse. They must conduct research, summarize and paraphrase, cite sources, adopt genre…

In the field of English as a Second/Foreign Language (ESL/EFL), it has long been recognized that for second language acquisition to occur learners must use English to construct meaning and interact with others in authentic contexts. The importance of learner interaction in acquiring a second language has made the "teacher-directed…

Many educators know that studying and composing literature and poetry helps English learners develop their own voice and sense of audience, and to express important social ideas in the process. Poetry, in particular, offers special challenges, but one type of poem that is manageable for the English as a Foreign Language (EFL) classroom is "haiku,"…

Films are a great medium to use not only to practice English, but also to facilitate intercultural learning. Today English is a global language spoken by people from many countries and cultural backgrounds. Since culture greatly impacts communication, it is helpful for teachers to introduce lessons and activities that reveal how different…

The author argues that being unaware of the differences between cooperation and collaboration impedes teachers from organizing group work as effectively as possible. True collaboration is simply too valuable not to take advantage of because it provides students with a significant opportunity to learn from one another, negotiate meaning, and…

For a variety of reasons, learning English prepositions is notoriously difficult and a slow, gradual process for English as a Second Language (ESL) students. To begin, English prepositions typically are short, single-syllable or two-syllable words that are seldom stressed when speaking and therefore often not articulated clearly or heard…

Many English as a Foreign Language (EFL) students who seek admittance to a university where English is the medium of instruction do not have sufficient language skills to understand lectures, comprehend textbooks, participate in class discussions, or generate satisfactory written work. Oftentimes, they have only experienced teacher-centered…

Homework usually consists of the learners' written account of how they interpreted a task set by the teacher, and is generally defined as out-of-class assignments that are handed in for the instructor to grade. Learners may work individually or with partners to answer simple or challenging linguistic exercises, sketch out a mind map, or develop a…

These days it seems mobile phones are used everywhere by everyone, which leads to the obvious question: How can mobile phone technology support learning in the second language classroom? The answer is "in a number of ways" because mobile phones come with ever-increasing functions that most students are adept at using. In this article the author…

This article describes the Trans-Cultural Comparative Literature Method, an innovative way to use literature to teach advanced English as a Foreign Language (EFL) students. This method originated from the authors' discovery of common themes and points of view as they compared Turkmen and English literary texts. While the method employs activities…