As a language assistant, when you are faced with planning whole lessons on your own for the first time it can seem like a daunting task. Where do you start? How do you choose a topic?

‘Realia’ in EFL terms refers to any real objects we use in the classroom to bring the class to life. In this tip I’d like to offer a few suggestions for activities using realia and to consider why we may want to bring things into the class.

In this teaching tip you'll find out how best to understand and exploit the materials supplied on the Essential UK part of the site.

Introduction
Graded readers or ‘readers’ are books that have had the language level simplified to help second language learners read them. The language is graded for vocabulary,

Introduction
Video is a great resource to use in class and there are an endless number of ways to exploit it to create motivating, memorable classes with a high level of language production.

Introduction
Quizzes and trivia games can make a nice change from more typical EFL style activities and it may give students who aren’t the best at English a chance to shine in another area.

Introduction
Proverb: ‘a short saying in general use, held to embody a general truth’

Introduction
In the last teaching tip we looked at how to adapt materials for mixed ability groups. This is the most common type of adaptation that teachers have to do. However,

Introduction
All classes are mixed ability to one extent or another. Extreme cases, when you have near native level speakers with beginners, can be very challenging for the teacher.