How do you teach when your energy has gone? Can beginners have meaningful conversation lessons? And where do you draw the line when students become friends?

Join Gav and Em for a practical discussion about teaching and learning English. We explore reliable lessons for exhausting days, supported speaking for beginners and ways to challenge intermediate learners who feel stuck.

We also discuss friendship and teacher boundaries, put Em on the spot with an unrehearsed IELTS Speaking Part 2 task, and ask whether every conversation lesson needs an explicitly stated outcome. There’s even a goldfish.

Timestamps
00:00 Welcome and what’s coming up
01:48 Can beginners have conversation lessons?
05:42 Helping intermediate learners get unstuck
09:15 Teaching when you’re exhausted
16:03 Can you be friends with your students?
21:09 Preparing for speaking exams without memorised scripts
22:37 Em’s IELTS Speaking Part 2 demonstration
28:07 A quick check before your lesson
29:25 Does every lesson need a clear point?
32:00 Free teaching materials and goodbye

Read the accompanying articles:

How Do You Teach When You’re Exhausted?
https://howtoenglishpod.com/?page_id=26415

Can Beginners Have Conversation Lessons?
https://howtoenglishpod.com/?page_id=26420

How Can You Help Intermediate Learners Get Unstuck?
https://howtoenglishpod.com/?page_id=26422

Can You Be Friends with Your Students?
https://howtoenglishpod.com/?page_id=26423

How Can You Prepare Learners for Speaking Exams Without Memorised Scripts?
https://howtoenglishpod.com/?page_id=26424

Does Every English Lesson Need a Clear Point?
https://howtoenglishpod.com/?page_id=26425

Explore teacher advice and free lesson materials:
https://howtoenglishpod.com/

How to English TEFL Podcast with Gav and Em
Season 7, Episode 20

#TEFL #EnglishTeaching #ConversationLessons #IELTSSpeaking #TeacherDevelopment #HowToEnglish

What do we do when feedback stings, a grammar sentence stops us in our tracks or the lesson ends before we've wrapped things up?

In this episode, we explore three very familiar teaching moments. Gav tends to apologise first when a learner is unhappy, while Em wants to investigate before accepting all the blame. We discuss involving the school and how Gav adjusted a conversational class when one learner wanted more grammar and vocabulary.

Em shares a Business English negotiation sentence that caught her off guard. We unpack the conditional and discuss the follow-up email that helped her return to the learner's question.

Finally, we compare organised recaps with positive, confidence-building finishes, including homework, attendance checks and those unexpected spare minutes.

Articles and free practical downloads

How Should English Teachers Respond to Negative Feedback? - S07E19
https://howtoenglishpod.com/how-should-english-teachers-respond-to-negative-feedback-s07e19/

What Should Teachers Do When a Learner Complains About Too Much Small Talk? - S07E19
https://howtoenglishpod.com/what-should-teachers-do-when-a-learner-complains-about-too-much-small-talk-s07e19/

What Should Teachers Do When an Unexpected Grammar Question Stops a Lesson? - S07E19
https://howtoenglishpod.com/what-should-teachers-do-when-an-unexpected-grammar-question-stops-a-lesson-s07e19/

Why Does ‘Providing You Ordered More Units’ Use a Past Form? - S07E19
https://howtoenglishpod.com/why-does-providing-you-ordered-more-units-use-a-past-form-s07e19/

How Can English Teachers End a Lesson with Clear Learning and a Positive Finish? - S07E19
https://howtoenglishpod.com/how-can-english-teachers-end-a-lesson-with-clear-learning-and-a-positive-finish-s07e19/

Questions answered
• How should teachers respond to negative feedback?
• Should we apologise before investigating a complaint?
• What if a learner wants less small talk and more exercises?
• What can we do when we cannot explain a grammar sentence immediately?
• Why does providing you ordered more units use a past form?
• How can we finish a lesson with clear learning and a friendly goodbye?

Chapters
00:00 Welcome and today's questions
01:03 Handling negative feedback
04:53 Should we apologise first?
09:02 Getting the school involved
10:15 A complaint about too much small talk
13:21 Unexpected language questions
14:34 A negotiation sentence with providing
17:23 Following up after the lesson
18:31 How do you end a lesson?
24:56 Checking next lesson's attendance
25:24 Using spare minutes
27:05 Wrapping up the podcast

Teaching note: providing introduces a condition in the negotiation example. Our brief noun/gerund comments in the recording are a slip.

Support the show: https://ko-fi.com/howtoenglishpod

TEFL ESL EnglishTeaching TeacherDevelopment BusinessEnglish LessonPlanning

Can an English lesson be too much fun? A classroom game might be exciting for some students and stressful for others. So how do we keep lessons enjoyable while giving everyone time to think and learn?Join us, Gav & Em, as we explore classroom fun, cold coffee, cancelled lessons and the teaching habits we take home with us.Em remembers a lively grammar game that became overwhelming for one learner. We discuss competition, time limits and different learning speeds, plus ways to check whether students remember the language as well as the game.Then Gav introduces Cold Coffee Syndrome: when a student has so much to say during a coffee-shop lesson that their drink goes cold. A speaking success? Possibly. A waste of good coffee? Definitely worth discussing.We also chat about:• Whether English teachers ever switch off from noticing grammar and vocabulary.• How hours of online teaching might affect eye contact, interruptions and everyday conversation.• The mixed feelings behind cancelled lessons, from unexpected free time to guilt and worries about lost income.• Whether jokes about clauses, claws and grammatical tenses work with learners, or mainly entertain their teachers.There’s also a little unfinished business from our previous episode involving the word discover and a helping of humble pie.Whether you teach online, abroad or in a classroom, come and compare notes with us on the everyday realities of teaching and learning English.What about you? Do timed games bring out your competitive side or make you freeze? And how do you really feel when a student cancels?📖 Read the related articles from S07E02:When Classroom Fun Becomes Stress: How to Adapt Fast-Paced TEFL Gameshttps://howtoenglishpod.com/when-classroom-fun-becomes-stress-how-to-adapt-fast-paced-tefl-games-s07e02/How to Run a Conversation Lesson in a Coffee Shop Without Exhausting the Learnerhttps://howtoenglishpod.com/how-to-run-a-conversation-lesson-in-a-coffee-shop-without-exhausting-the-learner-s07e02/How to Use Real-Life English Materials Without Losing Student Interesthttps://howtoenglishpod.com/how-to-use-real-life-english-materials-without-losing-student-interest-s07e02/Online TEFL Communication: Managing Turn-Taking, Eye Contact and Pair Workhttps://howtoenglishpod.com/online-tefl-communication-managing-turn-taking-eye-contact-and-pair-work-s07e02/What Should Freelance English Teachers Do About Cancelled Lessons?https://howtoenglishpod.com/what-should-freelance-english-teachers-do-about-cancelled-lessons-s07e02/Should English Teachers Use Grammar and Vocabulary Jokes in Class?https://howtoenglishpod.com/should-english-teachers-use-grammar-and-vocabulary-jokes-in-class-s07e02/🎧 Explore the episode guide:https://howtoenglishpod.com/episode-guide-s07e02/🌐 Find free teaching resources, lesson downloads and more podcast discussions:https://howtoenglishpod.com/☕ Support the podcast and buy us a hot drink, which we’ll try to finish before it goes cold:https://ko-fi.com/howtoenglishpodMusic: “Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy” by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 Internationalhttps://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/#TEFL #TeachingEnglish #HowToEnglish