400 IELTS Writing tips!

Have finally finished my biggest writing challenge of the year, divided into four slightly more manageable lists of 100 tips for teachers and candidates on Task 1 and Task 2.

100 IELTS Writing Task 1 teaching tips

100 IELTS Writing Task 2 teaching tips

100 IELTS Writing Task 1 Tips

100 IELTS Writing Task 2 tips

Problems with Usingenglish.com links fixed

Thanks to a heads-up from a reader yesterday, noticed that loads of links are broken as they are all trying to go to https://www./files/ with no name of the site in it. Seems to be sorted now, but if it goes wrong again try:

• manually add usingenglish.com to the missing bit of the link
• Paste that incomplete link into Google
• Google the name of the thing that you are looking for

Links to other sites all seem to be working.

15 years of TEFLtastic!

In that time, about:

• 23 million views
• 6600 comments
• 2000 TEFLtastic “pages” (worksheets, lists of useful links, etc)
• 1800 blog posts
• 1300 photocopiables on Usingenglish.com
• 275 articles on Usingenglish.com
• 270 articles on TEFL.net
• 70 articles on Englishclub.com
• 8 e-books with over 2200 photocopiable pages
• a stack of other reviews, articles, and worksheets in ETP, in MET, on esllessonhandouts.com, etc
• 3700 views of my YouTube video (over one view per day!)

Three nice new this/ that/ these/ those activities

There are so many possible fun presentation and practice activities for “This is/ That is/ These are/ Those are…” that you have to be careful not to spend more time on this minor grammar point than it deserves… However, I think my new activity and new variation should be considered for the lesson or two that this grammar is worth.

This that these those touch and throw

A nice TPR way of getting the differences in students heads is for them to make pairs of questions with this/ these as they touch something and then that/ those as they throw or shoot the same thing at something further away. For example, they could touch the table with a paper plane for “What’s this?” then throw the same paper plane at the light for “What’s that?”

This that these those shapes

This is a nice variation on my other this/ that/ these/ those guessing games, because students get to choose which one they want to be tested with each time. Get some things with distinctive shapes such as plastic fruit (with “grapes” etc to practise these/ those) and two bags, one of which is a bit see through. Students choose if they want the object or objects to be put into a non-see-through bag that they can feel the shape through (“this” or “these”) or a semi-see-through bag that they can see the shape through from far away but can’t touch (for “that” and “those”).

This that these those big and little words

This is a smaller variation on my usual activities for this/ that/ these/ those, which I had to come up with in a hurry after another teacher rightly pointed out that purely oral practice wasn’t much good before a partly written progress test.

Draw a huge circle on one side of the board and a tiny circle on the other side of the board, with lines drawing them to suggest perspective to make the tiny circle look far away. Perhaps after guessing a few huge pictures in the huge this/ these circle and tiny pictures in the tiny that/ those circle (my usual drawing game for this grammar), you can do the same for words written with huge letters or tiny letters in the same two circles. This is most challenging and fun if the this/ these words are written so big that the circle cuts off part of the words (and ditto with any pictures you put in there).

Latest and greatest on TEFLtastic

A list of new content on TEFLtastic, mixed with some classic materials that are well worth remembering. Updated every couple of days. If you like anything here and want more, please support TEFLtastic.

How to teach compound nouns – NEW

Different kinds of IELTS Reading task advice and practice – NEW

IELTS Speaking Part Three on IELTS Reading – NEW

Learning English vocabulary problems and solutions – NEW ARTICLE

How to teach adjective word order – NEW added to my newish Adjective Word Order page

Things to avoid in IELTS Reading giving reasons practice (with useful phrases for Writing Task 2 and Speaking Part Three) – NEW

How to read English books with your child – NEW

Have something done coin games – NEW added to my Have Something Done page and to my coin games list

Make and do pelmanism and snap card games – NEW

IELTS Writing Task 2 on IELTS Reading (good for tying the different parts of the exam together and adding speaking to Reading and Writing prep) – NEW

How to make English plurals – NEW

Regular plurals lists by level (important plurals ending with -s from Elementary to Advanced) – NEW LINK

IELTS post-reading comparisons – NEW

How to interrupt politely – NEW

Fun make and do controlled practice activities – NEW ARTICLE added to Make and do games, worksheets and songs – NEW PAGE

Adjective word order games/ worksheets – NEW PAGE

How to teach make and do – NEW

Six fun adjective word order activities – NEW

How to use English songs with your child (article for parents) – NEW

121 articles for English language learners – NEW PAGE

How to teach comparative adjectives – NEW

Teaching Negotiating: Interactive Classroom Activities – NEW E-BOOK

Updated 15 May 2024

New TEFL stuff 2022 H1*

Much less stuff than in the good ole days, but hopefully less quantity finally means more quality. Latest items top of each section.

New TEFL e-book

Teaching IELTS Speaking: Interactive Classroom Activities (over 300 pages on tips, vocabulary, functional language phrases, feedback, etc on IELTS Speaking Parts 1, 2 and 3)

New TEFL articles 2022 Part One

How to teach link verbs/copula verbs

How to teach like and be like

How to teach like, be like and look like

How to teach verbs of senses

How to teach consonant clusters to EFL learners

How to teach defining relative clauses

How to teach reduced relative clauses

New TEFL PDFs 2022 Part One

Starting academic writing determiners pairwork

Describing things with prepositions games

Needs analysis extended speaking and instant practice

Possessive adjectives brainstorming games

Useful phrases for reports sentence completion games

Determiners in names of places speaking activities

Positive and negative question tags card games

Good and taboo questions with irregular plurals

Starting and ending conversations simplest responses game

Requests and offers in business meetings imperative practice

Verbs of sensation discuss and agree

Likes and dislikes guessing objects games

Verbs of sensation discussion questions

Personalised instant roleplays

Superlative adjectives discuss and agree

Online meetings discussion and brainstorming

Guess the country warmer cooler

Participle clauses personalised sentence completion games

Strong and weak medical advice

School vocabulary things in common

Participle clauses storytelling game

Needs analysis extended speaking

Personalised instant roleplays for logistics

Business communication needs analysis and instant personalised practice

English for logistics needs analysis and instant personalised practice

*My attempt to start a “Q1”-style abbreviation for “first half of the year”, so I can also use H2 the next time I forget to do a quarterly update…

New Teaching IELTS Speaking e-book out now

As Teaching IELTS Writing: Interactive Classroom Activities seems to have been quite popular, I’ve now put together over 300 photocopiable pages of thoroughly classroom-tested materials that help really teach (not just practise) IELTS Speaking:

Teaching IELTS Speaking: Interactive Classroom Activities – NEW

Unlike many exam materials, the handouts also really help improve students’ speaking and English more generally. As well as getting stacks of great worksheets in an easy-to-use format for under a penny a page, buying a copy will allow me to spend more time writing, including finishing off similar books on Cambridge First, grammar, functional language, negotiating, writing, etc, etc, etc. If you don’t teach IELTS Speaking, the same great deal is also available on these topics:

Teaching Meetings: Interactive Classroom Activities (my last e-book)

Teaching Social English: Interactive Classroom Activities 2nd Ed. (the biggest one, for activities on meeting people, small talk, etc that could be useful for anyone)

Teaching Emailing: Interactive Classroom Activities (my most popular book)

Teaching Presentation Skills: Interactive Classroom Activities (the one that ties together most as a book and so is really worth having as one volume even if you have all of my presentation worksheets)

Teaching Telephoning: Interactive Classroom Activities (my first e-book for teachers)

Really Learn the Most Important Telephoning Phrases (my only book for students)

New Like as a Preposition and Verbs of Sensation pages

A mix of old and new materials on “be like”, “look (like)”, “taste (like)”, etc. At the moment the two pages are just the same worksheets arranged differently depending on what your main language focus is, but as usual with my new pages, I’m just getting started on these new obsessions and so many more PDFs and articles will be coming soon.

Sense verbs/ Verbs of perception games/ worksheets – NEW PAGE

Like as a preposition games/ worksheets – NEW PAGE

New participle clauses page

I’m still struggling with how best to teach this tricky bit of grammar, and have twice given up on articles I was trying to write on the topic. However, I have come up with two nice communicative practice activities and made a brand new page of those and some other useful materials I’ve found:

Participle clauses games, worksheets, videos and songs – NEW

The most TEFLtastic worksheets of 2021

As the TEFL blog boom years during which I started TEFLtastic fade further from view and more social-media-savvy generations have taken over, I more and more picture myself as an ageing rock star saying “We feel like our new album is our best ever” while everyone just wants the same old hits or are surprised you are still alive. Unlike the Rolling Stones, however, I am correct when I say that right now I am definitely producing the best work of my life by far(and certainly much better than the crap I was churning out when I first went online). Anyway, you can be the judge of that, with a selection of what I consider to be the cream of that new crop. As with previous years, this list is mainly my own personal preferences, but I’ve also included a few that were surprisingly popular and I also think are not too bad. And if those aren’t enough or aren’t good enough, there are also the materials I think are good enough to be worth paying for.

Which thing had already happened? Past Perfect trivia quiz

Classroom language for Zoom lessons New version

What were people doing? Past Continuous trivia quiz

Can you eat your house? abilities mix and match

Prepositions of position mix and match

How long had…? Past Perfect trivia quiz

Weather vocabulary bluffing game

Good and taboo Present Perfect Simple and Continuous questions

Good and taboo Present Continuous questions

Good and taboo Past Continuous questions

Appearance words storytelling task

IELTS Writing Task 2 prepositions and determiners pairwork

IELTS Writing Task 1 prepositions and determiners pairwork

Business reports disappearing text

Emailing rotating revision board game

Social English rotating revision board game

Be used to and get used to sentence completion games (bluffing, things in common and guessing game)

Past numbers trivia board game narrative tenses review

Email enquiries disappearing text memory game

Starting and ending conversations disappearing text memory game

Prepositions of position things in common speaking

Good and taboo questions with Have Something Done

Emailing prepositions and determiners pairwork

Presentations prepositions and determiners pairwork

Good and taboo countable and uncountable questions

Ordinal numbers trivia quiz

Socialising prepositions and determiners pairwork

Nouns which are both countable and uncountable pictionary

Used to, be used to and get used to sentence completion games

Used to, be used to and get used to discuss and agree

ed and ing adjectives bluffing games

Too and enough discuss and agree

Basic adjectives make me say ‘Yes’

Get Up Stand Up by Bob Marley quantifiers practice

Body vocabulary bluffing game

There is & there are guess the place

UK or USA? British and American English trivia quiz

Imperative practice ball games

Some and any things in common speaking

Telephoning determiners and prepositions pairwork

How many… did…? trivia quiz irregular Past Simple practice

How many with irregular plurals trivia quiz

Strong and weak opinions on the news and media

Family members trivia quiz

How often trivia quiz

Time of day trivia quiz

There is/ are + Xmas vocabulary drawing game

Passive voice numbers quiz

Used to trivia quiz

Good and taboo passive voice questions

Good and taboo Past Simple questions

Enquiries about Zoom emailing lesson 

Directions flashcard memory game

Festivals and celebrations vocabulary and discussion

Business Result Pre-Intermediate revision games

A and An mini-presentations

Classroom vocabulary first letters games

Talking about seasons with adverbs of frequency

COVID-compliant invitations lesson

Weather and advice practice

Telecommuting policies roleplay meeting 

Life events guessing and bluffing

Personal questions with appearance words

Jobs vocabulary random pelmanism

Short answers quick folding game (a great new variation on the Simplest Responses game)

Opinions on current affairs vocabulary

ed and ing adjectives coin games

How many… have? simple numbers quiz

How many times Present Perfect and Past Simple trivia quiz

Is there & Are there spelling games

Where is…? I don’t know game

Talking about cultural differences with ‘be used to’ and ‘get used to’

British or American food and drink trivia quiz

Adverbs of frequency good and taboo questions coin game

Is there/Are there Trivia Quiz

Giving medical advice Present Perfect practice

Ordering products on the phone line by line disappearing text

Gradable and extreme adjectives guessing game (with modals of deduction)

Guess the medical problems from the advice

Verbs of sensation mini-presentations

British or American transport trivia quiz

British and American household vocabulary quiz

British or American fashion trivia quiz

Talking about life changes with be used to/ get used to

Changes to culture be used to/ get used to discussion

Talking about problems and solutions with quantifiers

Be used to and get used to ranking discussion

Be used to and get used to dice games

Emails from other countries guess the place

Who in this class…? superlatives practice

Medical controversies vocabulary and discussion

Learning and using English ranking language practice

What places used to be called trivia quiz