Tom Garside
For language teachers: Why it’s not all about you!
Traditionally, in most classroom settings, the teacher takes centre stage. They are the expert, and what they say goes. This is also a
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Tom Garside
- Sep 16
- 4 min
How to plan your teacher talk for more focused language teaching
Teacher talk has something of a bad name in ESOL. On initial training courses we are warned about avoiding high levels of Teacher Talk Time
Tom Garside
- Sep 5
- 5 min
What is ESOL teaching, and what does it take to become an English Language Teacher?
Becoming a teacher of English and a Foreign Language is becoming a more and more popular way to generate flexible income, to diversify into
Tom Garside
- Aug 22
- 4 min
Action verbs and state verbs - what’s the difference?
From a young age, students are often introduced to verbs as ‘doing words’, implying that all verbs represent actions that can be performed
Tom Garside
- Aug 7
- 3 min
What's the difference between face to face and online teacher training courses?
English Language Teacher Training has developed in many ways over the last few years. There is now a wider range of course options than ever
Tom Garside
- Jul 19
- 5 min
3 reasons why language teachers should never ask the question ‘do you understand?’
One of the most basic aspects of a language teacher’s job is to help students to understand and communicate more things at the end of a less
Tom Garside
- Jul 10
- 3 min
Choose your words: Two easy ways to simplify your teacher talk
Teacher talk is an important part of the language learning environment. However, it often gets a bad name. A common issue among training and
Tom Garside
- Jun 25
- 3 min
Any questions? How to use the quantifiers ‘some’ and ‘any’
English quantifiers are more complex than they look. They have different aspects of meaning which connect to the nouns that they work with
Tom Garside
- Jun 18
- 5 min
Tips on teaching ESOL beginner classes
A lot of what we do as ESOL teachers relies on our students’ prior knowledge, building on their current level of vocabulary and grammar
Tom Garside
- Jun 11
- 4 min
Is AI changing how we need to assess student writing?
In a recent article in the EL Gazette, a form of AI bias was revealed, showing that second-language writers may be unfairly penalised as
Tom Garside
- Jun 6
- 3 min
Teaching English as a Second Language - more than just a job
Training as an English language teacher can be a rewarding experience in many ways. As an entry point into the industry, an initial
Tom Garside
- May 21
- 3 min
Present participles and past participles - what’s the difference?
When teaching grammar, a lot of focus tends to be put onto past participles. These forms of verbs appear in many structures such as present
Tom Garside
- May 7
- 2 min
What is a gerund?
In English, -ing is one of the most common verb endings. There are several different reasons why verbs might end in -ing, and this can be a
Tom Garside
- Apr 30
- 3 min
Modal auxiliaries and auxiliary verbs… What’s the difference?
Auxiliaries are a major part of English grammar constructions. They appear in tenses, questions, negative forms and other functional
Tom Garside
- Apr 23
- 3 min
Time and tense - what’s the difference?
When we talk about English grammar in general terms, it is common to hear people talking about ‘the past tense’. However, when we are
Tom Garside
- Apr 16
- 3 min
Possessive pronouns and possessive adjectives - what’s the difference?
At school, I remember being taught about possessive pronouns showing ownership of a thing, for example ‘that’s my bag’ or ‘it’s his car’.
Tom Garside
- Apr 8
- 3 min
Past simple and Past participle verbs - What’s the difference?
When we work with tenses and verb forms, students can easily get confused between the different uses of verbs ending with -ed. The -ed
Tom Garside
- Apr 2
- 2 min
Verb phrases and phrasal verbs - what’s the difference?
The verb system in English (as in many languages) is quite complex, and one point which is often misunderstood surrounds phrasal verbs (or
Tom Garside
- Mar 15
- 4 min
He said, she said… How to teach reported speech effectively
The structure and meaning of reported speech in English is notoriously difficult to teach. Teacher training courses such as the Trinity Cert
Tom Garside
- Mar 6
- 3 min
Pronunciation, Phonology, Phonics? What’s the difference?
Pronunciation is a fundamental part of speaking for second-language learners of English. A learner can have accurate spoken grammar, a wide
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