Articles | TeachingEnglish | British Council

In this section, you will find a number of articles, which have been written to help you develop your skills and knowledge as a teacher in the professional practice 'Planning lessons and courses'. From primary-aged students to adult learners of English, the articles you will find here are practical, insightful and full of ideas to support your planning for all kinds of classrooms. It also involves dividing lessons into coherent stages, planning board work, selecting and describing interaction patterns for different activities during the lesson, and planning for differentiated learning.

Planning lessons and courses includes anticipating problems that may arise during the lesson, and planning how to respond to these, describing how learners’ understanding will be checked or assessed and describing when and how feedback will be provided. It is important to be able to describe how a lesson is linked to those before and after it, plan a broad outline for a sequence of lessons, including the recycling of learning content and reflect on the approach and effectiveness of lesson planning, incorporating learner feedback and other evidence.

Find useful articles

Find the gap - increasing speaking in class - speaking article

Find the gap - increasing speaking in class

The communicative approach to language learning stresses the need for meaningful communication, emphasising that if students have a genuine reason or motivation to talk then they will learn to use the language more effectively.

Planning 2 - methodology article

The elements of a lesson plan

Part one of this article, The basics of lesson planning, outlined the rationale behind lesson planning. This article looks at some of the elements to consider when planning an actual lesson: aims, concepts, contexts and marker sentences.

Checking answers - methodology article

Teaching mixed-ability classes 2

You may often be teaching a class which has students who are clearly of different levels. They may have different starting levels of English or they may learn at very different speeds - for any number of reasons.

Teaching mixed-ability classes 1 - methodology article

Teaching mixed-ability classes 1

You may often be teaching a class which has students who are clearly of different levels. They may have different starting levels of English or they may learn at very different speeds - for any number of reasons.

Guide to setting up an English Learning Circle

If you would like to set up an out-of-class English Learning Circle with your students, here are 8 things you need to consider:

Planning 1 - methodology article

The basics of lesson planning

Planning is one of those essential skills of the competent teacher.

English Learning Circles - a path to learner independence - resources article

English Learning Circles - a path to learner independence

Getting students to use English with each other is a problem which is often difficult to overcome. Learning Circles are one way to help students recognise the importance of using English and to motivate them to do so in the classroom.

Recommended

Lesson plans

Why should I write a plan? The best option is always to be prepared. Once you have prepared your lesson you will feel much more confident walking into the classroom and you will soon be able to relax.

Online Storytelling: Engaging, Personal, Creative

David Heathfield looks at how storytelling can be used effectively in online English language classes and gives practical advice with clear examples.

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