How Can Teachers Explain Difficult Words and Correct Repeated Mistakes? – S05E05

What should an English teacher do when the right word simply will not come to mind? Gav and Em explore this familiar classroom problem and share practical ways to respond without panicking or inventing an answer.Drawing on their real teaching experiences, they test their ability to recall unexpectedly specific vocabulary including carabiners, coots, pulleys and jousting lances. They also discuss how teachers can explain easily confused words such as own and owe without making the explanation even more confusing.When learners introduce an unexpected topic such as art, should you explore it immediately or prepare a more structured lesson for next time? Gav and Em compare their different approaches and explain how online resources can help teachers turn a learner’s interests into a spontaneous English lesson.The conversation also tackles error correction. What should you do when a learner apologises after every mistake? How can you stop a group repeatedly confusing who and which? And can that sometimes replace who when referring to people? Gav’s proposed solution leads to a discussion of relative pronouns and Gotye’s Somebody That I Used to Know.Finally, Gav demonstrates a Blankety Blank-inspired activity that practises vocabulary, grammar, word forms and sentence structure. It is a flexible speaking game that can be adapted for one-to-one lessons or groups.If you find the show useful, you can send us a thanks at https://ko-fi.com/howtoenglishpodVisit https://howtoenglishpod.com for practical teaching ideas and resources ready to use.Transcription with audio:https://share.descript.com/view/TpJwg1yMqTyResources and references:The Chaos pronunciation poem:https://ncf.idallen.com/english.htmlGav’s Blankety Blank worksheet:https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/cz1ne0gjcvm484qjwlz4r/blankety-blank.pdf?rlkey=ig83tlg368w3r1zf2bfdn8dzu&dl=0Blankety Blank television show:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=quZbRX9p8Z0&list=PLpFRxWf1dy8bOICHWC17Ax8j3VMvs1_dhGrammarly on who and that:https://www.grammarly.com/blog/who-vs-that/Gotye – Somebody That I Used to Know:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8UVNT4wvIGYChapters00:00 Introduction00:19 Who are Gav and Em?01:35 When should online teachers update their computers?02:38 What can teachers do when they cannot remember a word?14:28 Support How to English14:59 How can teachers explain own and owe clearly?17:18 Turning a learner’s interest in art into a lesson20:42 Should learners apologise when they make mistakes?23:11 Teaching who which where and that29:20 Blankety Blank vocabulary and grammar game37:48 Outro