How Can Teachers Get Quiet Students Talking and Handle Online Problems? – S05E06

How can English teachers get quiet students talking, cope with connection problems and turn unexpected language questions into useful lessons?In this episode of How to English TEFL Podcast, Gav and Em share practical ideas drawn from their own classrooms. Em explores modern hotel job titles such as housekeeper, cleaner and porter, while Gav introduces The Chaos, the famous poem packed with irregular English spellings and pronunciation challenges. They discuss whether teachers should plan on Friday night, at the weekend or in batches during the working week, and compare Em’s structured planning with Gav’s lighter, emergent approach.You’ll also hear Gav demonstrate how to build a conversation from a simple answer about tea. He mixes easy yes-or-no questions with open questions, follows the learner’s answers and shows genuine interest to help a reluctant speaker gain confidence. Then Em demonstrates what to do when audio freezes or an online student cannot connect, including using the chat, reconnecting, changing devices or networks and involving the rest of a group.There are also quick revision activities for much and many, countable and uncountable nouns, and since and for. In the Quiz of the Week, Gav and Em compare PPP, grammar translation, the Communicative Approach, the Natural Approach, the Audiolingual Method, submersion, the Silent Way and Total Physical Response. They also explain how Cuisenaire rods can represent syllables and word stress in pronunciation work.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/LwpUrmfzpY2Resource:Teaching Methods Quizhttps://www.tefl.net/quizzes/methods.phpChapters00:00 Welcome and post-lesson reflections01:41 How to teach modern hotel staff vocabulary05:16 Using The Chaos to practise English pronunciation08:18 When should teachers plan their lessons?13:13 Support the podcast on Ko-fi13:41 How to get a quiet student talking18:24 How to handle connection problems in online lessons22:54 Quick grammar revision with much many since and for26:02 Teaching methods quiz and Cuisenaire rods36:14 Outro