How Can You Teach Uncountable Nouns and ‘Used To’ Creatively? TEFL A-Z U – S06E21

How can you make uncountable nouns memorable and help students untangle ‘used to’, ‘be used to’ and ‘get used to’? This week on the How to English TEFL Podcast, we’re tackling U in our A to Z of teaching English — with some unusual holiday packing and quite enough U/you jokes.Join us, Gav and Em, for a playful role-play featuring ‘three luggages’ and ‘a happiness’, followed by a sentence-building game you can adapt for your English lessons. We explore how humour can help students notice grammar mistakes without putting anyone on the spot.Can AI help students upgrade their writing? We try different versions of ‘The cat sat on the mat’ and discuss vocabulary work, gap fills and matching sentences to styles, with ideas for different levels.We also practise ‘used to’ through gardening and pet-owning scenarios, explore the surprises of ‘under-’ and compare ‘ultra-’, ‘super-’, ‘mega-’ and ‘hyper-’. Gav shares how a coursebook unit worked with his airport students, while Em reflects on moving learners from repeating sentences to using English independently.Expect practical TEFL activities, classroom experience and a reminder to stretch your own teaching and learning habits. U first!If you find the show useful, you can send us a thanks at https://ko-fi.com/howtoenglishpodVisit https://howtoenglishpod.com — it’s full of practical teaching ideas and resources ready to use.References: English File, OxfordBackground music: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q83yRKmKKYs&list=PLfP6i5T0-DkKSs8G6YbPHYAR70-f5tP9S&index=21Timestamps00:00 – Welcome & intro banter01:14 – Under-prefix wordplay05:54 – Uncountable nouns role play09:22 – Categories of uncountables10:33 – Countable vs uncountable game14:53 – Upgrading with AI20:09 – ‘Used to’ grammar practice23:42 – Teaching with textbook units26:40 – Prefixes: ultra, super, mega, hyper30:26 – Tips of the episode