How Can English Teachers Find Their Teaching Voice? Pronunciation, Vocabulary & Activities - TEFL A-Z V – S06E22

How do you find your authentic voice as an English teacher — and keep lessons varied, useful and engaging?Welcome back to the A–Z of TEFL! In S06E22 of How to English TEFL Podcast, Gav and Em reach the letter V and explore practical English teaching ideas around variety, voice, visuals, victories, vocabulary and vitality.Drawing on their years of classroom experience, Gav and Em discuss why variety matters in lesson planning and how mixing speaking, listening, reading, writing, energetic activities and quieter reflection can help keep lessons balanced.Then it gets phonological. How can teachers help learners distinguish /v/ and /w/? Gav and Em experiment with mouth position, voiced sounds, fricatives, minimal pairs, flashcards, tongue twisters and pronunciation games — with words including wine/vine, west/vest and wheel/veal.Em brings in a visual-speaking activity based on strange coincidences: identical cars, matching step counts and puppies whose spots appear in numerical order. The pictures demonstrate how one visual can generate description, vocabulary, grammar, personalisation and extended conversation.The discussion then gets more reflective: what does it mean to find your “teacher voice”? Gav and Em compare how they behave with new students, how authority and friendliness can change over time, and the challenge of having a genuine conversation while still listening for opportunities to teach, correct and expand learners’ English.They also ask what counts as a teaching victory. Is it new vocabulary? More accurate language? A confident student? Or simply finishing a lesson with everyone looking forward to the next one?Plus: vocabulary vs lexis, idioms, categorising language, a body-action vocabulary game, staying fresh after thousands of lessons, teacher vulnerability and why the volume of new language matters.☕ Support the podcast and help keep Gav & Em supplied with tea and coffee:https://ko-fi.com/howtoenglishpod🌐 Practical TEFL articles, teaching ideas and resources for busy English teachers:https://howtoenglishpod.comMENTIONED IN THIS EPISODEGrammar Drops:https://www.youtube.com/@GrammarDropsWhizbusters:https://whizbusters.teachable.com/Game music:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=951ZpDOP9VY&list=PL170TfEhZz-_GstI3bsghBfuD-u8nlHHD&index=13CHAPTERS00:00 – Intro: Welcome to V01:04 – Variety in English lessons04:58 – Valued supporters: Grammar Drops & Whizbusters05:46 – Voiced sounds: teaching /v/ vs /w/08:00 – Minimal pairs, flashcards & tongue twisters11:00 – Plosives, nasals & pronunciation13:06 – Using visuals to generate language15:00 – The identical-car coincidence18:00 – Step counts, data & digital habits21:00 – Puppies, pictures & conversation22:54 – How do you find your authentic teacher voice?29:02 – Big and small teaching victories31:07 – Vocabulary vs lexis32:00 – Categorising idioms and expressions35:14 – Body-action vocabulary game39:48 – How teachers maintain vitality42:00 – Personalisation, values & keeping lessons real43:49 – Gav’s tip: vulnerability in the classroom44:15 – Em’s tip: control the volume of new language45:15 – Outro & W next week