How Can English Teachers Teach WH-Questions, Wish & Word Order? Practical Ideas TEFL A-Z W – S06E23

What can English teachers do when a lesson starts going wrong? How can you teach WH-questions, wish structures and word order in ways that actually get students using the language?In this episode of How to English TEFL Podcast, Gav and Em continue their A–Z of English teaching with W — moving from worst-case classroom nightmares to practical grammar activities, last-minute lesson ideas, warmers and ways to keep familiar teaching topics feeling fresh.Drawing on their classroom experience, Gav and Em discuss what to do when students look completely lost during an explanation. Should you carry on, simplify the board work, start again or use stronger students to help establish meaning before checking everyone has understood?Gav then demonstrates a WH-question activity built around guessing a mystery celebrity. Learners complete questions with who, what, where, when, why, which and how while practising different tenses and building a fact file.Em explores three useful wish structures:I wish I were taller.I wish I had been better at school.I wish it would stop raining.They discuss how teachers can help learners understand the difference between present wishes, past regrets and situations they want someone or something else to change.There is also a real teaching confession from Gav after mixing up “in time” and “on time” during a lesson — and a discussion of how teachers can recover when a familiar language point suddenly refuses to cooperate.Then comes an emergency cover lesson. With almost no preparation, Em is handed “SVO present simple yes/no questions” and turns it into a student-generated word-order activity involving dragons, bananas, haunted houses, rollercoasters and volcanoes. It becomes a useful reminder that teachers do not always need to provide all the language themselves.Gav and Em also ask whether teaching the same grammar repeatedly can start to wear thin — and how changing the context, examples and student relevance can keep familiar lessons interesting.Finally, Gav revisits WH-questions by making them negative: Which superpower would you not like to have? When would you not want to live in history? What film would you not want to be trapped inside? A small change that can make familiar speaking questions much more interesting.Gav and Em have each spent more than 20 years teaching English across different countries, age groups, levels and teaching contexts. The podcast shares practical classroom ideas, activities and reflections drawn from that experience.More TEFL teaching articles, lesson ideas and practical tips:https://howtoenglishpod.comSupport How to English TEFL Podcast:https://ko-fi.com/howtoenglishpodCHAPTERS00:00 – Welcome to the W episode01:22 – Worst-case English lesson nightmares08:42 – WH-question activity: guess the celebrity13:57 – How to teach wish: present, past and would18:20 – In time vs on time22:13 – Emergency cover lesson: teaching word order30:43 – Does teaching the same grammar wear thin?34:00 – Making WH-questions negative38:20 – Teaching tip: use a good warmer39:30 – Welcome, Wait and Watch: advice for teachers and learners41:00 – Wrapping up W and looking ahead to X, Y and Z