David Weller's Blog

The first time you teach online, it usually feels like trying to run underwater.

You feel the resistance. The awkward silences are louder. The technology feels like a wall between you and the students. You try to replicate your dynamic in-person lessons, but the energy just doesn’t transfer.

Here is the hard truth: You cannot copy and paste your physical classroom into a webcam.

When teachers feel “lost” online, it is almost always because they are fighting the medium rather than working with it. B...

Good pronunciation isn’t about sounding native - it’s about being understood.

Many teachers skip pronunciation because it feels technical, intimidating, or something only specialists should handle. But pronunciation doesn’t need to be scary. With a few simple techniques, you can help your students sound clearer, gain confidence, and actually enjoy speaking English.

Here’s how to do it.

Pronunciation is how we make sounds, stress words, and shape intonation when we speak. It’s ...

If you can teach with nothing, you can teach anywhere.

Imagine walking into class to find there’s no textbook, no projector, no printer, and not even a whiteboard marker that works. Most teachers would panic. But the truth is, you don’t need any of it. Great lessons don’t depend on stuff — they depend on you, your students, and a few flexible ideas you can pull from your back pocket.

Teaching with no resources isn’t a punishment. It’s a return to what teaching really is: communication, creativity,...

A classroom can be just a group of students sitting in the same space, or it can be a community.

n one, students show up, sit down, do the exercises, and leave. They might learn a bit, but they will not take risks or really invest. In the other, they know each other’s names, laugh together, cheer when someone gets it right, and share the odd inside joke. It’s warmer, more alive, and it makes learning easier for everyone - and more rewarding for you.

I have had both kinds of classes. The quiet, sli...

Vocabulary is the beating heart of language. You can’t do much with grammar if you don’t have words to hang it on. And yet, teachers (me included, in my early years) often fall into the trap of thinking vocabulary is “easy.” Hand out a list. Translate. Test next week. Done.

The reality? Students forget. Fast. And when they do, it’s demoralising for them and frustrating for you. They want to remember. You want them to remember. But unless we change how we teach vocabulary, most of those words will...

Lesson planning shouldn’t take longer than the lesson itself. Yet many teachers find themselves drowning in prep time, leading to stress and burnout. The good news? You can cut your planning time in half without cutting corners. This guide will show you how.

It’s easy to overdo it:

New teachers often script lessons because they lack confidence.

Coursebooks don’t fit every class, so adapting them takes hours.

Online activity searches turn into endless scrolling.

The res...

If you’ve ever stared out at 60 students and wondered how you’ll survive the next 60 minutes, you’re not alone. Large classes are one of the biggest challenges in TEFL. The good news? You don’t need to be perfect - just prepared.

Here’s how to manage the chaos, keep your sanity, and even enjoy the energy of a big group.

First of all, a “large class” usually means 35+ students, sometimes as many as 60. These are common in public schools across Asia, Latin America, and the Middle East.

The challenge...

You plan a pair-work speaking activity. It looks simple: give students a role play card, they practise, then share with the class.

On paper, the steps are clear. In practice? One pair chats in L1, another races through the task in two minutes, one group spends the whole time debating a single word, and another invents an entirely new dialogue that makes the class laugh.

Same task, different outcomes. That’s complexity.

Complexity theory looks at systems (like classrooms) ...

Many teachers find their students can repeat words or memorise dialogues, yet still sound robotic or unnatural when speaking. Pronunciation, intonation, and fluency remain stubborn challenges. The good news is shadowing offers a way forward.

This article explains what shadowing is, why it works, and how you can introduce it in your classes. Along the way, you’ll see how AI can help and what pitfalls to avoid.

Shadowing means listening to speech and repeating it immediately, eithe...

Grammaring is not about teaching grammar rules, but about helping learners use grammar as a skill.

Too often, students know the rules but freeze when they need to apply them in real communication. So today we’ll look at what grammaring is, why it matters, and how you can build it into your lessons to make grammar active, flexible, and genuinely useful.

You might have read my previous article about the different skills that folks claim are the ‘fifth skill’ for teachers. Grammari...