Anna's Teaching Tales #4

Video timeline

00:00 The problem
01:41 Introduction
02:17 Tip 1
03:09 Tip 2
04:08 Tip 3
04:46 Summary
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Video transcript

It was a rainy Tuesday afternoon, and Anna was at the board, armed with a marker and high hopes. She was drawing arrows, circling auxiliary verbs, underlining time references—she was in the zone. Except… her learners weren’t.

One was chewing the end of their pen. Another was gazing out of the window like they were in a deep existential crisis. And one—no joke—had actually nodded off.

Anna paused, mid-sentence.
“Oh no,” she thought.
“I’ve lost them.”

Ever had that moment? You’re explaining something you know is useful, and all you get in return is blank faces and the slow sinking feeling that you might as well be speaking Klingon?

That’s exactly where Anna was. She messaged me later that day and said,
“Jo, I don’t know what happened! I was trying to explain the present perfect and their brains just melted. They looked so confused.”

Poor Anna. But honestly? We’ve all been there so if you’ve ever had a grammar explanation crash and burn, don’t worry- you’re in good company.

And if you want to know how she turned it around- and how you can too- keep watching.

If we haven’t met yet, I’m Jo Gakonga. I’ve been training new teachers on CELTA and MA TESOL courses for 25 years and I run ELT-Training.com, where I make video-based material for English teachers at all stages. If that sounds useful, give this a like and subscribe. I post a new video every week.

Right, so what did Anna do?

First off, she stopped leading with the grammar.
She realised that saying, “Today we’re going to look at the present perfect” just wasn’t grabbing anyone’s attention.

So instead, she started with this:
“Have you ever eaten anything really weird?”

Suddenly—bam!—engagement.
Someone said fried ants.
Another said sheep’s brain (seriously).
And before she’d even written anything on the board, they were using the target language.

✅ Jo’s Tip: Start with the meaning. Get them interested before you bring in the grammar.

Next, she simplified things. The present perfect is a horrible beast with many different uses – they don’t have to learn them all at the same time. Stick to one context, especially at lower levels. Use real examples, timelines and questions to check they understand. This works much better.

"I’ve eaten sushi" means some time in my life. Up to now- I’m still alive- my life is going on. Like this. Do we know exactly, when it happened? No. Can I say "I’ve eaten sushi" last year? No- because that’s a specific time – here.
That’s it. That’s all they needed. And suddenly—they got it!

✅ Jo’s Tip: Keep it simple. Give them clear, real examples and check the tricky bits.
And finally- this was the magic bit- she gave them something fun to do with the language.
She gave them six “Have you ever...?” questions – and asked them to choose three that they liked and make up one more of their own. Then they had to go round asking each other.

Personalised examples are often the best way to get people interested in the language and this really got them talking and finding out more about each other.

✅ Jo’s Tip: Get them using the language straight away—and make it fun!

So. Three small tweaks:

• Start with something real
• Keep the explanation short and sweet
• Get them using the grammar, not just hearing about it

A few days later, Anna messaged me again.
“Jo! I just taught second conditionals and they loved it!”
That’s what we like to hear, right?

So if you want to avoid the grammar glaze-over, remember—context first, clarity always, and get them talking.

And if you’d like more ideas like this, come over to my website. And if you’re looking for a supportive way to build your teaching confidence, check out The Next Step programme. It’s CPD you can do in your own time, at your own pace with support from me and a great community.

Link’s below. Hope to see you there!