TEACHING IDEAS FOR EMPOWER IN ESOL CONTEXTS
Making the content relevant to your students
There are certain underlying presumptions about the general
audience for the Empower series, which should be considered
when teaching it with ESOL students. These include the following:
• Many of the lifestyles described assume a considerable
disposable income and a general knowledge and understanding
of consumer products.
• The underlying social and cultural values within the book reflect
this assumption about the students.
• It is assumed that the majority of the book users have relative
freedom to decide what they would like to do with their
future lives.
For some of your students, depending on their background as
well as their current situation, the reality might be quite different.
It therefore may seem that some of the book contents lack
face validity for your students, and might even be a trigger for
negative feelings (see below). So, when planning, and when
delivering material in the classroom, you may need to make
certain adaptations to ensure your students have the best possible
learning experience with the materials.
Pedagogical considerations
Empower is written broadly in the student-centred tradition. There
is an assumption that students will be able to participate actively in
spoken discussion, share their views and listen carefully to those
of others. However, students whose educational backgrounds were
more teacher-fronted might find this challenging. They may not
have the knowledge or experience to know what to do. Three of the
specific challenges they might face, along with suggestions about
how to address this, are as follows:
• Students don’t want to interrupt or challenge the teacher’s view
Tell them a deliberate lie (e.g., ‘the sea is orange’) and get them
to challenge you. As they develop their confidence and trust
in you, they are likely to be more confident about raising their
voice more in the future.
• Students find it hard to work in pairs or groups
Choose carefully who students work with. Begin with larger
groups so that less confident students can listen and observe
first. Over time, they will gain confidence and be able to
contribute more.
• Students may understand progress in different ways.
Students may understand progress as meaning ‘knowledge
about the language’ rather than ‘ability to use the language’.
Focus students’ attention on the ‘can do objectives’ at the
beginning of the unit as well as the progress review statements
at the end of the unit. This will encourage students to
understand progress as ability to use the language.
General teaching tips
When preparing your teaching, it’s helpful to consider the
following:
• Based on your students’ conceptualisation of their identity, will
they be able to answer the question as expected? For example,
Unit 1A of the Starter (A1) level – if students are from a less
liberal region of the world, they might not want to identify
themselves as being from a particular country. This could even
be triggering. Given this, our expectation of the language they
Empower ESOL Worksheets Teaching Notes © Cambridge University Press 2022
should produce may need to be different. Note that this may
also have a knock-on effect regarding progress tests.
• Will the coursebook content be unfamiliar to students? For
example, Unit 4A of the Intermediate (B1+) level features several
famous people who may not be known to the students. If so, try
to identify content which could be a ‘way in’ to the material. This
may mean making questions more general and universal.
• Provide opportunities for students to share when they have
been able to use English successfully in their everyday lives –
and also when they have faced challenges. This kind of sharing,
and the subsequent feedback, will help your students make the
transition from the classroom to the real world.
Literacy
At lower levels there may be issues with orthography. Additional
literacy input may be needed. Conversely, you might find that
your students’ level of vocabulary is higher than that found in the
books, as they are false beginners and have had more exposure to
the English language (especially spoken language) than would be
expected at this level. Ideas for supporting literacy development
include the following activities:
• Practising handwriting using dotted thirds paper
• Using texts from Empower that have been ‘handwritten’ on
dotted thirds pages and can be copied
• Using texts with all the punctuation removed so that students
can punctuate the texts
• Using gap-fill texts where students can add the words from a
text box
• Making word shape templates for the vocabulary in the book
• Making vocabulary dictionaries that students can complete –
e.g., a picture dictionary
Working with students who have had traumatic experiences
Within your class it is possible that some of the students have
experienced – and continue to experience – trauma. For example,
some students may have had difficult and dangerous journeys
coming to the UK, and some may have lost family in conflicts or
have had to leave loved ones behind.
If this is the case, it is important to identify and be sensitive to
particular issues that may trigger this trauma. You may want to
avoid such topics; conversely, you could make them less personal
and more general. Whilst it is impossible to know exactly what
these triggers may be, certain topics may be more likely to cause
this in comparison to others. Topics that might be difficult are
shown below (note GS = Getting Started).
Starter / A1
1A Say your name and country
1B Talk about people you know
2A Talk about your home town
2C Ask for and give personal information
4A Talk about your life and ask about others’
4B Talk about your family
8A Talk about past events
8B Describe events in the past
10A Talk about your home
11A Talk about people’s lives
1
TEACHING IDEAS FOR EMPOWER IN ESOL CONTEXTS
Elementary / A2 Linking learning to life
GS1 Talk about meeting people from other countries Wherever possible, it will help your students if you can link their
GS4 Talk about eating with your family classroom learning to their everyday lives. It is very motivating for
GS5 Talk about what a good home is students when they are able to do this. Questions that you could
5D Write a description of your neighbourhood ask your students in order to get them thinking along these lines
include the following:
G6 Talk about a family you know
• Do you have any previous experience of (topic)?
6A Talk about your family and your family history
• Where could you find out more about (topic)?
6D Write a life story • How could you apply what you have learnt about (topic) to
7A Talk about past trips your life?
Pre-Intermediate / B1 For example, Unit 2B of the Intermediate (B1+) level focuses on
2B Describe travel problems mobile phone apps. It would be very useful to get your students to
share apps that they find useful, as these might also be useful for
3B Talk about living with less
the rest of the class – for example, apps for local transport (e.g.,
GS6 Talk about being afraid
bus timetables and inexpensive taxi companies), local council
7A Talk about life-changing events services (e.g., about local schools and libraries or to report a
GS10 Talk about seeing a crime missing bin collection) and language learning.
10A Talk about moral dilemmas There may also be occasions where you can explicitly link
12B Talk about family relationships classroom speaking or writing tasks to the outside world. For
Intermediate / B1+ example, in Unit 7D of the Upper Intermediate (B2) level, which
1B Describe experiences in the present focuses on letters of complaint, you could identify specific and real
issues faced by your class. You could then ask students to write
3B Talk about families
(and subsequently send) letters about these issues.
GS7 Talk about ideal houses
You should also not be afraid to bring your own experiences and
10B Talk about imagined past events
knowledge of the local area into the classroom. For example, when
Upper Intermediate / B2 doing Unit 5 of the Intermediate (B1+) level, you may know of local
GS2 Discuss coping with natural disasters environmental initiatives that your students could get involved with,
2A Discuss dangerous situations such as doing a local litter pick or writing letters to local councillors
2B Give advice on avoiding danger about an environmental issue, like air pollution.
GS4 Discuss childhood experiences
4A Discuss events that changed your life
GS5 Discuss attitudes to risk
7C Imagine how things could be
GS8 Discuss attitudes to money
10A Speculate about the past
Advanced / C1
GS3 Talk about a mishap on a road trip
3A Emphasise positive and negative experiences
4B Talk about memories and remembering
5A Talk about crime and punishment
5C Recall and speculate
8A Describe sleeping habits and routines
9C Deal with conflict

Empower ESOL Worksheets Teaching Notes © Cambridge University Press 2022 2

 For more resources, please see this Cambridge Handbooks for Language Teachers series title:

Teaching in Challenging Circumstances

g Circumstances
s who work in challenging
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r non-formal teaching in areas
Chris Sowton

d people.

al research to provide practical

Cambridge
Handbooks Teaching in Challenging
Circumstances
s such as teaching large for Language
ISBN 9780521627658
Teachers
upporting learners who have
ay be suffering from trauma. Series Editor
Teaching in Challenging Circumstances

Scott Thornbury
ve learning environment and
discusses the importance of

around teaching in challenging

practitioners in the field; ISBN 9780521667852

evant case studies and

ect on their own knowledge and

nd ability.

ISBN 9781107684676

classroom
estions, our Teacher
edge and skills to
e to support you in
your students.

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e our insights
esults.
AUTHORS
Chris Sowton, Edited by Scott Thornbury
r futures together

betterlearning
Chris Sowton
ISBN 9781108816120

This book is an essential resource for teachers who work in challenging circumstances, which might include formal education systems
in the developing or developed world and informal or non-formal teaching in areas with growing numbers of refugees or displaced
people. It draws on academic and professional research to provide practical advice that will help teachers address concerns including
teaching large classes, working with limited resources and supporting learners who have experienced interrupted education and who
may be suffering from trauma. It offers suggestions for creating a positive learning environment and implementing effective teaching
practice, and discusses the importance of resilience and well-being. Each chapter contains key takeaways, relevant case studies and
classroom-ready teaching tips, and the book also includes opportunities for teachers to reflect on their own knowledge and experience
and develop their resilience and ability.