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Ten Ways to Begin an ESL/EFL
Lesson
There are many ways that teachers can choose to begin their ESL/EFL lessons. Here are
ten ways you can start your class.

1. Greetings

2. Talking to the students

3. Fulfilling a required role

4. Previewing the lesson

5. Playing a game

6. Doing a warm-up activity

7. Reviewing the previous lesson

8. Brainstorming

9. Class discussion

10. Using a picture

Let's take a look at the different ways to begin a lesson and the purposes for using them.

1. Greeting the students

Greeting the students helps to build a rapport. It gets the students ready to interact with you
and speak English. It also helps to fill in time, while you are waiting for everyone to get
settled.

2. Talking to the students

Chatting to your students helps to build their confidence to communicate in English. You also
get to learn about the students and what they are interested in. This in-turn helps you create
more interesting ESL/EFL lessons for them. This also helps with rapport and increases topic
development.

3. Fulfilling a required role

A required role is some kind of admin duty that is required by the school or university.
Normally, this will be something like checking attendance. This doesn't necessarily have to
come at the start of class. You could check attendance or participation throughout the lesson
by asking questions to the students and then checking their name.

4. Previewing the lesson

This gets the students thinking about what they are going to study. It lets the students know
what to expect in the lesson you are about to teach. It can also focus the student's attention
on the subject matter.
5. Playing a game

Playing a game or warmer is a great way to begin an ESL/EFL lesson. It makes the students
relaxed and brings enjoyment to the whole class. It gets the students involved and doing
something interesting. It can help instill confidence, and it can be used to introduce the
lesson. Remember games are not supposed to be used just for the sake of it. Try to tailor
your game to what you are about to teach. It makes a great lead-in and is fun for everyone.
Check out our Games Page.

6. Doing a warm-up activity

This helps to create a lead-in to the ESL/EFL lesson. It is usually a short activity based on
what the students are going to study. It helps students understand what they are about to
learn in an indirect way. This helps to elicit any knowledge the students already have about
the topic. There are many warm-up activities on our Resources Page.

7. Reviewing the previous lesson

You may find students easily forget what they did in the previous lesson. So, it is always
worth reviewing what they have studied before. This helps the students recall the information
and language they need. If students have not used the language, you have taught them, it is
easily forgotten. So regular reviewing is a useful tool.

8. Brainstorming

Brainstorming is very simple to do. Basically, you elicit everything the students know about a
topic. You can look at vocabulary and sentence structure. Try to connect ideas or content
together to give the students a platform to work from.

9. Class discussion

This can be used for higher-level students. You can pose questions to the students about
the topic being studied in order to generate discussion and debate. This gets the students
focused and helps to elicit language. This gets the students thinking about what they know
about the subject and what they want to know.

10. Using a picture

A picture paints a thousand words. Pictures are important for creating interest in the topic
about to be taught. Pictures help to introduce subject matter. Students get to give their
opinions and ideas, and it helps support meaning.

Written by Paul Adams for Teach-This.com ©20I3