All articles by Adrian Tennant

  • Article

    Listening matters: Active listening

    Adrian Tennant looks at ways of bringing realistic listening – active listening where students are fully engaged – into the classroom.

  • Photo of people or a family eating healthy food.
    Article

    Matura: Speaking: Nutrition and Health

    A speaking lesson to prepare students to talk about eating habits and healthy food.

  • Photo of a teacher writing a paper or typing on their computer.
    Article

    Assessment matters: Designing your own tests

    Adrian Tennant explores some of the issues behind designing your own tests and gives some practical examples of how to go about it.

  • Article

    Reading matters: Decoding texts

    Adrian Tennant delves into the detail of how texts are put together and how you can infer meaning. He also covers the presumptions we make when reading texts and how to deal with issues such as vocabulary within a text as well as issues connected to punctuation.

  • Photo of people shopping at a shopping centre.
    Article

    Matura: Speaking: Consumer society

    A speaking lesson to prepare students to talk about our consumer society.

  • Article

    Reading matters: Extensive reading

    This article looks at extensive reading and aims to answer the following questions: What is extensive reading? Why is extensive reading valuable for learning? What types of reading can be done? How do you incorporate extensive reading into your teaching? How do you find out what the students have learnt? ...

  • Photo of students looking at a work of art in the classroom, or photo of an art gallery or museum.
    Article

    Matura: Speaking: Arts and Culture

    A speaking lesson to prepare students to talk about culture in their country.

  • Photo of a block of flats or a series of houses on the same street.
    Article

    Matura: Speaking: Living and Surroundings

    A speaking lesson focusing on different types of accommodation, making suggestions, and how to use indirect questions.

  • Photo of someone working on different versions of the same text, to show the different stages of the writing process.
    Article

    Writing matters: Planning, drafting and editing

    Writing is a process. Good writers plan what they will write, come up with ideas, draft, revise and edit. This article will give some practical ideas for how students can be taught to become good writers.

  • Photo of students speaking to each other and using their phones, to suggest the idea of various ways of communicating.
    Article

    Matura: Speaking: Media and Communications

    In this speaking lesson focusing on 21st-century communication, students learn about different ways of networking and keeping in touch.

  • Photo of a natural scenery: forest, seaside, mountains, etc.
    Article

    Matura: Writing: Nature and Environment

    In this lesson focusing on nature and the environment, students can build their vocabulary and learn how to write about the natural world using descriptive language.

  • Photo of people playing sports,e.g.: basketball, tennis, etc.
    Article

    Matura: Writing: Sport

    In this lesson focusing on sport, students learn how to describe the benefits of sport and how to use persuasive language.

  • Photo of tourists at an agency or tourist information point.
    Article

    Matura: Writing: Tourism

    In this lesson focusing on writing reports, students learn how to summarize information, and to compare and contrast the information in tourism reports.

  • Photo of a job interview.
    Article

    Matura: Writing: World of Work

    In this lesson focusing on writing emails, students learn to spot differences between formal and informal emails, and pick up useful phrases in an interview exercise.

  • Photo of a student typing on a laptop/computer.
    Article

    Matura: Writing: Modern Technologies

    In this lesson focusing on writing, students learn to write comments on a blog and how to agree or disagree by giving and responding to opinions.

  • Article

    Writing matters: Short texts

    In this article Adrian Tennant focuses on short texts such as messages, notes, instructions and notices. Although these kinds of text are read and written on a regular basis, they are often neglected despite being extremely common in everyday life.

  • Topics_index
    Lesson

    Topics: Easter

    Introduce your students to the topic of Easter while they practice reading, listening, and speaking.

  • Topics_index
    Lesson

    Topics: Christmas

    Use this jolly instalment of Adrian Tennant’s popular series and get your students into the holiday spirit.

  • Lesson

    Topics: Museums

    Students are introduced to the topic of museums in this instalment of Adrian Tennant’s Topics series. The lesson is available at two language levels (Pre-intermediate and Intermediate +) and gives students practice in reading, listening and speaking skills, as well as exercises focusing on grammar and vocabulary. 

  • Photo of a medical professional
    Lesson

    Topics: Health

    Students are introduced to the topic of health in this instalment of Adrian Tennant’s Topics series. The lesson is available at two language levels (Pre-intermediate and Intermediate +) and gives students practice in reading, listening and speaking skills, as well as exercises focusing on grammar and vocabulary.