Teaching methods, checked against the evidence.
Short guides to the approaches English teachers ask about most. Each one says honestly how strong the evidence is, and ends with a lesson you can try tomorrow, with no special materials.
Ways of teaching the language itself
Total Physical Response (TPR)
Children hear a command and act it out before they speak. Why it works for beginners, where it stops working, and a 40-minute lesson.
Read the guide → Ages 7 and upTask-based learning
Start with a real task, then look at the language. Pre-task, task cycle and language focus, made to work with children.
Read the guide → Bilingual and international schoolsCLIL: subjects through English
The 4Cs, language of, for and through learning, the scaffolds that matter, and a science lesson on floating and sinking.
Read the guide →Getting everyone thinking and speaking
Questioning and classroom talk
Wait time, no hands up, talk partners and sentence stems, so every child speaks English in every lesson.
Read the guide → Classes of 40 to 60Teaching big classes with few resources
Routines that save your voice, a 60-minute lesson shape, speaking for everyone and marking 50 books.
Read the guide → Mixed-ability classesDifferentiation without three lesson plans
One task, three ways. What the evidence says about grouping, worksheets for every level and adaptive teaching.
Read the guide →Children who need English taught differently
Supporting EAL learners
Proficiency bands A to E, a first-week checklist for new arrivals, and strategies that help the whole class.
Read the guide → SENDDyslexia-friendly English teaching
Structured, cumulative practice, readable worksheets and a printable checklist, with a clear line on what the evidence does not support.
Read the guide → Teachers and parentsLearning styles: what the evidence says
Visual, auditory, kinaesthetic? Why matching lessons to a style does not help, and what to do instead. With a five-question quiz.
Read the guide →Knowing what they know, and making it stick
Formative assessment and feedback
Check understanding every lesson without extra marking. Feedback that moves learning on, and an exit ticket picker.
Read the guide → All agesRetrieval practice and spacing
Low-stakes quizzing and spaced review for vocabulary, what the evidence really shows, and a free spacing planner.
Read the guide → TeachersFree year-long English programmes
Three levels from Pre-A1 to B1, 36 weeks each, with these methods built into every week.
See the levels →Honest about the evidence
We lean on the Education Endowment Foundation, the Department for Education, the British Council, Cambridge English, the Bell Foundation and peer-reviewed research. Where an idea is popular but poorly supported, we say so. Every guide lists its sources at the bottom.
Want plans that use all of this week by week? Start with Level 1, Level 2 or Level 3, all free with no login. Litlings for schools adds class tracking and homework, free for up to 40 pupils.