ESOL Queen

Wow, the world of teaching has changed dramatically since I first started this blog during Covid-19 in 2020. Back then, I would spend hours creating and designing teaching materials from scratch.  Now, in 2026, AI tools have completely transformed the way I plan lessons. Over the past year, I’ve been exploring different AI tools that help me: save time on lesson preparation create targeted ESOL resources set clear SMART targets and lesson aims In this post, I’m sharing some of the tools I’ve found most useful in my own teaching practice. My Favourite AI Tools for Teaching Materials 1) Chalkie Chalkie is a great tool for quickly creating lesson PowerPoints and worksheets. I’ve only used it a few times, but one thing I learned quickly is that you need to be very specific with your instructions to get the best results. Why it’s useful: Fast lesson creation Simple to use Free and paid options available Best for: Teachers who want quick, ready-made lesson content. 👉 I’d definitely rec...

Hi everyone, I have finally found some time to upload onto my blog again! I have recently been using Chat GPT to make some resources for my Level 1 and 2 Functional Skills English students. This technology is great for providing me with relevant texts at the appropriate English level for my students and for giving me Functional Skills style questions based on the texts. I had a lot of fun typing into Chat GPT tasks like, "Give me a biased text on online banking in the UK" and "Give me an instructional text on how Easter is celebrated in the UK". Check out the results in these worksheets below: Banking and Financial Literacy Functional Skills Level 1 and 2 Easter Level 1 and 2 Functional Skills Reading Culture Level 1 and 2 Functional Skills Reading Do you teach Level 1 and 2 Functional Skills? What resources do you use for teaching reading? Let me know in the comments below 😃

I really love the build up to Christmas lessons at my school, as there are so many great opportunities to find out about important days and festivals in my students' own cultures. I am so blessed to teach students from over 20 countries currently and know learners from over 50 places (from Argentina to China and every country in between!).  From my experience students love to share about their own cultural traditions and celebrations. It is a great opportunity for them to learn from each other and to learn about important celebrations in the UK, It is also a good time for students to practice making comparisons between cultures. Just the last week I discovered the Egyptian Christmas is on a different date to the Polish one and that the Kurdish New Year (Naroz) is different from the UK! Here are some of my Pre-Entry and low Entry 1 Festival activities (click on the pic to download):   Here are some of my Level 1 and 2 Festival writing worksheets (click on the pics to downloa...

I've used Twitter a lot recently- particularly to connect with other ESOL organisations and to share my resources. In my Twitter 'Home' I've started following many useful sites with Tweets aimed at my students, whether its a simple grammar explanation or useful set of vocabulary and idioms. Therefore, I have made a worksheet aimed at Entry 2+ with instructions for how to join and use Twitter.  It is possible that some students may already use Twitter in their own languages, so I have included instructions for how to change your language. I've also listed some good organisations for students to follow. If you can recommend any more organisations or people I can suggest to my students, please leave me a message in the comments below. Here's a link to my worksheet 

I've uploaded more Level 1 and Level 2 ESOL and Functional Skills worksheets to my blog. Check them out here on:  https://www.esolqueen.co.uk/p/entry-3-level-1-and-level-2.html Here are a few examples: Presentations: Presentation Plan Presentation about Food Grammar: Tense Review Worksheet Writing:   Write a letter of complaint about windmills Write about a traditional story

Check out my pages for ESOL and Functional Skills teaching materials: Pre-Entry:  https://www.esolqueen.co.uk/p/my-pre-entry-absolute-beginner-resources.html Entry 1 and 2:  https://www.esolqueen.co.uk/p/entry-1-and-2-resources.html Entry 3, Level 1 and Level 2:  https://www.esolqueen.co.uk/p/entry-3-level-1-and-level-2.html I will be adding more materials over the next few weeks. Let me know if there's anything in particular you would like to see. 😀

I'm often asked how ESOL class levels compare to general teaching levels in TEFL. This is a very "rough" guide based on the classes I teach and my experience of teaching ESOL learners... Please note that other language schools and organisations may use slightly different terms and their interpretation of levels may vary. [1] [2] A student’s level ESOL Level CEFR Level What this means: (in an ESOL context). Pre-beginner/ Zero beginner       Pre-Entry A1 (very low) These students are absolute beginners.  They may be completely illiterate in their L1 or use a language with a different alphabet like Arabic or Farsi. Equally, they may have some literacy, but do not know a lot of vocabulary or be able to communicate in English.   Beginner Entry 1 A1 These students have some basic understanding/ experience of Englis...