Artificial Intelligence and English language teaching: Preparing for the future

Artificial intelligence is quickly becoming part of everyday life in education, and English teaching is no exception. The British Council’s 2024 report AI and ELT: Preparing for the future shows how teachers around the world are starting to use AI tools to support speaking, writing, and reading practice. These tools can give instant feedback, help students build confidence, and even make learning more personalised.

But the report also points out some important challenges. Many teachers don’t yet feel confident using AI in class, and issues like bias, privacy, and unequal access are real concerns. The message is clear: AI should be seen as a support, not a replacement, for good teaching. Teachers and students need to understand what AI can and can’t do, and make thoughtful choices about when to use it.

Used wisely, AI has the potential to make learning more engaging and accessible. The key is to combine the opportunities it offers with the creativity, guidance, and human connection that only teachers can bring.

https://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/sites/teacheng/files/2024-08/AI_and_ELT_Jul_2024.pdf

80 Sponge Activities by whatihavelearnedteaching.com

Coined by Madeline Hunter, sponge activities are short, low-preparation exercises used to turn downtime into productive learning moments. These activities reinforce vocabulary, grammar, pronunciation, etc., in small bursts, keep learners mentally active and focused even during unexpected pauses, and provide variety and fun, increasing motivation and classroom energy.

Short
Practice existing material
On‑their‑own or with peers
No new content introduced
Groups engaged
Elicit immediate responses

This resource is a collection of 80 short, ready-to-go classroom activities designed to fill those spare minutes—at the beginning, end, or during transitions—with meaningful practice. These “sponge” tasks include:

- Quick challenges like vocabulary scrambles, mini-dictations, word formation, or listing words by category.

- Games such as 20 Questions, flashcard races, or storytelling starters.

- Collaborative prompts—group questions, drawing tasks from oral descriptions, or quick debates—easy to launch and wrap up in a few minutes.

Find them on:

https://whatihavelearnedteaching.com/80-sponge-activities/

Teaching English with Oxford

Teaching English with Oxford is a blog by Oxford University Press (OUP) that offers English language teachers a wealth of resources, insights, and practical advice to enhance their teaching practices. 

The platform features articles on various topics, including innovative teaching strategies, classroom management techniques, and the integration of technology in language education. Additionally, it provides updates on the latest trends in English Language Teaching (ELT) and shares information about upcoming OUP events and webinars.

https://teachingenglishwithoxford.oup.com/

#AI Toolkit for #ELT by Svetlana Kandybovich @ELT_CATION

Here, you can try some AI-powered tools created by Svetlana Kandybovich to help generate better and more personalized ideas aligned with learners’ needs and interests. She designed these tools based on her classroom and materials writing experience. Before you start using them, be sure to read a quick How-To guide to get the most out of each tool. 

Svetlana Kandybovich is a teacher, teacher trainer, consultant, materials writer, project manager, and blogger.

Find this and other amazing resources on her blog:

https://eltcation.com/ai-tools-for-elt/

Englishwsheets.com

This website was created by Mehmet Gül, a Turkish English teacher, for the use of English language learners and teachers from all over the world. 

It offers free ESL printable grammar and vocabulary worksheets, English exercises, EAL handouts, ESOL quizzes, EFL activities, TEFL questions, TESOL materials, English teaching and learning tesources, fun crossword and word search puzzles, tests, picture dictionaries, classroom posters, matching exercises and flashcards...

https://englishwsheets.com/index.html 

EnglishBanana.com

EnglishBanana.com is a free ELT resource that publishes worksheets, books, podcasts, videos, learning material, and other resources for teaching and learning English, ESL, ESOL, and EFL. 

This site offers more than 4,000 pages of free printable resources. All learning resources on English Banana are free to use. Anybody can use them for commercial or non-commercial purposes.  

https://www.englishbanana.com/

Google Tools for English Language Learners by @ericcurts

Tips to help you improve your English skills with Google tools: translation tools, speech-to-text tools, text-to-speech tools, dictionary tools, summarization tools and more. 

A post by Eric Curts on his amazing blog Control Alt Achieve.

https://www.controlaltachieve.com/2018/08/google-ell.html?spref=tw

Douglas Wise Education Blog

The Douglas Wise website was created to provide educational commentary and teaching resources. Douglas Wise is a teacher of English and assistant principal (teaching and learning) at a secondary comprehensive school in Northampton.

Amazing blog with many educational and ELT resources.

Visit the website on:

https://www.douglaswise.co.uk/

On Twitter:

https://twitter.com/DoWise

Humanising Language Teaching

Edited by Hania Kryszewska and published by Pilgrims, Humanising Language Teaching is a free online magazine for teachers of English. Since 1999 it offers ELT articles and ELT resources, lesson plans, book reviews, CLIL resources and more.

Visit this magazine on:

https://www.hltmag.co.uk/

Purland Training @purlandtraining

Purland Training is a free English language teaching resource website. It was created by Matt Purland, an experienced English teacher with over fourteen years of experience teaching English full-time, in the UK and abroad.

On this website you can find books, free worksheets, lesson plans, infographics, wordsearches, video lessons, games, idioms of the day...

On Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/purlandtrainingcom/

On Twitter:

https://twitter.com/purlandtraining

Visit:

http://purlandtraining.com/

ELT Resources on Pearltrees by Verónica Alconchel (@Veronica_elt)

Pearltrees is a visual and collaborative curation tool that allows you to organize, explore and share any URL, as well as to upload photos, files, notes, etc. It is a very useful tool when collecting and sharing learning & teaching resources for ELT students.

This amazing collection by Verónica Alconchel Pertejo, an ESL teacher from Zaragoza, will help you find the best resources organized by categories.

http://www.pearltrees.com/valconchel#l427

Don't forget to visit her blog:

http://myenglishbackroom.blogspot.com.es/

Also on Pinterest:

https://www.pinterest.com/valconchel/

Online Journals for English Language Teachers (list by Marisa R. Constantinides)

Online Journals for English Language Teachers

View more lists from Marisa R Constantinides

#ELTchat

#ELTchat started in September 2010 when a group of ELT professionals began to use Twitter to discuss topics of their interest. It began with the aim of creating a freely available social network for ELT professionals offering mutual support and opportunities for Continuous Professional Development.

Now, every Wednesday at 12 pm (GMT) and 21.00 pm (GMT), ELT teachers from all over the world log into their Twitter account and for one hour hold an online discussion on a topic they have selected. The conversations can be followed by following the #ELTchat hashtag on Twitter.

Every Saturday, one of the moderators will put up a blog post on the #ELTchat Blog asking teachers who follow #ELTchat to propose some topics for the next chats. #ELTchat followers can go to that post and suggest topics in the comments under the blog post.

On Sunday evening, the moderators review the topics and create an online poll. #ELTchat followers are then invited to vote on the topics until Wednesday morning. Once the poll closes the top two topics become the subjects of the discussions.

After each chat, a transcript is posted on the #ELTchat wiki

Every month, a podcast, featuring an interview with one of their followers, interviews with well-known ELT authors and a quick summary of the past month's #ELTchats on the podcasts page.

(Source http://eltchat.org/)