Handouts Online: Supplementary Materials for EFL Teachers

In this guide, Handouts Online gives you some practical advice on teaching English to students. If you've got a question which isn't covered here, you can contact us for help.

Contents:	Part 1: Why use supplementary materials?
	Part 2: General principles
	Part 3: Correcting students
	Part 4: Further study

Part 1: Why use supplementary materials?

Supplementary materials are the materials a teacher uses to supplement a lesson. Any good lesson will have a focus, aim or objective, usually originating from a textbook or student demand. Where the textbook or the idea of the class is found wanting, supplementary materials spring into action.

The most common situations where supplementary materials are useful include when the textbook:

provides insufficient or ineffective examples
provides too few examples
is too simple or complex for your students
fails to cover an item of language at all
can't be conveniently or logically suited to a complete class due to time constraints

"Supplementary
materials are

not replacement
textbooks."

By their nature, supplementary materials are not replacement textbooks.

Thus they should contain short, single topic activity-based resources with an inbuilt flexibility but also with a clear time-limit and purpose. So they are best suited for the following situations:

to review previously taught material
as class 'warm-ups'
to supplement regular textbook material
to add variety in a class; to change dynamics or atmosphere

With many years experience of EFL in a variety of European and Asian countries, the staff at Handouts Online know what makes good supplementary material, what can work in a classroom and what may not, as well as the pressures of teaching that often require 'easy to teach' lessons with minimum preparation.

Our handouts are designed with this philosophy in mind; so if you're in need of a quick exercise or two to review a grammar point, click on the Beginner / Intermediate / Advanced button for the most appropriate handouts for your class. For a 'warmer',conversation starter, when the text falls short or you're between units of a book, go to Quick Fillers. The Business English section provides tailored-made practice sheets and activities based on real situations, professional people may encounter.

Instant Lessons are there to support the teacher with a very short amount of preparation time, an contingency for the time when that perfectly planned, well thought-out lesson is lying on the table at home instead of being in your hand at work!

Next Page: General principles