4
A guide to
teaching teenagers
and adults online
Preparation: the basics
Making the shift from the physical classroom to the remote
classroom can seem intimidating, but it’s really much easier than
you think. There are four key functions of the remote classroom
that you need in order to deliver successful remote learning.
Understanding and mastering these functions is fundamental to
the delivery of an engaging learning experience for your students.  group. One of the great things about many remote classroom
• The first of these key functions is sound and how you use your
voice within the remote classroom.
• The second is your webcam and how you use it to create your
presence and model interpersonal communication with your
students.
• The third is how to set up and use breakout rooms to enable
pair and group work.
• The fourth is how to use the screen sharing function of your
platform to show and share materials.
Your voice
Using sound
To use sound and your voice well you should make sure that
you use a headset with a microphone if possible, rather than
the speakers and microphone on your computer. Using the
built-in speakers and microphone can cause feedback, echo and
interference from background noise. This kind of interference can
make the lesson difficult to follow and unpleasant for the students.
In order to use your voice well within the remote classroom you
need to understand some basic things about how the sound works
within the remote classroom software you are using.
Balancing the volume
Most platforms have volume controls built in and they ask you
to check your sound when you launch the platform application.
Always do this and make sure that your volume level is adjusted
appropriately. During your class you may have students who say
they can’t hear you. If this happens be sure to ask them to adjust
the volume on their own computer rather than trying to increase
your own as this will only cause distortion.
© Oxford University Press
Using your voice
You need to use your voice differently in a remote classroom. You
may well be used to projecting your voice to the back of the class
in a crowded physical classroom, but you don’t need to do this
in the remote classroom, and if you do it will be an unpleasant
experience for your learners. Remember to use your voice naturally,
as you would when talking to one person rather than to a large
applications is that if your students are making too much noise you
can mute them. Be sure to find out how to do this on the platform
you use.
Think about how you vary the tone of your voice depending on the
different things you do at different stages of a lesson. When giving
instructions you may want to have a stricter more direct tone,
whereas when you are giving feedback or encouraging students
to speak you may want to soften your tone and be more friendly.
The remote classroom gives you a greater capacity to work with
the tone of your voice because you have much greater control of
what students hear and you don’t have to compete with classroom
noise.
Your webcam
Using the webcam
When moving from the physical classroom to the remote
classroom you are swapping the large space you have at the front
of the classroom for the much smaller space you have in front of
your webcam. Good teachers use their whole body within the
space they have in the classroom. They use hand gestures and
facial expression when speaking. They use proximity and move
closer to students when they want more or less control over them.
They stand or sit in different places to set up activities or give
instructions. They use eye contact to get students’ attention and to
let them know that they are speaking to them or paying attention
to them. All of these things are also possible in the remote
classroom if you set up your computer and webcam appropriately.
A guide to teaching teenagers and adults online 1
 Setting up the webcam
In order to understand your body language and gestures, your
students need to see as much of the top half of your body as
possible. However, having the screen at an angle looking up to you
will only show them a distorted view of your head and some of
your ceiling. Ideally you should have your computer set up so that
the webcam is at your eye level and the computer screen is vertical
and parallel to your body. This will make it easier for you to have
eye contact with your students and reduce the distorting effect
of the lens. You should also move back from the screen by about
80 to 100 cm if you can, so that you have more space to move
around and your students can see more of you. Moving back from
the camera enlarges the space you have to work with from being
a few centimetres each side of your face to around 50cm around
your body.
You can also try putting your computer on top of some boxes or
using a stand-up desk. Standing up can really help you use the
space between you and your webcam more effectively and can
also help boost your energy levels and make your classes more
dynamic.  As mentioned earlier, once the students are in breakout rooms
Try to have a plain background behind you with as few distractions
as possible. This will make it easier for students to see you and your
gestures and body language.
Try to set up your lighting so that students can see you clearly.
Don’t have a strong light or a window behind you as this will
transform you into a silhouette. Try to have natural light on your
face or use a lamp to one side of your computer so you aren’t
dazzled.
When using your classroom application, you will usually be able to
see the image of yourself that is being broadcast to your students.
This usually appears at the top or bottom corner of the screen. In
some cases, such as with the Zoom platform, the image is movable.
If this is the case, drag the image of yourself up to the top centre of
the screen, just below your webcam. Teachers have a tendency to
look at themselves and monitor their body language while they are
speaking, so placing the image below the webcam will enable you
to do this whilst still maintaining eye contact with your students.
If you leave the image at the bottom of the screen it will appear to
your students as though you are avoiding eye contact.
Using the space
Having more space between you and the webcam also allows you
to do more of the things you are familiar with doing in the physical
classroom, such as using flashcards, showing realia or using mime.
You can also think about how you use proximity to the camera as
a way of managing your class. You may want to come closer to the
camera when you are speaking to an individual student or step
back when you are addressing the whole class.
Proximity, body language, gesture and tone of voice are all
elements of good communication that we need to model for
students and encourage them to learn and use, so it’s good to have
some activities that involve students in developing their non-verbal
communication skills too.
Many students can be reluctant to use their webcam for classes.
This could be because they are sensitive about their room or are
feeling self-conscious. However, turning their webcam on can really
help you to develop their communication skills. So encourage
them to do this where possible.
Breakout rooms
Setting up and using breakout rooms
One of the most useful tools for helping students to practice
and develop their spoken language skills is the breakout room
feature of the remote classroom. Most applications that have been
developed for teaching will have some form of breakout room
© Oxford University Press
functionality. This enables the teacher to put the students into pairs
or groups in a separate room so that they can practice speaking
together. The way these rooms function and how this is done
can vary from platform to platform, so be sure to check your own
platform and make sure you know how to do this. It’s a good idea
to work with a group of fellow teachers and practice this together
so you feel more confident trying it with your students.
There are some important things to remember when using
breakout rooms.
Firstly, set up your activities and give your students any instructions
they need for the activities before they go to the breakout room.
Once they go into their breakout rooms they won’t be able to hear
you, so they need to know what to do when they get there.
A breakout room is like a new version of the room you are using,
but all of the materials you have been showing students and the
messages from the chat will usually be unavailable. So if students
need role cards or questions to discuss in the breakout room for
example, they will need to have their own copies of these that they
can access once they are in the breakout room.
they can’t hear or see you and you can’t hear or see them, but you
can move from room to room to monitor. You should give them
a few moments to get started and then go around each room
checking that they are on task and monitoring and evaluating their
performance as they work together. Try to be unobtrusive when
you do this and just listen and make notes of any points you want
to raise in feedback. It might be best to turn off your webcam while
you do this so that you are less of a distraction.
Managing breakout rooms can be challenging, but it is perhaps
one of the key elements to delivering engaging and interactive
lessons. So plan carefully how you will use the rooms and get
plenty of practice with managing the technical side to keep wasted
time to the minimum. Getting into and out of breakout rooms can
take time so be sure to allow for this when you plan your lessons.
Student behaviour in breakout rooms
Some teachers worry about whether students are on task or
misbehaving in the breakout rooms. For that reason, it can be
useful with more mature students to assign one person in each
group to be a monitor and give them a separate task. This could be
listening and making notes of any grammar errors they think they
hear, or it could be monitoring to see which student contributes
the most to the discussion. At the end of the breakout session
when you bring the students back to the main room, you can ask
these people to give feedback on the performance of their group.
Providing students with feedback after the breakout sessions is
vitally important. If students don’t feel that the work they did in the
room was monitored and evaluated they may start to feel that it is
of less value and so lose motivation.
Screen sharing
The screen sharing function of your platform is what enables you
to show students your course materials and guide them through
the activities and tasks. The technical side of this function may
vary from platform to platform, but all remote classrooms will have
some means of showing materials. In some cases this involves
uploading them to a whiteboard space and in others it simply
involves opening the materials on your computer screen and then
sharing the screen with your students so that they can also see
them. Make sure you know how to use this function as it can be
incredibly useful for guiding students through the course book
materials, showing students images and videos, sharing websites
with students or showing them your own self prepared materials.
Take care that you have your screen prepared before you share it,
though, and avoid sharing any personal documents, sites or email
messages.
A guide to teaching teenagers and adults online 2
 Preparation: beyond the basics
Beyond these four key functions there are a number of other areas
you should be aware of which can help your classes to run more
smoothly.
Safeguarding
Many parents and students are very concerned about safety when
studying online and this can lead to lower participation levels in
online classes. Some of the problems that arise in online contexts
are due to lack of knowledge, training and experience rather than
malice. Things that students may find funny in a classroom can
seem more hurtful in the online environment. One of the most
effective means of dealing with this is to ensure that you have
a code of conduct for students that outlines what is and is not
acceptable behaviour in the remote classroom. Work together
with other teachers to create this and make sure it covers things
like not sharing information, images, videos or contact details of
other students outside the class. Keep everyone’s contact details
and social media profiles confidential. Give students an outline
and some examples of what constitutes harassment in the virtual
realm and most of all, make sure students know who they should
report any problems to and what the consequences of breaking
the code of conduct will be. Having a clear code of conduct and
safeguarding policy can help parents and students feel more secure
and more willing to engage in remote lessons.
Classroom management
In some ways the remote classroom solves a lot of classroom
management problems. In many remote classrooms you can
control your students’ audio and mute it when you need them to
listen to you. You can also select a student to speak by unmuting
their audio individually. However, controlling the class in this way
can have its negative side. It’s better to make students aware of
the importance of turn taking in remote working environments as
this is an important part of developing their communication skills.
Having said that, it’s reassuring to know that you have the ability
simply to turn off student audio if things ever get out of hand.
Likewise, you can turn off their video and in some platforms you
also have the power to remove students from the class.
One of the most challenging aspects of managing students online
is moving them into and out of breakout rooms. It’s good to get
plenty of practice doing this with other teachers before you have
to do it with your students. Also be sure that you set up activities
with your students before you put them into breakout rooms as
they won’t be able to hear you once you have moved them. You
should also give your students some training in using breakout
rooms. Don’t simply assume that they know what will happen. In
some platforms they may have to turn on their own sound and
© Oxford University Press
video once they are in the room, so you will need to explain how
to do that. This is true of most of the things that you do in a remote
classroom. Although we think of students as being very digitally
adept, it’s often the case that studying in a remote classroom is
something totally new for many students and they will still need
time to understand how things work.
Motivation
Motivation is often mentioned as a challenging issue in remote
learning, but it doesn’t have to be a problem if we manage
expectations and give students a clearly structured progression
with regular milestones. Make sure that students know what they
will be learning and achieving during the course. Create a to-do
list that you can share with students and use a part of the lesson
to review the list and tick off achievements as you go through the
course. Be sure to celebrate milestones and students’ achievements
too. You could use a part of the lesson to celebrate and share
any outstanding work your students have done. Awarding digital
badges can be a nice way of recognising students’ achievements
and can help with their motivation.
An important part of why students come to and enjoy physical
English lessons is that it is an opportunity to meet up with friends.
Students usually have time before and after class as well as at break
times to socialise with other students. This socialisation also has an
important pedagogical function in that students often compare
notes, talk about what they have learned in class and measure their
own progress and motivation against that of other students. This
social aspect of studying is often neglected when classes move
online so it’s worth putting aside some time for students to go into
breakout rooms so they have a chance to chat and catch up with
each other.
There is a common saying that ‘He who travels alone travels fast,
but he who travels with friends travels further.’ This is also true of
language learning. If we can develop our students into a team
or teams that work together, they can help to motivate and
encourage each other. There is a rule of thumb that states that the
maximum size of a team should be no more than the appropriate
number of people to share two pizzas. If they need three pizzas, the
team is too big. Think carefully about the qualities of your students
and the kinds of roles you would like them to play within the team
before you decide which students should be in each team. It’s
good to think of generic team roles and then think about which
students you think fit each role. Some possible roles could be:
team leader, peacekeeper, grammar expert, vocabulary manager,
thinker, researcher, monitor, evaluator, joker. Make sure that when
you put your students into teams they choose and negotiate their
roles within the team themselves. It’s also helpful to get the team to
decide on their team name together . You could even tell them to
design their own logo and slogan.
A guide to teaching teenagers and adults online 3
 Tips for teaching online
Introducing language points and grammar
Introducing new language in the remote classroom doesn’t have
to be significantly different from in the physical classroom. You
can still use the materials provided in your course book and work
through them in the same way. You can screen share the materials
and use the OUP Classroom Presentation Tool to highlight the
parts of the book that students need to pay attention to. There’s a
very useful video tutorial from Charlotte Murphy, an OUP Teacher
Trainer, available here https://youtu.be/Th-KECC40IM that shows
how the tool works and how you can enlarge part of the page to
make it easier for students to see. Remember to check regularly
that students are following you. Ask questions regularly to check
understanding and get the students to respond using the chat
window. This will also increase the level of engagement for the
students.  Developing reading skills
Teaching communications skills
Most teachers focus on language input and conversation practice
when teaching in remote classrooms, but all of the four skills can be
addressed by using a few virtual tools.
Developing listening skills
One of the key things to understand when developing listening
skills in the remote classroom is how to share the audio file with
students. In the physical classroom, the teacher is very much in
control, playing the audio from the front of the classroom, but the
remote classroom offers a number of alternatives that can also help
to develop learner autonomy. The teacher can share the audio file
with students by uploading it or sharing a link through the chat
window. This gives students control of the listening and enables
students to listen to the file at their own pace. If you do this,
remember to give the students the listening task first and set them
a time limit. You can also put the students into breakout rooms
to work together on listening tasks. This can help to make the
listening more collaborative. This can be particularly effective if you
have split listening tasks. These are ones which involve students
listening to different audio files and then collaborating together to
complete the task.
Some platforms allow you to take a more conventional approach
by playing and pausing the audio from your own computer,
synchronised with the students’ computers. This way of doing
the listening can be more demanding in terms of connectivity
though and some students may not have a such a good listening
experience.
Developing writing skills
One of the advantages of developing writing skills in the remote
classroom is that digital tools can make the writing process more
collaborative. There are a number of tools available to make this
possible. Google Docs is a very common tool for developing online
writing skills but there are many others, such as the online version
of MS Word and the Apple equivalent, Pages. To use these tools
with students it’s best to set the task up within the document
yourself. Make sure that the editing rights are open so that anyone
can edit, and then get ready to share a link to the document with
your students. Put the students into pairs or small groups first and
explain the task to them, then share the link to the document with
the students and put them into breakout rooms. In their breakout
rooms they can work on the task together. The virtual document
can be edited by anyone with a link, so the students will be able to
type into the same document. This also makes peer editing much
easier as students can then share the link to the document with
another pair of students and they can comment on each other’s
work using the commenting feature of Google Docs.
© Oxford University Press
Developing writing skills in this way also enables you to monitor
the students as they write. You can simply click on the link to
the students’ text to see what they are doing and how they are
progressing.
Text is still one of the most common elements of the internet and
reading online is nothing new to most teachers and students.
Setting reading tasks in the remote classroom can be very
rewarding. As well as the digital course book resources you have
available, there’s also a world of online texts and websites that you
can use with your students simply by creating tasks and sharing
links to the texts through the chat window.
You can do reading skills activities directly from the digital course
book by screen sharing the text and setting the reading tasks, but
this isn’t the best way as the screen size of your students’ devices
may impede their ability to read the text. If you are using the course
book it is better to ask students to find the text in their student’s
book and read from there.
Developing speaking skills
As mentioned earlier, one of the key tools for developing speaking
skills is the breakout room feature of your platform, so be sure you
know how to get students into groups in the breakout rooms and
how to move them from room to room when you want to regroup
them. When setting up speaking activities make sure you give
students the instructions before they go into the breakout rooms
and if there are any additional materials they need during the
speaking activity, such as role cards or discussion questions, make
sure that they have their own independent copy as the materials
you screen share won’t be visible to students in the breakout
rooms.
Getting started with speaking activities can take students a little
longer in the remote classroom so with discussions, for example,
it will help if you put students into breakout rooms first to prepare
their arguments together and then move them to different rooms
when they have their discussion. 
Project work
The remote classroom is a great environment for doing project
work. You can divide students into groups and put them into
breakout rooms to work on their projects together and because
they are online already, they have access to lots of resources
to do background research, collect online resources and work
collaboratively together. They can produce digital artefacts such
as presentations, posters or short reports and then come back to
the main classroom to present these to the rest of the class. When
doing project work students usually spend longer in the breakout
rooms working autonomously so monitoring is much easier as you
have more time to move around the breakout rooms and check
on students’ progress. Ensure that the time in the breakout rooms
is spent on doing tasks that involve interaction and that students
are staying on task. If students aren’t monitored this could lead to a
drop in motivation and problems with misbehaviour.
A guide to teaching teenagers and adults online 4
 Assessment
There are many ways that you can assess and give feedback on
students’ online learning.
One of the most effective ways of doing this is to ask students to
keep some form of digital portfolio. There are many sites and digital
apps that you can use to set this up, but the simplest way is just to
have an online folder where you or they can store all of the digital
artefacts created during the course or semester. You can set up
folders on Google Drive, One Drive or Dropbox and have shared
access with your students so that both you and they can access the
folder, add to it, and view and comment on the materials in it.
Assessing and giving feedback on digital writing work is much
easier than with paper-based homework marking. If you are using
tools like Google Docs or the online version of MS Word, you can
easily access students’ written work by asking them to share a link
with you and then you can use the comments feature on these
platforms to suggest improvements and to highlight areas of
strength. There are also a range of free screen capture applications
available online that allow you to record your screen and voice as
you talk through their compositions and give them feedback. This
can be far more motivating, engaging and developmental than the
more traditional red pen and paper marking.
Assessing speaking can be made much more effective and simpler
in the virtual environment. You can set your students speaking tasks
that they can complete by recording themselves using either the
video or audio functionality on their phone or computer. They can
then share this with you by uploading it to a folder on Google Drive
or wherever you choose to host their digital portfolio. This enables
you to listen to their speaking without the surrounding background
noise of the classroom and carefully evaluate their strengths and  
weaknesses. You can then record your feedback in the same way
and post it into their portfolio folder for them to listen to. These
audio and video files are then easy to review and compare weeks
or months later for both you and your students to evaluate their
progress.
Also remember that your OUP digital course books have end of unit
and end of course tests that you can send to students to complete.
Conclusion
Recommended resources
Blog post: Online Teaching Part 1: Getting Started
https://oupeltglobalblog.com/2020/03/12/online-teaching-
getting-started/
Blog post: Online Teaching Part 2: Practical Tips for English
Language Lessons
https://oupeltglobalblog.com/2020/03/13/online-teaching-
practical-tips/
Blog post: Online Teaching Part 3: Tips to Engage and Motivate
Students
https://oupeltglobalblog.com/2020/03/17/online-teaching-
engage-motivate/
Blog post: Collaborative Learning Online and In The Socially
Distanced Classroom
https://oupeltglobalblog.com/2020/07/20/collaborative-
learning/
Video: How to use Classroom Presentation Tools (CPT) for online
or remote lessons
https://youtu.be/Th-KECC40IM
Blog post: 5 ways to Engage with Students Online
https://oupeltglobalblog.com/?s=5+ways+to+engage
Video: Teaching Writing with Classroom Presentation Tools
https://youtu.be/LnOq0HxVM6g
Video: Vocabulary work with teenagers using Flipped Teaching
https://youtu.be/ftiUK41smVU
Video: Storytelling with secondary students
https://youtu.be/mugPY7RKTsc

As you can see, teaching in the remote classroom does have

its challenges, but with practice these can easily be overcome. Video: Assessing Students Online
Teaching, whether in the face to face or the remote classroom, https://youtu.be/c5ksYnt0pOY
is an interpersonal process so just try to keep things simple to
begin with and make sure you use your voice and your webcam to Blog post: Assessment in a Post-Pandemic World
project your warmth and personality to your students.
https://oupeltglobalblog.com/?s=assessment+pandemic
You don’t need to find lots of new tools or applications to do a
good job. If you learn to use the breakout rooms well and can
screen share your materials, then that should be enough. Language You can also download our focus papers to access bite-sized
teaching is fundamentally still about the same things and teachers insights and practical tips for the ELT classroom by logging in to the
still need to tap into the basic skills of promoting language use Oxford Teachers’ Club.
and listening carefully to understand how we can help students Focus on Focus on

improve. Remember that these are skills that you already have, so
TEACHING ONLINE
don’t let the technology get in the way. 1. What is it?
Good teaching is good teaching, whether it is done face-to-face or online. As a teacher,
you will already have many skills and strategies that you can bring to teaching online,
whatever digital tools you choose (or are asked) to use. And as a language teacher, you
already know how to engage and motivate your students. You also know that you need
to give your students opportunities to listen to and practise English. In this paper, we
look at tools, techniques, and activities that will enable you to use these essential skills
in your online teaching.
Variety of options
There isn’t a single ‘correct’ way to teach online. How you teach online depends on
your context and what technologies you and your students have available. It also
depends on how confident you feel using these technologies, and what you want your
students to achieve. Teaching online can include:
■ Synchronous learning
This involves communicating in real time. For example, carrying out a live lesson
with your students using a videoconferencing tool like Skype or Zoom.
■ Asynchronous learning
This involves communicating over time. For example, asking your students to work
with online learning materials or participate in a class discussion via email or in an
online forum at a time or location of their own choosing.
■ Using ready-made materials
A wide range of digital English language learning materials for all age groups
and on almost any topic is available online, including language learning apps,
digital reading and listening resources, grammar games, and videos. Many English
language coursebooks come with online tips and activities for teachers and parents,
including those that can be found on the Oxford Teachers’ Club and Oxford Parents
websites.
■ Creating materials
You may need to create some materials yourself in order to supplement your
coursebook or to meet the requirements of teaching online. For example, you could
create online quizzes using free websites and apps like Kahoot! or Quizlet.
■ Using multimedia
Multimedia can be used in low-tech contexts, where you can create audio
recordings to share via email, as well as in high-tech contexts, where you could
create a video recording or a narrated PowerPoint presentation to share via an
online file-sharing service such as Google Drive or Dropbox.
MANAGING ONLINE
LEARNING
1. What is it?
Increasingly, the first place we go for anything we need to know or learn is online.
It’s easier and faster than ever to access the tools and information we need. But for
longer-term learning goals like language learning which involve the development
of knowledge and skills over time, online learning will require structure, support,
interaction, and a teacher.
At its simplest, online learning can be facilitated just by sending assignments by email
or on a messenger app for your students to complete and return in the same way for
marking. Going further, there is a wealth of free resources, support, and easy-to-use
tools that can help you set up and run online learning. These can enable you to deliver
tasks and activities to your students, track their interaction with the activities, collect
scores to measure attainment, and even meet face-to-face online with groups or
individual students for live lessons or one-to-one tutorials.
With younger learners, you will need to enlist the support of parents. There are lots of
ready-made activities that you can send younger students to work on with their parents.
Check out the teacher support site for your coursebook on the Oxford Teachers’ Club.
There is also the Oxford Parents site where you can find tips and activities to share
with parents.
2. What types of tools are available?
Learning platforms
Google Classroom and Edmodo are very popular learning platforms that many
teachers use. They have the advantage of being compatible with tools that you can use
to create interactive materials.
If you work with older students who are regular Facebook users, you can create courses
on Facebook using a Facebook Group. Be sure to use a community group and set it to
show the content in units. This will enable you to structure your content around themes,
skills, or grammar points.
Content tools
If you want to create your own interactive content, there are quite a few different
options. You can use free tools like Educandy and Jetpack for creating games and
quizzes for younger learners. For teens and adults, Kahoot and Quizlet are useful for
creating quizzes and games.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Nicky Hockly is Director of Pedagogy of The Consultants-E (TCE). She is a teacher, Nik Peachey has worked all over the world as a language teacher, teacher trainer,
trainer, international plenary speaker, consultant, and author of several prize- technology trainer, and educational technology consultant. He is an award-winning
winning methodology books about technology in ELT. course designer and materials writer and author.

© Oxford University Press www.oup.com/elt/expert 1 © Oxford University Press www.oup.com/elt/expert 1

Focus on Teaching Online   Focus on Managing Online Learning

www.oup.com/elt/expert

© Oxford University Press A guide to teaching teenagers and adults online 5