Hi, my name is Ana Juanico, I’m an ESL/EFL teacher from Portugal! My passion is English vocabulary teaching and I love working with ESL activities which involve vocabulary learning, vocabulary activities and vocabulary strategies.

Well, I am also a great believer. I believe that ESL learners will easily acquire new words through real life context which can be provided by real life photography.

Very frequently using photos, pictures, images… and questions is my way to inspire and lead students to produce language and to assure their interest in a topic in a rather natural way.

On this blog you will find tips to learn and teach the common vocabulary topics in ESL.

With the help of photography.

The same to say real-life, real-world.

PHOTOS provide real life situations lived by everyone and I use them as a way of extending their ESL vocabulary which is crucial in the students’ language development specially in the communication skills.

With the help of lists, cards, posters and all sort of images too.

It will be a process, thus I will be adding up materials such as lists of vocabulary, checklists, worksheets and so on… which can be used to learn and teach English as a second language. Most of them around real nice photographs.

Feel free to ask for any specific topic, I will be delighted to help. Just let me know which kind of vocabulary/topic do you need to learn or teach and I will find an activity, image or photo which might encourage the learning of English vocabulary.

Being a teacher

I’ve been teaching English since the 90s in several public middle and secondary Portuguese schools.

I have had some experience in teaching English to very young learners and I was actually involved in several projects related to that age group.

At the moment, I’m teaching in Matosinhos, right next to Porto, the second largest city of Portugal, a city replete with historical and cultural heritage. I am currently teaching in a public middle school.

Being an English teacher has always been my dream and even though there are highs and lows in this English teaching career, I can’t imagine myself doing anything else but this… and as a result, here I am!

In my classroom I use a lot of different English vocabulary teaching strategies and tools to help my students learn.

However, after all these years, I’m aware that there is no right or wrong, there are no unique or miraculous tips that will make our students learn unless they are really engaged in the process.

At least that’s what I believe and it’s my number 1 rule.

Firstly, motivate learners and involve them in the learning process; secondly, make them believe they can, show them they can, show them how; finally, encourage positive reinforcement.

At the same time, I allow them to commit themselves to what they are learning and provide them a real connection.

This is also very important.

Moreover, you need to expose them to real life situations and promote their emotional well-being too..

About myself, my life

I was born in Lisbon and I’m living in Porto since my teenage years. Coimbra was also my home for 14 years.

I have two wonderful sons. They are both college students. The oldest is 20. He is studying Business Innovation and Creativity. The youngest is 19 and is studying Architecture.

They are my life. My everything.

But so are my students.

At home I talk a lot about my students, in the classroom I give real-life examples of my sons. 

I really need to give this positive classroom experience, I need to trigger emotion… and we all know how important that is in education – it drives attention, which in turn drives learning and memory and allows results.

The goal of my work…

Involve students!

Involve them in the learning process!

Help them!

This has been the target of my work for these years.

Even if you are an ESL learner and you want a rapid start, and specially if you are a beginner, this is the best starting off point!

INVOLVE YOURSELF IN THE LANGUAGE LEARNING PROCESS,

TAKE PART ACTIVELY.

Look around. WORDS build the world. Make you communicate.
Learn and teach ESL through what can be seen, with photos.
A lot with little.