Labour English

Too often, the material we teach doesn’t speak to our lives or the lives of our students.  Some students may benefit from business English but, like ourselves, the majority of our students come from working class backgrounds and do working-class  jobs. Too many ELT materials uncritically teach about life and work and the economy from the perspective of our bosses.

We think, instead, our classrooms should be a place to speak both to the lived experiences of our students and to equip them with the tools to challenge the injustice we all face as workers in an economy built on the exploitation of our labour. To that end, we’ve created a series of “labour English” lessons.

All of these were created by members of the TEFL Workers’ Union and have been prepared in collaboration with friend of the union Hugh Dellar.  In the video below, Hugh gives a bit more background to the idea of Labour English.

Got a lesson on workers rights, feminism, or the struggle for racial justice? We’d love to add them to our collection! Share ’em if ya got ’em: [email protected]

Lesson Plans

Wage Theft

Catcalling

Co-operatives

Cutting the Working Week

The Gig Economy

Gender Equality in the Workplace

Sexuality and Employment

Collective Bargaining