I utilise a combination of two approaches: DOGME and CLIL (Content & Language Integrated Learning).
Dogme is a communicative approach to language learning which focuses on a dialogic interchange between student and teacher rather than a slavish adherence to textbooks, though books can be utilised for specifically identified goals.
Dogme has ten key principles.
1. Interactivity: the most direct route to learning is to be found in the interactivity between teachers and students and amongst the students themselves.
2. Engagement: students are most engaged by content they have created themselves
3. Dialogic processes: learning is social and dialogic, where knowledge is co-constructed
4. Scaffolded conversations: learning takes place through conversations, where the learner and teacher co-construct the knowledge and skills
5. Emergence: language and grammar emerge from the learning process. This is seen as distinct from the ‘acquisition’ of language.
6. Affordances: the teacher’s role is to optimize language learning affordances through directing attention to emergent language.
7. Voice: the learner’s voice is given recognition along with the learner’s beliefs and knowledge.
8. Empowerment: students and teachers are empowered by freeing the classroom of published materials and textbooks.
9. Relevance: materials (eg texts, audios and videos) should have relevance for the learners
10. Critical use: teachers and students should use published materials and textbooks in a critical way that recognizes their cultural and ideological biases.

This I would like to combine with CLIL, which is an approach increasingly used in schools. It is based on the assumption that language is communicative and that in learning a language one can essentially learn anything. In schools, CLIL aims to introduce students to new ideas and concepts in traditional curriculum subjects, including sciences both social and natural, using the foreign language as the medium of communication. This I intend to broaden to include the student’s interests and needs, whether business related, cultural or social etc. The main point here is that the learner will be required to think and express those thoughts in English in the skills set agreed by teacher and learner. It is this that would combine with point 5 above, which would allow the student’s language needs to continually emerge, as well as provide the necessary cognitive immersion which would enable direct access of the language to develop. This approach also ensures that the content is both engaging and relevant for the learner.

For lower level students, I provide short presentations on key grammar areas as well as stategies and ideas for students' private study.