How ELT teaching is going online during Covid-19. Data from Ready to Run

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Is ELT teaching frozen by Covid-19 school closures? Or is there a transformation as classes go online? What’s the impact of suddenly closed borders on demand for the language of global mobility? The Ready to Run graded video library used by ELT teachers has some answers. 

Since countries began closing schools in mid-March, here’s what we can see from teachers’ use of Ready to Run authentic video and lesson resources for English language classes. 

  • Surge in use at the weekend of 14-15 March. Especially in the countries that closed their borders on Saturday or Sunday - including Slovenia, Slovakia and Poland. 

  • A strong rise in before-and-after school hours use. For example: the day after Greece ordered the closure of its schools, a teacher in the largest Greek chain of language schools started a subscription at 07.35 and had got the material for six lessons by 07.45. 

So we can guess that subscribing teachers are urgently looking for lesson material for online and remote teaching - and video is the quickest and surest way to anchor a remote classroom. 

Ready to Run covers all ELT topics but we’ve seen a spike in the streaming of some videos. 

  • Life in a Japanese High School is a vlogger video that introduces core vocabulary and grammar about schools. We guess it’s for speaking activities on school closures.

  • Tati’s Morning Routine sees a student vlogger describe her get-up and get-started routine. We think teachers are delivering language around habits and staying at home. 

ELT teachers online seem to be wanting to engage with young people's lives in the pandemic. 

The morning routine of tati, a student, is a popular Vlog for online classes this week

The morning routine of tati, a student, is a popular Vlog for online classes this week

Ready to Run is contacting and supporting teachers who frequently use the resources, giving tips for screencasting, and video advice on managing remote ELT classes. It seems schools are relieved to know about online options: a teacher in The Bridge, a large Slovakian ELT schools chain wrote to us today: “it is very reassuring to know we can use them also remotely and we are allowed to mail them to students or use in our online lessons”.


Ready to Run is available worldwide with authentic videos for the full ELT syllabus at all CEFR levels. Access to one video per level is free, and £1.99 gets a month’s worth of video at any chosen CEFR level. Contact for enquiries: mail@digitallearningassociates.com