Do you teach teenagers? Love them or loathe them, the majority of teachers will, at some point in their careers, have at least one teenage class. And for many, this is a source of real pleasure. As Jeremy Harmer puts it in The Practice of English Language Teaching (Pearson 2015): ‘Far from being problem students (though they may sometimes cause problems), teenage students may be the most enjoyable and engaging to work with.’

This issue celebrates the teaching of teenagers – quite literally in the case of Chris Roland, who describes classes where some of the teaching is actually done by the teenagers themselves.

Other contributors offer tips and strategies for teaching teens successfully. In our main feature, Fari Greenaway sees the teenage years as the ideal time to teach our students study skills that will set them up for life. For Rachael Harris, the focus is on skills that teachers can develop to enable them to bond more effectively with their adolescent students, and Michelle Hughes offers some activities that teachers can use to get their teenage classes off on the right foot.

Pete Clements, Martin Sketchley and Emma Paul all have considerable experience of teen teaching. They share their reflections in an insightful ‘question and answer’ article. And if you’ve ever wondered whether typical teenage behaviour is confined to humans, take a look at the Scrapbook photocopiable worksheet – it has some surprising information about ‘teenagers’ in the animal kingdom.

In October this year, ETp said goodbye to its teenage years and reached the age of 20. To mark this occasion (and thanks to Mark Fletcher who did the artwork), we are offering two free pictorial phonemic symbols posters for you to put up in your classrooms.These are available to download by contacting Megan Davies at megan.davies@pavpub.com.