A collection of information, ideas and inspiration for ELT teachers
Category: How To’s
Jennifer Macdonald's post "Friends don’t let friends use bad dictionaries" was an inspiration! It’s an issue that frustrates me every semester anew! As I posted as a comment on Jennifer's post, last term, I even made the (joke) rule that if someone uses dict.cc or leo.org (translating tool thingies for German – English) on their phone or … Continue reading Showing students what makes good dictionaries good
Anyone who's been following my blog and conference presentations for a while will know that I have a healthy obsession with marking and giving feedback on L2 students' essays! This is partly due to the huge numbers of essays I have to mark each term, and the number of new marking techniques this allows me … Continue reading Making Marking Colourful
In this article, Northcott, Gillies and Coutlon explore their students' perceptions of how effective online formative feedback was for improving their postgraduate academic writing, and aim to highlight best practices for online writing feedback.
Much is said in published literature about the necessity of EAP students reading authentic academic texts, and also about providing scaffolding and support for them to do so. I believe lecturers and academic tutors teaching their subject content in English and/or on a CLIL-based approach will also need to help students digest the readings for their … Continue reading Reading Support Worksheets for EAP
"Achieving Phonology's Potential in the ELT Classroom" - A very inspiring talk by Adam Scott on 5th April at IATEFL 2017 in Glasgow. In his talk, Adam presented his manifesto, a call to arms, to bring about a shift towards higher awareness of the importance of phonology in ELT. He's convinced that we will experience … Continue reading Phonology in ELT – A Manifesto
A very quick summary of some key points from Scott Thornbury's talk "Writing Methodology Texts" on 4th April at iatefl 2017. He surveyed methodology book writers to gain some insight into what makes such texts most useful for teachers, much of which applies to writing any kinds of teaching notes or rubrics! The key points … Continue reading An iatefl quickie – Writing Methodology Notes
A very quick summary of some key points from Sue Kay's talk, "The genuine article (you couldn't make it up)", presented at iatefl 2017 on 4th April. Questions to ask when choosing a text: Will it interest and engage learners? Can learners relate it to their own lives? Is it age-appropriate? Can learners learn (well … Continue reading An iatefl quickie – Choosing & Using Authentic Texts
