A collection of information, ideas and inspiration for ELT teachers
Category: How To’s
I've been working from home for exactly a month now. I've left the house about five times in that period and during the day I'm on my own here. I've been inundated with emails from students and colleagues, and phone calls and online meetings, as you'd expect. But just over a week ago, I noticed … Continue reading Writing/Working at home – Less is more
We've all been there, haven't we? We desperately want (or need!) to get something finished - an article, a manuscript, a set of materials, whatever we're writing - but our brain just feels bereft of any ideas or information. Either that, or our grey cells are buzzing, but shooting around so many random thoughts that … Continue reading Writers’ Block Busters
In the EAP context I work in, we've recently had a drive to push engagement with authentic English-language input, within the classroom and as self-study. In general, as self-study I encourage my students to do whatever they enjoy doing – but do it in English! One of things a lot of students choose to do … Continue reading 10+ Things to do with a podcast in ELT
I'm not convinced that avoiding PARSNIP topics at all costs makes for engaging materials. As I see it, it should be a case of considering HOW and from which angle, not just WHAT topic is covered. It's more important how you serve the parsnips!
Finally it is the last week of our semester here, which started in October. It's been a long, hard slog, but we've made it! But the final week of term is a weird one. We still have classes, most of which are revision sessions or tests, and we have to make sure we get all … Continue reading Revision Week for my Materials
Alongside psychological issues, voice problems are a major cause of illness among teachers. I recently attending a workshop on how to look after your voice as a teacher (held by Frank Gutjahr at Universität Trier), and in the post I'd like to share the practical tips I heard. They'll probably be relevant for anyone who … Continue reading Looking after your voice
A while back, I summarised an article for ELT Research Bites exploring the reasons why language teaching professionals rarely access primary research reports. The main findings were that practitioners may have negative perceptions of research as irrelevant, they may face practical constraints such as expensive pay walls and a lack of time to find and … Continue reading How to access ELT-relevant research
What do you do in those last 5 minutes of class when you've finished everything that was planned? Or when energy levels hit a low during a lesson? Or in that lull while the next student gets ready to present, or whatever? We all know about the need to revise and recycle new vocabulary in … Continue reading Worksheet-free Vocab Revision Activities
Since October I've had a student in my class who is practically deaf, especially if she hasn't got her hearing aid. The class that she's taking with me is actually an Oral Skills class; it's the first class of an EAP programme and focuses on presentation and seminar skills. Clearly, not being able to hear … Continue reading Teaching a deaf student EAP oral skills
Today, at the TEASIG / CRELLA conference in Luton, I had the pleasure of hearing two talks by Dr John Field. He was focussing on creating L2 listening tests, but a lot of what he said will be useful for those of us writing ELT listening materials for teaching, too! Based on what John talked … Continue reading Common problems with common listening tasks
