A collection of information, ideas and inspiration for ELT teachers
Category: Ponderings
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
Yesterday, 14th Feb 2020, was a special day for me. Not in the romantic, Valentine’s Day way, though. It was the last day of the teaching semester at the university where I teach – cue high fives all round! 😀 Recently, I’ve read a couple of ‘A day in the life’ blog posts giving insight … Continue reading A day in the life
Last week, we had the pleasure of welcoming Dr Betty Lanteigne from LCC Klaipeda as a guest lecturer at the university where I work. She gave a talk in our 'English Linguists Circle' with the title "Unscrambling jumbled sentences: An authentic task for English language assessment?" and it got me thinking about several questions... and … Continue reading Jumbled sentences: An authentic ELT task?
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
I've recently read (am a bit slow) this post https://eltplanning.com/2018/08/03/materials-writer-elt/ and one point really stood out to me - about how being interested in lots of things is helpful for materials writers. And as I'm just going through the proof stage of a book I've co-written, it made me reflect on the interesting things I've … Continue reading Fun things I’ve learnt from writing one ELT coursebook
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
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
There's been a lot of talk about this recently - getting the balance right. The balance between men and women, between native and non-native speakers at ELT events and conferences. I've fairly recently joined the committee of an IATEFL SIG. I'm on the events team. So these kinds of 'balance' topics are more pertinent to … Continue reading Getting the (Conference Speaker) Balance Right
There seem to be a flurry of posts at the moment on how people are feeling, what they're thinking, what's going on in their lives. Maybe these posts are people sneakily trying to hit the record of 15 posts in a month set by Hana Ticha (See: #hanachallenge !). But people also often say that … Continue reading Who can help with my to-do list?
