‘Young learners’ A term invented by the TEFL muppets

January 18, 2010

When I did my TEFl or CELTA or TESOL or whatever it’s called, I wasn’t popular with my tutors. I was one of those annoying teachers who’d already taught and was just doing the course for the qualification and spent most of the four weeks questioning what was being taught. Not because I was intrinsically [...]

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Business English Activities – Improving Materials

January 16, 2010

“Even the worlds’s greatest publishing company can produce inferior products…from time to time”
This is what the CEO of I-Ling told me the other day when I told him that his materials on businesss English skills – e-mail english, telephone english etc.. – were, quite frankly, a pile of poo. Apparently they were created in [...]

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ESL Fundamentals: Should I always set homework?

January 16, 2010

The fact that this question is so often asked is a symptom of the sorry state of language teaching today. To be quite frank, it is an absurd question. It’s rather like saying “I want to drive to work…should I use a car?”
Before we answer it however, you must remember one of the key principals [...]

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ESL Fundamentals: Homework 2 – What do I set them?

January 16, 2010

ESL Homework – What to set?
(WARNING – THE REST OF THIS POST IS A PLUG… NOT INTENTIONAL, IT’S JUST THAT SO MUCH OF I-LING’S WORK IS BASED ON REAL CLASROOM PROBLEMS (like schools not setting homework or providing a study plan) WE END UP COMING TO THE I-LING SOLOUTION. SORRY ABOUT THIS … STOP READING [...]

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Teaching different levels in ESL and TEFL: 5 soloutions

January 13, 2010

I had a bloody tricky job interview the other day where the LSO (language school owner) asked me the classic… “What would you do if you had an English class in which you had students with different levels?”
All of us have faced this dilemna in our classes and let’s face it: differing levels is [...]

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Business English Activities – Venture Capitalists

January 13, 2010

While on my way to a business English skills class I suddenely realised that the materials I had were shoddy (see the next post). They consisted of a couple of photocopied sheets of very dry business skills tips and exercises. Realising that the class would move at a snail’s pace and be thoroughly boring, I [...]

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Mastering the teacher pupil relationship in English teaching/efl

January 12, 2010

What to do when ‘ winey’ Students complain in an English class. Mastering the teacher pupil relationship in English teaching/efl.
Unless you are a TEFL-guru-super ninja-Confucius-style English teacher, your students will complain. Yes………. they will. In fact, even if you were the ninth Buddha reincarnation of Naom Chomsky – linguist extraordinaire … your pupils would still [...]

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