Author Archives

Teacher and Materials Writer

• Academic English syllabus for EAL – sample unit!

  By Pete on October 23, 2026 • ( 0 )

  

  As you may have read, I’ve been creating an academic English syllabus for KS3 EAL intensive provision. This has been an AI-assisted project, and you can catch up on (most of) the process through this tag. Anyhow, after a brief… Read More ›

• Beyond the coursebook for tiered EAL provision (Part 6: instructional design) 

  By Pete on October 6, 2026 • ( 0 )

  

  I’ve been working with AI to create an academic English syllabus for EAL learners. The last post shared the full syllabus map (see here). I’m moving on to document an important step here – outlining the instructional design principles. Why… Read More ›

• Beyond the coursebook for tiered EAL provision (Sequence Draft 1)

  By Pete on September 14, 2026 • ( 1 )

  

  I’ve been building this ‘Academic English Syllabus’ for EAL learners. You can catch up on the process here if interested. Anyhow, in this post, I’m sharing the first draft of a full (AI-assisted) lesson sequence. Here it is. And here… Read More ›

• Beyond the coursebook for tiered EAL provision (Part 5: genres, tasks, language functions)

  By Pete on September 2, 2026 • ( 1 )

  

  More reflections on building this academic English syllabus. I’m going to accelerate through them a bit in case you’re getting bored. So far we’ve had: Part 1: mapping the skills coverage Part 2: core vocab coverage Part 3: subskills coverage… Read More ›

• Interlude: Beyond the coursebook for tiered EAL provision

  By Pete on September 1, 2026 • ( 2 )

  

  (This is a text-heavy post, so every now and then I’m going to drop in an album cover of a band I’ve been listening to recently – just so you don’t get bored) I’m building an ‘academic English syllabus’ for… Read More ›

• Beyond the coursebook for tiered EAL provision (Part 4: unit overviews)

  By Pete on August 28, 2026 • ( 1 )

  

  For context, I’m creating an ‘academic English’ syllabus for Year 7 EAL learners.  So, I currently have: About 45 core skill areas for learners to develop across 5 areas: reading/viewing, speaking/oracy, listening, writing, plurilingual competencies (see Part 1). These are… Read More ›

• Beyond the coursebook for tiered EAL provision (Part 3: sub-skills)

  By Pete on August 27, 2026 • ( 9 )

  

  For context, I’m attempting to build an ‘academic English syllabus’ for an international school. I initially set out to create suitable alternatives to coursebook-driven provision, or to at least suggest enhancements to that model. Am I getting anywhere, or am… Read More ›

• Beyond the coursebook for tiered EAL provision (Part 2: vocab!)

  By Pete on August 25, 2026 • ( 2 )

  

  If you missed Part 1, basically I’m attempting to build an ‘academic English syllabus’ for EAL contexts. The overall purpose is so that we don’t have to fall back on using ELT coursebooks for tiered provision. Famous last words –… Read More ›

• Beyond the coursebook for tiered EAL provision (Part 1)

  By Pete on August 24, 2026 • ( 4 )

  

  Many international schools in Thailand are choosing to shape their tiered EAL support around a coursebook. That’s one way to do things, and I can’t say whether it meets the needs of learners in every context.  Personally, I think there… Read More ›

• EAL Digest August 2026

  By Pete on August 16, 2026 • ( 0 )

  

  Shorter summary than usual, but I’ve been a bit busy! New releases The new EAL Journal from NALDIC is out: Putting Multilingualism on the Map. Find out more here. Jason Anderson and Suyog Dixit have a new book out: Translanguaging… Read More ›