Author Archives

Teacher and Materials Writer

• App review: Studycat

  By Pete on March 31, 2020 • ( 6 )

  

  Studycat is a language learning app for young learners. It aims to ‘revolutionise the way kids learn a foreign language, by making it fun and engaging’. According to the Studycat website, the app has been downloaded by 11 million families,… Read More ›

• Parents and online learning

  By Pete on March 26, 2020 • ( 2 )

  

  Soooo much training! In the last 10 days at work I’ve completed five modules of mandatory training on Zoom, had two webinars on using EtonX with YLs, got up to speed quickly with Microsoft Teams (which I had previously neglected… Read More ›

• Learn Thai Duolingo-style

  By Pete on March 19, 2020 • ( 1 )

  

  Just a quick post for any Thai learners out there. I’ve just subscribed to the Ling app. It’s basically Duolingo for Thai. If you like that format then is well worth getting. There are 50 units to study, 10 units… Read More ›

• Materials writing news and views, March 2020

  By Pete on March 11, 2020 • ( 0 )

  

  One-year anniversary of these posts. Cool! New releases Congrats to Billie Jago, who has authored these practice tests for Cambridge C1 Advanced: This is the first time I’ve come across the publisher Prosperity Education. Looks like they are mainly exam-focused,… Read More ›

• How to get a DipTESOL Distinction

  By Pete on March 2, 2020 • ( 4 )

  

  Oh, come on! There’s no secret formula to getting a Distinction in the DipTESOL. You know that. I know that. But people are still gonna google ‘get a DipTESOL distinction’, and someone’s gonna top the search list. It might as… Read More ›

• Hirameki with young learners (via Emily Bryson)

  By Pete on March 1, 2020 • ( 0 )

  

  A very quick post to say thanks to Emily Bryson! She recently shared this interesting post on using the Japanese art of Hirameki as way to teach life skills and encourage creativity. This worked a treat with my 6-year-olds! We… Read More ›

• ELT Publishing Professionals – is it worth signing up?

  By Pete on February 21, 2020 • ( 2 )

  

  A question I’ve been asked on LinkedIn by a writer (post for writers/editors, not publishers)… Is it worth joining the ELT Publishing Professionals database? Anonymous Bit fiddly to answer on LinkedIn, also the answer might be useful for others. So…… Read More ›

• 12 conversation strategies worth teaching

  By Pete on February 21, 2020 • ( 1 )

  

  One thing my CELTA course skimmed over was how to develop learners’ conversation strategies. There seems to be a good amount of focus on conversation strategies in recent coursebooks. However, at times I find these can be problematic. Models of… Read More ›

• Review: NILE Membership

  By Pete on February 20, 2020 • ( 3 )

  

  The NILE Membership area is a new section on the Norwich Institute of Language Education site. It includes various resources created for language educators by the NILE trainers. There’s new content added each month and (best of all) it is… Read More ›

• Lesson idea: environmental issues

  By Pete on February 18, 2020 • ( 1 )

  

  We did this activity a few weeks ago as an intro to our module on environmental problems/issues. It’s a context builder more than anything, and introduced some of the language that the learners needed for their final task (produce a… Read More ›