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Teacher and Materials Writer

  • Review: ELT Lesson Observation & Feedback

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    Lesson observations – where to start?! Jeanette Barsdell, the author of ELT Lesson Observation and Feedback Handbook, was thrown in at the deep end and expected to observe a teacher on her first day as a DOS. Despite being terrified,… Read More ›

  • Pronunciation priorities

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    Uh-oh! Here comes a ‘Teacher Pete thinking something through out loud’ moment. Tut. I hate these… Mark Hancock shared a good article on LinkedIn the other day called ‘Pronunciation Teaching Post-ELF’. It’s got me thinking about my own attitudes towards… Read More ›

  • Review: Great Writing

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    A couple of months ago we ran a two-week ‘Grammar and Writing’ course for teens (aged 14+). I was scheduled to teach these classes but, to be honest, the prospect didn’t fill me with excitement. I enjoy teaching teens in… Read More ›

  • Past continuous: sporting experiences

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    More football! Give me more football! I heard it’s less than a month until the start of the Premier League season. Here’s more football related content for the post-World Cup/pre-PL football hungry students.

  • Tip: A planning matrix for research (Cohen et al, 2005)

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    I’ve been doing some research as part of my dissertation through NILE. I came across an awesome book by Cohen et al called ‘Research Methods in Education’. It wasn’t on our key reading list but I’d thoroughly recommend it.

  • Teaching functional language

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    A newly-qualified CELTA teacher has asked me for advice about how to deal with functional language. So… this is one of my approaches to teaching functional language! The example is from a lesson I did last weekend about the World… Read More ›

  • Training: Improve your whiteboard work

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    I’ve written a training session about whiteboard work designed for our CELTA level teachers. After the last round of teacher observations we established that boarding new/emergent vocabulary was an area for development. This session includes some tips to help teachers… Read More ›

  • Review: Fluentize video lessons

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    I do love a good video-based lesson. Jamie Keddie at lessonstream does them really well. Kieran Donaghy’s lessons on Film English are good for focusing on certain themes. Vocabulary in Chunks and AllatC are two great blogs sharing video lesson… Read More ›

  • Evidence and (my lack of) accountability

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    Last ramble before I’m back to sharing lesson ideas. I’ve been re-reading Russ Mayne’s blog on evidence based ELT. I remember being quite into it in the lead up to my diploma and agreed with (what I saw as) his… Read More ›

  • Acoustic blur, soundshapes, speech streams

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    I’ve been thinking about an interaction I had in class last week. I’ve transcribed it roughly below. For a bit of context, the language point was going to for future plans, and the language had been presented through a listening…. Read More ›