Author Archives

Teacher and Materials Writer

• Review: Great Writing

  By Pete on July 17, 2018 • ( 4 )

  

  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

  By Pete on July 16, 2018 • ( 0 )

  

  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)

  By Pete on July 10, 2018 • ( 1 )

  

  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

  By Pete on June 25, 2018 • ( 3 )

  

  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

  By Pete on June 11, 2018 • ( 5 )

  

  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

  By Pete on June 4, 2018 • ( 3 )

  

  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

  By Pete on May 28, 2018 • ( 1 )

  

  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

  By Pete on May 22, 2018 • ( 8 )

  

  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 ›

• Subject knowledge, jargon, learners

  By Pete on May 15, 2018 • ( 2 )

  

  This is a post aimed at candidates about to take a diploma course, but is still relevant to all. It also loosely connects to Sandy’s recent post about mistakes you’ve made in class (click here).

• 1000 words on… Correcting spoken errors

  By Pete on May 14, 2018 • ( 6 )

  

  This is an interesting topic I’ve been revisiting this week. I wrote about it during my diploma (see here) and I like how relevant and applicable this topic is to my classroom practice. Lyster and Ranta (1997) suggest that there… Read More ›