(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 ›
international school
Beyond the coursebook for tiered EAL provision (Part 4: unit overviews)
For context, I’m creating an ‘academic English’ syllabus for Year 7 EAL learners. So, I currently have: The above is our core coverage. While the Tier 3 vocab has a ‘select, not cover’ approach to make sure it is addressed… Read More ›
Beyond the coursebook for tiered EAL provision (Part 3: sub-skills)
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!)
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 ›
EAL Digest August 2026
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 ›
EAL Digest July 2026
I never really got this update off the ground a few years back. Feels like I need to keep track of different things I come across so I’m starting it again. New releases One Asia Readers A great series of… Read More ›
Effective questioning
Jane Maria Harding da Rosa at EELT asked if I had any tips regarding effective questioning. She felt that effective questioning is not covered much on initial teacher training courses, so is planning some input on it for her blog/channel… Read More ›
Community building activities for tutor time
Last year, Joel Lawrence and I worked on some community building resources for tutor time at St. Joes. They were meant to be used as part of an induction phase, maybe weeks 1-2 of term. Nothing ground-breaking here! Just sharing… Read More ›
Interview task: create a lesson for a Year 10 IGCSE ESL class
I recently had an interview for a Head of EAL role here in Bangkok. It was for a school called King’s College, which is a fairly new school with a good reputation. I did okay – made it through to… Read More ›
‘We’re on a journey with Bell / WIDA’
I hear this a lot during my interviews for EAL teaching/leadership roles. It’s in response to my question about which EAL assessment tool(s) the school use and *the extent to which they are embedded*. I love the honest responses from… Read More ›
ELT Planning 