In this post, I will provide an example of the information we share with applicants for our EAL roles. I’ll start with the example, then I’ll outline: So, here it goes… This is a copy-paste of the information we shared… Read More ›
reading
One of our research areas is missing
I’ve been flicking through Jamie Clark’s Teaching One-Pagers recently, and overall I’m a big fan. Evidence-informed summaries of research and practice – informative, accessible, perfect for the staffroom coffee table. As Oliver Caviglioli points out in the foreword, One-Pagers is… Read More ›
New book! IELTS Reading Practice
If Carlsberg did writing projects… Ha, what would we ask for as writers? What would be your ultimate terms and conditions? Mine would probably include: choosing my co-author (almost) complete freedom over content flexible deadlines so I can work around… Read More ›
Materials Development Task 8: Questions
This is a new series of blog posts for teachers looking to become materials writers. It aims to help future writers explore topics and issues in writing, encourage deeper insight into the content of published materials, and promote a principled… Read More ›
Reading tasks for homework
Hiya, hope online learning is going well. Here are some random reading tasks I set for homework. Each student chooses one of these to do a week. These are in a big folder on my desk, but they’ll be adapted… Read More ›
Text-driven approach and K-pop
Came across this post on my Google Drive. I think I wrote it with someone like NALDIC in mind, but not sure they responded/I sent it. It’s not the best, but if you’re interested in Brian Tomlinson’s work it might… Read More ›
23 Ways to Use a Text in Your ESL Classes
Reading. One of the big four, along with elephants, lions and rhinos. Or is it listening, speaking and writing? Who knows. Either way, my question for you is: when was the last time your students were actively learning a new… Read More ›
More on developing meaning-building skills in reading
This post follows on from Rachael Roberts’ great article on developing meaning-building skills in reading. As Rachael says, comprehension questions have their place but they also have their limitations. Tasks that develop meaning-building skills, which you could use alongside/instead of… Read More ›
A rant about comprehension questions
On my module in materials development we’ve just looked at reading and listening tasks. We spoke about what makes good/bad comprehension questions. ‘Plain sense’ questions are seen as pretty ineffective, as they just test familiarity with sentence structure rather than… Read More ›
5 ways to make reading tasks more fun
This week a colleague at the British Council gave me FIVE different activities for my young learner classes. That means I have to share 5 ideas to even things out! There’s a theme to the ideas below – 5 ways… Read More ›
ELT Planning 