Luiz Octávio Barros was asking about scripts we feed ChatGPT the other day. I mentioned this: Which is a very boring example of an (over the word count) type IGCSE ESL text I generate for correction practice. I’m not *massively*… Read More ›
speaking
EAL INSET: Leading with oracy
The second CPD session I delivered to the whole high school this year focused on oracy development. Why this session? Our EAL learners need more opportunities to develop their communication skills in mainstream settings. Curriculum coverage and institutional constraints can… Read More ›
More EAL presentation tasks
Last term I shared a post on presentation tasks for EAL. I have a few more examples to add from this term which are slightly more subject specific. We started the term online, but have been back in the classroom… Read More ›
Timesaver: Conversation starters
Here’s a quick fix warmer while you’re waiting for all students to arrive in your online class. I googled ‘conversation starters’ the other day and found this list of questions 225 starter questions on gifts.com. I pasted these questions into… Read More ›
12 conversation strategies worth teaching
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 ›
Lesson idea: Celebrities, morals and ethics
This is a discussion task to introduce a sequence of lessons on fame and celebrities. One of the set reading texts in the sequence included some comments on celebrity ethics. I thought this was a good springboard, so after a… Read More ›
IELTS: identifying attitudes and opinions
Another ‘making things up as I go along’. This time in my IELTS Teens class. Topic: Environment and the natural world Context: We’d just done some vocabulary review / building activities. We’d also dipped into the book for some listening… Read More ›
‘so’, ‘such a’, and cheap cocktails
Another one of my ‘making things up as I go along’ reflections. This time, something that actually worked! The materials from one of our in-house, pre-int lessons the other day reviewed so/such (a) in the context of travel / holidays… Read More ›
Past continuous: sporting experiences
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.
ELT Planning 