According to Tomlinson (2013:12-15), ‘it is generally accepted that [Second Language Acquisition] is facilitated by: a rich and meaningful exposure to language in use affective and cognitive engagement making use of mental resources typically used in L1 communication noticing how… Read More ›
I picked up some interesting throw-outs from the British Council library here in Thailand. I’ve been flicking through Teaching Reading Skills in a Foreign Language by Christine Nuttall (1996) this week. It’s clear, well-organised and has lots of practical activities… Read More ›
In this latest guest post, CELTA Trainer Nicky Salmon offers some tips for drilling pronunciation. I watch a lot of teachers doing drills to focus on pronunciation. Picture yourself drilling the following- Teacher: OK class, listen….vegetable, vegetable Students: Vegetable Teacher:… Read More ›
I’ve been using Quizlet in class for a while. This term I’m getting to grips with it a bit more as part of a project for my MA. Huh, Quizlet? Quizlet is a site which allows you to create your own… Read More ›
Images in ELT coursebooks are often ambiguous. What might seem a fairly obvious depiction of an act or concept to us may be perceived as something completely different to our learners. In an interesting, small-scale study, Hewings (1991) asked a… Read More ›
In Developing Materials for Language Teaching (2013) Tomlinson introduces a text-driven approach to materials development. He goes into quite a bit of detail regarding text selection, offers a suggested framework for the approach and provides a practical example (pages 99-114)…. Read More ›
I just watched a good talk from Mark McKinnon and Nicola Meldrum called ‘Making pronunciation an integral part of your classroom practice’. Here’s a link (I can’t embed the vid for some reason). I’m a DipTESOL graduate so ‘pron’ is… Read More ›
What are coursebooks to you? This question prompted plenty of discussion on our materials development course. We were given various metaphors to choose from – a springboard, a straitjacket, a recipe, a compass, etc. I opted for a crutch, as… Read More ›
I took a course on materials development recently. It was really good – plenty of input and ideas I could apply in my current context. Here’s a link to the course if you’re interested. The role of teaching materials (as… Read More ›
Ball ball ball, footie footie footie! I’m a bit obsessed with the beautiful game, and I’ve taught plenty of students who are too! You may have come across Premier Skills English before, the British Council/Premier League site dedicated to teaching… Read More ›
ELT Planning 