Tyson Seburn recently tweet-asked followers about their degrees prior to working in ELT. After seeing such varied responses, I feel quite embarrassed to admit that I know very little about anything other than the English language ☹. Not even much… Read More ›

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Review: Ready to Run video platform (DLA)
This review was first published in the Winter 2019 edition of the ETAS Journal. Many thanks to ETAS for allowing the review to appear on this blog. Ready to Run, from Digital Learning Associates (DLA), is a platform providing video-based… Read More ›
The benefits of using an ELT coursebook
Late last year I read the Jordan and Gray/Hughes exchange on ELT coursebooks, which appeared in ELT Journal. It’s an interesting discussion if you haven’t read it yet. I generally agreed more with Hughes, but that’s to be expected; I… Read More ›
Writing lesson: online dating profiles
This is a lesson based around authentic texts from the eHarmony website. It is aimed at adult pre-intermediate level plus, but these texts are full of rich language so it would ideally suit intermediate level students. Aims: · Share personal… Read More ›
Materials writing news and views, September 2019
September already? It’ll soon be Xmas… New releases Deborah Hobbs (author) mentioned the release of ‘Open World’ (CUP). This is from the Cambridge English website: Open World is an exciting new course from Cambridge which takes you further. Embark on… 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 ›
Materials writing news and views, August 2019
It’s been a whole month since I’ve punned in a published resource! Crazy. New releases Tyson Seburn has a put together a sample unit of an ELT LGBTQIA2 inclusive coursebook unit, based on a normalisation approach. He’s done a great… Read More ›
Spoken Grammar: a Guide for English Language Teachers
I got offered free access to this course on Udemy. I’ve been meaning to do it for a while. Finally got around to it and… wow! It’s very impressive. Course overview Spoken Grammar is a teacher training course. It provides… Read More ›
Materials writing news and views, July 2019
Sorry, been busy! Here’s some latest news with a Pearson-heavy start! Pearson to phase out print textbooks The big news announced yesterday (BBC article here). In the pipeline… Pearson are working on the higher levels (Int+) of Startup. Promo… Read More ›
How do you start a lesson?
Hey all, quick question here, after some ideas. I just wondered – do you have any routines or activities you use to engage learners at the start of class?