I’m a native Brit who loves languages. I did my CELTA during my final year of uni when I was studying French, German and Spanish. Once I’d finished my degree I decided to head straight to Europe and start my English teaching adventures, but rather than going somewhere where I could already speak the language, [...]
Posts Tagged ‘Teaching’
Are we going too global? (by Yitzha Sarwono)
Some people fear that in the race to make Indonesian students more global, they may be losing the sense of what it means to be part of the Indonesian nation. August 17th is Independence Day in Indonesia. Just like other countries, on this day we celebrate the history of how Indonesia became a nation. When [...]
The iPad in the ESL/EFL Classroom (By Kevin Cozma)
Are you an EFL/ESL teacher? Have an iPad? Want an iPad? Have 10 minutes to kill? Read on.
How to plan an exciting EFL museum trip (by Lesley Ito)
As a teacher in an English language school with a strong cross-curricular focus, I always try my best to bring authentic materials into the classroom. Humans learn more when they can experience the real thing, instead of just looking at pictures of it in a book. Of course, it is not always possible to bring [...]
Tell a story! (By Christina Markoulaki)
Here I am, back from a short-term holiday and ready for my summer lessons! It is customary in Greece for the winter courses in private language institutions to end around May; towards the end of June schools resume preparations to welcome those students who are willing to finish one more English-language class by taking an [...]
Proactive Discipline–Tend to Your Garden (by Eric Kane)
Creating a positive learning environment with few discipline problems is a goal of any teacher. We all want to give our young learners the best opportunity to succeed, but sometimes we forget that building this type of environment, much like tending to a garden, takes planning, effort, consistency and a fair amount of time and [...]
The “Reading Pictures” Strategy (By Naomi Ganin-Epstein)
It’s Wednesday, 11:00, just a regular day at the high school. Two English teachers are sitting in the teacher’s room marking exams during their “free” period. Every now and then you can hear each one exclaim (or mutter, as the case may be) “How could he have possible written THAT?” or “How in earth did [...]
Rice in Japan and Rice Around the World (by Bob Middleton)
Bringing food topics into the language classroom is one way to stimulate language learning as well as hungry appetites. 9 and 10 year old students in the 5th grade of our elementary school in Japan take part in an 8-hour lesson on varieties of rice in Japan. This Japan-unit is later followed by a similar [...]
Creating a Buzz in Teens’ Classrooms (by Mari Nakamura)
“Aren’t teenagers too self-conscious to speak English?” “Do they care about the contents that do not appear in their school tests?” “Well… I wouldn’t want to get into that area…” I have been teaching teens as well as pre-school and elementary school children at my language school, English Square, in Japan, for the last 20 [...]
Images à la Dogme (by Chiew Pang)
I must admit that when Barb invited me to submit a guest post, I felt I wasn’t worthy of such an invite. Later, I thought… if she’d felt that I had something to contribute, well, then I couldn’t very well let her down, could I? Besides, one has to step out of one’s comfort zone [...]
