Teaching Pre-School Children: The Importance of Stories (Cambridge Conversations)

[ELTWeekly Volume 7, Issue 17 | September 21, 2015 | ISSN 0975-3036] Oral stories are particularly important. For both adults and children language is perceived largely through sound, which many people believe links to a primitive human instinct. It’s easy to ignore words on a page, but humans are hard wired to pay attention to… Continue reading Teaching Pre-School Children: The Importance of Stories (Cambridge Conversations)

Strategies for Teaching IELTS: Part One – Where to start? (OUP Blog)

[ELTWeekly Volume 7, Issue 17 | September 21, 2015 | ISSN 0975-3036] As with most things in life, the key to a successful IELTS course is in the preparation. If you have a clear idea of what you and your students need to do from the outset then you are far more likely to help… Continue reading Strategies for Teaching IELTS: Part One – Where to start? (OUP Blog)

Messages, Discussions and Chats: Increasing Student Interaction (OUP Blog)

[ELTWeekly Volume 7, Issue 17 | September 21, 2015 | ISSN 0975-3036] Today’s students are not limited to learning English in the classroom only. Through the use of technology, learning English has become 24/7 – 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. In this environment, what is the teacher’s role in helping their students… Continue reading Messages, Discussions and Chats: Increasing Student Interaction (OUP Blog)

Bridging the gap between receptive and productive competence (Cambridge Conversations)

[ELTWeekly Volume 7, Issue 16 | August 31, 2015 | ISSN 0975-3036] Key characteristics While learners’ receptive competence continues to develop, their productive competence remains relatively static. Language items that learners recognize and understand in the input they hear do not pass into their productive competence. All language users have greater receptive competence (language they… Continue reading Bridging the gap between receptive and productive competence (Cambridge Conversations)

Six ways to boost classroom participation: Part Six (OUP Blog)

[ELTWeekly Volume 7, Issue 16 | August 31, 2015 | ISSN 0975-3036] When students are busy in an English class thinking about how to go about saying something, they can become weighed down by the need to produce perfect linguistic patterns. So they focus too much on accuracy, rather than really communicating. So how can… Continue reading Six ways to boost classroom participation: Part Six (OUP Blog)

ESL Fanatics: 7 Pop Culture Elements You Can Use to Engage Your Students (Busy Teacher)

[ELTWeekly Volume 7, Issue 15 | July 27, 2015 | ISSN 0975-3036] Viral videos, snarky memes, and a cat that is so grumpy it puts all other crabby felines to shame, these are but a few of the pop culture elements that make millions drop what they’re doing to check out the latest craze. Why… Continue reading ESL Fanatics: 7 Pop Culture Elements You Can Use to Engage Your Students (Busy Teacher)

Writing together – collaborative writing tasks for elementary learners (Cambridge English Blog)

[ELTWeekly Volume 7, Issue 15 | July 27, 2015 | ISSN 0975-3036] Collaborative writing can ease the initial difficulties elementary writers have when asked to bring their own ideas onto paper. Here are some of the collaborative writing tasks I rely on in my classroom: In person, place, type of story, the students use cards… Continue reading Writing together – collaborative writing tasks for elementary learners (Cambridge English Blog)

Laura Patsko’s Tips for Teaching Pronunciation (Cambridge English Blog)

[ELTWeekly Volume 7, Issue 15 | July 27, 2015 | ISSN 0975-3036] 1. Make sure you teach pronunciation! First and foremost on this list of top tips: don’t be afraid of teaching pronunciation! It isn’t just a ‘nice to have’. It affects all areas of language learning – for example, there is evidence that strong… Continue reading Laura Patsko’s Tips for Teaching Pronunciation (Cambridge English Blog)

Six ways to boost classroom participation: Part 1 – Using peer observation (OUP Blog)

[ELTWeekly Volume 7, Issue 15 | July 27, 2015 | ISSN 0975-3036]  “When we originally went to the moon, our total focus was on the moon, we weren’t thinking about looking back at the earth. But now we’ve done it, that may have been the most important reason we went.” – reported by David Beaver,… Continue reading Six ways to boost classroom participation: Part 1 – Using peer observation (OUP Blog)

Five top tips for using video with your learners (Cambridge English Blog)

[ELTWeekly Volume 7, Issue 14 | July 13, 2015 | ISSN 0975-3036] What’s your top tip for teaching with video in the classroom? We’re currently running a competitionwhere the best tip can win a GoPro kit and choice of accessories. You can enter that competition here, but why not catch up on some of the… Continue reading Five top tips for using video with your learners (Cambridge English Blog)