Nov 7, 2020 Opinions, Twenty things in twenty years Twenty Things in Twenty Years Part Eight: There’s nothing as practical as a good theory In the early years of my career, like many others in my profession, I suffered from an insatiable hunger for recipes. I devoured the resource books that were available in the staff rooms of the schools I was teaching in, and spent much of my hard-earned cash investing in further similar tomes. I rushed through […]
Oct 20, 2020 Opinions, The state of our profession The curse of native speakerism Many moons ago, I used to work in the EFL department of a university here in London. Among my colleagues was a wonderful teacher called Kasia. Originally from Poland, she’d moved to the UK, met someone and ended up settling. Kasia came into the university set-up via one of our CELTA courses, on which she […]
Sep 26, 2020 Classroom Activities, Opinions, The state of our profession, Twenty things in twenty years Twenty Things in Twenty Years Part Seven: Input is more important than output To say that the CTEFLA that was my gateway into the world of English Language Teaching encouraged me to be output-focused would be an understatement. Like many teachers who’ve come through the British ELT system, with its roots firmly in that bare minimum of twenty days of training, and teaching practice from day two of […]
Jun 25, 2020 Opinions Twenty Things in Twenty Years Part Six: Resistance is futile – but still remarkably widespread When I was in my mid-20s living in Jakarta and trying to learn Indonesian, I reached a point where I felt I had to start reading more about Islam. Partly this was because so many of my students were – to varying degrees – Muslim; partly it was because the practising of the religion was […]
Jun 16, 2020 Classroom Activities, Opinions, The state of our profession Back to School Part Four: homework … or the lack of it. In recent years, we’ve seen much made of the idea of the ‘flipped’ classroom. In ELT terms, this often involves urging students to study words and grammar outside of the classroom – presumably by using a dictionary and doing exercises – in order to prepare for classes where the focus would be almost entirely on […]
