I first went to Russia in December 1999 to visit a friend of mine who’d just taken a teaching job there. Little did I know then what a central part in my life the country would come to play over…
Another five things I’ve learned running the ENGLISH QUESTIONS ANSWERED group
Three years ago now, I was talked into setting up a Facebook group called ENGLISH QUESTIONS ANSWERED. It was designed to be a space where anyone at any level could ask questions about how English is used, whether or not…
Five more things I’ve learned from running the ENGLISH QUESTIONS ANSWERED group
Two years ago now, I set up a Facebook group called ENGLISH QUESTIONS ANSWERED. In a sense, it was a purely selfish move as I wanted to be able to shepherd into one place all the questions about language that…
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.…
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…
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…
Twenty Things in Twenty Years Part Two: Troubling trouble when trouble troubles you!
There are plenty of things that you generally don’t learn on a four-week CELTA course: how bizarre many of the staff rooms you’ll later find yourself in will be; how rife the illegal photocopying of published material is around the…
Twenty Things In Twenty Years Part One: Falling Into A Me-Shaped Hole
In much the same way as I once found it inconceivable that I’d ever suffer the indignity of reaching the terrifying age of 30, so it seems preposterous that I've now racked up well over twenty-five years in English Language…
Back to school: Part One
As you may have noticed, we recently wrote a Beginner’s book and I have written a series of posts exploring the ideas behind it. One thing that's driving this two-man campaign (you can decide for yourself if that means it’s…
Five things I’ve learned from running the ENGLISH QUESTIONS ANSWERED group
One of the side-effects of being a coursebook writer and teacher with a relatively high social media profile is that I get a lot of mail. A depressingly large chunk of this is simply messages saying things like HI! or…