Freedom in the teacher’s room
Why, how and what free software can be an ethical and practical alternative to proprietary software.
Freedom in the teacher’s room Read More »
Why, how and what free software can be an ethical and practical alternative to proprietary software.
Freedom in the teacher’s room Read More »
Today I would like to share with you an activity I love to do in both 1:1 and group classes. I love it because it has three very special ingredients that few activities have all combined: it’s flexible, it can be adapted to almost any level and any class; it’s fun, so far all my
‘Something I’: a speaking activity Read More »
I know I’m lagging behind on this topic as many bloggers and ELT professionals have already written and spoken extensively about it, especially after this plenary by Silvana Richardson at IATEFL 2016. And by the way, of all the things I’ve been reading on the topic, I particularly enjoyed this article by Marek Kiczkowiak and
A NNEST and employer on the equity debate Read More »
I recently read a not-so-recent article about a group of UK teachers who went to China to try to understand the secret to the high performance of Chinese students in international tests. The alleged results came as quite a shock. According to the article, the “traditional” methods used in China — the same that the
Are we getting it all wrong? Read More »
As I wrote at the beginning of this school year, we decided to try to experiment some courses without a textbook. The idea behind this was to give maximum flexibility and adaptability to the teacher and the course, so that it could be tailor-made for our very small groups. The results were not as positive
Considerations after one year of courses without a textbook Read More »
It’s been a very busy summer, so I haven’t been posting much on this blog. But now that the beginning of our school year is approaching, and I’m starting to get ready for it, I found again the inspiration and need to share some thoughts with the blosphere. As I explained in detail here, this
Preparing for a new school year Read More »
I decided to write this post after reading Sandy Millin’s post and thinking: “wow, that’s exactly what I think!”. I apologise if this is more of a random collection of thoughts, but again, Sandy’s post reminded me of how putting your thoughts in writing sometimes can help to clarify your mind and put things into
To coursebook or not to coursebook? That is the question. Read More »
I know a lot of teachers and trainers have already written about this. In the past, translation was a big part of language learning, but now it has become a secondary — if not frowned upon — activity in the language classroom. And I was one of those teachers who believe translation only gets students
The role of translation in the language classroom Read More »
As I promised here, today I would like to tell you about my experimental Dogme lesson. I have been really fascinated by the Dogme idea since I first heard about Thornbury and Meddings’s book from Anthony. I bought the book immediately and, as I was reading it, I thought the authors were saying exactly what
My Dogme experiment Read More »
Since I will soon be posting about my personal Dogme experiments, I found this post amazingly interesting and useful. It’s quite old (2011) but I am re-blogging it here both as a reminder for myself and for those of you who missed it. 🙂
Recycling Language in a Dogme Classroom Read More »