background preloader

Teaching English

Facebook Twitter

How to learn? From mistakes - Diana Laufenberg. 5 Ways to Boost Students’ Critical Thinking in World Language Classes. As teachers, we’ve all experienced lessons that fell flat.

5 Ways to Boost Students’ Critical Thinking in World Language Classes

The students were uninspired or disengaged, and wore blank, expressionless faces. While these moments can feel disappointing and discouraging, they help us learn and improve by honing our instructional choices. Lesson Plan: Goal Setting – The Teacher James. If, as Socretes said, an unexamined life was not worth living, then I would argue that an unexamined course is not worth taking.

Lesson Plan: Goal Setting – The Teacher James

By this I mean that I think it’s crucial for learners to understand why they are doing a language course, what the purpose of it is and what they want to get out of it. A vague, nebulous idea like “I want to improve my English” may be true, but unless it is turned into something concrete, the student is likely to be pretty aimless in trying to achieve their aim. Which means that we teachers need to find ways of focusing our students on personalised and effective goals. Without doing a specific activity with this objective, we can end up in a situation where the students don’t know what they need to focus on to be better users of English, and the teacher doesn’t know what to do to help them get there. I think that we don’t place enough emphasis on goal setting at the beginning of our courses, and with that in mind, I created this lesson plan: Preactional Stage.

Failure And How To Stop It Before It Happens – The Teacher James. I think we need to talk about failure.

Failure And How To Stop It Before It Happens – The Teacher James

If you teach adults, there’s a good chance you’re teaching a room full of people who have failed to learn English at some point in their lives. I should clarify that when I say failed, I don’t mean that they were a complete disaster, but they probably didn’t reach the target they set for themselves. They’ve probably taken a bit of time off, which could be six months, five years or maybe even longer, and they’ve decided to have another crack.

Now some of you might be thinking that my use of the word ‘fail’ is a bit harsh. Using Genial.ly to Create Visual Activities for the Classroom. Here I am again.

Using Genial.ly to Create Visual Activities for the Classroom

Trying another tool. To be honest, the tool was suggested to me by one of the teachers (Marga Valdés) attending a talk I gave last year. It was a talk about creating activities for the classroom using free online tools, and when I finished the presentation, this teacher came up to me and said she was surprised I hadn’t mentioned Genial.ly. Resources for different ways of learning and teaching in the English language classroom. Chia Suan Chong is the author of Successful International Communication, and a regular columnist and award-winning resident blogger for monthly magazine English Teaching Professional.

Resources for different ways of learning and teaching in the English language classroom

English Language Teaching (ELT) is an industry of diversity. We are from different countries, we speak different languages, we are interested in different topics and we might have a preference for different methods of teaching and learning. Diversity is what makes us rich and exciting. It is how we challenge and learn from each other. I don't know another industry that embraces diversity the way we do. Catalogue Category - British Council. The Perfect Classroom Gift: A Gift of Words. I belong to a book club, one that has continued since 1990.

The Perfect Classroom Gift: A Gift of Words

Think of all the books we have read together. And we're serious about this, too. We're not one of those clubs that gather together to eat and then never talk about the book. We talk about the book. One month a year we read a play out loud -- assign parts, read from beginning to end. Once a year, in December, we each buy a book of poetry, mark in some way a poem or two that we particularly like, wrap it attractively and bring it to book club. Twenty-five years equals 250 books read, 25 plays acted out, and 25 evenings of poetry. The Norton FIELD GUIDE To WRITING. Templates Considering the Rhetorical Situation - (Download) - (Print) Scheduling a Research Project - (Download) - (Print)

The Norton FIELD GUIDE To WRITING

Teacher Resources for English Learners. Teaching Strategies for English Learners (PDF) Channel One News offers real-world opportunities for the development of a working content vocabulary for English language learners.

Teacher Resources for English Learners

This user guide for teachers of English learners will help improve students’ English proficiency in the areas of listening, speaking, reading and writing. Combine these teaching strategies with the existing Channel One News curriculum to maximize the instructional value of Channel One News content for students learning English. For Texas: ELPS-Aligned Teaching Strategies for English Learners (PDF)

Collaboration, peer correction, group work

Listening. Games. Tests. Reading. Lesson plans. How To Focus: 5 Research-Backed Secrets To Concentration. A question a lot of us are struggling with these days is “how to focus.” Concentration seems hard. Mr Smedjeback's English Class.

Larry Ferlazzo - four ways to give ELL students feedback on their writing. What is a teacher and, particularly a teacher of English Language Learner, supposed to do to be effective and maintain his/her sanity? Here are four ways I try to do both: Peer Review There does not seem to be clarity among researchers about the best ways to assist ELLs in revising their writing, but they all seem to agree that one of the best things teachers can do is to give ELLs more time - more time to write, more time to think, more time to revise. This need is one of the major reasons why many researchers recommend including an opportunity for peer review and feedback - this process provides more time, as well as providing social support. Katie Hull and I have written extensively in our books about how we implement a peer review process in our classroom that actually works. Robert Gupta: Music is medicine, music is sanity. How can film help you teach or learn English?

What can film and video add to the learning experience?

How can film help you teach or learn English?

Kieran Donaghy, who won the British Council’s TeachingEnglish blog award tells us why film is such a good resource and recommends some useful websites, in one of our top five articles of all time, illustrated by artist Jamie Johnson. Language teachers have been using films in their classes for decades, and there are a number of reasons why film is an excellent teaching and learning tool. Learning from films is motivating and enjoyable Motivation is one of the most important factors in determining successful second-language acquisition.

Films and TV shows are an integral part of students’ lives so it makes perfect sense to bring them into the language classroom. Film provides authentic and varied language Another benefit of using film is that it provides a source of authentic and varied language. 5-Minute Writing Conferences. Developing Learner Autonomy: A Homework Choice Board. Apart from traditional homework tasks based on lessons delivered in the classroom, there is still a myriad of activities students can do by themselves to practise their English, learn to work independently, and take responsibility for their own learning. Learner autonomy is in fact one of the most important things we can promote if we really want to get our students ready for the ongoing, life-long language learning endeavour. The following homework choice board, intended for students at B1 level and above, suggests 16 tasks to practise all four skills as well as grammar, vocabulary and pronunciation: HomeworkChoiceBoard.pdf Although the tasks here have been selected so they are easy to keep track of, holding students accountable for their work, this should ideally be another step in helping students develop their learner independence skills.

Six ways to teach English grammar with voice recordings. Louise Spratt teaches English to young learners at the British Council in Madrid, and encourages learner autonomy through use of technology in class. These are her favourite activities that use audio made for, and created in, the classroom. Teachers do the speaking exam Record yourself and a colleague practising the collaborative parts of a speaking test, like B2 First (FCE), C1 Advanced (CAE) or IELTS. 50 ways to use music and song in the classroom - EFL CLASSROOM 2.0. “Without music, life would be a mistake.” – Fredrich Nietzsche We could also say "Without music, teaching would be a mistake!

50 ways to use music and song in the classroom - EFL CLASSROOM 2.0

" Music just makes any teaching job, no matter how hard, enjoyable. We also say, “Music makes the world go ‘round” but it also makes learning happen. Please see my presentation on this topic, for all the reasons why. Also, this post has lots of links/resources related to using music and song in the EFL classroom. Get all the other "50" lists to help you teach, HERE. Here are some of the best ways to use music in your teaching, each with a nice resource or example. 1.

EnglishCentral. Five Ways to Use Newspapers in the EFL Classroom. Alternatives To Homework: A Chart For Teachers. Edutopia. For English Language Teachers Around the World. English Teaching 101English Teaching 101. We all understand the importance of leading in a topic and making sure that students are focused and are ready to learn.

Here are Katherine’s tips for keeping... - TeachingEnglish - British Council. Wait Time Can Make or Break Your Lesson. Konsten att nå alla – bilderna hjälpte min elev med NPF - Sara Bruun. Att undervisa elever med olika svårigheter är spännande, svårt och utmanande, men samtidigt alldeles fantastiskt när du som lärare får lov och lyckas träda in i elevens värld. Det kräver kunskap hos dig som lärare för att kunna bemöta och undervisa dessa elever på det sätt som just den eleven kräver. Correcting writing: 8 practical ideas. Text summary and analysis. This is a great way to get Proficiency students (although it could be adapted for Advanced or FCE students) reading, finding useful vocabulary in the text and sharing it with each other.

Agent English. Why won’t they speak?! Following on from Monday’s lesson, I deliberately made sure that my intermediate class today would have lots of opportunities to speak, starting immediately with the first activity. The Image in English Language Teaching. CristinaSkyBox: The Revision Game. A Simple Notebook System for Classroom Management.

Posted 03/04/2014 3:40PM | Last Commented 08/02/2017 10:23AM Image Credit: ©Shutterstock.com/Julia Tim Hi All, Contact Support. High quality content and interaction in the ELT world. I don’t think I have ever taught or observed an advanced lesson that went seriously wrong. I mean cringe-worthy wrong. Larissa's Language Studio: Vocabulary & Grammar Auction: A Revision Game. 5 Activities to Make Your PowerPoint More Engaging. Larry Ferlazzo - Online tools. Presentation for teachers. Three ways to help English language learners 'notice' grammar. 30-day-challenge – extramural engelska i fokus. Engelska för gymnasielärare – Google Drive.

How to keep your students motivated. On the very questionable value of error correction at intermediate level (as commonly practised) Teachingenglish.org. Lacking inspiration? 6 awesome resource websites to find stuff for your classes. What is science? Why classroom games can be much more than lesson fillers. Interview with Alan Maley: Exploring Creativity in the Language Classroom. 7 lifesaving websites for EFL teacher. David Dodgson: Digitally speaking. Reactive and proactive teaching: which should we use in the language classroom?

Review: British Council apps for learning English. ”Nationella proven håller inte internationell standard” Video Lesson Framework – short animations. Innovation in teacher resources. Assess my skills - TeachingEnglish Training. Classroom layout. The Best Fun Videos For English Language Learners In 2017 – So Far. A little Experiment: Hitting the Intermediate Plateau? No, you’re not. Don't memorise answers. Ten Easy Homework Tasks to Set. Interview with Anna Young. Why you should change your approach to Grammar Instruction.

Visualisering av Nationella proven Writing ENG5, eller, färgkodning av "A Good Life" - Didaktiska laboratoriet. Teaching Unplugged - Activities. Teaching a language is teaching someone how to fish! - Useful Phrases: Opening, Continuing, Opinion, Contrasting, Agreement, Disagreement, Emphasizing etc. - learn English,vocabulary,communication,english. Speed-chat: A minimal resource activity to get your learners talking. Giving learners feedback on their writing. Recipes for the EFL Classroom. A 6 point plan for using any song in a language lesson. The Revision Game. Is It Time To Go Back To Basics With Writing Instruction? Noam Chomsky on the Dangers of Standardized Testing. Introducing Reported Speech Statements,Questions and Orders in a Different Way. Smrt English. Assessment for Learning in STEM Teaching - Free online course.

Get students learning by MAKING quizzes instead of TAKING quizzes. – EDTECH 4 BEGINNERS. What is dyslexia? - Kelli Sandman-Hurley. Why marking your students’ books should be the least of your priorities. 5-Minute Film Festival: 5 Videos to Explore Growth Mindset. Ten things I did in 2016 that have significantly enhanced my teaching. Learning a language makes you more tolerant, so why aren't more universities encouraging it? Effective Revision Strategies. A Guide to Use Blogs to Help Students Achieve Fluency.

TeachingEnglish Compendium: favourite class games. The Teenage Brain Is Wired to Learn—So Make Sure Your Students Know It. ‘I’ve given up marking – and so should you’ EF Class - Activate your classroom. 25 ideas for using WhatsApp with English language students. Top 12 Effective End of the Year Activities.