"When one teaches, two learn"
“Thinking is easy, acting is difficult, and to put one’s thoughts into action is the most difficult thing in the world.” – Johanne Wolfgang von Goethe How do we take our teaching to the next step? From mere classroom activity and into the wide, open...
BestWords.me is a really cool, authentic website where students can build vocabulary (adjectives) in a Web 2.0 / interactive fashion. Simple as pie and no registration! Students just: 1. make a personal “word” page 2. Choose words to describe themselves 3. Share the page with...
I’d like to share as the year comes to a close – My best “Teaching Advice” blog posts. Also, my best “Practical Teaching Posts”. [Next – I’ll outline the Best posts about “Language”. ] Note: all posts link to the EFL Classroom 2.0 blog which...
“I firmly believe that respect is a lot more important, and a lot greater, than popularity.” Julius Erving This post might unsettle you – so advanced warning. Just my opinion. The rest of August I’ll be chiming in with many other provocative opinions about the...
Last week, I made a simple flash presentation for teachers that list all the questions used in Vanity Fair’s Proust Questionnaire. Also, listed the resources I’ve made for pairs to use the questionnaire (it is a kind of “reading role play” where one person is a...
** Not your ordinary, endless list – just what’s number 1. True Tube I’ve been on TrueTube since the beginning and watched it flourish as a go to site for great, critical content for educational use. In the beginning, a one woman show, now a...
The “Top” games series continues! Today, in celebration of the forthcoming Earth Day, the top 5 games that focus on global/world issues. Global Issues are something that students really get interested in. Very motivating for language learning and it brings the learning focus into the...
I’m quite enjoying the process of making a decision about ” The Top” games and find previous lists HERE and HERE. The GAMES and ARCADE pages on EFL Classroom 2.0 are really popular and I think for good reason. [in fact today’s selection is all ...
Following up on yesterday’s Top 5 online games for learning – today I offer my Top 5 that are more “traditional”. By that I mean they are more controlled and less authentic. Quizzes, Q and A trivia, mix and match, multiple choice – you get...
I’ve written a lot about Krashen’s ideas on this blog. Fundamentally because they focus so well on what is “essential” in language learning. He doesn’t suffer fools gladly and I’m glad about that. I was going over his online articles and especially his seminal work...
I’m putting together an online presentation for some Brazilian teachers and I’ll be talking about “Stickiness”. I thought it would be worthwhile to air my own thoughts specifically about what makes our teaching “stick”. In other words, how to make what we do transfer into...
No diatribe, no long speech or pronouncement. Just a task – so we can help each other. Watch this wonderful video below and tell me how you might use it in class. What would you do before / during / after the video? Any ideas?...
Today’s ELT chat was about using translation in the classroom. I joined in late but the tweeting reminded me of two very “solid” automated translation tools for students and teachers. 1. The Oddcast Translation bot Limited to 250 characters, it is still very powerful. Type...
CDLP – The California Distance Learning Project, is one of the many governmental sites leading the way towards free online learning resources. It doesn’t have a lot of “flash” but it has an abundance of semi authentic materials with audio and extra vocabulary study. Excellent...
It’s 2011 and I want to start telling some more stories! I’m a firm believer that the best teachers are those that tell stories in order to teach. (and research suggests this and also essential for great presentations). I’ve collected my stories HERE on EFL...
Listening is one of the most overlooked skills, especially in the initial stages / levels of language learning. (see my blog post here about this and download the activities ebook). Using authentic listening materials combined with the 5 Ws, really makes a great multi level...
As a teacher trainer, there is one “theoretical” thing I really want all new teachers to believe and understand. It is the difference between “knowing” a language and “doing” a language. Further, the implications that suggests for our classroom practices. In general speak, we use...
Today, I get to have some fun! Last week, Willy Cardoso wrote a fictional conversation that he might have had with Karenne Sylvester about the use of materials in ELT. Karenne wrote previously about “materials light” or Dogme teaching. When I read Willy’s post – I definitely...
I just finished a whirlwind 6 day week of workshops on technology and language teaching – given to mostly new teachers. I had a wonderful time and the energy of the teachers always renews me, no matter how tiring the 6 hour sessions a day...
Teenage Second Language Learning Why they are different and why that matters [see my workshop materials for teaching teens – here. / Also this post is a reply to this post- The Captive Mind] The best substitute for experience is being sixteen. ...
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