Jun 2, 2020 Classroom Activities, Lexis, Opinions Why ‘Is it formal or informal?’ is perhaps my most-hated question in ELT Let’s face it, over the years, we’ve probably all asked plenty of questions in class that we later look back on and regret. This starts from our very first teaching practice when we become aware of the fact that we’ve explained something poorly and that half our students are looking worryingly confused. Unable to come […]
May 3, 2020 Classroom Activities, Coursebooks, Opinions, Twenty things in twenty years Twenty Things in Twenty Years Part Five: there really is no need for needs analysis! One of the more ridiculous notions instilled in me on my month-long CELTA course taken back in the early 1990s was the idea that via a scribbled sheet of paper containing a few topics and some grammar structures, I might somehow be able to discern the ‘needs’ of my subsequent classes. In retrospect, it now […]
Apr 24, 2020 Grammar, Opinions, Twenty things in twenty years Twenty Things in Twenty Years Part Four: the way I was taught to teach grammar crippled my understanding of grammar! I feel it best to warn you in advance that this is a post that could potentially spiral wildly out of control! It may also, I fear, contain themes I’ve entered into from slightly angles during other posts in this series. This is down to the fact that this is a topic that’s exercised me […]
Apr 22, 2020 Grammar, Opinions, Twenty things in twenty years Twenty Things in Twenty Years Part Three: kicking the grammar habit As I’m sure I’ve mentioned elsewhere, my induction into English Language Teaching via a four-week CELTA at Westminster College (and, indeed, my subsequent year-long part-time DELTA) left me with that very same affliction that so many of our students still find themselves stuck with a bad case of: Grammar Anxiety. The whole main thrust of […]
Apr 21, 2020 Classroom Activities, Grammar, Lexis, Opinions Back to School Part Three: lessons of forgetting and laughter They say that learning a foreign language is a good way of avoiding dementia in later life, but with learning Russian I sometimes feel that maybe dementia has already set in! Words taught mere seconds ago can become a blank and I find myself stuck in a loop of asking “What’s that word?” and “How […]
