Jun 26, 2018 Chunks, Word of the day Word of the day: cracking In my last evening class, one of my students came in looking slightly confused. “I’ve got a question about something my English housemate said”, he told me. “OK. Let’s hear it, then”. “Well, I know she went to see this new sci-fi film, Annihilation. Do you know it?” “Well, I’ve heard of it“, I replied, […]
Jun 25, 2018 Chunks, Word of the day Word of the day: caff Last Monday, I was invited to the ELTONs – the British Council awards ceremony celebrating innovation in English Language Teaching. I had a bit of a late night and then had to get up early as I had a meeting at 9.30. I could’ve done with another hour or two in bed, I can tell […]
Jun 23, 2018 Chunks, Word of the day Word of the day: cagey For the last week, I’ve been running a teacher development course in Krasnoyarsk with some wonderful local teachers. It was weird being in Russia as World Cup fever grips the nation, but away from the cities where the matches are being played . . . and busy from 9 till 6 every day.Despite that, I’ve […]
Jun 22, 2018 Chunks, Phrase of the day Phrase of the day: a double-edged sword For many years, Hugh Grant was perhaps the most famous English actor there was. He rose to fame playing . . . well, himself, really. In films such as Notting Hill, Love Actually and Four Wedddings and a Funeral, he played the quintessential upper-class Englishman: shy, self-deprecating, slightly socially awkward, and desperate to maintain a stiff […]
Jun 17, 2018 Chunks, Word of the day Word of the day: OFSTED Following on from our recent post about heavy workloads, where we revealed how much UK teachers work, today we’re looking at OFSTED. OFSTED in an organisation that inspects schools in England and checks that they’re doing a good job. OFSTED stands for the Office for Standards in Education, Children’s Services and Skills. It’s often blamed […]
