Writing is probably the most difficult area for learners to improve on by themselves. Writing demands an audience and if you have no-one to tell you how successful your efforts are - or not - then you are doomed to... Continue Reading →
This is a ten minute presentation I gave at the recent International House Teachers' Online Conference (IHTOC60) on the Tai Chi of Reading. The basic premise is that there are certain movements or forms that exist within the Tai Chi... Continue Reading →
Following on from the extensive revision of the Proficiency(CPE) exam in March this year, Cambridge have just released a revised handbook for the changes they'll be making to the First exam (FCE) from the start of 2015. Similar changes are... Continue Reading →
For those that may have missed it, here are the slides (as pdf) from the webinar I gave at the IH Teachers' Online Conference on 3rd November. The session was a look at common problems learners have with writing for... Continue Reading →
There seems to be a lot of anti-testing sentiment prevalent in the teaching world at the moment. There's a particular degree of vitriol that seems to be reserved for standardised testing, but which has tapped a general anti-educational zeitgeist and... Continue Reading →
For all those of you that teach FCE preparation classes - here's a list of the best stuff I've found online for FCE prep. Most of the resources can be classified as either "online practice activities" or "teaching ideas" -... Continue Reading →
If you help learners prepare for one of the Cambridge exams, then you might be interested in their new competition: Cambridge English Teachers’ Competition 2012. All they want is one practical exam preparation idea, succinctly expressed in 300 words, for one... Continue Reading →
If you don't know The Onion - you should take a look - it's a satirical newspaper that sometimes hits the nail on the head. It's also a great source of articles for use with classes - the occasionally puerile... Continue Reading →
There is a lot of talk about learner needs, needs analysis and learner centred lesson planning and course planning. But do learners really know what they need? Or do they just tell us what they want? The difference between "wants"... Continue Reading →
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