Reading Aloud
Doing presentations with the pre-sessional students is difficult online. For an in-person presentation we could check the students’ notes. Online there is a greater temptation for students to read from a script.
Entries by Sharn
Academic Reading Circles (ARC)
This year we’ve started using Academic Reading Circles. They’ve really worked. Not just in training students to read texts more carefully but in giving them the opportunity to participate in seminar-type discussion afterwards. The students really enjoy them.
Improving Fluency – The 4/3/2 technique, self-assessment and soliquizing
I’m working on another pre-sessional course this summer for a British university. I love pre-sessionals, for me it’s the only time of year I work with other teachers. The students are great too, usually very focused and excited at the prospect of studying abroad. This year we need to focus on fluency in speaking. We […]
The Life Game
My favourite first day getting to know you activity.
The Word Box
What is a word box? It is class specific. You will need a different box for each class. During, or at the end of each class, someone needs to transfer each new item of vocabulary (word, collocation, phrase) onto a slip of paper and put it in the word box. You can either transfer the […]
Teaching Teenagers
What makes teaching teenagers different from teaching adults? How to increase motivation and cope with the extra energy of teens in the language classroom.
The Genius of Knock Knock Jokes
Knock knock! Knock knock! Knock knock! Who’s there? Who’s there? Who’s there? Cows go Little old lady Europe Cows go, who? Little old lady who? Europe who? No, silly, cows go MOO! I didn’t know you could yodel! You’re so childish!
Reading with Children
Everyone knows the benefits of reading to babies and toddlers, right? Health visitors hand out Bookstart packs in the UK almost as soon as your child is born, libraries run all-singing, all-dancing, glue & glitter sessions for families; Dolly Parton posts books monthly to children in the UK, the US, Canada and Australia. And the […]
English, Emoticons and Emojis ;-)
A friend of mine is concerned about my use of emoticons in texts. She thinks it may be a sign of an imminent mid-life crisis. LOL. I HEART emoticons. Look at that huge yellow face with massive hands on the left…what’s not to love? 😕
An English Empire? Linguistic Imperialism and me.
When I completed my CELTA (the initial training course for EFL teachers) and considered all the places in the world I wanted to travel to and teach in, I faced some, half-joking, accusations that what I was about to do aided some covert imperialist agenda. Was I a modern-day missionary, an ELT evangelist preaching Received […]