PROMOTIONS: AUTUMN SALE
Unlock Your English Potential This Autumn! Want to improve your English with one of the most experienced online teachers in the world? A teacher with a proven track record for getting results. This autumn, you…
LESSON BITES #1: A FILM DISCUSSION ACTIVITY
Here is a nice discussion activity I used with an upper-intermediate group - it requires no preparation at all beyond thinking of some interesting films to work on. 1 Tell students they will have a…
TEACHING THOUGHTS #7: RETHINKING THE CONCEPT OF EVALUATION
Could it be that there is only one evaluation question that it's worth using? It's a very simple question: What engaged you? This one powerful question asks the listener or reader to simply identify something,…
TEACHING THOUGHTS #7: JUST-IN-CASE VS JUST-IN-TIME TEACHING
This post is inspired by a reading in one of the advanced books - it might well be English File which has a reading related to animals. Anyway, the reason this comes to mind is…
LESSON IDEAS #2: THE COLLECTIVE VOCABULARY ANALYSIS IDEA
It's interesting to think about how you approach vocabulary when students are working on texts. There should be quite a lot of unknown words in any text when the level is appropriate. Here's an idea…
LESSON IDEAS #1: THE THREE QUESTION INTERVIEW IDEA
Coursebooks very often contain strange, abrupt transitions that don't make much sense. Life Upper Intermediate Unit 10 says it's a unit about talent and begins that journey by focusing on the work on an Indian…
HOW TO IMPROVE A LANGUAGE SCHOOL: #4 DITCH SCHEDULED OBSERVATIONS FOR DROP-IN OBSERVATIONS
There is one huge problem with scheduled observations which is quite simply that many teachers will put on a show. Observations often stress out teachers and so when they know they are due for one,…
HOW TO IMPROVE A LANGUAGE SCHOOL: #3 GREET LEARNERS AT THE DOOR
We've all heard about those dynamic headteachers who take over struggling schools and implement dramatic reform. Very often that includes making sure the headteacher has a physical presence at the gates of a school in…
HOW TO IMPROVE A LANGUAGE SCHOOL: #2 FOCUS ON COLLECTIVE TEACHER EFFICACY
Collective teacher efficacy is not something most people in EFL have heard of for the simple reason that it comes from outside the world of EFL. Collective teacher efficacy is the extent to which your…
HOW TO IMPROVE A LANGUAGE SCHOOL: #1 REPLACE THE COURSEBOOKS WITH SOMETHING BETTER
HOW TO RUN A LANGUAGE SCHOOL #1 REPLACE COURSEBOOKS WITH SOMETHING BETTER What if I told you there was a way to save your language school tens of thousands of pounds a year and have…