Sunday, September 28, 2014

Shared eWhiteboard for the class

Inspiring Active Learning - ascd.org

Build confidence through leadership | TeachingEnglish | British Council | BBC

Build confidence through leadership | TeachingEnglish | British Council | BBC
Helping a student to advance in their language learning activities normally depends upon how confident they are in actually using the skills that they are learning.

Katherine Bilsborough - Building confidence through praise | TeachingEnglish | British Council | BBC

Tuesday, September 23, 2014

Advocating World Englishes: An Interview with Dr. Mario Saraceni : ELTWorldOnline.com

Advocating World Englishes: An Interview with Dr. Mario Saraceni : ELTWorldOnline.com
... most people in the UK consider themselves native speakers anyway, so it makes no sense to idealize the ‘native speaker’ since the whole idea of ‘native speaker’ as the (concept of an) ideal speaker of the language is just not there so much.
“While they say ‘English is our language,’ many people also know that they cannot really use the language that well, especially in international situations. To many people in the country, their grasp of the English language is often very poor and insecure,” he further observes.
...
“Let’s throw the link between England and the English language to a dark corner where only irrelevant historical anecdotes are kept. Let it be covered with dust and forgotten. If we are able to do that, then the whole NEST/NNEST nonsense will cease to concern us. If we do not, we will keep discussing about who is a better teacher, who has a whiter skin and who holds the best passport to teach English. It is a mentality that needs to change. Student-teachers need to adopt a new understanding of ‘English’ and then, equipped with that understanding, resist all the old, stale views that are still so prevalent around the world.”
... teacher-educators need to be role models: “They don’t have to preach, necessarily. But by demonstrating that they consider English their own language and by never mentioning irrelevant words like “England” or “United States” as part of their teaching, then they can show that, hey, it’s got nothing to do with the West, white people, blah blah, but it’s got everything to do with you, me, and anybody else that we care to talk to.”

Saturday, September 20, 2014

NNEST Newsletter - September 2014

NNEST Newsletter - September 2014
... Kelch and Santana-Willamson (2002) highlight that students put emphasis on clear and intelligible pronunciation. Mullock’s (2010) results highlighted pedagogical skills and language proficiency.

!!! joanna malefaki-My ELT rambles: One to one lessons

Thursday, September 18, 2014

Live lesson: dogme | EnglishAgenda | British Council

Live lesson: dogme | EnglishAgenda | British Council

Урок-демонстрацция на метода на живо (1-во видео)
и дискусия с наблюдаващите учители (2-ро видео)

With references to the blogs of other proponents and practitioners of the method:

  1. Anthony Gaughan, Teacher Training Unplugged (CELTA)
  2. Dale Coulter, Language Moments (Practitioner)
  3. Mike Harrison, www.mikejharrison.com (ISOL)
  4. Sue Lyon-Jones, Dogme ESOL Courses (ISOL)

Friday, September 12, 2014

English Collocations Series: Words that collocate with “Conversation” | English with a Twist

English Collocations Series: Words that collocate with “Conversation” | English with a Twist
80% of language learning is vocabulary. All my clients tell me that they want to widen their vocabulary. When I ask them how they intend to do that, they don’t always know. Some say that they make a list of all the words they discover. When I ask them to then create a sentence with the words they’ve learned, they often don’t know what to do. And that’s the problem.
Words on their own are meaningless. You need to know how to use them in a sentence and in the right context. And for that you need to know what words go naturally together. That’s why collocation is important.
Unfortunately for learners, there are no rules that can be studied when it comes to collocations. The only thing you can do is to practise using the expressions as much as you can. That could be done through reading, listening, speaking and writing. The more you use the expressions, the more natural they will become to use.

Tuesday, September 2, 2014

in/at the skirts of the mountain - WordReference Forums

in/at the skirts of the mountain - WordReference Forums
My house is situated in/at the skirts of XY mountain?I live in a neighbourhood located at the foot of XY mountain? 
...
I'd say at the foot of, or perhaps in the foothills of, or on the lower slopes of ... though these don't all mean exactly the same thing.
... 
It seems it's acceptable (though not necessarily common) to say 'skirt [singular] of the mountain'. From the AHD entry for 'skirt':
Skirt [...] 4. An outer edge; a border or margin: a base camp on the skirt of the mountain.

Five tips for teaching business English | British Council Voices