Category Archives: Thoughts

The Essence of the Lesson

Posted on March 14, 2012 by

Lighting the spark….I was talking with two of my colleagues this morning about our lessons, and you might think we’d be discussing the focus we’d planned, or the materials etc. But, in fact, you’d be wrong. What we talked about … Continue reading →

Posted in Learning, teaching, tefl, Thoughts, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment

A Voice from the Desert

Posted on March 4, 2012 by

A Voice in the Desert It isn’t very popular these days to like coursebooks, and I like many of my colleagues, feel that following a course book can, at times, be extremely limiting. Often we tend to equate using the … Continue reading →

Posted in Journal, resources, teaching, tefl, Thoughts | Tagged , , , , | 4 Comments

Control versus Accuracy in Cambridge Exams

Posted on February 1, 2012 by

Is Accuracy no longer invited to the ball? For years one of the criteria for assessment on Cambridge Speaking exams was accuracy of grammar and lexis at varying degrees depending on the level. Now, accuracy seems to only be welcome … Continue reading →

Posted in Exams, teaching, tefl, Thoughts | Tagged , , , , | 2 Comments

#ELTCHAT Summary for November 30th 2011 How to Improve Speaking Skills using Critical Thinking (CT) without Spoon feeding.

Posted on December 2, 2011 by

#ELTCHAT Summary for November 30th 2011 How to Improve Speaking Skills using Critical Thinking (CT) without Spoon feeding. Hi everyone, I’ve been trying to keep up with the fast flying tweets on #eltchat recently, despite rather too much work. This … Continue reading →

Posted in Journal, language, Learning, resources, tefl, Thoughts | Tagged , , , | 9 Comments

The myth of the Digital Native

Posted on November 20, 2011 by

After Marc Prensky told us all so convincingly that there was this mythical beast called the digital native, I certainly went along with this idea for quite some time, thinking that my university students were not quite young enough to … Continue reading →

Posted in Journal, Learning, resources, teaching, tefl, Thoughts | Tagged , , , , | 9 Comments

Symbaloo your Digital Life

Posted on November 16, 2011 by

Hi Everyone! Not long ago we were discussing organising our digital lives on #eltchat and there were lots of interesting ideas which you can read about as usual in the #eltchat summaries. Later on I came across the most amazing … Continue reading →

Posted in Journal, Learning, resources, Thoughts | Tagged , , , | 3 Comments

Moving away from a Fear of Plagiarism towards a Melting Pot of Creativity

Posted on October 30, 2011 by

Recognition and Ownership I was reading an excellent post (as always) by Scott Thornbury “O is for Ownership” and it was one of those posts that really made me stop and think. We all care a lot, in fact, about … Continue reading →

Posted in Journal, resources, tefl, Thoughts | Tagged , , , , , , , | 16 Comments

Blooming Phrasal Verbs

Posted on October 16, 2011 by

The title of this post, of course, may well have you nodding in sympathy for all those generations of learners who curse about phrasal verbs. The focus, though, as you may have noticed, is green and when I say “blooming” … Continue reading →

Posted in Journal, language, Learning, resources, tefl, Thoughts | Tagged , , , , | 8 Comments

Where English has Taken Me a reply to Vicky Loras’ Blog Challenge

Posted on October 10, 2011 by

Yesterday I was inspired by Vicky Loras’ blog challenge and I sent her this little video I had made of my own story told through my English related wanderings. I’m afraid the beginning is a little weak but it gets … Continue reading →

Posted in Journal, language, Thoughts | 2 Comments

Can we really listen to each other?

Posted on September 27, 2011 by

This morning I was reading an article about communication and why we are all so bad about it. It didn’t really say anything world shatteringly new, but it did talk about how we are all so busy following our own … Continue reading →

Posted in Journal, language, Learning, teaching, tefl, Thoughts | Tagged , , , , , | 4 Comments