TEFL All Inclusive

Firstly, I have to say that I’m not a great fan of using worksheets. I think that there can be a lot of disadvantages and negative aspects, and they are often used without a thought to their suitability for the learners involved. Pre-made worksheets can be demotivating and unrealistic, in that they will focus exclusively on the target language in unnatural utterances. They can also tend to promote a more teacher-centred classroom, with a focus on the ‘correct’ answer and may give the false impression that language is always neatly packaged like this. There is often little interaction, communication with others or thought required to complete many worksheet. Have you ever have noticed that, after the lessons, worksheets sometimes tend to end up either in the bin or left lying on the table in the classroom, as they leave the room. Have you ever walked into a class to be confronted by this situation from a previous class? For the students who carefully file them away to take them home, ...

Photo by Alexander Schimmeck on Unsplash It's the height of the summer here in the UK, so what better time to head outside (virtually) to experience the atmosphere and animals at the world famous Edinburgh Zoo, in Scotland! This famous zoo is set in over 82 acres of hillside and has over 2,500 animals – many of which are endangered species. It is especially well known for its daily penguin parade and the fact that it is home to the only giant pandas   in the UK. The students were excited to have the opportunity to see some of the six live webcams - panda, penguin, tiger, koala, snow monkey and lion.   Our virtual tour started with a brief whole group discussion of whether the students had ever visited a zoo and if zoos were popular in their countries. Some skepticism was expressed about the animals being kept in captivity, so it was clarified that this particular zoo is more of a wildlife sanctuary and is part of one of Scotland’s leading conservation charities. This wa...

Photo by Jason Leung on Unsplash I know that for many teachers, attempting to teach pronunciation online has been one of the most challenging aspects of suddenly moving all classes online, due to Covid-19. Many people worry that they will not be able to provide a clear model and that they will not be able to hear or see all the learners. Problems which can be magnified if cameras are turned off and connections are poor or intermittent. There is the additional problem online of having a time lag, and this can be prone to add to the confusion. Sometimes teaching pronunciation does not tend to rank very high on a teacher’s list of priorities in face to face classrooms, perhaps for reasons of insecurity with their own pronunciation model and lacking the knowledge of what to teach, as well as the feeling that many of their students would prefer to have the time spent on working on the four skills etc. Therefore, with the move to online teaching pronunciation work can be even more negle...

Photo by Rob Wingate on Unsplash Visual Literacy is an important 21st Century skill, as it helps with creativity, problem solving and critical thinking, amongst other things. In this possible sequence of activities I bring together the use of visual literacy and graphic organizers. If you are not yet familiar with the benefits of graphic organizers you can find out more information here   Last year I became aware of an amazing website, in which ordinary people from all different parts of the world have filmed short videos of about ten minutes duration from their window, often accompanied by the sounds from their environment. When you click 'Open a new window somewhere in the world', you are transported to a random view from someone’s window and get to experience it as if you were there. It is very relaxing and extremely fascinating as you never know where you might end up! This resource is ideal for online lessons, and the possibilities are endless. I’m sure you can imaging...

  Photo by Jirath Ninchaikovit on Unsplash Here's the latest in my series of posts about virtual tours. For our most recent one, I took my students on a trip to Stirling Castle. Because I'm based in Scotland, they had requested something Scottish. Stirling Castle, which is located between Glasgow and Edinburgh, has undergone complete refurbishment at a cost of £12 million. It is a lavish and spectacular building and the interior is a feast for the eyes. It is the ideal location for a virtual tour, as there is so much detail to see and describe. This virtual tour gave the students reading, listening and speaking practice in a variety of interesting activities in which they were able to experience all that Stirling Castle has to offer in the company of a group. The resource I used can be found at  Stirling Castle   After a lead in, where we had a group discussion of any castles we had heard of, or perhaps even visited in Scotland, the students were shown an image of the ex...

Photo by Hulki Okan Tabak on Unsplash                   Have you ever taken your students on a virtual field trip? I've done some research into this and written and spoken about it several times before, as many of you will know. It's one of these things that really only works online. During the first lockdown here in the UK, I started taking my students on virtual tours.   I had two main reasons for doing this. Firstly, the students were all very isolated in a foreign country. They were stuck at home and only had the opportunity to leave their accommodation for a daily walk of one hour’s duration. It was bad enough for me, so I could only imagine how hard it must have been for them. Student numbers started to drop off at the Zoom classes and there was a general lack of motivation and engagement with their learning. Of course this was totally understandable. The students were very much missing the social aspect of...

  Photo by Kaleidico on Unsplash Using an adapted version of Paul Nation's 4-3-2 fluency activity I was reminded again this weekend of a really great activity for focusing on, and increasing fluency, when I attended a webinar by the great Paul Nation. He is a real expert in many areas, but is particularly world renowned for his work on extensive reading. You can have a look at his fantastic website here Paul Nation's resources | School of Linguistics and Applied Language Studies | Victoria University of Wellington (wgtn.ac.nz) It is full of resources for you to use with your students. Paul Nation uses the Principle of the 4 Strands, which states that a balanced language course should have four equal strands: ·          meaning-focused input ·          meaning-focused output ·          language-focused learning ·       ...

  Brain Breaks for your online classroom: Photo by Fakurian Design on Unsplash   Since starting to teach entirely online last year, at the start of the pandemic, I’ve made many changes to the content and structure of my lessons. Many of these changes have been through necessity. I’ve been thinking recently which   of these new ideas have been most successful and which of them would be a useful addition to add to my face to face lessons, when these eventually resume. One of the ideas I experimented with for the first time in online teaching is ‘ Brain Breaks’. If you’re already familiar with brain breaks, I’m sure that you are just as much a fan of them as I am. If you have yet to try brain breaks here is a link to find out all about the theory. What Is a Brain Break? (thoughtco.com) Brain breaks are especially effective for the online situation, as attention spans are short and lessons should be broken down into more bite-sized chunks. To keep their attention, the...