TEFL All Inclusive

Photo by Joshua Hoehne on Unsplash Do you make use of translation in your classroom? And if so, to what extent? Translation became marginalized for a prolonged period of time, largely as a reaction against the Grammar-Translation Method.   This method, derived from the Classics and Latin and Greek, involved translation as a key component. Students were occupied in memorizing lists of vocabulary and grammar rules and translating literary texts into English. This method was very teacher centred and made extensive use of L1. It fell out of fashion for its failure to focus on context or communication. The main emphasis was on reading and writing and it was often seen as extremely boring and unmotivating. The decline of the Grammar-translation Method led to approaches such as the Direct Approach and Audiolingualism and subsequently to more Humanistic approaches. These placed more emphasis on communication and instruction was predominantly in the target language, with limited or no use

Photo by NASA on Unsplash We took off for a literally out of this world experience this week, with a virtual tour to the International Space Station. This is an absolutely wonderful virtual tour to go on, which I have done several times now, and I highly recommend it as an exciting, memorable and educationally and linguistically rich experience. The learners are always motivated and surprised to visit the space station, which would under normal circumstances take between 6 and 48 hours to reach. It flies at 17,500 miles an hour at a height of around 250 miles above the earth and has been continually occupied since 2000 by astronauts, who carry out research that is not possible to do on Earth. The choice of activities in this tour is  especially designed to support learners who are taking the IELTS test or preparing for further academic study. Of course it would be of interest and relevant for general English learners too. The level required for understanding the videos and the r

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 was fol

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 exterior