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TEFLtastic with Alex Case

TEFLtastic with Alex Case
Updated : Fri, 03 Feb 2012 21:45:42 +0000

Practising consonant clusters with minimal pairs
I’m hoping to do a whole article on the tricky but important point of practising consonant clusters, but not sure I have enough ideas for 700 words on the topic yet. I have come up with two ways of using minimal pairs to practice spr, sl, tr etc though. The first one is to use [...]
Publ.Date : Sun, 29 Jan 2012 01:17:51 +0000

New ELT articles and classroom handouts January 2012
Not a bad batch this month, though I say so myself… Articles Fun classroom activities for ordinal numbers Functional language for IELTS Speaking How to practise Used to Worksheets IELTS Speaking Clarifying language Cambridge First Certificate dice game British and American Academic English IELTS Writing Same or different? Step by step telephoning roleplays Too formal [...]
Publ.Date : Fri, 27 Jan 2012 22:25:18 +0000

Business English functional language worksheets pages polished up
Have created new pages on social English/ business entertaining, business language of advice , talking about your company and job, and functional language reviews, so that’s also made the main Business functions page much tidier.
Publ.Date : Thu, 19 Jan 2012 09:46:46 +0000

My new favourite GTKY for one to one classes
Particularly good for first classes with low level private students. It’s the simplest thing in the world and it goes like this: - Ask the student some questions about themselves whose answer will lead to a drawing or a word or two next to a drawing, e.g. “Do you have any brothers or sisters?” (picture of [...]
Publ.Date : Tue, 24 Jan 2012 04:30:22 +0000

Want to help a cyberbegger get on a TEFL course?
Just found a request to help raise $415 dollars for a TEFL course, needed to help get out of a trap of minimal wage jobs by getting back into education. On the cyberpanhandling site BegsList here: Need money for TEFL course Quite apart from the weakness in the plan, I’m always drawn between two competing reactions with [...]
Publ.Date : Sun, 29 Jan 2012 22:35:24 +0000

Influencing TEFL
It’s quite flattering that there are a few grammar points for which one of my articles or worksheets comes up on the first page of search results (unless that is only on my computer because Google has tailored my results after it worked out that I’m the kind of person who would need such things to [...]
Publ.Date : Thu, 12 Jan 2012 04:17:01 +0000

Cultural training worksheets page tidied up
My EFL cultural training worksheets section much easier to navigate now it has pages for: Taboo topics worksheets (classic speaking activities with just enough spice!) Body language and gestures worksheets (teaching them foreign gestures while practising language like body parts and present tenses) Cultural training worksheets on business topics Etc … leaving the main culture [...]
Publ.Date : Thu, 26 Jan 2012 10:34:23 +0000

PC in EFL
Wrote an article a while ago about politically correct language in the classroom (below), and have been debating the topic myself recently wondering how I can avoid using the words I’m trying to tell them not to use while doing a worksheet on the topic to practise Used To (also below). Article on politically correct [...]
Publ.Date : Wed, 25 Jan 2012 05:10:14 +0000

Random facts about Murphy’s Grammar in Use
From a PR piece on Cambridge’s recent award of an honorary MA to Raymond Murphy, presumably for single-handedly keeping CUP afloat: “If our estimates of the size of the second-hand and photocopying markets are reasonably accurate, there is probably a 1:5 ratio of new books sold to actual learners who have used these books, which [...]
Publ.Date : Tue, 24 Jan 2012 05:07:04 +0000

Big changes to BULATS
It doesn’t seem to have been officially announced yet, but my broken link detector took me to a major reorganisation of the BULATS website under which hid even bigger changes to the exam. What I’ve managed to discover so far: - It is now possible to take the Speaking and Writing tests at a computer, [...]
Publ.Date : Tue, 31 Jan 2012 20:40:06 +0000

Graded readers in the classroom
An old article of mine, I forget which magazine it was first in: Most schools have at least a couple of graded readers somewhere around the place, if only freebies that were sent unsolicited by publishers, and if not it is easy enough to get hold of some. In too many schools, however, they lie [...]
Publ.Date : Fri, 20 Jan 2012 09:39:35 +0000

Filtering out the TEFL riff-raff
Was just looking at the IATEFL jobseekers page (via the great BESIG yahoo group). There are no jobs on there yet, but advertising with IATEFL sounds like a great way of avoiding the kind who still hang around at Tosser Dave’s ESL Cafe, doesn’t it? Any other great ways of avoiding applications from the waster [...]
Publ.Date : Thu, 26 Jan 2012 06:22:43 +0000

Me vs Vicki Hollett on functional language and ELF
I originally started writing up my questions about functional language as just a statement of the issues involved in this vital but tricky area of language, but as I was doing so I suddenly thought “Come to think of it, I know someone who can probably actually answer these”. Not only could Vicki Hollett do [...]
Publ.Date : Mon, 16 Jan 2012 08:45:31 +0000

TEFL course where you are locked in a room and brainwashed
There are those who describe the CELTA that way, but according to the New York Times some people are using the cover of TEFL to do so in actual fact: Traveling to Teach English; Getting Sermons Instead
Publ.Date : Sun, 22 Jan 2012 04:26:28 +0000

Teaching ideas and worksheets for “used to”
All new this month, and more coming soon. Article with teaching ideas Practising Used To in class Photocopiable worksheets Politically correct language for Used to Original meanings of technology words Used to practice Modernisation and Westernisation discussion for Used to What expressions used to mean and where they come from
Publ.Date : Mon, 23 Jan 2012 04:17:18 +0000

EFL exams articles and tips for students and teachers
I’ve written a at least 50 things on this over the years (for Onestopenglish, EnglishClub, Usingenglish and TEFL.net), so I’ve expanded and reorganised my lists of links so that there are separate pages for IELTS, TOEIC, FCE and BULATS. There are also general articles on making exam practice manageable, realistic and fun. More coming soon too. Teaching and [...]
Publ.Date : Mon, 30 Jan 2012 09:38:07 +0000

Computer-based speaking tests
I was surprised that the news that BULATS will include listening and speaking to a computer rather than a human didn’t get more reaction – although that is probably because most people are hardly aware that Cambridge has an exam that tries desperately to compete with TOEIC… Would be interested to hear people’s general reactions [...]
Publ.Date : Thu, 02 Feb 2012 04:24:35 +0000

Conflicts of interest and disclosure in the age of TEFL online
Given what an incestuous little industry we work in, I’m quite surprised that I rarely if ever read disclosure of links to authors in TEFL reviews. Just to start, with there must be loads of reviewers and writers who: - Work for the same chain - Work in a school that the other worked in [...]
Publ.Date : Wed, 18 Jan 2012 03:38:05 +0000

TEFLtastic ways of teaching grammar
43 articles of mine on the topic brought together for the first time here: Teaching grammar articles and tips
Publ.Date : Thu, 02 Feb 2012 08:12:24 +0000

Whatever happened to Online IELTS?
The recent changes to BULATS made me wonder whether IELTS might be next to go computer based. I got onto Google to try and find any rumours of such changes, but blow me down – there had already been an equivalent Online IELTS released in 2005! How did I never hear of this? Did it [...]
Publ.Date : Fri, 03 Feb 2012 21:45:42 +0000

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