Asking your students the question “Is everything clear?” after you have given instructions on what to do is as good as useless. Most students just don’t want or may be too shy to admit that they don’t understand something, or…
“There’s never enough time to do all the nothing you want.”— Calvin So long, summer, we’ll miss you. I hope you’ve all recharged your batteries, made unforgettable memories and are excited about your upcoming ‘new year’. Here are my favorite…
This post is a write-up of my workshop Teaching Fun*damentals: 10 Ways to Add Fun to Learning which I gave at the ELTAM Day held by the Montenegrin English Teachers’ Association on May 5, 2018. A huge thank you to…
I often get messages from learners asking various questions related to English. I think their number has tripled since the British Council published my tips for remembering new words in the Voices Magazine (see Ten Ways to Learn New Words as…
‘Split into small teams and discuss …’ Why won’t they discuss? There might be a whole lot of reasons for that: I don’t know enough words. I’m worried about my grammar. I’m worried about my pronunciation. I’m not interested in…
#LiveningUpTheProcessChallenge Some time ago I was asked on Twitter to share a set of realia or objects I like to bring to teacher training sessions (see Zhenya’s blog here and Hana’s blog here and Lina’s blog here). So what you’re…
– Can you teach me English fast? – What do you mean by fast? – 3 classes. – Do you believe in magic? The term ‘magic’ (‘mageia’) came to Greece from the east and referred to rites and ceremonies performed by…
How much time do you give to your students to think about your question before asking for an answer? A bevy of recent research suggests that we’ve entered the age of impatience. We want it all and we want it…
Remembering and using new words in speech is often a challenge for language learners. Quite often, this causes them to shy away from speaking. I’ve described 10 strategies that may help language learners make words “sticky” in my new article…
Roses are red, violets are blue, colour can be used with adult learners too. Numerous studies have shown that colour breaks the monotony, adds variety, has a significant impact on our emotion and mood, helps us focus more and remember…