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TEFLtastic with Alex Case

A special code for remembering students’ details

May 14th, 2012

A lot of teachers write words next to student names on the class register to remember who they are, but there can be problems with using whole words such as students seeing what is written and being offended. A personal code, however, can soon be forgotten and is no use to teachers who are covering and taking over classes. My school are therefore working on a code to be used by all teachers, and this is what we’ve come up with so far:

WCASBLT? – why can’t all students be like this?

PTT – pleasure to teach

SCA – slight Cockney accent

SANCBMFC – smiling and nodding could be mistaken for comprehension

DB – dragon breath

ITC – immune to correction

F – flirt (so remember to take that into account when grading)

FTSTNT – fail them to save the next teacher

KODFP – kiss of death for pairwork

FBI – fluent but incomprehensible

UFI? – up for it?

WILCTO – what idiot level checked this one?

TCFS – too cool for school

A? – attractive?

OBM – odd birth mark

ATTVB? – allergic to the verb “be”?

TSFTBT – too stereotypically French to be true

SI – strange idioms

SSOALLFSWE – surprisingly strong opinions about language learning for someone who’s Elementary

TDPMEFT – they don’t pay me enough for this

RGQ – random grammar questions

CIRBTTSTYA? – can it really be true they spent two years abroad?

Can you improve or add to the list?

More on learning student names here.

A better way of using minimal pairs for consonant clusters?

May 10th, 2012

Just come up with another variation on my last post about combining this vital pronunciation point and this easy to use activity . It is to use minimal pairs that are also consonant clusters, practising both the vowel or consonant distinction and using the right number of syllables. For example, you could do r/l with words including gr and gl, then do some work on making sure they don’t come out as gur and gul.

Consonant clusters for various minimal pairs

l/ r

gl/ gr

kl/ kr

bl/ br

pl/ pr

spl/ spr

fl/ fr

d/ t

dr/ tr

final nd/ nt

final ld/ lt

f/ p

fl/ pl

fr/ pr

final ft/ pt

final mf/ mp

final lf/ lp

t/ th

tr/ thr

final l/ lth

final nt/ nth

final ts/ ths

final ft/ fth

k/ kw

sk/ skw

ch/ sh

final cht/ sht

d/ th

final dz/ thz

th/ z

final thd/ zd

s/ sh

final st/ sht

s/ th

final st/ tht

final ts/ tth

final ps/ pth

final ks/ kth

final ls/ lth

b/ v

final bd/ vd

final bz/ vz

ch/ dj

final nch/ ndj

Much more on minimal pairs

Minimal pairs by level

Minimal pairs in class

Minimal pairs games

Minimal pairs for Japanese learners of English

Minimal pairs for Korean learners of English

Stretching the definition and use of minimal pairs

Alphabet homophones and minimal pairs

Combining functional language with grammar etc

May 8th, 2012

As part of my endless quest to make my ideas for teaching apologising, requests etc even half as popular as my worksheets for er/ est, Present Perfect Continuous etc, here are some ideas for combining the two:

Functions with your curricula

Many of the ideas available as worksheets here:

Functional language worksheets

Avoiding correction of spoken errors

May 6th, 2012

… or at least avoiding ending each and every stage or lesson by writing a list of mistakes up on the board. Whatever your attitude to that CELTA-tastic activity, having alternatives has got to be a good thing, I reckon. My latest article is therefore:

Spoken error correction – other options 

No comment function there, so comments gratefully received here (including your general thoughts on the topic if you don’t find time to read the whole thing).

Does reading help speaking more than listening does?

May 4th, 2012

… because that is what I told one of my students in a one to one class the other day. I then wondered where on earth I got that idea from – as I don’t remember ever having consciously coming to that conclusion before – and whether it really is true. Still can’t answer the first question, but on reflection I think I probably was right.

It is very hard to pick up or try to learn new language just from hearing it, and equally difficult to get a “feel” for the language that should help you produce stretches of speech more fluently and filter out some possible mistakes. All of that is much easier through reading. Two illustrations of that point:

1. If you want to learn and get a feel for language through listening, the best way is usually to look at a tapescript or read about the story before listening (i.e. reading)

2. It’s difficult enough to reproduce language in a news story by discussing it after reading it, but virtually impossible when speaking after just listening to the radio news.

What do you think? Could this random piece of classroom advice actually have been right?

New worksheets galore (and articles ungalore) April 2012

April 28th, 2012

Busiest month for years on the worksheet front, but first:

Articles

How to teach formal and informal language

Linking cultural training and grammar

Fun oral practice for yet and already

The best ways of teaching yet and already

Worksheets

Alphabet homophones and minimal pairs

Preparing for a discussion

Guessing British foods

Nouns that are both countable and uncountable

Useful phrases for FCE writing

Set each other IELTS Listening questions

Brainstorming vocab for IELTS Listening

Crime vocabulary 20 questions

Agreeing on comparisons (opinions language and comparatives)

Office vocabulary comparatives guessing game

The past and present comparatives

Business verbs (tense review and functional language)

Foods comparatives and superlatives practice

Present perfect progress meetings

Business sectors predictions and action plans

English for designers worksheets

Interrupting worksheets

Clarifying/ Checking worksheets

Business second conditional worksheets

Business determiners worksheets

Business opinions practice worksheets

Office vocabulary worksheets

New presentations worksheets

New architecture worksheets

Loads of new presentations lessons

April 27th, 2012

And when I say lessons I really mean lessons, as there is at least 15 hours of stuff there:

Formal and informal presentations

Voice and body in presentations roleplays

Presentations feedback sheet

Presentations prepositions pairwork

Presentations roleplays and phrases

Presentations determiners pairwork

Presentations vocab, advice and phrases

Gestures for presentations

Full list, including some older stuff:

Presentations in English photocopiables

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