Archive for April, 2008

Why does reaching for the play button cause snoring, sighs or panic? Possible reasons and solutions:

1. Build up of wax in students’ ears

You could try giving cotton buds as prizes for getting good marks in the test, or doing a cultural awareness lesson on “Personal hygiene around the world”

2. Lack of respect for your ancient sound equipment

You could try hiding your cassette recorder behind a computer monitor and randomly moving a mouse with one hand to distract the students as you turn the tape player on with the other.

3. Incomprehension that sound can exist without pictures

Oh, young people nowadays… A quick clip round the ear should sort them out!

Or alternatively, you could look at my sensible suggestions on why some students find listening difficult and what we can do about it on Usingenglish.com here.

I hope my lack of posts on the whole Paul Lowe saga hasn’t made anyone think I have either been silenced or am ungrateful for all the help I get. In fact, I am overwhelmed by the response my I Am Spartacus campaign appeal got, which has totally restored my faith in humanity and the TEFL world. Now that the rumours of Paul’s personal circumstances have cleared up and the continuation of his attacks have cleared away the sympathy those rumours stirred in me, it is time for me to give a big gushing thank you to all those who aided me in my quest to show that attempts to silence TEFL teachers have the opposite effect, a quest that I would say has been 66% successful so far: (more…)

17. Find the graded reader extract blind
Students are given several extracts from graded readers that the teacher has brought into class. Without opening the books (and usually without obvious clues like character names), the students have to guess which of the books each extract came from. They can then open the books, flick through and check. You can then discuss which books sound most interesting and give each student one book they like the look of to take away.

16. Find the graded reader extract race
This is similar to Find the Extract Blind, but students can open the books and have to race to find each extract as quickly as possible. (more…)

1. You laminate your shopping lists (more…)

“Harder than grad school, more nerve wracking than exam time, more warping than a CIA-experiment-gone-wrong.” (more…)

…Why does no one ever listen to me??

Rather than a complaint about how your friends back home ask about your experiences abroad for 10 seconds and then get back to gossiping about Britney, I’m talking here about students who meet your top-spec up-to-date grammar explanations (gathered through nightly use of the Longman Grammar of Spoken and Written English for alternate reading and weights practice) with skeptical looks, “my other teacher said…”, “Yeah, riiiight!”, “No, that’s wrong” and/ or spitting out of chewing tobacco. Reasons include: (more…)

See if you can guess which one it is:

“For teachers who understandably rely on this skill of communication, it may be worth their while to consider the use of the varied styles that are available to them. To many, it will quite obvious that the monotonous tone does not achieve much success and leads to impatience, boredom, and irritability, both on the giving and receiving end. Such a tone is not result oriented. Rather, a more varied, creative and skilful approach to this art is recommended. This can be achieved through the use of interesting and atypical vocabulary, tone, and gestures. Analogies, similies, metaphors, rhyme, and rhytmn are also useful ways of (more…)

…the school’s founding documents start with “Now, therefore, know ye that We, by virtue of Our Royal Prerogative and of all other powers enabling Us in that behalf, do, of Our special grace, certain knowledge, and mere motion, by these Presents, for Us, Our Heirs and Successors, grant, will, direct, and ordain that…”

No, I am not making this up. Although… (more…)

Try googling “UN to ban unnecessary languages” for a good laugh, and don’t skip the comments…

17. (Teaching) English is like…
One or a connected string of metaphors for teaching or learning a language being like playing a sport, walking dogs, hunting etc, with ways you can convert that into practical classroom practices
16. Teaching in…
A particular country, a particular kind of school, a particular kind of classroom etc.

(more…)