The previous post in this series looked at how personalization in the classroom helps to build rapport, add authenticity and make classroom activities more motivating. It’s an aspect of teaching that is normally seen as beneficial and desirable. However, integrating personalization into your teaching is not without ‘risk’, according to
Category: Teaching Adults
Personalization in the ELT Classroom
Why do we assume personalization is good for language learning? The idea of ‘personalizing’ language learning naturally has positive connotations; after all, an ‘impersonal classroom’ doesn’t sound like a very pleasant place to be! But in what ways does personalization actually enhance learning? Primarily, personalization in the classroom can lead
It’s Good to (TED) Talk
If I told you that TED Talks started in the same year that one pound notes were taken out of circulation, Virgin Atlantic had its maiden flight, Michael Jackson released Thriller, and Ghostbusters, Gremlins and The Karate Kid were some of the year’s biggest films, what would you think? TED
How to Maximise Audio Scripts
Here’s a question for you. How often do you use the listening scripts in the back of the book for follow-up work or additional activities? Be honest! Now, I’m going to guess most of you are thinking ‘not often’, and you wouldn’t be alone. From my experience of doing countless
Games to Make Grammar Fun
Any teacher knows students like to have fun, both inside and outside the classroom. And so we have to bear this in mind when planning our classes – lessons need to be fun. As Plato famously said nearly two and half thousand years ago, “Do not train children to learning
The Power of Projects
I remember the first project I ever did very clearly. It was with a class of intermediate level young teenage learners, and I was a little nervous about how it might go, as with anything you’re trying for the first time. There were lots of questions in my mind –
Dictation Re-imagined
Many moons ago when I was learning French at school, our teacher always insisted on doing dictations. He absolutely loved them, and yes, you guessed it, we hated them. Apart from anything else they were boring and repetitive and we didn’t really see the point in them. So imagine my
Song Time
Students love music, and they love doing songs in class. It’s small wonder then that coursebooks are incorporating songs or offering songs on supplementary photocopiable material. However, these are rarely the songs that students want to listen to. Students are far more motivated when the songs they do in class
Classroom Ice-Breakers for English Language Teaching
Welcome to the first in our series of posts on activities for short courses – Ice-Breakers for the ELT Classroom! Join us over the coming weeks for posts on various activity ideas – from grammar games to projects and songs! It’s that time of year again when students are coming
Interview: Dan Barber on Why to Use TED Talks in your ELT Classroom
Listen to our interview with Dan Barber talking about how TED Talks really do make good English lessons and download Dan’s FREE lesson plan around Rana el Kaliouby’s TED Talk on an app that can read your emotions! Have you read Dan’s article here?