Welcome back to the Life around the World contest! The last post showed fish swim in the South Pacific off the popular holiday island of Bora Bora in French Polynesia. Surrounded by a lagoon and a coral reef, Bora Bora is famous for its overwater bungalows with glass floors that provide a
Three Strategies for Preparing Young Learners for Exam Success
Are you keen to help your young learners relax and feel comfortable with formal exams? Most of us are – but how do we go about this? We can’t keep practicing the test task with them – this is not good for their learning and doesn’t help them to really
In praise of repetition
Repetition has got itself a rather bad name over the years and it is often avoided in many course materials. Why is this the case? Well, one reason may be purely economic. Drills mean a lot of recording and/or space on the page which makes for an expensive book. Similarly, repetition of
Voices from the Field: Giving Feedback
In this new monthly blog, National Geographic Learning’s in-house teacher trainer Alex Warren explores what’s going on in the world of ELT in his work around the region. With schools and universities going back to business and new adoption cycles at private language schools, it’s fair to say that September
Developing Global Citizenship in Young Learners
We live in a world that has become an increasingly complex web of connections and interdependencies. Our young learners need to get ready to thrive in such a world to do so, tangible skills such as language proficiency are obviously critical to success. But language skills are just part of
We’re all different, we’re all the same!
In this month’s blog post, Katherine writes about the importance of creating a classroom which promotes equality and celebrates diversity. She explains what equality and diversity mean and why they are important in our context. She then shares a classroom activity to get children thinking about one aspect of diversity,
What is blended learning?
In this first post in a series of blogs on the use of technology in the ELT classroom, National Geographic Learning’s in-house teacher trainer Alex Warren, looks to demystify and clarify what exactly is meant by the term blended learning. Here’s the thing: everyone thinks they know what blended learning
Why Images are Powerful for Learning
Welcome to the fourth post in this series. In this post, we will be looking at why images are so powerful in the language learning process and at bringing images into the classroom to develop our students’ creative thinking. The Social-Age You may have noticed, with the popularity of Instagram,
Life around the World Contest Continues!
Welcome back! The Life around the World photo from last month depicted a man strolling along the Malecón in Havana, Cuba. Started in 1901 to protect Havana from the water, the wall stretches for 8 kilometers and is a popular place to take a stroll and enjoy street entertainment. In bad
K-W-L Charts: A simple way to promote critical thinking with young learners
In this month’s blog post, Katherine writes about using K-W-L charts with primary children. She explains what K-W-L charts are and how they can be used to develop critical thinking skills that mirror those needed in the real world. She suggests how K-W-L charts can be adapted to enhance the