Teachers and teacher trainers, native speakers and non-native speakers alike, although having some of the best qualifications around, still have the odd stumble and doubt their language ability. Doubts can arise with vocabulary, grammar or pronunciation. I've noticed this happens more with non-...
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25th March 2019By Karin Xie
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11th March 2019By Sean Martin
When I look back on the most common references to teacher talking time (TTT) in feedback forms and post lesson reflections, I see comments such as high TTT, my TTT was excessive, TTT unnecessarily high, TTT interupted learners thinking time, reduce my TTT. Do these sound familiar to you? How many... -
11th February 2019By Eve Conway
Most young learner teachers will have one of those classroom memories that haunts them. It could be a crying toddler who shouted continuously in want of a parent or another teacher non-stop for an hour. It might be the class of 12-13 year olds you thought were going to lock you in the cupboard if... -
8th January 2019By Clare Voke
I remember shortly after the Brexit referendum, finding myself in a Chinese class trying to explain to my Mandarin teacher, why the British public were so polarised in their decision on whether to leave the EU. I struggled to express my opinion and needed to ask my teacher for topic specific... -
13th November 2018By Clare Voke
What exactly are 21st Century Skills? This widely used term has become popular across many fields of the education sector and refers to a set of highly transferable skills, that are considered vital for any workplace or academic setting in today’s world. As English maintains its dominance (for... -
23rd October 2018By Tom Garside
In the world of TESOL, more than anywhere else, there is more than one way to bake a cake. The teaching approaches and methodologies that we use are based on a huge amount of research that has been done over the years. This research has informed the evolution of many different ways of approaching... -
8th October 2018By Tom Garside
When planning to teach a language item, how can you ensure that your learners are getting what they need at key points in the lesson? The way in which teaching and learning activity, tasks and activities are ordered can go a long way to helping students to achieve within the limited time they have... -
29th May 2018By Tom Garside
China has grown into a fascinating, diverse, challenging and ultimately rewarding place to be an English teacher (though of course this depends on the situation where you find yourself when you get to the school you are working with). The range of education groups, schools, kindergartens,...