Earlier this year, I stepped back into the primary school classroom to teach two groups of young learners (one group of mostly P3s and another group of P6s) as part of my studies and assessment on the Trinity College London Teaching Young Learners Extension Certificate (TYLEC) course. Even though I...
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22nd July 2019By Laura Wilkes
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28th May 2019By Bryan Holmes
Teaching TEFL classes in Hong Kong can present a bit of a conundrum. In a culture that prioritises grammar instruction and accuracy over fluency, reading tasks are often seen as a series of questions to which the answers simply need to be copied straight from the text. However, reading... -
6th May 2019By Sean Martin
As much as many of you will sigh at the thought of written assignments, yes, there are assignments and they form the spine of the Trinity CertTESOL. There’s no getting away from it. The course is accredited at level 5 on the UK National Qualifications Framework, is equivalent to the first year of... -
22nd April 2019By Laura Wilkes
Communicative language teachers often borrow drama techniques to facilitate study and production of language in their classes. A popular example of this is roleplay from improvisational theatre to get learners using functional phrases whilst in role to fulfill a communicative aim. For example,... -
25th March 2019By Karin Xie
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-... -
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...