E V O L V E S C H O O L: TeachingEnglish Newsletter 08 December 2010

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15 December 2010

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Welcome to the final TeachingEnglish newsletter of 2010. The Teaching English team will be taking a break for the Christmas and New Year period and will return in early January. In the meantime we will leave you with extra activities for you to try in your classrooms if you are continuing to teach during this time. There's a speaking activity to practice the use of prepositions, a whole lesson exploring the 'Black Country' and a selection of lesson ideas for Christmas.

The shortlists for the ELTons 2011 are now out and you can find out who is in the running for the prizes. There's also a new blog posting asking what sort of activities your TAs do during this time of year and a masters student looking for some help from experienced teachers.

Best wishes for the holiday season.

See you again in the New Year,

Duncan and Rob
TeachingEnglish Team | British Council | BBC

ELTons 2011nominees

The British Council has announced the short-lists for the ELTons 2011. Now in their ninth year, the awards, run by the British Council and sponsored by Cambridge ESOL, are a celebration of excellence in English language teaching (ELT) from around the world.
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What's the Black Country?

This lesson explores a listening text about a part of the UK known as the 'Black Country'. In the lesson, students have the chance to listen to someone from that area describing what they like about living there and a little about their life. Students also have the chance to reflect on their own part of the world and finally to do some intensive listening.
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Listen and draw

This is a simple speaking activity that can be used with A2 level groups to provide practice in using prepositions of place and giving clear instructions. The lesson is usually successful with adults and teenagers.
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Christmas

This lesson has some ideas for how to introduce the topic of Christmas. Your own experiences and thoughts about the festive season will enhance the lesson and you will be a great source of information for your students on this theme.
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End of year TA activities

As the year draws to a close, we wrap up projects, finish off activities, reflect on what we have done during the year and of course start making plans for the new year... And I wonder what kind of end of year things our TAs do across the world. Do they hold any events to mark the end of year? Do they do any special activities for their TA members?

Genre analysis of patient information leaflets

I am Selin. I did my BA on TEFL and now I am doing my Masters on English for Specific Purposes in University of Essex. I am 20 years old. I aim to be a successful teacher in the future and I am really working on it. However, because I do not have working experience, I sometimes find it difficult to relate what I have been learning to real teaching contexts.
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