E V O L V E S C H O O L: TeachingEnglish Newsletter 19 January 2011

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TeachingEnglish Newsletter

19 January 2011

Michael Swan, author of Practical English Usage, is the latest Guest Writer on the TeachingEnglish site. To find out more about him why not check out his biography here.

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Welcome to this week's TeachingEnglish newsletter. This week we are very pleased to introduce Michael Swan as the latest in our series of Guest Writers. Michael is the author of the classic Practical English Usage, and his latest original piece for the TeachingEnglish site looks at how you can use texts better in your classroom.

Also this week we have a new lesson plan which looks at using photographs to stimulate discussion and there's a game you can try for practising adjectives called 'Pass the ball'. Finally as 2011 gets under way we'd like to know how we can help you most this year. Lets us know by voting to tell us what topics you would like to see articles and materials about this year.

Best wishes,

Duncan
TeachingEnglish Team | British Council | BBC

Using texts constructively: what are texts for?

Text use may seem a dull topic after all the exciting matters that other guest writers have dealt with recently. However, language learning is, after all, learning language, not just doing fun things with it. And texts - by which I mean the relatively short spoken and written passages that come in textbooks and other teaching materials - can, if they are used properly, play an important part in the learning process. So here goes.
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Photographs

What photos have you got on your mobile? Do you keep pictures in your purse or wallet? Have you got a photograph on your identity card? This lesson gives students the chance to talk about their photos and then write a description of a favourite picture.
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Pass the ball

This game practises adjectives. You need a ball, or a screwed up piece of paper will work fine. Ask the students to stand or sit in a circle. Pass the ball to the person next to you in the circle and pretend the ball is really heavy by miming. Tell the person next to you that it's really, really heavy and give it to them.
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'We were never born to read'

The title of this entry is the first sentence in Chapter 1 of Maryanne Wolf's book Proust and the Squid (2007). This is a very punchy line and I remember first hearing it in Philip Prowse's presentation at IATEFL in 2009. Ironically enough my first encounter with the sentence was not through reading, but through listening.
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Increasing your confidence as a Language Teacher

One of the sessions on the British Council's Classroom Language Teacher Programme deals with developing one's confidence as a language teacher. Confidence is defined as a) Full trust; belief in the powers, trustworthiness, or reliability of a person or thing; b) Trust; reliance; applied to one's own abilities, or fortune; belief in one's own competency; boldness; courage. [Webster's 1828 Dictionary].

What would you most like to see articles about on TeachingEnglish?

As 2011 gets going we'd like to know how we can help you most with your teaching this year. Let us know what you would like to see articles and materials on in the coming year by voting. If there is something else you would like to see please leave a comment below.
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