E V O L V E S C H O O L: British Council TeachingEnglish 11 July 2012

TeachingEnglish Newsletter

11 July 2012

Regular readers will know that the TeachingEnglish website has hosted a number of Guest Writers. Why not have a look at our archive where you can find articles and blogs by ELT luminaries such as Adrian Underhill, Carol Read and Michael Swan.

LearnEnglish Teens

Welcome to our new website with material especially designed for teenage learners.

LearnEnglish Kids
Children can develop their English skills with topic-based games, songs, stories.

LearnEnglish Central
Develop your English, with language games, downloads, stories and articles.

BritLit
The aim of BritLit is to help teachers from around the world to exploit English literature in the ELT classroom.

Welcome to the latest edition of the TeachingEnglish newsletter. This week we are pleased to introduce our latest featured blog of the month written by Anna Musielak from Poland.

Our top story this week reports on a study of oral interactions between lecturers and international students studying at a British university and a Spanish one.

Peer observation plays a useful role in teacher development. Find out more in our article which looks at the basic principles of peer observation. This week we invite you to learn more about how you can develop as a teacher in our section on continuing professional development.

For the classroom this week we have a fun activitiy that helps students feel more confident about speaking as well as selection of practical activities to help students with vocabulary learning.

Best wishes,

Sally

TeachingEnglish Team | British Council | BBC

Featured blog of the month for June

Our latest featured blog of the month is from Teaching Village and is called 'Four Skills and Five Senses' written by Anna Musielak, who is a Polish teacher and teacher trainer. Anna is interested in using drama, music and literature in ELT.

How to make yourself understood by international students: The role of metaphor in academic tutorials

In recent years there has been a significant increase in the number of international students studying at British universities. This paper reports on a study of oral interactions between lecturers and international students.

Peer observation

All academic institutions have to demonstrate their commitment to providing effective teaching. Peer observation has an important part to play. This article looks at the basic principles underlying peer observation.
Read more

Continuing professional development

You are on a journey as a teacher of English. But where do you want to go? What do you need to do to get there? What's the best pathway for you? Watch the video, then select the stage you're at below.

Erase the dialogue

If you have students that aren't very confident or happy about speaking this is a good idea that always works for me. Make up a dialogue of say about six or eight lines, say, for example, a dialogue on making arrangements.
Read more

Vocabulary activities

Learning new words is vital for language learners. Have you tried these practical activities to help students with vocabulary learning? There's something to use with students of all ages and levels.