E V O L V E S C H O O L

Rabu, 20 Juni 2018

TeachingEnglish newsletter 20 June 2018

TeachingEnglish newsletter

20 June 2018

Welcome to this week's TeachingEnglish newsletter. We've selected a range of practical resources to help you in the classroom and ideas to help you with your professional development. We hope you find them useful.

The TeachingEnglish team

English in Early Childhood: Language Learning and Development - free online course

Discover how very young children learn English as an additional language and how you can help them progress. Study online two hours per week for six weeks for free. This course for parents and practitioners will explore how young children learn English, and investigate many more aspects of early childhood learning and development. Find out more.

All's well that ends well: three activities to encourage reflection

Perhaps one of the most important things that learners can do at the end of the lesson is reflect on what they have learned and their own contribution to the lesson. Read this latest blog post: All's well that ends well: three activities to encourage reflection to learn about three simple ways this can be done.

Let's play online!

Playing a game is like living a short life with a very happy end: if the game is interesting, engaging and meets the educational goals, each participant is enriched with either new skills developed or existing skills enforced, or, on the part of a teacher, with a feeling of fulfilment and accomplishment. So is it possible to adapt good old language games to play them online? Read Alexei Kiselev's post about how he has adapted and used games in online one-to-one teaching via Skype with the help of some other digital tools.

Setting up in the young learner classroom

This article looks at the techniques involved in setting up tasks in the young learner classroom, with suggestions of how to implement them. As teachers, we want children to be engaged and excited to do an activity, we want them to behave so that they learn by doing it, and we also want them to feel comfortable and confident knowing what they have to do and how to do it. It is therefore vital that we value the setting up of this activity by considering and planning this stage.

Drama techniques to get them talking

Drama techniques which focus on getting across meaning with the body, as well as words, are very useful for the language classroom. Clare Lavery suggests three activities for older learners to encourage creativity of thought, appeal to reluctant speakers and the more 'physical' learner, and reinforce understanding of language as a way to communicate meaning. Read more.

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Selasa, 12 Juni 2018

TeachingEnglish newsletter 12 June 2018

TeachingEnglish newsletter

12 June 2018

And don't forget that the British Council ELTons Awards Ceremony and red carpet interviews will be live online on Monday 18 June, 17.30-20.30 UK time.

The TeachingEnglish team

World Cup 2018

Our latest lesson plan for teenagers and adults is a quiz and reading activity about the World Cup 2018. Students will also work in pairs to research and create a presentation about one of the World Cup qualifying countries.

Changing ideas of beauty

This lesson plan for adults and teenagers at A2-B1 level explores the concept of beauty. This lesson was devised to mark World Vitiligo Day on 25 June, but can be used at any time of year. The lesson begins with students looking at a photo of a young woman with vitiligo and discussing their reactions. They then read about a model with vitiligo, Chantelle Brown-Young (also known as Winnie Harlow), and discover what makes her special.

Effective use of video in the ELT classroom

This webinar with Gary Brooks explores the different ways video can best be used as a teaching resource, and the many errors and examples of poor practice which should be avoided. The webinar takes place on Wednesday 13 June at 12.00 UK time. Find out more and register.

Conversation classes and students

Conversation classes, oral classes, presentation and debate classes are very common in both schools and higher education, but time and time again you hear one of these two complaints from the teachers - 'My students won't talk' or 'My students won't stop talking.' Read our latest post by Phil Wade to get some tips on how to deal with these two common issues.

A Midsummer Night's Dream for kids

To mark the summer solstice on 24 June, why not try our A Midsummer Night's Dream lesson plan with your younger learners? Learners are introduced to the Shakespeare play through a short animated video and complete comprehension activities. They then discuss the ideas of 'dreams' and 'magic', and develop their creative writing skills by writing about a magical dream or a magic potion or spell.

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Rabu, 06 Juni 2018

TeachingEnglish newsletter 06 June 2018

TeachingEnglish newsletter

06 June 2018

The TeachingEnglish team

Watch the ELTons Awards Ceremony live online

The British Council ELTons Awards Ceremony and red carpet interviews will take place live and online on Monday 18 June, 17.30-20.30 UK time. Now in their sixteenth year, these British Council awards are the only international awards to recognise innovative products, services and research in English language teaching globally. Find out more about the event.

Using students' mother tongue in the English classroom: pros and cons

Together with drilling, grammar and other ingredients of English teaching, translation has been too easily demonised for too many years. However, it is clear that the use of L1 has to be restricted - in other words, allowed only when benefits clearly counteract drawbacks. In this blog post Loli Iglesias provides some guidelines to consider on the use of L1 inside the English classroom.

At the beach

Once it starts to get warm you can easily start to talk about holidays and possible destinations with your young learners. The beach is always a popular destination, and young children can generally, depending on where you are, relate to the excitement and freedom associated with playing on the beach. Take a look at this collection of fun, creative activities and resources to captivate your younger learners' imagination.

Selecting and adapting learning resources for teachers: ensuring relevance to context

If you are asked to give a workshop or recommend relevant resources for teachers or teacher education providers (e.g. a school director or university department co-ordinator), you need to ensure you select resources that are relevant and useful to the specific teaching context. To inform your decision, you will need to gather data and analyse it. The steps in this article illustrate how to do this.

Routine is important!

Ice-breakers, warmers, fillers, beginning- and end-of-the-lesson activities are all very important ingredients of the daily routine. Students, especially young children, love rules and regulations; they respond to the customary order of things even when it seems they are completely unruly. In this post, Nina MK shares her suggestions on how to manage different stages of the lesson.