As many of us are involved with English teaching or have an interest in the English language I thought we could try a TEFL thread where we can post "Things of Interest".
I came across this short interview with Jeremy Harmer today. He talks about the changing face of ELT Interview with Jeremy Harmer | IATEFL Online
Videos from Speakout pre intermediate Speakout: Video Podcasts Pre-intermediate
Videos to use with Speakout Pre intermediate or on their own. There are no exercises, but you can make up your own, search for them on internet or just stick them on and see what happens!
I use them in my classes sometimes. I do have the worksheets that go with them, but the students find them hard to work with, so I do my own thing with them. I like the videos a lot as they use very natural language.
Looking forward to other contributions on this thread
Brilliant idea. Obviously I'm a novice so do not have the experience that some of you guys have.
Examples for this coming weeks
B1 exams students.
Dictating minimal pairs. They have to write down what they hear. Moving on to telephone game. Each word has a number. They have to tell classmates their telephone number using minimal pairs. Aids with pronunciation and understanding
B2
Aging. Poem by Jenny Joseph
Describing pictures of the elderly
Discussion on ageism in different cultures
Ahhh I remember that poem. It used to be in one of the Headway books I think. I wonder if I could do it with my class of "mature" students at the university...?
Here's a vid of Jenny Joseph herself reading the poem. Unfortunately the sound's not that great
Native speakers usually know if something is correct or not, but an inexperienced native speaking teacher will often have a difficult time explaining why or providing a rule for the situation. This is something that non-native speakers often understand.
I think there are two Real Truths about this
1. Not all native teachers are good
2. Not all non native teachers are worse than native teachers
I have certainly worked with some excellent NN teachers and awful N teachers and it's a myth to think N is better full stop. Other factors have to be taken into account like training and experience. On the other hand, I did some interviewing some years ago for a local town hall that was setting up some English language programmes and there I interviewed some classic examples of Spanish teachers with good ideas, but an accent so thick that I really struggled to understand them - such a shame.
What do we think is the average hourly rate for teaching at the moment.? I work in the South of Spain in a small town. One school pay 9 Euros an hour the other 12Euros. For me it is not a huge problem as I am nearly retired and I enjoy teaching about 15 hours a week. I examine as well for Cambridge. The payment is legal to a point although I notice my employer always doctors my nominee so it shows less hours. I could work privately but to be honest the autonomo is too high. This way I pay SS and have a legal contract which is what I really want given the approach of BERXIT.
9€ ph is about right, although here privately I charge 5€ for children and €7 for adults
M autonomo because it gives me healthcare... as for Brexit... I'm not sure a contract will give you anymore security than being self employed. contracts are supposed to be offered to Spanish or EU citizens, being self employed I'm not taking a job from anyone else?
Talking about J Harmer he came to my college one year to talk about his ideas. Seemed pleasant enough but despite all the hype he really just relabels old ideas. ( Remember his insistence of replacing PPP) He doesn't spearhead any new methodology as many seem to think. The same goes for Thornbury- his dogma approach is not a new methodology although it is sometimes seen as. The last real attempt to alter approach was Lewis' Lexical Approach but that seems to have failed given the fact that no one seemed to produce a workable syllabus.
I don't know much about him except he is revered in the TEFL world, but I'm pretty sure he knows more about teaching than I do
As for re-labling old ideas the king of that is Richard Vaughan. I don't know if his empire has reached Andalucia, but here in Madrid you can't move without bumping into Vaughan books, Vaughan radio, Vaughan tv and Vaughan disciples and his method basically revolves around drilling and translation (and smarminess piled on thick) imported directly from the 1960's.
Yes I have heard Richard Vaughan on the radio. He is very slick but I really don't think it would cut the mustard within the TEFL community. As you say it is Audio LIngualism- much practiced in the 60s. Nothing remotely new. Having said that it does have some good things. Lots of fast receptive patterns which are produced quickly with different substitutions. Good for pronunciation but academically dismissed as it lacks any functional elements. Still lots of people used it after the war and many went on to learn languages as well as people who were subjected to communicative methods
Here's another link for resources. I find you have to be very careful with online resources; there's a lot of rubbish out there. A lot of materials are made by non natives and are full of mistakes, others are just not well thought out and many are very much focused on an American or Asian market.
This place though has well thought out and professional looking worksheets. They also have a whole system for revising vocabulary and more which you can get if you pay a fee. I've just used the occasional free download worksheet when I've been short of time, and they are good. https://www.linguahouse.com/esl-lesson-plans
I use this one, it's very good. I know exactly what you mean.
I'm interested in knowing what paid for sites people use.
For my 5 year olds, I often use sites for children with learning disabilities, these sites have fabulous graphics and are obviously very basic. I've downloaded some great flash cards for laminating
Yesterday I purchased a laminater...... I'm a proper teacher now ROFL
Anyone reading this thread thinking I could teach, do not underestimate the amount of work (over and above the hours actually teaching) you will work, preparing class materials and the amount of trees that will die in pursuit of handouts!
For those seeking ideas on teaching little one... save white bottle tops, using permanent pen write the letters of the alphabet on them. I then use these for the kids to play a kind of scrabble game or I call out a verb they have to use the tops to spell the verb in the correct tense. I find that kids love to be interactive
I did my TEFL course whilst back in the UK and did some classes there too mainly for experience. I havent used it in Spain but now have an opportunity to do so. The reason I am keen on this as its a different type of school where the language is taught through activities. The plan is I will do a gymnastics class for Spanish children in English. I am a British Gymnastics qualified coach with a lot of experience and this class will be doing the basics. Have you guys any links to any fun physical activities please ?
The madrileña cleaner in the bar where I do my classes asked me to teach her how to say 'good morning' & 'how are you?'.
She was trying to practice with some of my students the other morning & it really made them appreciate how much easier it is for them to get to grips with Spanish pronunciation, than it is the other way round!
All abilities catered for and all free BUT you have to check spellings and grammar because there can be errors in some, I made that mistake once, a six year old corrected the error,!!!
Spanish children, it seems to me ( I can only speak for my location) have a much better grasp of grammar rules than English kids and are only too happy to correct you LOL. Having said that, my children were taught English 20 odd years ago, so maybe it's different now.
Lovely video showing an older man learning English. In the end we find out why. I think you could use it to introduce a short discussion about why you are learning English.
“The traditional method of teaching English isn’t working”
Project-based language learning method with focus on culture is tested in Spain’s Catalonia region
“Languages cannot be taught in isolation and the least important things are grammatical structures. This is a new approach and that is why we need time to measure the impact on students,” says Olga Esteve, an expert in foreign language learning methods at Barcelona’s Pompeu Fabra University.
This link takes you to a page talking about teacher events in the British Council
BUT
that's not why I think it's worth posting. Scroll down and you will see downloads and there you have some useful links - a booklet of warmers/ fillers for example or classroom activities for pronunciation https://www.britishcouncil.es/en/english-teacher-conference
Although I just tried to access one of the links they gave and it seems it's a page that has closed down...
I have been asked to help a local girl who is very proficient in English... Level B2 certificate but who want to take level C1 next year. We have two lessons per week. One is speaking / conversation the other is writing /reading. As I'm not a qualified PCGE teacher, my boss at the school is helping me assess written work from a grammar perspective, and my student knows this and is happy. Gramaticallly she's great, and I'm pretty sure she will have no problems passing, however, I am looking for level C1/2 speaking suggestions, it's easy to just "chat" but I'd like to have some structure to the class. I'm looking at idioms, phrasal verbs, Correct use of connectors etc
I would appreciate some advice from those of you with experience. I don't like taking money and offering a half baked service.
Well, nearer the exam you will need to do specific speaking exam sessions. You can find examples of the exams on Youtube and on the Cambridge site. You'll see that the standard isn't really that high when it comes to speaking. The reading, use of English etc is another matter.
Look at the video and also the examiner's comments that are in a link there. The comments sometimes are not that useful because as an examiner you are only allowed to comment on the positive, not the negative!
Probably the best way to help yourself help the student though, is to just get a good textbook as that will give the student loads of practice in the essential vocabulary and will have activities to recyle and use it too.
When looking at books, make sure you get one printed after the latest revision of the exam, which I think was 2015. You can check with Cambridge. Don't forget there are lots of places which have second hand copies which could work out a lot cheaper - just check the publication date
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