Author Archives: alexcase

Ones on my Xmas and New Year materials page for present tenses, past tenses, future tenses, It is/ They are, action and state verbs, adverbs of frequency, first conditional, modals, imperatives, numbers, describing foods, trends and the language of negotiations, probably the most … Continue reading →

A recent typically involving discussion on ELT Jam turned about halfway through into a version of my new favourite comedy podcast The Blame Game. Instead of questions like “Who do you blame for Jeremy Paxman?”, the TEFL version had questions … Continue reading →

Like “progressive”, “job creators”, “hard working families” and “pro-choice”, it is very hard to argue with something “natural”. Use other terms, though, (“left winger”, “capitalist”, “middle class” and “pro-abortion”) and you get something that plenty of people still agree with … Continue reading →

Perhaps the biggest problem with corpora is the fact that none of them are more than an approximation of the English that individual students will come across and/ or need. In fact, as I said in my last post, I … Continue reading →

What could possibly be wrong with loads of data on how language is used by native and (increasingly) non-native speakers? Well, nothing – if a bit of common sense/ a pinch of salt is added before it gets to the … Continue reading →

I can understand comments like that on handover notes, as long as it isn’t (as it often is) a substitute for things like learning goals and use of English outside the classroom. However, I’ve seen it again and again on … Continue reading →

The latest EF EPI ranking is out, with the usual mix of unsurprising (Scandanavia, Holland and other Northern European countries top) and more controversial (Shanghai and Beijing above Hong Kong, Japan above Italy and France, Turkey clearly at the bottom in … Continue reading →

My IELTS articles and IELTS worksheets pages have always had plenty of ideas for games, but they’ve been somewhat hidden under the other more boring but at least as useful activities like students making their own questions with typical question … Continue reading →