Author Archives: alexcase

My policy on graded presentations

Posted on 17/06/2014 by alexcase

Perhaps surprisingly for a nation who are supposed to be shy, the Japanese are quite big on getting each other to stand up and make speeches and whatnot, including in social occasions like company group bonding sessions and goukon group dates. … Continue reading →

Posted in Teaching English as a Foreign Language | Leave a comment

How students can improve their fluency

Posted on 14/06/2014 by alexcase

… including things that they can do while and just before speaking, things that they can do while studying on their own, and things they can do with a teacher or conversation partner: 57 ways to improve spoken fluency I’d imagine … Continue reading →

Posted in Speaking | 1 Comment

Games/ worksheets for 47 grammar points now easier to find

Posted on 09/06/2014 by alexcase

Have begun the reorganisation mentioned in my last post, making sure you don’t have to open and then close so many windows to get at the worksheets you are after, starting by adding all the grammar sub-menus to the main grammar … Continue reading →

Posted in Grammar games, Photocopiable worksheets | 1 Comment

How can I make it easier to find worksheets on TEFLtastic?

Posted on 07/06/2014 by alexcase

I actually saw someone navigating my worksheet pages for the first time about three months ago, and was quite shocked by how many windows they had opened by the time they actually found what they wanted (even with me looking over their … Continue reading →

Posted in Teaching English as a Foreign Language | 1 Comment

My most popular articles on Usingenglish.com

Posted on 04/06/2014 by alexcase

Having just reached 150 articles on that site, thought for the first time I’d ask to see some stats on what people are actually clicking on. It’s an interesting mix: 70 ways to improve your English Fun practice for comparative … Continue reading →

Posted in Teaching English as a Foreign Language | Leave a comment

Why is TEFL research so easy to ignore?

Posted on 01/06/2014 by alexcase

A few things have come together this week to make me ask this question. First, I received the usual update email about the latest edition of TESL-EJ, had a very quick scan of one article because it was about Japan … Continue reading →

Posted in Teaching English as a Foreign Language | 6 Comments

New EFL worksheets May 2014

Posted on 29/05/2014 by alexcase

In more or less reverse chronological order, but with some moving of less generally useful stuff to lower down the list: Self-study tips comparative adjectives presentation and practice (combining learner training and grammar) Needs analysis and language learning rules discussion (ditto, … Continue reading →

Posted in Photocopiable worksheets | Leave a comment

EFL soccer dictionary updated for World Cup

Posted on 28/05/2014 by alexcase

Now searchable by letter and topic Football vocabulary A to Z Football vocabulary browse by category and still available as a single savable PDF Download football dictionary (56 pages) No comment function there, so if you find anything I got … Continue reading →

Posted in Teaching English as a Foreign Language | Leave a comment

Adding spirituality to teaching English

Posted on 22/05/2014 by alexcase

Something that has struck me while I’ve been finally following my own recommendation to download Australian Radio National podcasts is how many of them are about spirituality, a word which even the religious programmes on BBC radio tend to avoid. … Continue reading →

Posted in Teaching English as a Foreign Language | Tagged | 6 Comments

Is being a TEFLer fair on your family?

Posted on 14/05/2014 by alexcase

Despite my rather flippant (and unnecessarily oblique) response to complaints about TEFL in my recent post on the topic, there are a few comments by “Don’t even go there” TEFLers that do sting, the stingiest of which is “You are … Continue reading →

Posted in Teaching English as a Foreign Language | 3 Comments