Author Archives: alexcase

Useful TEFL-based euphemisms for your everyday life

Posted on 07/12/2013 by alexcase

Especially useful if your response to the double whammy of hitting your midlife crisis while still a TEFLer was to start an affair with a colleague or student (rather than the even worse option of starting a TEFL blog) and … Continue reading →

Posted in Teaching English as a Foreign Language | Tagged | 5 Comments

Pearson buys Brazil’s largest chain of language schools

Posted on 05/12/2013 by alexcase

Story from FT here, and The Wall Street Journal, The Independent and The Daily Telegraph have all covered the story too. Forbes profile of the founder Carlos Wizard Martins, including explanation of the name, here. It was a bit tricky … Continue reading →

Posted in Teaching English Abroad | Tagged | 2 Comments

Extreme needs-based teaching!

Posted on 02/12/2013 by alexcase

I’ve been doing this for a while in one-to-one classes, but took me a while to come up with a worksheet for group classes to elicit and practise what students need in the very first lesson, even when those needs … Continue reading →

Posted in Needs analysis | Leave a comment

China Radio International investigation of EF

Posted on 30/11/2013 by alexcase

Some of the criticism is a bit random, but the reports of refusing refunds and Western-looking but non-native teachers seem genuine: Behind the Foreign Brand Name (radio programme and transcript)

Posted in EF, Teaching English in China | 5 Comments

New TEFL articles and worksheets Oct-Nov 2013

Posted on 27/11/2013 by alexcase

The surprising popularity of one of my recent attempts at humour and something that started as an attempt at an actual article have somewhat made up for the lack of blog posts recently. I’ve also been pretty busy elsewhere. In … Continue reading →

Posted in Photocopiable worksheets | Leave a comment

Three nice new simple third person S activities

Posted on 24/11/2013 by alexcase

1. Came up with this one last week, though it’s so simple I’m sure I’m not the first: Draw a stick boy and stick girl on the board, then students make statements (“He has black hair”) or answers questions (“Does … Continue reading →

Posted in Present simple for routines etc. | Leave a comment

World Journal of English Language – treat with caution

Posted on 21/11/2013 by alexcase

I just received the following email entitled “Call for paper and reviewer” from this journal I’d never heard of: “Dear Dr. Alex Case, We are reaching you because of your article entitled, ‘Don’t Do Anything For Students That They Can … Continue reading →

Posted in TEFL scams | 23 Comments

Teaching supporting your arguments

Posted on 15/11/2013 by alexcase

My regular reader might remember that a year or so ago “my boom” (as we say in Japan) was getting students to use opinions phrases that were more complex and more attuned with their strength of their opinions. However, on the … Continue reading →

Posted in Giving opinions | Leave a comment

If you are feeling down about someone quitting your class

Posted on 11/11/2013 by alexcase

…to make you feel better, don’t worry, it’s probably not your teaching. Instead, it could be because: – they were so embarrassed by a grammar mistake they made that they can never show their face in your class again – … Continue reading →

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

Guest piece – What has grammar teaching ever done for us? by Jo Gakonga

Posted on 06/11/2013 by alexcase

Grammar teaching gets a bad press. It’s old fashioned, it is said, and it doesn’t help in actually using the language.  Scott Thornbury sums it up beautifully in verse here–we teach them the form, but they can’t actually use it.  … Continue reading →

Posted in Grammar | Tagged | 1 Comment