Author Archives: alexcase

Manchester City recommending BBC kids’ channel CBeebies to its foreign players

Posted on 05/11/2013 by alexcase

…although my only source for that is the Daily Mail, which might well mean that it’s been completely made up (rather than just slightly rewritten from PR press releases like many Guardian “articles”). Still, an interesting topic. I highly recommend … Continue reading →

Posted in Linguistics, applied linguistics and SLA | 1 Comment

100 things for TEFLers to do before they die

Posted on 03/11/2013 by alexcase

Although it’s been inevitable for ages, I have yet to come to terms with the fact that I will die a TEFLer, be it tomorrow or when I’m in my nineties and still yet haven’t saved enough to retire. For … Continue reading →

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

How much are your materials worth?

Posted on 31/10/2013 by alexcase

Someone’s offered me three dollars a pop for my worksheets. I told them that for that price I prefer to post them here for nothing.

Posted in Materials | Leave a comment

What to do with my worksheets

Posted on 30/10/2013 by alexcase

Edit them down – please! In common with most writers with no editor, I find it difficult and even painful to edit out stuff which it’s taken me time and effort to come up with, even when I know I should. … Continue reading →

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

Protest outside TEFL Institute in Chicago

Posted on 29/10/2013 by alexcase

According to the local newspaper who covered the demo, it was about staff who hadn’t got paid. However, according to the protest group’s Facebook page, there are also students who’ve been ripped off. Don’t know if it’s part of the … Continue reading →

Posted in Teaching English as a Foreign Language | 3 Comments

Criticism of outsourcing to British Council in Punjab and Malaysia

Posted on 23/10/2013 by alexcase

I’m not sure how seriously the criticism can be taken, seeing as it comes from a local teaching union and an opposition party, probably the two kinds of people who are most likely to protest all changes. Still, that of … Continue reading →

Posted in British Council | Leave a comment

English for Academic Purposes (EAP) pages expanded and reorganised

Posted on 22/10/2013 by alexcase

I’m spending most of my time teaching university classes at the moment, including academic writing, academic presentations and academic discussion skills, plus English for Specific Academic Purposes classes for design, economics and social science students. As with most of my … Continue reading →

Posted in English for Academic Purposes | Leave a comment

Are we avoiding talking about learning? (Why we really do what we do Part 5)

Posted on 18/10/2013 by alexcase

It’s recently struck me how many of the things us TEFL teachers say and write about our jobs, students and classes seem to have little or nothing to do with student learning. There are many examples of this on the … Continue reading →

Posted in Linguistics, applied linguistics and SLA | 2 Comments

Testing and teaching detailed comprehension

Posted on 15/10/2013 by alexcase

Can’t remember how I got it into my head to write an article about such a huge and complex topic, but hopefully managed a mix of a summary of well-known but frequently ignored advice plus a few of my own less conventional ideas … Continue reading →

Posted in Listening, Reading | Leave a comment

tefl.net/alexcase

Posted on 13/10/2013 by alexcase

Now I finally seem to have fixed the hundreds of internal links which were broken by the move of TEFLtastic from TEFL.net, I have turned my attention to broken incoming links from elsewhere. Will try and get the various site … Continue reading →

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