Author Archives: alexcase

Brainstorming in EFL articles and worksheets

Posted on 15/11/2012 by alexcase

I can say from personal experience that it is very easy to brainstorm all the time but very difficult to just do so at the right time and to do so well. I still have all kinds of issues with … Continue reading →

Posted in Teaching English as a Foreign Language | 1 Comment

Advantages and disadvantages of typical TEFL activities

Posted on 11/11/2012 by alexcase

This is one of my favourite ways of looking at aspects of TEFL that we might take for granted – look at both how to exploit the advantages of it and combat any possible weak points. For example, I bet your … Continue reading →

Posted in Teaching English as a Foreign Language | 1 Comment

London summer schools down 35 percent in 2012

Posted on 11/11/2012 by alexcase

No info on where that stat came from nor conclusions on whether it was mainly the Olympics or something else, but still… Were the Olympics bad for (TEFL) business? Loads more TEFL stats via the tag of that name below.

Posted in TEFL in the UK | Tagged | 2 Comments

Business English worksheets section sorted

Posted on 10/11/2012 by alexcase

Took me a while, but pages on Market Leader, Business Result, Meetings and Negotiations, Business Grammar, Business Vocab, Business Functions, Cultural Training for Business English, etc now all done here: ESP games/ photocopiables pages

Posted in Business English and ESP | Leave a comment

Collocations games

Posted on 09/11/2012 by alexcase

The main criticism in my MET review of the great book Teaching Chunks of Language was that it had few actual games for what can otherwise be a quite heavy and overwhelming language point. I’m a bit more understanding of that now, as … Continue reading →

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

Lessons from the failure of two attempts at TEFL crowdfunding

Posted on 09/11/2012 by alexcase

The two attempts at using Indiegogo.com that I have recently enthusiastically written about by PhrazzleMe and EOT seem to be stuck on 100 dollars out of 20,000 dollars and 100 dollars out of 30,000 dollars respectively, and that is by organisations … Continue reading →

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

EOT against OUP

Posted on 06/11/2012 by alexcase

Regular interviewee (!) Jason West of English Out There is launching an online campaign against Oxford University Press. Here is the promised interview in which he explains how and why:  What exactly is your complaint against OUP? Without using legal terminology the … Continue reading →

Posted in Oxford University Press (OUP) | Tagged | 15 Comments

Using crowdfunding for TEFL-related legal action

Posted on 04/11/2012 by alexcase

I hadn’t thought about this use of crowdfunding until regular TEFLtastic interviewee Jason West sent me a link to his campaign: Bring Oxford University Press to Justice It’s all about getting the word out, but if a teacher ever sues … Continue reading →

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

Health and safety for TEFL teachers

Posted on 04/11/2012 by alexcase

Being much influenced by the UK, TEFL has not escaped the influence of “health and safety gone mad”. Here are some health and safety rules and tips from UK-based international chains of schools*: – Do not do a mingling task … Continue reading →

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

Heated debate on the role of the British Council

Posted on 03/11/2012 by alexcase

I’m a bit behind on noticing this one, but as it follows on from what I’ve written about the BC here: Is the British Council competing its way to oblivion? and here: Launch of the British Council Aptis test today … Continue reading →

Posted in British Council | Leave a comment