Author Archives: alexcase

Snap and pelmanism in EFL classes (TEFLtastic classics Part Seven)

Posted on 26/08/2012 by alexcase

Pelmanism and snap articles and PDFs. If you like anything here and want more, please support TEFLtastic. I’ve been writing an article on collocation games and perhaps the biggest role of all is played by these two TEFL classics. So I … Continue reading →

Posted in pelmanism | Tagged | 1 Comment

A history of TEFL blogging Second attempt

Posted on 25/08/2012 by alexcase

Am getting my long stalled project on the history of TEFL (and, but less so, EFL) blogs restarted with: – A much improved proper chronological list, mainly based on comments on the original one – more comments here or there … Continue reading →

Posted in TEFL | Tagged | Leave a comment

Teaching the language of giving and asking for opinions

Posted on 25/08/2012 by alexcase

Updated 12 March 2017 In your average CELTA or textbook-based class, the most common kind of real communication is asking students to give their opinions. Strange, then, that the average CELTA or textbook-based class doesn’t spend more time on teaching the language … Continue reading →

Posted in Giving opinions | Leave a comment

Plenty of TEFL jobs in Spain despite the recession?

Posted on 20/08/2012 by alexcase

This piece of PR fluff not even trying to pretend to be journalism doesn’t provide any evidence at all for its claim that  “there is currently a high demand for English teachers here”, but it is certainly conceivable when even … Continue reading →

Posted in Teaching English in Spain | 4 Comments

The plot of my TEFL murder mystery

Posted on 20/08/2012 by alexcase

I’ve only read two novels that had TEFL teachers as substantial characters and both books contained murders, but neither of them were actual murder mysteries. I’m therefore planning to fill that gap in the market. Without giving away the murderer, … Continue reading →

Posted in TEFL | Tagged | 2 Comments

Is the British Council competing its way to oblivion?

Posted on 17/08/2012 by alexcase

I’ve been worried for a while that by doing more and more things that commercial organisations do more and more in the way that commercial organisations do them (as well as competing with – often British-owned – commercial organisations), the … Continue reading →

Posted in British Council | Leave a comment

Trinity course provider ISIS Tefl joins the online bs party

Posted on 17/08/2012 by alexcase

If only because of how short it is, this is not as bad as the random marketing buzz words with no connection to reality churned out by most newer TEFL courses. However, it is still depressing from a course that has … Continue reading →

Posted in Trinity | 1 Comment

Olympics mascots lesson

Posted on 10/08/2012 by alexcase

A great lesson for students who are interested in the Olympics but not necessarily the actual sport. The two things that I did were: – Take in a mix of real and fake/ joke Olympics mascots for them to work out which are which. … Continue reading →

Posted in sports vocabulary | 1 Comment

Learn English with Ricky Gervais and Karl Pilkington

Posted on 09/08/2012 by alexcase

I downloaded one of their record breaking previous series of podcasts and literally didn’t laugh once, and unfortunately this looks like more of the same. However, for those of us in the “profession” the fact that if Karl had a degree … Continue reading →

Posted in video | Tagged , | 1 Comment

Why aren't you a "celebrity tutor"?

Posted on 08/08/2012 by alexcase

“[A report] described how “star tutors” who can fill lecture halls have become a phenomenon in places like Hong Kong. [The report] cited two South Korean celebrity tutors: Woo Hyeong-cheol, who reportedly earns $3.9 million per year offering Web-based math classes … Continue reading →

Posted in Teaching English in Asia | 2 Comments