Category Archives: Teaching English in Asia

How easy is working in a Japanese "Eikaiwa" conversation school

Posted on 23/07/2012 by alexcase

A rare good thread on GaijinPot on the topic here.

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Japan in the Korean EFL classroom

Posted on 23/05/2012 by alexcase

A very specific topic, I know, but as I was already back here when someone from KoTESOL’s The English Connection magazine asked me to write something, it was the first thing that popped into my head. Hopefully of more general … Continue reading →

Posted in Teaching English in Korea | 2 Comments

Minimal pairs for Korean learners of English

Posted on 17/04/2012 by alexcase

Links are to list of relevant minimal pairs divided by level. If you like this and want more, please support TEFLtastic.  Updated 26 July 2020.  Voiced and unvoiced consonants b and p (bore and pore) v and f (van and … Continue reading →

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A review of the CMUTEFL course

Posted on 29/03/2012 by alexcase

About 18 months after the messy implosion of the last TEFL course on the Chiang Mai University campus, it seems they are finally starting another course there in April, and someone has written to me asking if it is “legit”. … Continue reading →

Posted in Chiang Mai University | 31 Comments

TEFLer in Japan among the 50 Great Britons of 2011

Posted on 18/12/2011 by alexcase

I was hoping the TEFLer in Japan on the Independent on Sunday list  would be me for writing over 50 articles this year on earth-shattering topics like teaching ordinal numbers and 1st conditional games, but apparently saving people’s lives is … Continue reading →

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Minimal pairs for Japanese learners of English

Posted on 25/11/2011 by alexcase

I haven’t done lists of all of these yet (there are links to the ones I have), some might not have any actual minimal pairs in English, and I also realise that some of these are not things that would … Continue reading →

Posted in minimal pairs, Teaching English in Japan | 1 Comment

Typical problems for Korean learners of English

Posted on 23/11/2011 by alexcase

I did a lot of research on this when I first arrived in Korea because my approach to correction relies a lot on anticipating their problems (rather than making a random list of things that come up, as I seem … Continue reading →

Posted in Teaching English in Korea | 1 Comment

Pearson buys 450-branch test preparation school chain in China

Posted on 22/11/2011 by alexcase

They already own the China-based bits of the Wall Street English conversation school chain, so they just keep getting bigger. The article in the FT doesn’t speculate on it (because they are also owned by Pearson??), but I wonder whether … Continue reading →

Posted in EFL exams, Pearson Longman, Teaching English in China | Tagged | Leave a comment

More interesting TEFL/ TESOL statistics

Posted on 18/11/2011 by alexcase

It’s turning into a bit of a collection. Better than collecting stamps, I suppose: 1.5 billion – Estimated number of English speakers up to 400 million – number of Chinese learning English (nearly a third of the population) over 50,000 … Continue reading →

Posted in Teaching English in China | Tagged | 1 Comment

Japan facing new demographic crisis

Posted on 09/11/2011 by alexcase

As well as facing the world’s most rapidly ageing society, according to a speech by a government minister yesterday Japan is also having to deal for the first time with its supply of foreign teachers getting older and older as … Continue reading →

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