Category Archives: British Council

British Council versus Pixar to go to appeal

The British Council’s attempts to sue Pixar for up to 545 million pounds for stealing the storyline to all three Toy Story films from the LearnEnglishKids song “Old Scruffy Teddy” will go on to the High Court next month. In reply … Continue reading

Posted in British Council | Tagged | 4 Comments

British Council to be scrapped?

“The BBC World Service, the British Council and the Environment Agency are among the 94 publicly funded bodies whose fate has yet to be decided.” from Quango Cuts in the Torygraph It wouldn’t seem to make sense to close all … Continue reading

Posted in British Council, Telegraph TEFL | Tagged | 8 Comments

Eikaiwa continues to shrink

David English House in Hiroshima, a well respected school run by author and all round booster of professionalism in Nippon David Paul, closed for business on 1 September leaving him personally bankrupt. Sounds like they managed the process well, though, according … Continue reading

Posted in British Council, David English House, Eikaiwa, English Teachers in Japan, Let's Japan, Teaching English in Japan, TEFL chains | Tagged | 5 Comments

The Best of Chasing TEFL Ladies

No, not the history of trying to find a Liz to my John Soars in the teachers’ rooms of the world… One of the reasons my last post was even more untopical than usual was that when I went to … Continue reading

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A typical TEFL biography (and one big difference)

The typical bit: “I did not know what I wanted to do but I did know what I did not want to do.  I did not want to work in the UK. ” and the untypical bit: “A panel of misguided … Continue reading

Posted in British Council, TEFL, TEFL heroes- Alan Maley | Tagged | 1 Comment

What was the biggest change in TEFL in the Noughties?

If you’d asked me in 1999, I probably would’ve predicted that Task Based Learning was going to take over the TEFL world, for better or worse. What a damp squib that turned out to be, with apparently even Cutting Edge … Continue reading

Posted in British Council, Dogme, Electronic dictionaries, ELT publishing, Humanistic language teaching, IELTS, Interactive whiteboard, International House, Pilgrims, Teaching English in Japan, Teaching English in Thailand, teaching online, Technology, TEFL blogs, TEFL in the UK, Twitter, Wall Street | 10 Comments

A big change at the BC

British Council Chennai only employs local teachers. I wouldn’t be surprised if it has been imposed on them by visa restrictions, but if it works I can see them trying to spread the idea elsewhere. A welcome change? Likely to … Continue reading

Posted in British Council, Teaching English in India | Tagged | 13 Comments

Proof of a TEFL oligarchy??

I’d always scoffed at such conspiracy theories before, but I could have sworn that there were more than this many publishers of EFL materials in the UK. Maybe Delta Publishing etc have all been taken over by Saudi oil princes like Premiership … Continue reading

Posted in British Council, ELT publishing | 14 Comments

The best of Teaching English Guest Writer Articles

Another example of how blogging can be a good thing even if nobody reads, in this case making me read something worthwhile that I just hadn’t quite found time for month after month after month… Surprising myself slightly, my top … Continue reading

Posted in British Council, Cross cultural training in EFL, Dogme, Linguistics, applied linguistics and SLA, Skills, Teaching English in Japan, Teaching methods and methodologies, TEFL | Comments Off on The best of Teaching English Guest Writer Articles

How to really improve the standard of TEFL courses

The Guardian reports (uncritically, as ever when it comes to TEFL) on the setting up of yet another organisation meant to, apparently, boost the standards of TEFL in the UK- this one called The Association for the Promotion of Quality … Continue reading

Posted in British Council, British Council accreditation, Cambridge ESOL, CELTA, Dodgy TEFL courses, Guardian TEFL, links, Teacher training, TEFL, TEFL certificate, TEFL in the UK, TEFL qualifications, TEFL scams, TESOL, Trinity, Trinity CertTESOL | 6 Comments