Category Archives: IELTS

EFL exam materials

Posted on 14/03/2011 by alexcase

Classes cancelled again, I think mainly because of trains not running more than risk of more earthquakes or the wind blowing radioactive gas all this way. As the planned power cuts didn’t materialise today and anyway will probably not include … Continue reading →

Posted in CAE, Cambridge First Certificate, Cambridge Proficiency, EFL exams, IELTS, IELTS Speaking, Photocopiable worksheets, TOEFL, TOEIC | Leave a comment

New EFL worksheets November 2010

Posted on 24/11/2010 by alexcase

November 2010 Part One and Only (a bit more realistic than usual about my blogging abilities this month…) Starting and Ending Meetings (loads of lovely Business English functional language) Language of trends- Your week and life (personalisation for this vital IELTS … Continue reading →

Posted in Business English and ESP, Business English games, Giving opinions, IELTS Speaking, IELTS Writing, Language of meetings, Photocopiable worksheets, Trends language | Leave a comment

Something for post-weekend

Posted on 17/01/2010 by alexcase

Inspired by the song “Something for the Weekend” by Divine Comedy, a list of all my talking about the weekend worksheets for Monday (or even Tuesday) lessons. No time to hyperlink them properly before Monday as I spent the time … Continue reading →

Posted in Business English games, Complaints, IELTS, links, Materials, Photocopiable worksheets, Speaking games, TEFL, TEFL games | 3 Comments

The best ever IELTS humour?

Posted on 07/01/2010 by alexcase

IELTS Academic Writing Task 1 calendar from The Tao of Teaching. Not sure there are many other candidates for best IELTS humour, to be honest, but this made me laugh on almost every page anyway. Any other IELTS jokes, anyone? … Continue reading →

Posted in IELTS Writing, links, TEFL blogs | Tagged | 3 Comments

Interview- TEFL Hero Jon Marks on the life of a full-time TEFL writer

Posted on 31/12/2009 by alexcase

It’s been a while since I’ve used the TEFL hero category, and I’ve even stripped some people of the honour (and Sandy MacManus has been pretty close a couple of times), but I’m glad I kept it going because Jon Marks deserves it for … Continue reading →

Posted in Cambridge Young Learner Exams, Delta Publishing, EFL exams, ELT publishing, English Teaching Professional, General English textbooks, getting into ELT publishing, Getting published, Grammar games, IELTS, links, Photocopiable worksheets, PPP (Presentation practice production), Teaching English in Korea, TEFL, TEFL career planning, TEFL games, TEFL heroes- Jon Marks, TEFL pay, TEFL Tradesman, textbooks, Writing ELT textbooks and materials | Tagged | 2 Comments

What was the biggest change in TEFL in the Noughties?

Posted on 21/12/2009 by alexcase

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

If your students hate classes based on the textbook

Posted on 12/11/2009 by alexcase

… there are six possibilities: 1. The whole concept of using a textbook is wrong 2. Having a textbook is wrong for that class 3. You’re using the textbook too much 4. You’re using the wrong textbook 5. You are … Continue reading →

Posted in Business English and ESP, ELT publishing, Experience of Language Teaching, IELTS, textbooks | 8 Comments

IELTS Academic Writing tips for students

Posted on 23/06/2009 by alexcase

This is a special request from a student, and is basically a list of what look like the best links from a quick read through some sites I found in approximate order of usefulness or accuracy (with the caveat that … Continue reading →

Posted in EFL exams, English for Academic Purposes, IELTS, IELTS Writing, TEFL | 3 Comments

ETS to introduce new exam for teachers

Posted on 16/05/2009 by alexcase

Their spokesman said “With IELTS increasingly taking over from TOEFL, BULATS eating away at TOEIC, Eiken expanding in Japan and the Korean government introducing its own English language exams, we were worried that the level of English teaching in Asia … Continue reading →

Posted in BULATS, EFL exams, ETS, IELTS, Teacher training, Teaching English Abroad, Teaching English in Asia, Teaching English in Japan, Teaching English in Korea, TEFL, TOEFL, TOEIC | Tagged | Leave a comment

Academic word list useful links

Posted on 06/05/2009 by alexcase

  I’ll be using these in an IELTS lesson and thought they might be useful for others. These are given in approximate order of how useful they are likely to be for learners:   Here are my attempts (now mainly tried … Continue reading →

Posted in Academic vocabulary, English for Academic Purposes, IELTS, IELTS Academic Reading, links, Technology, TEFL, Vocabulary | 5 Comments