Category Archives: Self-study materials

Recommended free Elementary and Pre-Int business self-study materials

Posted on 13/09/2021 by alexcase

This is a list of the best A1 and A2 level materials I could find online. I made this for my students to use while they were waiting for their one-to-one tutorials, to discuss afterwards, and hopefully to use to … Continue reading →

Posted in Business English and ESP, Self-study materials | Leave a comment

Copyright and the TEFL teacher

Posted on 05/04/2009 by alexcase

I had a thought provoking email from one of the TEFL.net book reviewers last week. When I told them to “not rush the review and try the book out in class as much as they like”, they came back with … Continue reading →

Posted in copyright, ELT publishing, Interactive whiteboard, Materials, Self-study materials, Technology, TEFL, Using authentic texts, video | 5 Comments

Korean euphemisms?

Posted on 06/10/2008 by alexcase

This is when my studies with the Lonely Planet phrasebook started getting completely out of hand, I think I might have been just short of giggling like a school boy on the train at one point… Not that hysterics is … Continue reading →

Posted in Alternative teaching techniques, Materials, Self-study materials, Teaching English in Korea, Vocabulary | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Lonely Planet Korean Phrasebook for Pervs

Posted on 01/10/2008 by alexcase

Here is another attempt of mine to cope with my complete lack of language learning motivation, Playstation-generation attention span and need for something new every couple of hours. And the new method is- trying to find as many rude things … Continue reading →

Posted in Self-study materials, Vocabulary | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

My Lonely Planet is full of eels

Posted on 17/09/2008 by alexcase

Here are some actual sentences taught in the Lonely Planet Korean phrasebook which, while not quite “My hovercraft is full of eels”, tickled me once I realised that trying to find silliness was another whole motivation for using language learning … Continue reading →

Posted in Linguistics, applied linguistics and SLA, Materials, Self-study materials, Teaching English in Korea, TEFL | Tagged , , | 3 Comments

Surprises about English spelling

Posted on 27/07/2008 by alexcase

More bits and pieces that I didn’t know, had never thought about or had doubts about from The Cambridge Grammar of English: – The reason why you don’t double the p in “developing” is because the previous vowel isn’t stressed. … Continue reading →

Posted in Cambridge University Press, Grammar, Grammar books, links, Materials, Self-study materials, Skills, Spelling, Spelling rules, TEFL, Typical spelling mistakes, Writing | Leave a comment

Surprising things about British and American English

Posted on 04/07/2008 by alexcase

I’ve been reading through the new Cambridge Grammar of English. Not something I usually do for pleasure (honestly!), but got a free copy for TEFL.net reviews and so felt like I ought to examine at least some parts in detail- … Continue reading →

Posted in British and American English, Cambridge University Press, Cultural differences/ cultural training, Grammar, Grammar books, Linguistics, applied linguistics and SLA, links, Materials, Photocopiable worksheets, Self-study materials, TEFL | 6 Comments

The “Should you be teaching EAP?” quiz

Posted on 27/06/2008 by alexcase

If the amount of new stuff I learnt from the new book “Academic Vocabulary in Use” by Michael McCarthy and Felicity O’Dell is anything to go by (a book for students from “good Intermediate level”, not for teachers!), the answer … Continue reading →

Posted in Academic vocabulary, Cambridge University Press, Collocations, English for Academic Purposes, IELTS, links, Self-study materials, TEFL, Vocabulary | 2 Comments

Two more ways to have fun with graded readers

Posted on 08/04/2008 by alexcase

17. Find the graded reader extract blind Students are given several extracts from graded readers that the teacher has brought into class. Without opening the books (and usually without obvious clues like character names), the students have to guess which … Continue reading →

Posted in Graded readers (easy readers), links, Materials, Onestopenglish, Reading, Self-study materials, Skills | Leave a comment