Category Archives: TEFL reviews

Do you want the temporary buzz of moving on and/ or up too?

Doesn’t last of course, especially the initial thrill of being in the chaos of a third world city or in the chaos left for you by the last person who had that DoS job, but if having some kind of … Continue reading

Posted in Becoming a Director of Studies, becoming a teacher trainer, Business English and ESP, CPD, EFL exams, ELT management, ELT publishing, finding good TEFL jobs, getting into ELT publishing, Lesson observations, links, Materials, Peer observations, Teacher training, Teaching English in Asia, TEFL, TEFL career planning, TEFL CV/ TESOL resume, TEFL qualifications, TEFL reviews, TEFL working conditions, TEFL workshops, TESOL, Usingenglish | Tagged | 2 Comments

Telephoning in English worksheets, games and lesson plans

Updated, expanded and with many more links here: https://tefltastic.wordpress.com/worksheets/telephoning/

Posted in Answerphone messages, Business English and ESP, Business English games, Delta Publishing, ELT publishing, Functional language, links, Materials, Oxford University Press (OUP), Photocopiable worksheets, Skills, Speaking, TEFL, TEFL games, TEFL reviews, Telephoning, Usingenglish | Leave a comment

New stuff July 2008 Part Two

As mentioned in a comment or two below (and in every other sentence in my real life conversation), I am off on my reasonably well deserved hols from Friday and won’t even be looking at a computer screen for the … Continue reading

Posted in Business English and ESP, Business English games, Complaints, Compound nouns, Cross cultural training in EFL, Cultural differences/ cultural training, ELT publishing, Functional language, Grammar, Grammar games, Learner training, Linguistics, applied linguistics and SLA, links, Materials, Pairwork and groupwork, Personalisation, Prepositions, Present simple/ continuous, Present tenses, Pronunciation, TEFL, TEFL games, TEFL reviews, Usingenglish, Vocabulary | Leave a comment

Deep TEFL quote of the day

“While many teachers may attend to the questions ‘Do you like this language? Do you like this class?’, perhaps the more fundamental question for a student is ‘Do I like myself in this class?’”

Posted in Cambridge University Press, Classroom dynamics, Classroom management, Learner training, links, Materials, Mixed ability classes, Problem students, Teaching methods and methodologies, TEFL, TEFL celebs/ TEFL heroes and villains, TEFL heroes- Zoltan Dornyei, TEFL reviews | Tagged | 1 Comment

Surprising things about speech acts

My first surprise was introducing students to the piece of ELT jargon “speech acts”, something I only vaguely remembered from my reading for my DELTA myself, but more about that when I get round to reviewing The Cambridge Grammar of … Continue reading

Posted in Cambridge University Press, Functional language, Grammar, Linguistics, applied linguistics and SLA, Materials, Speaking, TEFL, TEFL reviews, TESOL | Leave a comment

Jon Marks- Is there anything this man can't do??

Jonnyboy is the cartoonist behind the often amusing Langwich Scool and the author of the life saving books At Last, Photocopies You Can Give Your Kids’ Classes Without Them Groaning. And now he’s released a book that makes IELTS fun. … Continue reading

Posted in Delta Publishing, EFL exams, ELT publishing, English for Academic Purposes, IELTS, Photocopiable worksheets, Technical English, TEFL heroes- Jon Marks, TEFL reviews | 1 Comment

Are EFL textbooks getting better or worse?

The case for the prosecution starts with exhibit A, Intelligent Business, the newish series of textbooks from Longman. First, a mea culpa. At first glance Intelligent Business seemed like such a good concept that I recommended it to my school … Continue reading

Posted in Business English and ESP, ELT publishing, Materials, Pearson Longman, TEFL, TEFL reviews, Telephoning, textbooks | 3 Comments

Busy making others busy

As a blogger and writer of articles on the internet whose technical knowledge stops at Word, as usual I feel half chuffed at churning out so many articles, including a good one here and there, and half guilty at creating … Continue reading

Posted in BULATS, Business English and ESP, EFL exams, IELTS Speaking, links, Materials, Photocopiable worksheets, Pronunciation, pronunciation games, Second conditional, TEFL, TEFL career planning, TEFL games, TEFL reviews, TEFL workshops, TESOL, Using a whiteboard, Using L1 in class, Whiteboard games | Leave a comment

Testing and reviewing new EFL materials – Can talking about TEFL books really be any use?

UPDATE: Whole page on TEFL reviews now here. When I think back on the many conversations I have had in the teachers’ room about English language textbooks, photocopiable resource books etc. over the years, I can remember quite a few … Continue reading

Posted in ELT publishing, General English textbooks, links, TEFL blogs, TEFL reviews, TESOL, textbooks, Usingenglish, Writing ELT textbooks and materials | Leave a comment

TEFL Insider Part 5- Inside TEFL reviews

A few posts ago I promised to dish the dirt on the world of the reviews of English teaching materials, a part of the biz that I have been involved in in various ways for 8 years or so now. … Continue reading

Posted in ELT publishing, General English textbooks, Humanistic language teaching, Pilgrims, TEFL reviews, TESOL | Leave a comment