Category Archives: Cambridge University Press

Deep TEFL quote of the day

Posted on 21/07/2008 by alexcase

“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

Surprises about English punctuation

Posted on 13/07/2008 by alexcase

I’m continuing to learn from and ponder on the information in the Cambridge Grammar of English, and as before testing the matters I’ve been chewing on against your native speaker intuitions would be appreciated (sorry for the very unpleasant mental picture from … Continue reading →

Posted in CAE, Cambridge First Certificate, Cambridge University Press, EFL exams, ELT publishing, Grammar books, links, Materials, Photocopiable worksheets, Punctuation, Teaching young learners, Technology, TEFL, TEFL games, Writing | Leave a comment

Surprising things about speech acts

Posted on 09/07/2008 by alexcase

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

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

New from the world of applied linguistics…

Posted on 04/06/2008 by alexcase

…a dash of realism, a big dollop of the painfully obvious and a side serving of hedging their bets: “…for teachers, the distilled research finding that positive attitudes and motivation contribute to successful learning yields little useful insight into their … Continue reading →

Posted in Cambridge University Press, Linguistics, applied linguistics and SLA, Oxford University Press (OUP), TEFL | 8 Comments

Face2Face with teenagers

Posted on 25/06/2007 by alexcase

Still not loving teaching the 18-20 year olds. Passing on my wisdom is all very well, but I prefer to have some passed back my way too. At least I’m having to research some stuff about Oz (where most of them … Continue reading →

Posted in Cambridge University Press, General English textbooks, IELTS, Marshall Cavendish, Teaching teenagers, textbooks | 2 Comments