Category Archives: Skills

Conversation questions – 40 games, worksheets, articles and links

Posted on 07/10/2012 by alexcase

Used the “opportunity” of having to manually paste twenty or so links in to add my two articles on the topic, divide the worksheets up so that there are sections on conversation questions for specific grammar points and actual conversation … Continue reading →

Posted in Discussion questions | 1 Comment

The modernist approach to authentic texts

Posted on 03/07/2012 by alexcase

I really appreciate the regular news lessons from sites tlike The Grauniad and BreakingNewsEnglish, but I can’t work out why most of them have the exact same activities week after week. For me, repeating the same activity over and over … Continue reading →

Posted in Reading | 2 Comments

Avoiding correction of spoken errors

Posted on 06/05/2012 by alexcase

… or at least avoiding ending each and every stage or lesson by writing a list of mistakes up on the board. Whatever your attitude to that CELTA-tastic activity, having alternatives has got to be a good thing, I reckon. … Continue reading →

Posted in Error correction, Speaking | 2 Comments

Does reading help speaking more than listening does?

Posted on 04/05/2012 by alexcase

… because that is what I told one of my students in a one to one class the other day. I then wondered where on earth I got that idea from – as I don’t remember ever having consciously coming … Continue reading →

Posted in Listening, Reading | 6 Comments

My new stuff last month

Posted on 04/03/2012 by alexcase

Have just linked to some of this, but if you look at it the glass half full way that means most of it is being mentioned for the first time… Articles Teaching countable and uncountable nouns (almost certainly not the way … Continue reading →

Posted in Academic writing, Apologies, Business English and ESP, Business English games, countable and uncountable nouns, Determiners and articles, Email, Future tenses, IELTS Speaking, IELTS Writing, Interactive whiteboard, Modals, Photocopiable worksheets, Prepositions, Present Perfect Continuous | Leave a comment

Step by step roleplays (TEFLtastic classics Part Five)

Posted on 02/03/2012 by alexcase

Not quite a game, but a lot more fun and useful than it sounds. If you like this and want more, please support TEFLtastic.  Students do a short and easy roleplay, then the next roleplay card asks them to do … Continue reading →

Posted in Complaints, Roleplays, Telephoning | Tagged | Leave a comment

New ELT articles and classroom handouts January 2012

Posted on 27/01/2012 by alexcase

Not a bad batch this month, though I say so myself… Articles Fun classroom activities for ordinal numbers – LINK FIXED Functional language for IELTS Speaking – LINK FIXED How to practise Used to  – LINK FIXED Worksheets IELTS Speaking Clarifying language Cambridge … Continue reading →

Posted in British and American English, BULATS, Cambridge First Certificate, clarifying, Email, English for Academic Purposes, IELTS Speaking, IELTS Writing, ordinal numbers, past tenses, Photocopiable worksheets, Technical English, Telephoning, unreal past, Used to | Leave a comment

Graded readers in the classroom

Posted on 20/01/2012 by alexcase

An old article of mine, I forget which magazine it was first in: Most schools have at least a couple of graded readers somewhere around the place, if only freebies that were sent unsolicited by publishers, and if not it … Continue reading →

Posted in Graded readers (easy readers) | Leave a comment

New fun (?) EFL worksheets and teaching ideas December 2011

Posted on 30/12/2011 by alexcase

I know you have better things to do than look at a list like this – me too, but I’ve been planning to write it for a week and I have to do it now or the year in the post … Continue reading →

Posted in BULATS, Future tenses, IELTS, Requests, TEFL, teleconference, video conference | Leave a comment

New TEFL articles and worksheets November 2011

Posted on 30/11/2011 by alexcase

I’ve mentioned some of these in my posts on tips and useful language etc, but the ones near the top of each section are those that have just gone up and I haven’t linked to before: Articles Teaching grammar in Business … Continue reading →

Posted in Academic writing, BULATS, Business and ESP writing, Cambridge First Certificate, comparatives, Complaints, Future tenses, IELTS Speaking, IELTS Writing, Language of meetings, Modals of possibility probability, Politeness, Reports, Requests, Social English, teleconference, unreal past | 2 Comments