Tag Archives: News

More ELT publishing bad news?

Posted on 07/11/2009 by alexcase

Farewell to the Georgian Press List, taken over by CUP. Although my own copies of Georgian Press books were long ago lost in my endless moves from country to country leaving teachers’ rooms stocked with my books behind me (I will reclaim my … Continue reading →

Posted in ELT publishing, TEFL | Tagged | Leave a comment

Guardian TEFL fades away

Posted on 03/09/2009 by alexcase

Looking at the pages of Education Guardian, there are four much loved (and for some reason also much hated) letters that have recently gone missing, and those letters are T,E,F and L. The Guardian TEFL pages still exist, but I don’t … Continue reading →

Posted in Guardian TEFL, links | Tagged | 4 Comments

Saving the world's dialects through technology

Posted on 25/08/2009 by alexcase

As I can’t seem to stop eliciting (really!) I’ll tell you what you will read on it and see if you can work out the dialect being saved and the technology doing it for yourselves: “Reading your bladder of lard, please wait” … Continue reading →

Posted in TEFL | Tagged , | 1 Comment

How not to teach pronunciation

Posted on 21/07/2009 by alexcase

“Japanese college students who’d had little exposure to spoken English underwent 12 sessions listening to exaggerated “Ls” and “Rs” while watching the computerized instructor’s face pronounce English words. Brain scans — a hair dryer-looking device called MEG, for magnetoencephalography — … Continue reading →

Posted in Linguistics, applied linguistics and SLA, links, minimal pairs, Pronunciation, Teaching English in Asia, Teaching English in China, Teaching English in Japan, Teaching English in Korea, Teaching English in Thailand | Tagged , | 1 Comment

Another reason not to jump on the CLIL bandwagon?

Posted on 14/06/2009 by alexcase

“in 1999 a…study by Dr. Allan Bernardo of De La Salle University investigated the effects of different learner and instructional factors on solving arithmetic word problems among grade school students. The results showed better comprehension and solution performance when the … Continue reading →

Posted in Alternative teaching techniques, CLIL, links, Teaching English in Asia, Teaching English in Malaysia, Teaching English in the Phillipines, Teaching young learners, TEFL | Tagged , | 2 Comments

Maybe British host families aren't the worst

Posted on 20/05/2009 by alexcase

This American family borrowed 1000 dollars off their Norweigan exchange student and then he got booted out of the country! Still, I still think host families in London win the prize. One Brazilian student told a hilarious story of rushing … Continue reading →

Posted in Cultural differences/ cultural training, EF, links, TEFL, TEFL chains, TEFL in the UK | Tagged | 2 Comments

Prices of EFL textbooks to drop?

Posted on 10/05/2009 by alexcase

There are strong rumours that, perhaps due to the 100 day sit in and short hunger strike of students on London’s Oxford Street protesting the price of books, the latest edition of the Headway series of textbooks (official title “Latest … Continue reading →

Posted in ELT publishing, Oxford Street schools, Oxford University Press (OUP), TEFL, TEFL in the UK, textbooks | Tagged , | 3 Comments

TEFL links of the month April 09

Posted on 18/04/2009 by alexcase

Bondage as a common TEFL advertising theme from Gaba in Japan and EF in China, from More on Weirdo Language School Ads– The Atlantic “Spaced learning” (nothing to do with drugs, despite the name) and other new teaching methods that … Continue reading →

Posted in CLIL, EF, Eikaiwa, ELT publishing, Gaba, Grammar books, Guardian TEFL, links, Pearson Longman, Teaching English Abroad, Teaching English in Asia, Teaching English in China, Teaching English in Japan, Teaching English in Thailand, TEFL, TEFL chains, Wall Street | Tagged , | 2 Comments

Two new ways of blacklisting schools

Posted on 09/03/2009 by alexcase

As I’ve worked for the school in these two links I can tell you that the changes in technology certainly haven’t improved on the usual TEFL blacklisting accuracy (although they can’t be much worse than Sandy’s recent accusations of a … Continue reading →

Posted in Eikaiwa, Let's Japan, links, Shane Language Schools, Teaching English Abroad, Teaching English in Japan, TEFL, TEFL blacklist, TEFL chains, TEFL Tradesman | Tagged | 6 Comments

Big Brother is teacher training you

Posted on 20/02/2009 by alexcase

‘“Gabriela, I want you to ask Kieran a question please,” [the head teacher] Benigno says into a microphone that conveys the instruction to the teacher’s earpiece. She’s noticed the boy turning round in his seat [on her monitor connected to … Continue reading →

Posted in CPD, Lesson observations, PGCE in TEFL, Teacher training, Technology | Tagged , | 1 Comment