Tag Archives: guest writers

Guest post: 11 tips for teaching controversial topics in the ESL classroom

A great post from Alice of Hot Take English, hopefully re-starting the once numerous and always popular TEFLtastic guest posts. For a lot of English language teachers, the mere thought of teaching a so-called “controversial” discussion topic in class is … Continue reading

Posted in Alternative teaching techniques, Lesson planning, Speaking | Tagged | Leave a comment

Guest piece – What has grammar teaching ever done for us? by Jo Gakonga

Grammar teaching gets a bad press. It’s old fashioned, it is said, and it doesn’t help in actually using the language.  Scott Thornbury sums it up beautifully in verse here–we teach them the form, but they can’t actually use it.  … Continue reading

Posted in Grammar | Tagged | 1 Comment

TEFLing without teaching

A guest post by newish TEFL blogger and TEFL.net reviews volunteer Jo Cummins: “About two years ago, when pregnant with my son, I gave up my teaching job and moved countries and haven’t (for reasons to lengthy too get into) … Continue reading

Posted in ELT publishing | Tagged | 4 Comments

Guest posts from people outside TEFL

Took me a while to work out that it was spam the first time I was offered one, but the signs are easy to spot once you’ve had a few emails on the topic. For some strange reason they almost always offer … Continue reading

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Guest piece – What’s the future of ELT publishing? by Vicki Hollett

If anyone would know, it would be Ms Hollett, author of many successful and well-loved textbooks and also the consistent online TEFL favourite Learning to Speak ‘merican. Unfortunately there are more questions than answers below, but they are very stimulating … Continue reading

Posted in ELT publishing | Tagged | 6 Comments

Guest piece- Doing the YL Extension to the CELTA

Apparently many prospective TEFL teachers nowadays think that 4 weeks is too long to study to become a teacher. Luckily, there are also the dedicated few like Jo Gillespie who decide to make the whole CELTA thing longer while also properly learning … Continue reading

Posted in Teaching teenagers, Teaching young learners, TEFL, Young Learner Extension to the CELTA | Tagged | 1 Comment

That's the way to do it!

A reader very kindly wrote to me about a week ago with a wonderful worksheet attached whose initial spark apparently came from TEFLtastic, and then agreed to my begging to publish it (although linking to it elsewhere would have been … Continue reading

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Keeping YLs on Task Part One

A guest piece by new(ish) blogger Leahn Stanhope http://www.earlyefl.blogspot.com “Part of the battle of teaching YLs (young learners) is keeping them interested and on task. Here is the first part of a series of activities that I have tried and … Continue reading

Posted in Classroom management, Discipline in the classroom, Teaching teenagers, Teaching young learners, TEFL blogs | Tagged | 5 Comments

The Benefits of Exams for Young Learners

A guest piece from Michelle Worgan of So This is English blog (www.inspireyourlearners.blogspot.com ). “I am usually quite reluctant to use formal assessment with my students, young or old, and rarely give them exams or tests. However, while I was … Continue reading

Posted in Cambridge Young Learner Exams, EFL exams, Teaching young learners, TEFL | Tagged | 2 Comments

How do we know if what we say is “right”?

…Check the corpus, of course. Another great guest piece from Carmela Chateau. “Like many other people, I became a teacher of English because it was the easiest option. After all, I’d been speaking the language since the age of three … Continue reading

Posted in Technology, TEFL | Tagged | 1 Comment