Tag Archives: History

A very mixed story of unionisation in TEFL

An interesting bit of TEFL history from the Japan Times: Lado’s histoy and demise weren’t without their lessons Anyone know any stories with clearer conclusions on this most controversial of possible changes in TEFL?

Posted in Teaching English in Japan | Tagged | Leave a comment

100 years of Cambridge ESOL timeline

As promised, here the more useful but less interesting list of dates and events, to accompany my list of more interesting but less useful stats and my review of the book they all came from. 1857 – Founding of the University … Continue reading

Posted in CAE, Cambridge First Certificate, Cambridge Proficiency, Cambridge Young Learner Exams, EFL exams, ICFE, IELTS | Tagged | Leave a comment

On this day in TEFL history

A new regular feature. I’ll do one week each time: 9 Feb 1963, Canterbury – The first documented case of a class refusing to do a Humanistic Language Teaching activity, in this case the infamous “lay your head in a neighbour’s … Continue reading

Posted in TEFL | Tagged , | 2 Comments

The 100 most influential organisations in TEFL

As I perhaps didn’t point out clearly enough in my post on the 100 Most Influential Publications in TEFL (although I thought I had, perhaps it is online skimming and scanning that was to blame…), this list is humbly given as … Continue reading

Posted in TEFL | Tagged | 27 Comments

The 100 publications that most changed TEFL

… by which I mean books, articles, papers, journals, magazines, websites, software, or even blogs and blog posts. As I have managed to read all the way through ELTJ a grand total of (ahem) three times in my life, my … Continue reading

Posted in ELT publishing | Tagged | 97 Comments

New UsingEnglish.com stuff

The EFL Dictionary of Football is up to I and still lots of fun- get involved and add your own favourite idioms (“nutmeg” is already in, but haven’t decided about “park the bus” yet) Other worksheets and articles: Classroom language for … Continue reading

Posted in Classroom management, Discipline in the classroom, English through craftwork, pelmanism, Prepositions, sports vocabulary, Teaching young learners, Usingenglish | Tagged , | 1 Comment

A typical TEFL biography (and one big difference)

The typical bit: “I did not know what I wanted to do but I did know what I did not want to do.  I did not want to work in the UK. ” and the untypical bit: “A panel of misguided … Continue reading

Posted in British Council, TEFL, TEFL heroes- Alan Maley | Tagged | 1 Comment

My TEFL blog stalker experience

Don’t especially want to get into all this again, so although I’m going to retell the story due to a reader request, this time it’s the stalker’s name rather than my workplace that I’d prefer people not to mention if … Continue reading

Posted in TEFL | Tagged | 5 Comments

New month, new TEFL soundbites

… or actually more old ones, as these are also by Joan Taber like the last lot and so from a couple of years ago: “”Like bestsellers, pop stars, and ice-cream flavors, second-language theories and methodologies enjoy a few afternoons … Continue reading

Posted in Alternative teaching techniques, links, TEFL | Tagged , | 3 Comments

TEFL Presidential Elections update

Sandy MacManus, who turned 72 on Friday and will be confirmed this week as the oldest first-time TEFL World President nominee in history, has shot himself in the foot while attempting to inject some youth and a feminine touch into … Continue reading

Posted in TEFL celebs/ TEFL heroes and villains, TEFL heroes- Mario Rinvolucri, TEFL heroes- Sandy McManus | Tagged , | 2 Comments