advice
Activities for Teaching English Pronunciation – more than Listen and Repeat
Includes thrilling details on the two different parts of pronunciation, and activities like minimal pairs bingo, the need for volume in pronunciation / mouth vowel map, using textbook dialogues better / changing the mood not the words (my personal favourite), stress and meaning activity, and 2 truths 1 lie with intonation!
Recorded at my KOTESOL presentation in 2018, I give some ideas for activities to teach English pronunciation.
20 – using TED talks (and other videos) in ESL EFL class – Roger Fusselman
I caught up with Roger Fusselman after his KOTESOL conference presentation on using TED talks and videos in general for language teaching. This is a MUST listen for anyone using visual media in the classroom.
We cover the DOs and DON’Ts of choosing videos as well as his principles of using media:
Challenge / Meaningful / Support / Choice / Integration (connecting ideas) / Variety / Application
Video Sites referenced:
http://www.ideacity.ca/watch-talks/
Specific videos referenced:
19 – Reflective Practice – Thomas Farrell
The self-styled ‘bad boy’ of language teaching, Thomas Farrell, dropped by my office to take about self reflection. What do we do in the classroom and, importantly, WHY do we do it? Who are YOU as a teacher and what do YOU bring into the classroom?
Start adding this reflective practice regularly to your professional life and you’ll be surprised at the difference it can make to your personal and professional development.
Also a good lesson about having a safety net. I recorded this with my fancy MICs but the recordings failed for some reason, so this is based on my phone back-up recording. Phew….
15 – The Student Becomes The Teacher – Justin McKibben
In the first of this batch of hit-n-run quickie interviews from the KOTESOL conference in Seoul at the end of 2016, I spoke to Justin McKibben about how we can expand students roles. By giving students certain speaking tasks the traditional classroom would consider a teacher’s job, we can vastly increase student talk time and give them a broader sense of control in their own classroom.
Justin takes us through some of the techniques we can use in our classrooms to shift away from the traditional teacher-fronted classroom. You can start using these techniques immediately.
STT, TTT, ESL, EFL, TEFL, TESOL, CELTA, DELTA, teacher-fronted classroom, teaching, English,
07 – Why your ESL lesson bombed – Tom Randolph
In this episode we hear from TESOL methodology trainer Tom Randolph about some of the reasons ESL / EFL lessons don’t succeed, and how to avoid it happening. I chip in with my own experience as a teacher trainer based on the classes I have monitored that didn’t go well.
There’re plenty of solid tips and even activity ideas in this conversation, so there’s something for everyone, regardless of experience.
I’d love to hear your ideas too. Don’t be shy!
Build the suspense in team activities
I’m currently teaching at an intensive winter camp for adults. Each week there is an activity where the groups should break into teams and complete a series of activities, often in different locations on campus.
As this requires scores to be consolidated from different locations, I hit on the idea of how to do this in the most efficient way, whilst simultaneously keeping the students involved and excited.
Masters of TESOL 