If you are a busy English language teacher or trainer looking for support and development materials for your classroom, we can help you with this weekly collection of links to free materials from our British Council websites for teachers.
We invite you to apply for selection as one of 2010's Roving Reporters by completing the Writing Challenge below. The winners will have their conference fee, flights and connecting travel, hotel accommodation, meals and subsistence paid for.
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This is an ambitious exploratory project which aims to capitalize on the many resources that a diverse population can bring to a city without ignoring the challenges that successful integration involves. We aim to engage over a 100 cities and develop OPENCities into a kitemark for cities worldwide.
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I have often found that learners of all levels feel that there is inadequate time spent on listening in most language courses. Adult learners often complain that (sometimes) after years of study, they can’t understand native speakers. This is partly because they do not receive adequate exposure to authentic texts in class. Another is that it’s hard to find authentic audio texts that can be easily adapted for classroom use.
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A fourteen year old finds himself in trouble with the school Principal – again. This time, however, he has a genuine excuse, but is he likely to be believed? This popular BritLit kit has been revised and reshaped from the 2005 original and contains new material. The teacher is offered a ‘slimmed down’ version which can be used to occupy just one or two lessons. There is also a bank of supplementary material for those who want to spend more time on the story.
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Recently my friend went through one of my articles and commented: "I find too many simple sentences in the article. It is good to use complex sentences. Do we teachers of English teach 'plain English"? Should we promote plain English. I would like to read your views on the topic.
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Strong language and swearing are all part of everyday spoken English. Do you feel comfortable teaching this aspect of English or do you think it's something that is not suitable, appropriate or necessary. Do you think we should teach 'bad language'?
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This lesson offers a variety of activities based on MI6, The British Secret Intelligence Service, which celebrates its 100th anniversary in 2009. It includes a quiz about the world of spying a reading and a code-cracking exercise.
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An essential skill in communicating and keeping up a conversation is the ability to ask questions. Students sometimes get lots of chances to answer questions but here is how you can get them to make some questions themselves! These activities can be used with a whole range of levels.
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We welcome Gavin Dudeney as our new guest writer to the site this month. At IATEFL Cardiff earlier this year, Rob Lewis of the British Council interviewed him about his career and his views on English language teaching; including the role technology has to play. You can watch the interview, read his biography and start following his blog.
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This directory shows the range of ELT-related services currently available in the UK for teachers, trainers and policy makers; it is not intended as a resource for students. We have divided the directory into the following categories: journals, online providers, publishers, exam boards and other providers.
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This is the first of two articles by Gavin Dudeney for TeachingEnglish, during his month on the site as Guest Writer. It looks at ways of dealing with ‘the digital divide’.
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The aim of this lesson is to give students practice in reading for information and argument in an article about consumer society and give them an opportunity to discuss their opinions about the topic. Aimed at Upper –Intermediate learners the lesson plan is based around a text from the British Council LearnEnglish Central website which also has a variety of online interactive activities.
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Teachers of literature feel that language teaching can be more effective with literary texts. Proponents of ELT are of the opinion that literature cannot be effectively exploited to enable second language learners learn the language that can be put to use for real-life, authentic situations. Is there a better way to find a balance between the two?
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Our graduates and undergraduates though they follow their study programmes in English are unable to cope with matters where English is involved. Though they pass their subjects in English medium their standard of English is very poor. I seek advice from the experienced colleagues to share their experience similar to this and give me some ideas how to facilitate creativity.
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November 5th 2005 marks the 400th anniversary of the famous Gunpowder Plot when Guy Fawkes and his conspirators attempted to blow up the Houses of Parliament in London. Bonfire Night is celebrated throughout Britain on the evening of the 5th of November with firework displays.
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Art is an important part of the young learners’ development at school and can also be part of their English learning. Colouring shouldn’t and needn’t however become simply a means to fill in time. Here we look at different ways to use colouring and drawing and to practise English at the same time.
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To find more teaching articles and materials visit www.teachingenglish.org.uk and Language Assistant
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