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 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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This is the first in our new series of video tips. What do you think is important when you tell a story to young learners? Watch the video of our six tips then if you have more tips to share, leave them below.
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Read Tessa Woodward’s last blog entry for TeachingEnglish, in which she reflects on her experience as a blogger on the site: ‘I must say I do miss the face to faceness of communication. I wonder sometimes, did the person that I wrote to find my message funny, appropriate, useful?’
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This idea comes from a short story by Raymond Carver called 'Put yourself in my shoes'. This activity encourages creativity, in a subtle way, by giving the first line of the story for students to build on. It can be simplified according to level.
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Now English is the language of the world. Every educated person should acquire it either as a native, second or foreign language. Under these circumstances is it feasible or desirable to think of having Received Pronunciation anywhere in the world?
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‘Sometimes I find it difficult to manage time especially when teaching grammar. A good teacher always knows how to manage his time.’ What do you think? Join in the discussion and give some advice in the forums on TeachingEnglish.
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ESP (English for Specific Purposes) has been referred to as ‘applied ELT’ as the content and aims of any course are determined by the needs of a specific group of learners. Read more about it here in this ‘Specialist Areas’ part of the TeachingEnglish site.
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This speaking activity gets students to think in English and use their memory, simultaneously. It works well with factual texts in EFL, texts used in CLIL lessons and quizzes related to any subject.
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This is a lesson plan based around the British royal family. It has the usual mix of vocabulary, reading and speaking activities, as well as a royal roleplay!
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To find more teaching articles and materials visit www.teachingenglish.org.uk and Language Assistant
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