Voices

'Get students out of their seats and moving.' Image (c) Mat Wright

Date: 20 January 2017 - 10:00

How to keep your students motivated

Cristina Cabal has been teaching for 26 years. She shares some of her top tips for keeping students motivated.

Tags: Teaching, Teaching resources, Schools, English language

'Nestled in south-west Germany, bordering France and Luxembourg, Saarland was not officially part of West Germany until 1957.' Image (c) Kay Gaensler under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0 licence, adapted from the original.

Date: 18 January 2017 - 10:00

How many languages do you need to learn on a year abroad?

Elliot Douglas, who is currently on our English Language Assistants programme, explains how a local dialect showed him a different side to Germany.

Tags: Work outside the UK, Teaching, Schools

'Literature helps us understand who we are as humans.' Image (c) KIAT of Singapore, July 2015

Date: 16 January 2017 - 10:12

Bernardine Evaristo: 'Books expand our imaginations'

Who are the most compelling new voices of contemporary UK literature? Ahead of the British Council Literature Seminar in Berlin, we interviewed author Bernardine Evaristo.

Tags: Literature, Arts

'There's an easy way to immerse yourself in the culture: live with a French family.' Image (c) barbara w, licensed under CC BY 2.0 and adapted from the original.

Date: 12 January 2017 - 09:34

How to make the most of your time abroad when not teaching

What should you do when you're not teaching as an English language assistant? We asked Faye Briscoe, who is on a teaching placement at a primary school in France.

Tags: English language, Work outside the UK, Teaching resources

'At our school we have a collection of Chinese scrolls, umbrellas to dance with, and paper lanterns for decorations.' Image (c) ITN

Date: 11 January 2017 - 10:19

Eight ways to celebrate Chinese New Year in your school

As Chinese people around the world prepare to welcome the Year of the Rooster, Clare Kelly and Gemma Squires of Dane Royd school in England suggest how your school can join.

Tags: Schools, Teaching resources

'You'll get so much more out of your year abroad if you go in with a positive mindset.' Image Bud Ellison, licenced under CC-BY 2.0, and adapted from the original.

Date: 10 January 2017 - 21:10

There's no such thing as a bad teaching placement abroad

A year abroad comes with many challenges. Sam Pollard, who is on our English Language Assistants programme in Mexico right now, explains how to make the most of the experience.

Tags: English language, Teaching, Schools, Work outside the UK

Death Valley, home of the Timbisha Shoshone. Photo (c) esudroff, licensed under CC0 Public Domain, adapted from the original.

Date: 16 December 2016 - 17:20

How do you learn a language that isn't written down?

We asked Shoshone speaker Samuel Broncho.

Tags: Civil society

'The more I took the journey of transition, the happier I felt as an actor and performer.'

Date: 09 December 2016 - 15:30

Jo Clifford: 'I see writing as a way of resisting prejudice'

What does it mean to be a trans artist? We asked playwright Jo Clifford about her experiences and her creative process.

Tags: Theatre, Arts, Equal opportunities and diversity

'Janet Echelman describes her artwork as ‘permanent, billowing, voluptuous forms, the scale of hard-edged buildings’.' Image (c) John Lord, licensed under CC BY 2.0 and adapted from the original.

Date: 07 December 2016 - 10:29

Five tips for using authentic video in the classroom

How can teachers use video content that isn't designed especially for language learners? English language teaching materials writer and developer Lewis Lansford explains.

Tags: English language, Teaching

'[W]ild pansy could have potential uses in the treatments of cancer.' Image (c) kahvikisu, licensed under CC-BY-2.0 and adapted from the original.

Date: 01 December 2016 - 09:45

Would Shakespeare's potions really work?

Shakespeare's plays are full of biochemical concoctions and cosmology, so how much of a scientist was he? We asked the British Council's former science adviser, Dr Tim Slingsby.

Tags: Science, Shakespeare, Arts, Literature, Theatre

British Council

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