What Three Tips Would You Share with Novice ESL / EFL Teachers?
What three tips would offer new a ESL/EFL teacher? Hall Houston, author of Provoking Thought: Memory and Thought in ELT, posed this question to several prominent English language trainers and teachers last year. Sean Banville, Russell Stannard, Chia Suan Chong, Nik Peachey, Scott Thornbury, and myself replied. (Naturally, I feel grateful to be included with these far more notable and...
Read MoreDo Our Students Need to Swim in English or Pass Grammar Tests?
Do our students need to swim in English? Or do they need to focus on avoiding minor grammar mistakes? Should we encourage our students to speak as much English as possible? Or should we paralyze our students with exaggerated fears? Okay, these are rhetorical questions. Yet our ESL students – even advanced ESL students – don’t have to be perfect; they have to be understood. Alas,...
Read MoreWhy Are So Many EFL Textbooks So Bland, Boring, and Culturally Tone Deaf?
Why are so many EFL Textbooks so bland, boring, and culturally tone-deaf? Allow me to ask a more polite question. How can English teachers working abroad and international English textbook publishers both respect local cultures and create more engaging English classroom lessons? The challenge may be more complicated than you might suspect. A long, informative, and detailed exchange on a TESOL...
Read MoreThe Language of Opportunity – Wabash profiles an English Teacher
Small American colleges often love their ambitious graduates. Wabash College, my alma mater and outstanding private liberal arts college in Indiana, certainly celebrates her favorite sons and treats them like stars. This fall’s Wabash Magazine advises graduates to “Look East, Young Man” as it celebrates the opening of the College’s new Asian Studies Center. Inside, the magazine editor...
Read MoreFluency Requires Practice
“To know and not do is to not know.” The Talmud Fluency requires practice. Our students also know that speaking English can be both satisfying and stressful. Therefore, we require speaking activities in class – and strongly suggest ways to speak more out of class. Our students want to be fluent, but they often hesitate to practice their speaking skills. Many students do not...
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