English Teaching Professional Strongly Recommends Compelling Conversations!

Consider my global soul satisfied this morning! English Teaching Professional, a glossy magazine for ESL teachers and language school directors, gave a glowing review and strong recommendation to Compelling Conversations: Questions and Quotations on Timeless Topics. “In sum, Compelling Conversations is a recommended resource for teachers who want to make their conversation classes more...

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How democratic is your ESL classroom?

Who gets to speak in class? Whose ideas count? Who chooses the assignments? How do students receive feedback? Do students have a chance to conference with their instructors? Can YouTube be a valuable source for homework assignment? Do you want your students to become self-directed – or autotelic – in their studies? Here’s a quick checklist that ESL teachers that I created for a...

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Compelling Conversations Moves Up Amazon Ratings

Amazon lists over 5 million books on its website – and continues to overlook many fine self-published books. Naturally, as a self-publisher, Amazon represents an important outlet for my ESL conversation textbook, Compelling Conversations: Questions and Quotations on Timeless Topics. Besides, numbers add precision and ratings can become addictive. Today Amazon has Compelling Conversations listed...

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Who ranks English language programs and ESL schools?

How would you choose an English language school? What if you lived in Korea, Spain, China, Brazil, Turkey, or Vietnam? What factors would influence your decision? How would you find out the school’s reputation? Who ranks ESL programs? What is their criteria? Hundreds of thousands of students travel thousands of miles each semester to attend ESL schools. These intensive English language programs,...

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Playing and Watching Sports

Have you been watching the Olympics? What has surprised you the most? Why? Who has inspired you? How? The Olympics reminds us of heroism, sacrifice, excellence, and beauty. It can also spark many conversations. Although I have not had the pleasure of teaching a conversation class recently, talking about sports always sparked many enjoyable exchanges – even among non-sports fans. This...

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