Articles published in the ‘Issue 36: Spring 2014’ Category
Recently, while observing monolingual adolescent classes, I was struck by how often lessons ended in pair or group discussion tasks designed to give students fluency practice relating to the content of the lesson. The topics were clearly engaging for the age groups, provided real potential for discussion and instructions were, on the whole, clear. Yet ...
About the talent show One question I like to pose to students at the start of a new session is to reveal something surprising about themselves, whether it be a unique hobby, an interesting job title, or the amount of travel they have done. From mechanical engineers to veterinarians, professional ballerinas to lingerie designers and playground ...
A few years ago I signed up for an online teaching course and midway through it, I was set a question which went something along the lines of ‘What, in your mind, makes a good lesson?’ This got me thinking. I had once seen an interview with Mickey Spillane, the author of the Hammer detective books ...
The text below is taken from a blog by Brita Haycraft that was based on her one-hour talk 'Trick and Techniques for Better Spoken English' given at the British Council in London on 8th October 2013. Brita said that “They are among various exercises I give to groups of 16-18 students of different levels and nationalities who ...
I have to start this article with what may be a first in the IH Journal. No – not some groundbreaking EFL eureka moment that would make me the new Scott Thornbury, but an apology to my Nan. Nan, sometimes when I’m on the phone to you in the lounge I am distracted by the computer ...
IH Madrid has been snooping on you! A bit like GCHQ, the CIA, the NSA, or the News of the World, IHM (IH Madrid) has been monitoring your communications. Before you get too worried, I should say that it’s all above board and that you should be very happy about this. So, it’s nothing like ...
Why does spelling appear, on the one hand, to be simple and something any reasonably intelligent person should be able to do but, on the other hand, cause so many children to feel nervous and frustrated? Do we pay enough attention to spelling in our classes considering the fact that it often becomes one of ...
Teacher qualities matter at least as much as teacher competences, and we shouldn’t forget it. True foundations? The way in which teachers are assessed is supposed to enhance the quality of what they do. As part of a recent wide-ranging study entitled Applications of Quality Management in Language Education (Language teaching 46/03 July 2013 – available online), ...
Este artículo ha sido inspirado por la excelente reflexión que se hizo sobre el tema ‘control progress’ en la conferencia de directores de estudios (DOS conference 2014) el pasado enero en la ciudad de Londres Un método clásico es hacerlo mediante exámenes o test que cierran un ciclo, un nivel y que ofrecen, tanto al ...