Articles published in the ‘Issue 38: Autumn 2015’ Category
First of all, I am delighted to welcome to you to the October 2015 edition of the IH Journal! This is the new team’s first edition of the Journal together and it’s been a good experience working out our procedures. There have been some behind the scenes changes from previous editions. One of the principle ...
I am something of a podcast addict, both as a consumer, and for the last year a creator. Making and producing The TEFL commute podcast, now in its second season, is quickly becoming my main hobby. With podcasting as a whole undergoing something of a revival of late, perhaps it’s time to introduce your students ...
At IH Bristol Foreign Languages http://www.ihbristol.com/languages/department-of-foreign-languages , we’ve been improving our understanding and use of online learning. It can be hard for teachers to keep track of all the resources that are useful to our students. And we have found that so many useful learning tips and tricks can get lost or buried under a ...
As Research Project Tutor on the teacher training programme at IH Montevideo, I have always been on the lookout for more efficient ways to improve communication with my trainees. In this two-year programme, which consists of nine subjects, trainees are expected to write a final 3500-word Research Report which must be handed in and submitted ...
I’ve just recently been asked to present a series of workshops on using graded readers in primary settings. I haven’t planned it all out, and I’m not sure yet what I will do as I have to admit I haven’t used graded readers for a long time. Years in fact. I used to love using ...
Note: The below is an adaptation of an article that was first published as ‘If it’s not about elephants, it’s irrelephant! Memes for teaching early years’ in IATEFL’s YLT SIG Journal ‘C&TS Digital’, Issue 2, 2015. The Elephant Lady At last year’s International House DOS Conference, I was scheduled to present at the same time as ...
“The conception and construction of methods have been largely guided by a one-size-fits-all, cookie-cutter approach that assumes a common clientele with common goals.” [Kumaravadivelu] How do we typically train students to process coursebook texts? Well, we have our lead-in, our gist question(s) and then the detailed information questions before moving along to the language input stage. Right? ...
The use of unexplained mysteries in language classrooms. Sometimes I’ve believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast – Lewis Carroll. `This is all crazy` says a middle-aged man holding a photocopy of a supposed photo of a ghost. He sits in a circle of adults and teenagers as creepy music sounds in the background. `You have ...
As language teachers, one reasonably safe assumption we can make is that the learners will only have an explicit focus on language in their classes. Therefore as teachers, we must ensure our students get plenty of opportunities to revise during lessons. The following article illustrates some techniques I’ve been using to recycle vocabulary in the ...