Sunday Readings: Willingness to Communicate, Anxiety and Perceived Competence
Learning a language as an adult requires hard work. It takes time, willingness to take risks, dedication and truckloads of motivation. It is a job that has no endpoint; the … Continue reading
Sunday Readings: Computer-mediated Speaking and Foreign Language Anxiety
As language teachers, we know that It is sometimes difficult to provide our learners with equal opportunities for speaking in class. In pretty much every class there is someone who … Continue reading
Sunday Readings: Communication Skills and Digital Tools
I am currently developing a little project on digital pedagogy and it helps to write it out here. Here is a brief summary of an article I just finished reading. … Continue reading
Thinking Critically: Two Activities
Thinking critically can be a tricky thing when you come from a culture that does not encourage you to develop these skills. I am currently working with learners who come … Continue reading
Last Lessons: Leaving it to Chance
This is an easy way to get learners to talk about upcoming holidays. A couple of my groups are starting their (very long) summer holiday this week so we spent a … Continue reading
Reviewing Lexis: The Mind’s Eye
I feel a wee bit bad. I turned up for my first class today with no idea how I was going to start. The lesson itself was sorted but the … Continue reading
New Year Predictions
First lessons after the holidays are looming on the horizon and I thought I would devise a short and simple activity I could use with all of my classes in … Continue reading
Variety is the Spice of Life: A Gamification Experiment
Variety is the spice of life. This is why I decided to gamify a tiny part of my Thursday evening class this week. Gamification in education is the application of … Continue reading
Stuck in a Lift: A Lesson on Small Talk
You know that sinking feeling when your carefully prepared conversation questions fail to get much of a reaction from your students? They talk for two minutes and then turn to … Continue reading
New Year, New Goals: An Activity
With the first school week of the year behind me, I thought I’d share a little activity I ran in pretty much all my (adult) classes this week. It is … Continue reading
Autonomy, Motivation and Choice: Part 2
The wait is over! If you have been waiting for this Part 2 with bated breath, you can now relax. In this post I will answer the questions I posed … Continue reading
Autonomy, Motivation and Choice: Part 1
So learner-centredness has been a bit of a buzzword for a while. But what does it actually mean? How is it realised in the classroom? In this post I will … Continue reading
Carbs and then some more Carbs
Nothing beats the combo of sugar and flour. They form the main constituents of pretty much all of my favourite foods. If only we could survive on nothing but cakes, … Continue reading
Walking is the Best Medicine
Hippocrates said it over 2,000 years ago and who am I to say otherwise. Today we all know about the benefits of walking and they are manifold: it is good … Continue reading
Many heads are better than one – Ideas for Fluency Activities
5 cups of tea. The papers. Fresh bread. A lie-in. That is what my Saturday mornings are usually like. Not today though. Not for me, nor for the 19 (!) … Continue reading
I am in love!
He is not tall, dark and handsome. In fact, not even a he. Nor a she, for that matter. Nothing weird’s going on here, I can assure you. It is … Continue reading
It Is All About The Flow: 7 No-fuss Fluency-focused Activities
Pianos and me, we just don’t get on. For two miserable years a long time ago I dragged myself to see my piano teacher until my mother finally saw the … Continue reading
The Year Gone By
Here is a little activity for those last or first lessons of the year. Haven’t tried it myself yet but I thought that if I blogged about the idea, I … Continue reading
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