The short answer is: yes! For the longer answer, read on.. When English Language teachers start to investigate listening and/or pronunciation teaching for higher-level qualifications like Cambridge DELTA or Trinity DipTESOL, one of the areas they often find most challenging is connected speech. For most teachers, it’s either completely new or a distant memory of ..read more

I’m so pleased to announce that the dedicated Take Your Time DELTA website is now open for business. Thanks so much to Jennifer Murray for writing the copy (edited by me, so any mistakes are mine!) and to Nigel Howard for turning it into this beautiful, clean, professional final product. Take Your Time DELTA has ..read more

This week and next week I’m doing four cover lessons with a lovely group of five Kazakh university professors who are in England for a year on a programme at the University of Reading. They are also working to improve their English, and are currently at Elementary. In our first two-hour lesson, I asked them ..read more

On Saturday 6th July, I visited the Kiln Theatre in Kilburn, London, to see a performance of English, a play by Sanaz Toossi. It was one of the most thought-provoking plays I’ve seen, and the subject matter meant I absolutely had to write about it here. The theatre As soon as we arrived at the Kiln Theatre, I was impressed by its welcoming, inclusive nature. It sits on Kilburn High Road in a very diverse part of London, and the people in the theatre didn’t feel very different to the people we encountered outside. It really felt like this was a theatre set up for and serving the local community ..read more

This was a question from one of my trainees on my current CELTA course. I looked around for available resources but most things aimed at CELTA trainees seem to focus on grammar. I have therefore come up with the list of ideas below. Please do add any other ideas you have in the comments: For individual words If you’re only introducing one or two words, write them on the board and ask learners to make a note of them. Monitor to check their spellings and point out any potential problems / Ask learners to swap their notes with a partner and check each other’s spellings are correct (swapping also ..read more

In March 2024, I did a presentation for the English Language Teachers Association of Berlin and Brandenburg (ELTABB) about my competency framework for language learning materials writing. My follow-up article about how you can learn to write good language learning materials is now available on their website. How Do You Learn to Write Good Language Learning Materials ..read more

On Saturday 1st June 2024, I was the presenter for the monthly IATEFL webinar. In my talk I introduced the competency framework for language learning materials writing which I created for my MA dissertation. This was the blurb: Published classroom materials form the basis of syllabuses, drive teacher professional development, and have a potentially huge influence on learners, teachers and education systems. All teachers also create their own materials, whether a few sentences on a blackboard, a highly-structured fully-realised online course, or anything in between. Despite this, the knowledge ..read more

Next Saturday at 3pm UK time I’ll be presenting the monthly IATEFL webinar, introducing the competency framework for language learning materials writing which I created for MA dissertation. Find out more details and sign up on the IATEFL website ..read more

I’m excited to announce that the Take Your Time DELTA newsletter is coming soon! The first one will hit your inboxes on 10th June, but only if you’re signed up. You’ll get ideas about teaching skills (reading, writing, listening, speaking), teaching systems (grammar, vocabulary, pronunciation, discourse), general methodology, teaching activities, skills to help you in your career outside the classroom, plus a bit of fun too. The ideas should help you wherever you are on your professional journey, but especially if you’re doing a DELTA or DipTESOL at the moment. Add your name to the mailing lis ..read more

I finally made it to IATEFL Brighton and was able to enjoy talks on the final day I spent most of the rest of my 24 hours at the conference chatting to people – one of the things I most enjoy about being together with friends and colleagues from around the world! Rose’s talk is about criticality as an analysis of power. You can watch the plenary yourself on YouTube after 8pm today [I’ll add the link later]. Language, power and education There are different kinds of power according to Waring: Political power Personal power: the individual power we have based on the roles we play in society: a ..read more