I started writing this blog for TE714, English Language Teaching [ELT] Materials, which was recommended to me by many former University of Brighton students, on the TESOL Diploma it was this module in particular I was curious about.  The materials that I adapt for my students are often complemented by my Directors of Studies and … Continue reading Module Reflection →

Principles and Frameworks for Design The framework below is set out by Willis and examines task-based learning, although many of the stages set out are natural stages in my lessons the framework acts as a useful checklist when planning lesson procedures.  It introduces the three basic stages of the framework and explains both teacher and … Continue reading Principles and Frameworks for Design →

TEACHING VOCABULARY Jane Spiro has compiled a useful checklist for teachers to use when looking at new nouns with students’, enabling students to understand form and function.  It may also be something helpful to pass onto students to use independently as they’re learning English.  McCarten 2007, [Teaching Vocabulary:  lessons from the corpus, lessons for the … Continue reading Materials for Teaching Vocabulary and Grammar →

Connectivism: A learning theory for the digital age The internet and mobile technology is a sea of information and activities making its’ use during lessons a little daunting, applying Lam and Hampel’s [2007: 71] model for online task development to enable the capabilities of technology to meet the demands of class learning objectives.  The initial approach of … Continue reading Materials and Digital Technology →

Task-based Language Learning; Seeks to engage language learners pragmatically, [incorporating some kind of gap, information, opinion or reasoning].  This a “focus on the exchange of meaning” as opposed to form.  However this does not neglect form over communication, Schmidt makes the point that he had been previously instructed on all of the new forms that he … Continue reading Task Design and Evaluation →

Designing Worksheets When I first considered designing original worksheets I remembered the book, From Testing to Assessment, which I read during the Diploma module Second Language Acquisition. The tests that interested me were written for Californian school children and later adapted for immigration exams in the USA.  The tests require decoding, pushing students to use their … Continue reading Designing a Worksheet →

Using Images in Class For the visuals and images workshop I joined two peers evaluating images from English Unlimited Intermediate. The rubric set for me was to evaluate one diagram, graph, timeline or table taken from the coursebook. During our group IN-CLASS PRESENTATION We examined images using Duchastel’s taxonomy [1978] as a template, I examined a graph featured in English Unlimited Intermediate; see … Continue reading Visuals and Images in Materials →

Multimedia and multimodal texts are ubiquitous with most people facing a daily barrage of 100,000 words, many of these words are coupled with images, unfortunately the variety and speed of digital information is affecting our cognitive processes including memory and reading [Carr 2010]. The redundancy principle of the cognitive load theory states that unused information slows … Continue reading Sound and Vision – ‘Take it Easy’ with Cadbury’s Caramel →

Methodology in English Language teaching has taught me to bring students of any one class together to receive instruction together, translating this to a multi-level class has, at times, been a challenge.  I enjoyed teaching a successful diploma lesson with differentiated materials and felt a great sense of relief at being able to bind the class … Continue reading Adapting and Supplementing Materials →

Clarity of instructions is a useful starting point in materials evaluation, often teachers books give supporting grammar advice but the real workings of materials lie in students’ instructions.  Firstly activities and tasks need to be understandable, something that will be clear to learners.  This moves onto the next most important and intertwined factor which is task achievability, if tasks … Continue reading Materials Evaluation →