Freelance ELT Consultant, CELTA Tutor & Assessor
My Writings
The Dimensions of Experience
What is experience?Definitions of experience, even within the context of teaching, are many and various.However, definitions tend to differ in detail, with the fundamental concepts ofobservation and participation common to most. That in itself suggests that theaccumulation of experience depends...
Reflections on Training up a Partially Sighted CELTA Tutor
Radwa Younis was born with Ritinitis Pigmentosa, a progressive eye disease that ultimately leads to blindness. Radwa is now 34, visually impaired, but has completed her BA, postgraduate diploma, Cambridge Delta and become a CELTA tutor. All of this has...
Journal Writing: A Study of Change
(research by Bahar Ulusoğlu-Darn) Abstract There is a strong prejudice against writing lessons among Turkish students and teachers, both at high school and university levels. This paper describes the problems that students and teachers have in undergraduate writing classes and...
Express Teaching
(with Gülfem Aslan) AbstractMany teachers working in proficiency orientated institutions, whether they work in national, local teaching contexts or global ones, find themselves confronted with a heavily loaded curriculum, often split into language and separate skills, and a very limited...
Thinking Outside The Teacher’s Box
IntroductionThe term ‘thinking outside the box’ is generally associated with innovation and problem solving in business and management. Often, the phrase is used by higher-level management when it is felt that the quality of solutions or ideas is below standard...
The Provision of Teacher Development in an Expanding University
A Case Study from Turkey ContextThere is an ever-growing body of literature concerning the need for teacher development, teacher training and teacher education in English language teaching. Possibly because ELT is primarily a private sector enterprise, or possibly because teaching...
Teacher Isolation
‘He’s a real nowhere mansitting in his nowhere landmaking all his nowhere plans for nobodydoesn’t have a point of viewknows not where he’s going toisn’t he a bit like you and me?’(Lennon & McCartney) Jeremy, if you are old enough...
What’s Happening in Your Department?
Whether you are a head of department, a senior teacher, or in your first year of teaching, ask yourself the question ‘is anything changing in my department, in my classroom, in my teaching?’ If the answer to this question is ‘No, not...
Who Are You? A Mingle Activity for Trainer Trainers
Like many who are involved in training trainers, I also train and help to develop teachers and, rightly, teach learners of English in a standard classroom setting. Those of us who teach at three levels, sometimes all on the same...
Beyond Training: Teaching
For my sins, I teach, teach teachers and teach teachers who teach teachers. I do this at the Izmir University of Economics, on the Aegean coast of Turkey, where there aren’t many trainers or trainer-trainers around. I suppose I have...
CLIL: Implementing a CLIL Approach – A Change of Emphasis
BackgroundStudents at English-medium institutions require ongoing language support, and it makes sense for this support to be given while they are studying their chosen subject rather than separately. Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) offers an approach which increases language...
CLIL: News from Turkey
It is well over a year since the first CLIL materials from Turkey were posted on the FACT Website http://www.factworld.info/turkey/miniskirt/index.htm and the Turkish flag was added to the FACTWorld banner. These materials, and subsequent additions, originated from a small CLIL enclave in...
CLIL: Exploiting an Interactive Text
In an earlier project, we looked at the relationship between content and language through a reading text on the subject of miniskirts: http://www.factworld.info/turkey/miniskirt/index.htmThis project was aimed at raising the awareness of subject teachers (in this case lecturers from the faculty of...
CLIL: A Project – A Brief Look At The Miniskirt
(with Rob Ledbury) This is a description of one part of a project designed to build a bridge between content-based subject teachers and language teachers working in the context of a private English-medium university. The institution, Izmir University of Economics,...
CLIL: A Lesson
In previous methodology articles I have outlined the theory behind Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) and provided a framework for CLIL-type lessons, particularly suited to learners studying content-based subjects in English or as part of a bilingual education programme....
CLIL: A Lesson Framework
In the first of these articles, Content and Language Integrated Learning, I gave an introduction to this field. In this second article I will look more closely at how CLIL is realised in the classroom and suggest a framework for...
CLIL: Potential and Practice
CLIL: Potential and Practice IntroductionContent and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) is an umbrella term covering dual-focus contexts in which an additional language is used as a medium in the teaching and learning of non-language content. There are elements of a...
CLIL: A Way Forward for Turkey
If you look at the FACT (Forum for Across the Curriculum Teaching) website (www.factworld.info), you may notice that the Turkish flag has recently been added to the thirty or so others of countries currently participating in a rapidly growing global...
CLIL: CLIL on the Web
This is a list of current Web references. All these links have been checked and are live as of June 2008. It is intended that this list will be updated regularly. Sites may be added by sending the link to...
CLIL: A European Overview
IntroductionContent and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) has become a focus of attention in recent years, particularly in the state sector in various countries and on the interface with the private school and university sector. CLIL is the subject of ongoing...
CLIL: Content and Language Integrated Learning
Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) has become the umbrella term describing both learning another (content) subject such as physics or geography through the medium of a foreign language and learning a foreign language by studying a content-based subject. In...
Teaching Face to Face
(with Özgür Köseoğlu & Laura Cruse) Introduction – The good teacherWhen questioned, the majority of teachers will tell you that such a thing as the ‘teaching personality’ or the ‘born teacher’ exists. Most will be unable to define the terms,...
Metaphorically Speaking
(with Ian White) IntroductionThere is one single reason why metaphor is important to the English language and language teaching. It is impossible to communicate naturally and effectively without employing this device. Metaphors are an essential part of our everyday language,...
Grammatical Blues
Something funny happened just the other dayI couldn’t find the right words to sayThe only words coming out of my mouth werePrepositions, nouns and adjectives Not a verb, not a pronoun or infinitiveNo adverb, conjunction or definitiveCouldn’t make a sentence...
Fishing For Answers
Wake up, get out of bed, drag a comb across my head… 7.30am. I take the lift down to the ground floor of my apartment block – which was designed as a hotel, hence the atrium and lobby – turn...
Teaching English with an American Accent
From where I stand, which is on a balcony at the Izmir University of Economics, overlooking Izmir bay on the Aegean coast of Turkey, things are not looking too good for British ELT. When I came to Turkey, 20 years...
Graphic Organisers
Visual representations of information are by no means an innovation in education. The use of graphs and charts to represent statistical information and time-lines showing the sequence of historical events have long been accepted tools, while in language teaching, the...
Eliciting
(with Funda Çetin) DefinitionsEliciting (elicitation) is term which describes a range of techniques which enable the teacher to get learners to provide information rather than giving it to them. Commonly, eliciting is used to ask learners to come up with...
Conducting Feedback on Exercises and Tasks
(with Nick Baguley) The term feedback can apply to a number of classroom situations and procedures, but here it refers to a range of techniques employed by the teacher to facilitate responses from the students to an exercise or task....
Student Feedback on Tasks and Activities
IntroductionHere is a fairly typical classroom exchange: Teacher: and what’s the answer to number 3?Whole class: He bought a sandwich.Teacher: and number 4?Whole class: He drank orange juice. This teacher-whole class exchange is a common way...
A Song – More Than Just a Gap-Fill
Music, music, music Music is very much part of our lives. We are often unaware that we are surrounded by music which has been selected to relax us, change our moods, or condition our consumer behaviour. We may choose to...
The Natural Way
There are many anecdotes and jokes about the confusion caused by the difference between the English spoken in modern multi-cultural Britain and the text-book counterpart taught by native and non-native speakers all over the world. Here is my anecdote from...
Some Implications of the Lexical Approach
The Lexical Approach is with us. It is not something which has arrived suddenly overnight, having rather crept up a number of avenues to gradually assemble as a whole at the market place. It is welcomed by many, particularly those...
Speaking Correction Techniques
(with Simon Mumford) Methodology Challenge Prizewinner I want to know. What’s the best way to correct students when they make a mistake, especially when they are speaking? IntroductionEveryone makes mistakes, even speakers using their own language when they are hurried,...
Asking Questions
(with Funda Çetin) Asking questions is a natural feature of communication, but also one of the most important tools which teachers have at their disposal. Questioning is crucial to the way teachers manage the class, engage students with content, encourage...
Homework
Homework seems to be an accepted part of teachers� and students� routines, but there is little mention of it in ELT literature. The role of homework is hardly mentioned in the majority of general ELT texts or training courses, suggesting...
Teacher Talking Time
IntroductionThe development of Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) brought with it a methodology which emphasised communication in the classroom, pair and group activities and student involvement in the learning process. A consequence of this was the belief that the teacher’s presence...
Rhythm
Rhythm is both a feature of and product of the phonological structure of English. The phonology of any language is a system, so that a change in one part of the system will affect some or all of the other...
Monitoring
Monitoring is a classroom management technique loosely defined as listening to the learners for their accuracy and fluency, or checking to see whether activities are going to plan and that the learners are ‘on task’. However, monitoring is often carried...
Analysing Language
In a previous article, I emphasised the importance of checking understanding in the process of teaching new structures and lexis, particularly through the use of concept questions. Checking understanding generally follows the isolation of new language which has been presented...
Checking Understanding
(with Ian White) In a standard language focus lesson following a PPP (present, practice, produce) or similar format, the target language (structure or vocabulary) is normally presented in context, then isolated and analysed. Analysis of the language consists of two...
Emotional Intelligence and ELT
The theory of Emotional Intelligence and its measurement, the Emotional Quotient (EQ) were developed in the 1970s and 80s but popularised by Daniel Goleman in the mid-90s. EQ is one of many concepts and models originating in psychology which are...
Duygusal Zeka
Son yıllarda, İngiliz Dili Öğretimi, öğrencileri daha iyi anlamak ve ihtiyaçlarını karşılamak için psikoloji ve nörolojiden doğan çesitli model ve yöntemleri alıyor ve uyarlıyor. Duygusal Zeka ya da EQ (Emotional Quitient-Duygusal Katsayı) kuramı esasında 1970-1980lerde geliştirildi; fakat 1990ların ortasında Daniel...
Emotional Intelligence
In recent years, ELT has been borrowing and adapting from a variety of models and methodologies originating in psychology and neurology in order to better understand and cater for individual learners. Emotional Intelligence or EQ (Emotional Quotient) theory was originally...
Some Feedback on NLP
The question: Maria Ordoñez, MexicoI’m an English teacher and language Program Director that is always looking for new ideas and ways of making students more involved. I recently read the article on Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP) and ELT. A local...
Neuro Linguistic Programming in ELT
NLP (Neuro Linguistic Programming) has been around in language teaching longer than we may realise. Those teachers who incorporate elements of suggestopedia, community language learning, music, drama and body language into their lessons are already drawing on NLP as it...
An Awareness-raising Workshop
This is an outline of a workshop designed to give teachers an insight into the importance of teaching nonverbal communication alongside phonology and speaking skills in order to improve learners’ ability to communicate naturally and convey meaning more clearly. Time: 60-90...
Integrating Nonverbal Communication into Classroom Activities
Integrating Nonverbal Communication into Classroom Activities (with Simon Mumford) Nonverbal communication (body language, paralinguistics) covers a huge area, primarily the realm those interested in effective business presentations and interpersonal relationships rather than English language teachers, though the use of gestures...
A Nonverbal Communication Lesson
A Nonverbal Communication Lesson (with Dilek Eryılmaz) Nonverbal communication has been a focus of attention for some time in areas such as business presentation skills and personal social skills. However it has received little attention, in language teaching as a...
Aspects of Nonverbal Communication
VC: Aspects of Nonverbal Communication Nonverbal communication has received much attention in the areas of business presentation, sales and marketing, and the development of social skills. Little attention, however, has been given to its importance in general communication despite major...
The Importance of Eye Contact in the Classroom
The Importance of Eye Contact in the Classroom (with Rob Ledbury and Ian White) Teachers often complain about discipline, about lack of attention, about the use of L2 in the classroom and many other problems, many of which amount to...
Nonverbal Communication
NVC: Nonverbal Communication (with Dilek Eryılmaz) Non-verbal communication (body language, paralinguistics) has been a focus of attention for some time in areas such as the refinement of presentation skills, developing social skills, and even as as a realistic alternative to...
