Teaching Numbers – Fun Speaking Activity
Finding enough speaking activities and free speaking practice, which are useful, is definitely my downfall when it comes to teaching. When I came across this speaking activity on teaching numbers with its game element, I was thrilled. Read about my take on the game below. I have been teaching numbers since 2009. In the past, I have done addition/subtraction and multiplication sums, as it adds a cross-curricular element. However, I tend to find that it takes longer to teach the numbers, because students are focusing on the maths involved. In the future, I will definitely utilise this activity for teaching numbers (small or large) for free speaking, in any language. The activity is…
Running A Successful European Day of Languages (EDL)
The European Day of Languages I love, love, love, loooooove the 26th September. This is because it is the official European Day of Languages (EDL), which, since 2001, has been ‘jointly organised by the Council of Europe and the European Union’. The day involves millions of people across over 45 countries who carry out activities to celebrate linguistic diversity in Europe and promote language learning, both inside and outside of educational establishments. Getting EDL Ready In July 2017, I was coming towards the end of my NQT year and had recently started at a new school. Just as I thought I was getting an easy-ride, I was tasked with organising the…
Using Target Language for Progress in the Classroom
Using Target Language in the classroom can be somewhat of a minefield. Should I use it? Shouldn’t I use it? How much should I use? The students don’t understand, the students aren’t using it…. This is a struggle for many teachers and so, in this post, I will be sharing my teaching experience of using of target language in the classroom. You will read about professional research carried out on the topic and I will offer some practical ideas and useful resources on how to use target language effectively in the Modern Foreign Language (MFL) or English Language Teaching (ELT) classroom. What Is Target Language? I started teaching English To Speakers…
Teaching Tips of The Week For The Language Classroom
Teaching Tips and Ideas To Use In The Classroom Each Week I come across brilliant teaching ideas and teaching tips that would be fantastic to use in the modern language classroom or English Language classroom daily. Unfortunately, I don’t do anything with the majority of them; mainly, because there are so many and they are hard to keep track of! Whilst there are many teaching ideas which are gimmicky, there are many that could be used to break away from monotonous lessons with the same activities week in, week out. For this reason, I am challenging myself to collect lots of these teaching tips in one place; here, for myself…
Don’t Survive As An NQT, Thrive – Tips
What I Wish I Had Known When I Started My NQT Year From 2016-2017, I was an NQT (Newly Qualified Teacher). After seeing the hashtag #nqttips on Twitter recently and with it being the start of a new academic year, I wanted to put together some NQT tips that could be used by NQT’s but might also serve as a useful refresher to all teachers in the new academic year. Many of these NQT tips are bits of advice that I wish I had been given when I began my NQT year in 2016 and which I feel would have made my year go even better. I undertook my NQT…
