ELT365 · Day 184 — Drilling — why, when, and how
Idea — Drilling fixes the sound and rhythm of new language in muscle memory. Use it after presentation, before freer practice — never as a lesson…
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ELT365 · Day 183 — Accuracy vs fluency — the teacher’s choice
Idea — Accuracy activities focus on correct form; fluency activities build speed and confidence. Every speaking task sits on a spectrum. Name your aim before you…
ReadELT365 · Day 182 — Speaking vs talking — what classroom tasks do
Idea — Learners talk all day. Speaking tasks give them specific language to practise in a communicative context. A task without a communicative goal is a…
ReadELT365 · Day 181 — Month 6 review — receptive skills
Idea — Month 6 covered listening (top-down vs bottom-up, staging, connected speech) and reading (skimming, scanning, grading texts, pre-teaching vocabulary). The thread: input must be comprehensible,…
ReadELT365 · Day 180 — Reading aloud — when it helps and when it does not
Idea — Reading aloud focuses attention on decoding — pronunciation, not meaning. Use it for phonics with young learners or dialogue performance; avoid it as a…
ReadELT365 · Day 179 — Extensive reading — building fluency
Idea — Extensive reading means large volumes of self-chosen, largely understood text read for pleasure. It is the most reliable route to reading fluency (Nation’s research).…
ReadELT365 · Day 178 — Pre-teaching vocabulary — the gating problem
Idea — Pre-teaching every unknown word defeats the purpose of reading. Only pre-teach words that would block all understanding — “gate” vocabulary that unlocks the whole…
ReadELT365 · Day 177 — Grading reading texts
Idea — A text is appropriately graded when learners understand roughly 95% of the words — enough challenge without overload. Below that threshold, learners stop reading…
ReadELT365 · Day 176 — Jigsaw reading
Idea — Jigsaw reading gives different groups different texts, then mixes groups so each learner teaches their part to the others. This creates a genuine communicative…
ReadELT365 · Day 175 — Inferring meaning from context
Idea — Guessing unknown words from context is a core reading strategy. Teach learners to use part of speech, surrounding sentence, and topic before reaching for…
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