Every lesson, essay and journal entry, newest first. 726 published posts.
Linking words (however, therefore, in addition) signal logical relationships between ideas. Discourse markers (right, anyway, so) organise speech. Both are often memorised incorrectly — learners need meaning, not just a word list.
Inference is the ability to understand what a text implies but does not state. It draws on word choice, tone, context, and cultural knowledge. It is a higher-order skill often assessed at B2 and above.
In a jigsaw task, different learners read different texts then share information. Everyone has something the others need. It creates a genuine communication purpose for speaking after reading.
Connected speech features — linking, elision, assimilation, weak forms — make natural English hard to decode. Explicit teaching of these features improves listening measurably.
Scanning means searching a text for a specific piece of information — a name, a number, a date — without reading everything. It is a real-world skill, not a test trick.
Text selection criteria: appropriate length and complexity for the level, genuine interest value, enough richness for a task. The best text sparks disagreement.
Skimming means reading quickly for a general impression — what the text is about, its tone, its structure. Readers skip freely and skip often.
Scanning in listening means ignoring most of the audio and catching only the target item — a number, a name, a date. It is a real-world skill.
This month covered the productive skills toolkit: fluency vs accuracy, information gaps, controlled and free practice, error correction strategies, speaking tasks, writing stages, and the four-stage lesson frame.
A complete productive skills lesson has four stages: lead-in, model and analyse, prepare, produce, feedback. Rushing the prepare stage collapses the quality of production.
Real communication always integrates skills. Reading sparks speaking; listening generates writing; speaking leads to reading. Design tasks that mirror this rather than isolating skills artificially.
Text (read twice at natural speed): 'Migration has always shaped cities. London, Paris, and Sydney grew because people moved there looking for work.' Learners compare their reconstructions in pairs.
In the 4-3-2 technique, learners tell the same story three times: four minutes, then three, then two. Repetition forces fluency — they stop translating and start retrieving. Nation developed this.
Writing for a teacher-examiner is motivationally thin. Writing for a real or imagined audience gives learners a reason to make the text work.
Editing is improving content and structure — does the paragraph make sense, is the argument clear? Proofreading is checking form — spelling, punctuation, grammar. Teach them as separate stages.
When analysing a model text, look at the form first — what the text does in each section — before asking learners what they think of it. Jumping to opinion skips the language focus entirely.
A model text shows learners what a good version of the target text looks like before they write their own. It sets the standard and provides language they can adapt — not copy.
Process writing focuses on how a text is built — planning, drafting, revising. It mirrors how real writers work and raises awareness of writing as a recursive skill.
For the past few weeks, I've been building a system to automatically find English teaching and training opportunities in France using the official France Travail API. As someone based in La Réunion managing ADHD, bipolar,…
Classroom writing is not homework. In-class writing allows the teacher to monitor process, give real-time feedback, and use errors as teaching material.
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Sourov Deb EI · SIRET 106 764 061 00011 · Saint-Pierre, La Réunion