Eliciting: Teach It Without Telling It
⏱ 5 Minutes · Teacher Training 📖 From Experience The best moment in any class I taught was when a learner produced the language I was…
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CCQs vs ICQs: Stop Asking ‘Do You Understand?’
⏱ 5 Minutes · Teacher Training 📖 From Experience My trainer said it in week one and I’ve never forgotten: ‘Do you understand?’ is the least…
ReadWriting Effective Lesson Aims: The One Sentence That Drives Everything
⏱ 5 Minutes · Teacher Training 📖 From Experience In the feedback room after a lesson observation, the first question is always the same: ‘What was…
ReadVowel Sounds: The Secret to Clear Pronunciation
⏱ 5 Minutes · A2/B2 📖 From Experience English has about 20 vowel sounds but only 5 vowel letters. When I arrived in Sydney, I couldn’t…
ReadIntonation: Use Your Voice to Mean More
⏱ 5 Minutes · B1/B2 📖 From Experience At the casino, tone of voice was everything. The same sentence — ‘Is there anything else I can…
ReadThe ‘th’ Sound: Nobody Warned Me About This
⏱ 5 Minutes · A2/B1 📖 From Experience When I first started speaking English seriously, the /θ/ sound — ‘th’ as in think — was physically…
ReadConnected Speech: Why Fast English Sounds Different
⏱ 5 Minutes · B1/B2 📖 From Experience When Vanessa and I first met, she spoke French fast and I spoke English fast — and neither…
ReadWord Stress: Stress the Right Syllable
⏱ 5 Minutes · A2/B1 📖 From Experience My first week in Sydney, I said reCORD when I meant the noun. My colleague said REcord and…
ReadInference in Reading: What the Text Doesn’t Say
⏱ 5 Minutes · B2 📖 From Experience When I read Dostoevsky as a teenager — secretly, since books were not encouraged at home — I…
ReadFormal Email Writing: Get It Right Every Time
⏱ 5 Minutes · B1/B2 📖 From Experience I have sent thousands of emails — job applications, complaints, appeals, formal requests. Each one from a different…
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