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Special Features

Grab their attention while they are fresh in your classroom! 

The beginning of the school year can be a challenging time for English Language teachers as they strive to create a positive and engaging learning environment for their students. One of the most effective ways to achieve this is by using materials that are, first and foremost, engaging in the classroom. Engaging materials are those that capture students’...
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It is Yoglish o’clock

Do you remember yourself when in kindergarten?  Do you remember your itchy feet when you were asked to sit still? Human beings start their journey to knowledge through movement and imitation. Moving our body anchors the language and enhances our memory through associations with physical movement. If only we could perceive teaching the English language as...
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The Transformative Experience of Stage of B1

The differential factor of B1+ B2 is the word autonomy: The official level descriptor is “upper intermediate”. At this level, students can function independently in a variety of academic and professional environments in English, although with a limited range of nuance and precision. Independence is a massively significant factor and one underlying all...
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On Translanguaging and Plurilingualism: A Personal Perspective

  Eight years ago, I was invited to attend a theoretical seminar on the history of Andalusian folk dances in Athens delivered by the Spanish flamenco artist Torombo. I knew that the seminar would be held in Spanish, and there would be no Greek or English translation provided. Despite my ‘poor’ Spanish and the understanding that this would not be a...
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Where do we go from here? Is ELT in Greece the only option?

 I would like, if I may, to take you on a strange journey… I started teaching in a FLS in Keratsini at the age of 21. I stayed at that same school teaching for more than 10 years. I was convinced that ELT was something that happened on the main street of Amfiali, in those 7 classrooms of that school where I had been teaching. In the late 90s I decided to...
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Teaching English ‘the Greek way’

Learning a foreign language like English, which is based on the alphabetic system, is easy for students whose mother tongue is also an alphabetic one like Greek. Since words of Greek origin are widely used in English, things are even better for Greek students.Moreover, both English and Greek are considered SVO (Subject-Verb-Object) languages, which, in...
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Self-Directed Professional Development. Can you do it through Webinars?

  More and more is being written about self-directed professional development (SDPD) as teachers (and indeed all professionals) start taking responsibility for their professional development into their own hands. This increased interest in SDPD is in part due to experiences during the pandemic, where many teachers were thrown into a situation whereby...
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How To Deal with Teachers Who Are Reluctant to Training

Dealing with negative teachers in the workplace can be difficult and frustrating. When things become toxic, it's far too easy to get sucked into the negativity. So, what is it to be done? OK, first things first, I think every institution has come across with a reluctant or a negative teacher. You may have teachers who are directly defiant to training and...
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Grammar nonsense

Welcome to this teaser of grammar nonsense. It contains three new chapters that are a taste of what we cover in our more extended collection of rants and reflections on how the ELT industry views grammar and how it should be learnt and taught. Grammar nonsense is a collective, industry-wide problem where each individual part of the ‘family’ -education...
ELT News Grammar

The Benefits of Professional Development

Professional development is an important aspect of any career, and this is especially true for teachers. Continuous learning and development not only benefit teachers but also their students and the educational system as a whole. In this article, we will explore the benefits of teacher professional development. Improved Teaching Skills One of the most...
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The Journey to Professional Agility and Excellence

The journey to teachers’ personal and professional development is nonstop. Most teachers in my circle have been on their toes trying to upgrade their skills toolkit. Setting goals is part of the game and soon one is disillusioned of the initial impression that there is an end to training. Experience speaks loud and clear and reminds us that professional...
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Shall we throw grammar out with the bath water?

Do we need grammar? My first thought when somebody asks the question do we need grammar? is “of course we do, what are you talking about?” Still, bitter experience has taught me that easy answers are not necessarily, or even usually, correct, especially when the question itself is ambiguous, so I then go on to consider the question more...
ELT News Grammar

Stale Teachers and Victimized Students Realities and Repercussions

  It was the beginning of a new school year and the annual preparations had commenced. It was high time I visited my local bookstore and found solace in the vast, albeit comforting variety of colorful stationery I deemed necessary to carry out my duties. A colorful pencil here, a rubber there... Oh! Here’s something for my junior students! Shiny sticker...
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Lifelong Learning & Extending Beyond

  Zone of Proximal Development A worthy cause motivates The cause of any effort fuels with the energy to pursue worthy accomplishments, such as academic interests and professional development. In teaching, beyond imparting content-knowledge and promoting skills development, teachers promote strong will, bolster students’ autonomy, seed discipline and...
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Good Grief! Yet Another Article on Grammar & Vocabulary?

Grammar and Vocabulary are deemed by many as the cornerstones of language learning. Although this claim does have merit, as these two elements will establish a sound foundation to build upon, both educators and students alike must also acknowledge the fact that there is a broader picture to examine. What about productive skills like writing or speaking...
ELT News Grammar

Peer error correction and rating: the key to learning and success

  Peer error correction and rating could be the key to learning and success. As a student, I used the pencil, the desk, the blackboard (we didn’t have interactive boards back then). All these objects were associated with learning. However, when taking a test these inanimate objects became instruments of torture because I associated them with the silence...
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Young Learners: Having fun with Grammar

Young learners have a long time ahead of them with the language. There is no need to rush into technical rules and labels that will confuse. It seems likely to be far better to give children a sound basis in using the language while encouraging curiosity and talk about patterns and contrasts in and between languages and introducing grammatical...
ELT News Grammar

How My Baptism of Fire Went up in Smoke

  It’s been over a decade since I first addressed an audience eager to hear what I had to share. I can’t say that I experienced wet feet upon gazing my audience, rather relief that my first presentation was soon to be over. As in all professional fields, proper preparation is essential; a time-consuming process which demands meticulous attention to detail...
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Teacher Development

Teacher Development: Letting Our Light Shine During my long career in ELT I have attended numerous seminars, conferences, workshops both in Greece and abroad and I still do. As I reflect on all those events, I am so grateful to the amazing teacher leaders I have encountered; their impact on my own practice was immeasurable. I returned to my classroom...
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Can you put fun in Grammar Lessons?

  Mention the word “grammar” and students will cringe. In fact, most teachers will cringe, too. Of course, teachers know correct grammar rules, but it’s one thing to know them, and another thing to effectively teach them, and transmit them so that students not only understand the rules, but also apply them correctly. Many experienced teachers say that...
ELT News Grammar

REFLECTIONS [AND TIPS] FROM AN ELT PRACTITIONER

  What would you say was your worst moment as a presenter? Well, now… this takes me back a few years. I was in Cairo, with OUP. I had given a couple of presentations in Alexandria and another one in Giza, and in each case we had more than 150 people in the audience. This was to be the ‘grand finale’. OUP had booked a great hotel, in a central location...
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Test validity

In very simple terms, validity tells us whether a test works well for the purpose that we will use it for. People often talk about a test being good or bad, or whether it is fit for purpose. In technical language, they’re actually talking about validity. Test developers often claim that their test is valid, or that it’s been validated. But what is actually...
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The Grammar Acquisition Process

The whole second language acquisition process is cyclical and it involves six stages. They are: input, noticing, intake, structuring, proceduralization, and output. First of all, in the input stage, it is learners’ new exposure to the second language and therefore, the input should be comprehensible for them in order to learn the language. Input can be...
Annie Manders Grammar

How can we ensure that training does not fail?

  We all know the story: time, effort and money are invested so that a trainer can be hired to come to school and deliver a training session. Then, all horrors break out: a great amount of energy has to be spent to find a convenient date for all and teachers have to be cajoled into coming. Sometimes, the skill of the trainer and the reality of the session...
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Language testing: A changing landscape

LanguageCert Online Proctored Exams A changing landscape Due to the mounting popularity of online education programmes, the increasing internationalisation of education and the growing demand for certification, online proctored testing is forecast to develop more than ever before. Currently, thousands of online-proctored tests are regularly administered by...
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Goals and Techniques for Teaching Grammar

Grammar is central to the teaching and learning of languages. It is also one of the more difficult aspects of language to teach well.   Many people, including language teachers, hear the word “grammar” and think of a fixed set of word forms and rules of usage. They associate “good” grammar with the prestige forms of the language, such as those used in...
ELT News Grammar

The joy of becoming redundant

  Even though the financial rewards that you can expect as a teacher are dismally (and often abysmally) low, most teachers, perhaps partly in an effort to protect their sanity, would insist that they love their job nevertheless, claiming that teaching is rewarding in other ways; when asked about the rewards of teaching as a career, they will typically...
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Tests…tests…tests…the Washback Effect

Washback is an important concept in education because it describes the effect that testing has on teaching and learning in the classroom. Washback is generally perceived as being either negative (harmful) or positive (beneficial). Negative washback is said to occur when a test’s content or format is based on a narrow definition of language ability, and...
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Back To School 

  After the holidays, returning to school marks a fresh beginning for many. It’s a time when new aspirations are set, the curriculum is brimming with fresh responsibilities and tasks, and the pristine pages of school notebooks eagerly await the start of the new academic year. However, it’s essential to consider how prepared we are for this fresh start...
ELT News Back to School

When devices are left to their own…devices!

How can technology work in class? Every now and then, I can see articles popping up on the media with huge, eye-catching headlines like “School ditches tablets”. Flashy stories come as no surprise. But what comes as a surprise is educators endorsing them without a second thought, without using their critical thinking skills. Condemning in public technology...
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B1 Level, the pillar of language acquisition

B1 level has been characterized as the pillar in the acquisition process concerning the L2 language. This can be easily justified if we take into account the fact that at this level, students are asked to live up to the expectations of a more demanding learning procedure. No matter what the skill is (reading, writing, listening, or speaking), the topics...
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Content is the king; Engagement is the queen & Lady or Lord rules the house

  Back to school is all about setting targets, inspiring, motivating and drawing the pathway to achieving class goals. It is the time of the year when we ask question of the type “Where are we, where do we want to get and how do we get there”? We set the target and plan the journey there. If this journey is unsuccessful, we will end up with bored students...
ELT News Back to School

Grammar

Teaching Teens