Equal opportunity and diversity: The handbook for teachers of English

Motivating teenagers I will link three practical classroom activities to the ideas of American Psychologist Carl Rogers. The ideas of Carl Rogers Types of motivation and teenagers Ways to improve motivation:Journals - empathy Using photos - authenticity Music - acceptance The ideas of Carl Rogers Rogers (1957) outlined 3 attitudinal qualities that a teacher, or in his words, a facilitator, should have to assist the learning process. They are empathy (seeing things from the students' viewpoint), authenticity (being yourself) and acceptance (of students' ideas and opinions). Teaching English to learners with Special Educational Needs (SENs) – Myths and realities ‘I know I have children with special educational needs in my class, I want to help them and we are supposed to promote inclusion, but I really am not sure how to do this’ Vera, primary teacher from Spain ‘Some of the children in my class are really badly behaved, they can’t sit still, don’t finish their work and are always calling out. I think they might have a learning difficulty, but I don’t know what to do’

Developing pronunciation through songs Songs provide examples of authentic, memorable and rhythmic language. They can be motivating for students keen to repeatedly listen to and imitate their musical heroes. Here, we look at some aspects of pronunciation that can be focused on through songs. Motivating speaking activities for lower levels Planning time has been shown to increase production in speaking tasks. Lower level learners often find it especially difficult to speak spontaneously, so these activities incorporate 'thinking time' during which learners can prepare for speaking by planning what they are going to say, and asking the teacher or using a dictionary to look up missing vocabulary. The following activities are relatively short, with minimal materials preparation time for the teacher. They are designed for use as a warmer or a filler in the middle or at the end of a class.

IATEFL 2018: Safe Speaking Environments - What? Why? How? Published 9 April 2018 In our first post from IATEFL 2018, we’re sharing the talk from Professor of Psycholinguistics, Zoltán Dörnyei, on what exactly Safe Speaking Environments are and why you should care. The talk looks at creating a psychological environment in the classroom which might make students’ lives easier. Zoltán says that in order to facilitate speaking in the language classroom, we need to: Create suitable conditions in accordance with the main tenets of group dynamics, andApply the principles of safe speaking environments What conditions need to be in place so we can start implementing a safe speaking environment?

Checking Understanding Analysis of the language consists of two sub-stages, often known as highlighting and concept checking. Highlighting is taking the model sentence and showing, telling or eliciting what the problems are in terms of form, function, and phonology. Concept checking is checking the understanding of difficult aspects of the target structure in terms of function and meaning. Concept checking is vital, since learners must fully understand the structure before any intensive practice of form and phonology is carried out.

Bradley - Scaffolding Academic Learning for Second Language Learners The Internet TESL Journal Karen Sue Bradley & Jack Alden Bradleykfksb00 [at] tamuk.eduTexas A&M University (Kingsville, Texas, USA) Introduction What is meant by the term scaffolding? "Scaffolding refers to providing contextual supports for meaning through the use of simplified language, teacher modeling, visuals and graphics, cooperative learning and hands-on learning" (Ovando, Collier, & Combs, 2003, p. 345). The teacher of second language learners has to facilitate that support. Then, "as students become more proficient, the scaffold is gradually removed" (Diaz-Rico & Weed, 2002, p. 85).

Total physical response - TPR Where is it from? How can I use it in class? When should I use it? Why should I use it in the classroom? A few useful variations Are there any disadvantages with using TPR? Where is it from? How to keep your students motivated Cristina Cabal has been teaching for 26 years. She shares some of her top tips for keeping students motivated. How do you keep students motivated? I like to compare it to keeping a healthy successful marriage. Like passion, motivation eventually fades away if you don’t feed it every day. Top ten time-management tips for teachers I often hear teachers in staffrooms complaining about students who are late for lessons and claim they have no time to complete their homework tasks, and yet spend their waking hours on social media and binge-watching series after series on Netflix. Then there are teachers who sneer at me when I talk about CPD (Continuing Professional Development) and categorically tell me that they have time for no such thing. There is no doubt that time-management is a skill that we are not born with and like any other skill, takes time (ironic, I know!)