English speaking day

Some different ways to get your students speaking English

I heard from a number of Filipino instructors in Thai universities that they had something called ‘English Speaking Day'. They said that students had not as yet made any significant progress but the instructors were optimistic that the ESD idea would work if implemented for a longer period of time and Thai students would surely improve.

This is an English-speaking only zone

Reflections from teaching in an English-only international school

Six weeks ago I started a new teaching job in Myanmar at an international school. The job and the school have surpassed my expectations and one of the most impressive things is that I can use complete sentences in the classroom and give directions in English and the students not only understand, but they respond with great English.

Whole brain teaching techniques

An amazing new approach to teaching that really works

Do you want to be able to control a roomful of pratom one students with one simple word? ? Would you like to get 99 per cent participation from your matayom class? Do you want an easy way to engage your adult students making learning fun for them and for you?

Classroom ice breakers

How to start your lesson off the right way

Summer classes begin soon and many of us will be working during our vacation. One of the problems we face is how to maintain student interest

Ajarn.com's book of the month

Macmillan Collocations Dictionary

I can see perhaps a very serious student of written English dipping into it if there is truly a word whose possible collocations they want to find out more about. And for any teacher with an intermediate class, they might take a word and use the collocations as a ten-minute lesson filler, but I'm struggling to see the dictionary's value beyond that.

A teacher, an old wise man, two punks, and a chicken

Taking responsibility for your teaching

Every once in a while I get frustrated with my students. Yes that’s right; I’m not a perfect teacher. But the person I should get most frustrated with, however, is me.

Handling a 'sanook' class

How to handle a classroom full of badly-behaved children

Success in handling naughty students calls for common sense, creativity and resourcefulness on the part of teachers. Furthermore, a lot of reasons that trigger students’ behavior have to be addressed too, for if they are not, problems will surface

Responsibility: Teaching the fourth R in education

It's time to make our students look good - and not just academically

In our zeal to teach the three ‘R's, reading, ‘righting, and ‘rithmetic, we are neglecting to teach another very important ‘R': Responsibility; responsibility for oneself and responsibility for others

Back in the groove again

Stepping back into a Thai training room after three years away

A two-day seminar on the topic of ‘Executive E-mail Writing' for fifteen participants at one of the world's largest auditing companies. That's what I had been asked to deliver. Despite having plenty of experience, it was still a daunting challenge given the fact I hadn't walked into a training room to conduct a workshop or seminar in almost three years. It was time to put my trainer hat on and get back into the groove.