Determine your own significance
The true value of an English teacher
Native English teachers incompetent in the classroom? Of course they're incompetent. Many of them, anyway. Then again, many of the Korean English teachers are incompetent as well.
Teaching in an intercultural environment
What are some of the issues facing educators in a foreign land?
Studying culture is no substitute for the practical experience of working and living abroad, however having some mental frameworks in which to analysis experiences could be helpful in adjusting to working and living in a new cultural environment.
Playing to the gallery
Successful class-management and learner success is dependant on having fun
We are all familiar with the fact that every class has its own special chemistry. For obscure reasons some classes are friendly, others not; some bright and perky, others lackluster and heavy going.
Some solutions to the challenges of teaching in Thailand
Some ideas on how to make life easier for yourself
Don’t take complaints or awkward suggestions to your local head. Go to them with easy to understand positive solutions instead. And don’t push your case or demand an immediate response.
Are TEFL qualifications necessary?
Let's consider what can go wrong after TEFL courses.
One argument against qualifications is that teaching experience itself is enough to guarantee a good teacher. Not so. I have recently been learning French in an institution where my intermediate classmates are often poor performers in their out-of-class interactions. And for what reason?
Show me that you love me
The Bangkok freak show, and my response to John Wilson.
Last month John Wilson, the director of a Language Institute in Thailand, wrote an article for www.ajarn.com. It was an article about creating a good impression at job interviews.
Edutainment is back
Love it or loathe it - we're in the entertainment business
Games are a great way to get student’s brains working in English. And, in the rarity of having any ringleaders who say that they don’t want to play games, have them copy the copyright crap from the inside front cover of their textbooks while the rest of the class enjoy themselves.
Those damn textbooks
Why those textbooks were not designed for South east Asia
Conversation classes are popular in Southeast Asia but the staple for this course is “Let’s Talk”. Why? Because it is one of the few conversational books available. By the time you have stripped it down and localised the content, you may just as well have done it all by yourself, which of course you have.
Why teacher can't write
Postbox letter from
We are too busy to do anything else but teach. Yet, there’s something bogus about teaching language or literature 20 periods a week and never connecting with your subject matter out of the classroom.
The value of learning groups
How to help students learn better
Think back to when you were a kid or a teen and what your least favourite school subject was. It wasn’t that it was boring because if it had of been then other students wouldn’t have liked it or excelled at it. It was because it wasn’t particularly accessible to you as a learner.
