My University has regularly offered a TOEFL iBT preparation course for learners who want to study abroad. I have volunteered to teach this class many times now and the more I become familiar with this test the more I realize just how challenging this must be for learners. It can also be very challenging to […]
A guest post by Alisa Abrasaldo Pokemon Go is the latest craze that got everybody’s attention nowadays. It is a mobile game that allows its players to capture adorable pet monsters in the real world. They can then use these pets to fight other monsters, players or capture locations. This is a rare moment when technology, […]
It’s around this time of the semester that I get feedback from student evaluations from the previous semester. I always like to read the comments that students have written about my classes. The questions on the evaluation form are not 100% relevant to my classes because they are written for lecture classes and I teach […]
This semester I have been teaching a writing course at my university. It is a basic academic writing course and the aim is for the learners to know how to write a paragraph by the end of the semester. I encourage the class to keep a writing journal and as part of their final grade they […]
What is dreamreader.net? Dreamreader.net is a free website where learners can practice and improve their English reading skill. What materials are there on dreamreader.net? There are now more than 500 free reading lessons on a wide variety of topics and skill levels. What kind of lessons are on the site? The site has five different kinds […]
I recently posted a blog post on Language Teaching Professionals about three awesome videos to inspire your learners. It was very well received so I thought I would do another post about videos. Click here if you haven’t read that post. Today I have chosen three more of my favorite videos that I show to […]
I recently watched this awesome video by Dr. Brene Brown on the difference between empathy and sympathy. I really enjoyed her approach to a very sensitive and delicate topic and started to think how this could be applied to my teaching and how I interact with my learners. I started to reflect […]
The journey We now have more than 500 lessons up on the site and it’s still growing. That’s not bad when you consider that we started the site in September 2014 with only 25 lessons. It has been a struggle to research, write, edit, and proof read all these lessons, not to mention the fact […]
There was a recent post on Reddit Japan that asked what kinds of students do teachers like teaching. It was an interesting post and provoked some interesting discussion. If you are interested you can read it here. It made me not only think about the kinds of students I most enjoy teaching but what were my thoughts […]
Do any of you remember the Pepsi Challenge? This is the challenge where Pepsi would set up a table with two plain cups. One would contain Pepsi and the other Coca-Cola. Members of the public would then take a blind taste test. The Pepsi rep would then reveal the contents of the cups and the […]
