Teacher Discussion Forums

g'day marg, you have an interesting scenario there. Before you dive right into heavy grammar you might want to find out why the students are studying and what they would like to study (if anything). There are excellent grammar units (odd numbered units) in CUP's Language in Use by Adrian Doff- i rec...

there's a book in a teaching series by oxford uni press called beginners which has hundreds of activties for complete beginners. i've never taught 'true' beginners before but i used some of the activties with some of my false beginner classes. A good one i use with the time (after covering the "rule...

I suppose the problem with the students (Korean) i taught thought they knew exactly what free talking was- other teachers had "taught" them using this "method". Some of the students had been taking classes (and i use this term loosely) for up to a year and really wanted me to give them this kind of ...

g'day rudolfnco, where are you? a good textbook i recommend is Language in Use by cambridge (Adrian Doff and possibly somebosy else). It's a good communicative style textbook- there are alternating units of grammar (following PPP method) and fluency units. The series has a number of weaknesses but i...

hi yoyo I also teach at a uni in korea so i know exactly what you are talking about. If these are freshman classes which i assume they are, students are of all levels- a fair percentage in my uni are complete beginners (i'd say 10 per cent)- so there would be two reasons why they are talking in clas...

picture dictionaries are good for students and Cambridge's Vocabulary in Use is excellent- it details context. there's a book called "vocabulary games and activties published by Penguin I think (peter watcyn jones i think) which has vocab based games etc. also a good way to revise vocab during the c...

g'day carolpicstaiwan, i was in the same boat as you a few years ago- working in TEFL without qualification and did a Trinity College modified TESOL certificate from a reputable uni in australia. It was one of the best things i have done it. i've heard other stories of people doing their one month T...

I'm teaching in Korea and I've often wondered about the benefits to learners of English of the much touted (in Korea at least) Free talking classes (completely topic based teaching). I'd be interested to know if there are any other countries which has "free talking". The way it usually works is as f...