CPSWE resources: what’s around for ‘prelim’ ESOL learners?
If you’re teaching adult ‘prelim’, CPSWE, Initial Course in EAL, ‘pre-beginner’ or ‘literacy’ students in an ESOL class, you’re probably making a lot of your own materials. Your classroom cupboards are filled with word and letter cards, ‘play money’, food and medicine packets and supermarket flyers. Your reading materials are based on excursions or ‘learner news,’ recorded on learners’ phones for … Continue reading
Adventures in MOOC-land: Dyslexia and FL Teaching
A couple of weeks ago I signed up* for a MOOC (Massive Open Online Course) through FutureLearn. It’s a 4 week course on Dyslexia and Foreign Language Teaching, from the University of Lancaster. It’s a bit ironic – I’ve been recommending the Australian Open2Study to high intermediate learners as a way to see how prepared they are to study in … Continue reading
ESL: What does it really stand for?
I’ve occasionally felt a little awkward about the name of my book series, ESL Extras. ESL is such a familiar term, almost always known by volunteers and non-teachers, and of course still very much in use internationally. It’s clearly distinguished from EFL as something you learn in an English language environment, not in another language environment. However, here in Australia, … Continue reading
My job really is the best…
My Job is the Best: a new ESL Extras title I have a new ESL Extras book out, but this time it’s a free download. My Job is the Best is another very simple set of Australian ‘stories’ about different Hope Street characters. It has an illustrated, very simple story, with ‘cut-up’ pages, exercises and teacher/tutor notes, like the other books … Continue reading
On being a ‘total beginner’ language learner
Late last year I spent a week in Granada, and as well as visiting the Alhambra three times (I was besotted), I went to Spanish classes at Escuela Montalban. I was a total beginner, and since I’d been teaching total beginners, I thought I might get some insights. Let’s start by saying that I know that my ‘total beginner’ status … Continue reading
