Wandering Girl worksheets are back!
A big thanks here to ‘Samantha’, who got in touch to ask if she could have access to the Wandering Girl worksheets. I was puzzled, because I knew they were right here, on the site… until I checked myself and found out that the links were broken. Oops. So now the worksheets are back, and you can download them here. … Continue reading
More CPSWE materials for prelim (literacy) learners
After my last post on materials for preliminary (CPSWE) learners here in Australia, I had some more suggestions; big thanks to Judy, Manjit, Lesley, Jakki and Natalie. (If I’ve missed anyone’s suggestions, please let me know.) I’ll update that post too. (UPDATE: I’m now teaching Initial Course and Course in EAL, but of course the resources listed here are just … Continue reading
Pre-employment English for beginners?
I’m going to give a link to my latest post from my other blog, at ‘The Book Next Door’. It’s a list of ways you could still use the ESL Extras reading books in a Pre-Employment class – not by pretending the books are all about employment, but by pulling out threads that invite discussion. It’s a massively long post – the kind … Continue reading
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









