Once a cheater…

/ Exam training, New to ELT

Recently, I got involved in exam invigilation at the University of Palermo. Students were sitting different types of exams in English at A2-B2 levels. They were given a tablet, signed in with their student login details and started their exam. They followed their own pace, finished within their time limit depending on their exam type, there was no introduction into how to conduct oneself under exam conditions, there was noise and there was cheating. Some students kept on their coats saying that it was cold (there were 27 degrees in the exam room), we are talking about big puffer jackets

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Be critical – but never criticise without a reason

/ Lesson tips, New to ELT

I’ve been working as a Cambridge Speaking Examiner (SE) since 2015 and one of the most important things that I learnt from the SE notes was to always ask the question ‘Why (not)?’. Whatever question we ask our candidates, we always follow up with ‘why?’. You might think that it’s easy to give a reason why you like or dislike, agree or disagree, but it isn’t always so simple. What’s more, having an opinion cannot be taken for granted either: it’s a skill that needs to be learnt and developed. Now, let’s stop for a second: repeating what you were

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Know Your Tools

/ New to ELT

For the last two years, I have asked my students to write an essay answering the question whether school prepares one for work and life. Every single student gave a negative answer: No, school has very little to do with whatever is coming after. Surprise, surprise: school has never prepared for the life after. It has always given some basic skills and knowledge, but practical experience has rarely been transmitted. So, it’s really up to you to get ready for whatever job you’d like to get. What does it really mean? Let me give you some examples. As you know,

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Dear AI, don’t write us down so quickly. Regards, Language Teachers

/ Lesson tips, New to ELT

I might be unemployed soon, thanks to the AI, at least this is what some AI developers suggest. Some technological advancements have really revolutionised our lives, so we, language teachers had better prepare to learn programming languages soon. In the meantime, though, I’d like to argue for the necessity of language teachers. This article aims to show you some examples where the human factor outweighs numeric information, where a computer at today’s time cannot substitute a person. I’m going to talk about entry testing, the first encounter between a teacher and a student and in particular, their motivation to learn

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Back to school – back to technology… struggles

/ Lesson tips, New to ELT

This week was about welcoming students back to our online or face-to-face courses. More than half of them are pre-teens or teens, so it’s always a moment to understand how fast kids grow, how fast they change. Another ‘Aw’ moment is to realise that although students might not be involved in active English studying, their brains seem to connect concepts unconsciously. This applies also to adult students: a short break benefits their fluency and accuracy in speaking, as if the brain had played puzzle with the bits and pieces we had elaborated together – even in the absence of the

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Meritocracy in language schools – a utopia?

/ New to ELT

On the occasion of my 20th birthday as a teacher, I started to make a mental inventory of the most relevant and/or mind-forming experiences of my professional life. After a list of some ‘bests’ (see article here), today I’d like to talk about meritocracy in language schools. Premise: Meritocracy here doesn’t consider a political system in Michael Young’s sense or the idea that ‘everyone has the right to express their opinions’ but only ‘those opinions are listened to and decisions are then made based on those that are deemed the best’ (read Wired article HERE). Meritocracy in this reading means

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Best of 2003-2023

/ New to ELT

In September 2003, I started teaching languages.20 years ago…Long time, no doubt. In these days, I’ve been organising my teaching materials and while doing so, memories came back to me. I reflected on old friends/colleagues/mentors, the books that had just come out when I got my degree, I thought about the way I prepared lessons 20 years ago and how I do it today. I remembered sending my CV to several language schools in summer 2023 and heading to my first job interview in September (which was actually a disaster). I can still recall some of my doubts, my determination

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GRAMMAR: Gerunds vs Infinitives

/ A2, B1, B2, Grammar training, Intermediate, Pre-intermediate, Upper-intermediate

Teach or revise gerunds and infinitives with these video quizzes at A2, B1 and B2 level. Every video quiz contains questions that are suitable for a conversation lesson: student can answer/discuss them in pairs or small groups after completing the video tasks (for example, on their smart phones).The first three video quizzes were inspired by the International Women’s Day: all questions listed in them relate to women (and men). The B2-level videos are general questions about one’s habits, memories, personality, etc. LEVEL A2: Revise verbs with infinitive vs gerund forms at pre-intermediate (A2) level: Students need to complete questions while

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Sting: It’s probably me

/ B2, Listening training

Dive into Sting’s famous song (It’s probably me) and check your students’ understanding of implicit messages. Ideal for B2 classes. Loading… WHAT WOULD YOU LIKE TO DO NOW? GO BACK TO SONG POST BROWSE LESSON TIPS CHECK OUT THE ELT-TUTOR WEBSHOP GO BACK TO ‘STUFF-ROOM’