I’m pleased to announce the launch of “Teach English Online“, a 3 hour, 15 lecture course (and soon to be expanded!) on the learning platform Udemy. This course will give you all the tools and knowledge you need to quickly…
Busted! 7 Myths of Language Teaching
English language teaching is strewn with various people’s pet theories and claims about what it takes to teach English. A lot of these ideas are absolute nonsense or have been disputed by research, but unfortunately, some of them have taken hold…
Scott Thornbury on teaching methods through the ages
Here’s a fascinating and highly entertaining talk by Scott Thornbury, who looks at how English teaching methods have changed over the last hundred or so years. He illustrates the changes in methods by looking at the content of coursebooks he…
8 Great Reads for online English teachers
This is a guide to the task of teaching English and is always recommended to people embarking on teacher certification courses like the CELTA and for all new teachers. People often describe it as an introductory text, but this is…
Plan Ceibal: online English teaching in the classroom
In many countries around the world, it’s very difficult to find English teachers. This is one of the reasons why online English teaching is growing so rapidly: simply put, it helps people who want to learn English find someone to…
Today at the IATEFL Conference
I’ve just been watching an interesting discussion at the IATEFL conference in Manchester about a whole bunch of issues related to English language teaching, and especially teachers. They discuss the issue of native versus non-native speaking teachers of English and…
10 steps to becoming an online English teacher
Here’s your ultimate cheat sheet to becoming an online English teacher. It’s a step-by-step guide of how to get your first paying student quickly. Of course, it’s only one approach, and other successful online teachers may have their own ways,…
Follow IATEFL Online
Here’s a wonderful opportunity for online professional development online. It’s the 2015 IATEFL Online conference, being streamed from Manchester over the Internet. Several hours a day, over 4 days, of presentations and interviews about teaching English. Here’s a link to their…
Posted in Uncategorized
Put student language at the heart of your online lessons with the reformulation approach
How can you help your student improve their English rapidly, and ensure that your lessons are focussed on their needs, wants and interests? How can you do this, and save planning and resourcing time? Here’s a great approach known as…
10 things you can do with one student that you can’t do with a class: the magic of one-to-one
How is one-to-one teaching different to teaching a group of students? Most online teachers teach on a one-to-one basis, and it’s a totally different ballgame to teaching groups of students such as those you’d find in a classroom. In this article…
Niche English: the secret to getting the highest rates of pay, and for finding students the easy way
The major concern for prospective online English teachers is usually “how do I find a student?” The thinking goes on the lines of, I’ll get a student, then I’ll work out what to teach them. Finding students this way means…
Posted in How to
How much bandwidth do you need to teach online?
One concern understandably raised by people considering teaching English online is whether or not their Internet connection is going to be fast enough. You don’t want to go to all the trouble of finding a student and preparing a lesson…
Teaching Unplugged Activities (Part 4)
Dreams and Schemes In Part 4 of our series about using activities from the book, Teaching Unplugged, in online English teaching, I’m going to look at activities for encouraging your learner to talk with you about their dreams, hopes and plans. These…
Teaching Unplugged Activities (Part 3)
Sharing and Comparing In Part 3 of our series about using activities from the book, Teaching Unplugged, in online English teaching, I’m going to look at activities for encouraging your learner to talk with you about sharing and comparing ideas. This was…
Posted in Activity, Lesson Tagged with: activity, conversation, speaking, students, teaching unplugged
Teaching Unplugged Activities (Part Two)
Talking about Feelings In yesterday’s article, I introduced the ideas behind Teaching Unplugged and described some activities from the book, adapted for use by the online English teacher. If we follow a coursebook, which almost all classroom students and many…
Posted in Activity, Lesson Tagged with: activity, conversation, feelings, lesson, Scott Thornbury, speaking, teaching unplugged, whiteboard
Teaching Unplugged Activities for the Online English Teacher (Part One)
In my time teaching in language school classrooms, it’s always been a common sight to see teachers staggering into classrooms armed with piles of photocopied worksheets, laminated cards, DVDs and, increasingly, trays full of iPads – this in classrooms in…
Posted in Activity, Lesson Tagged with: activity, conversation, featured, interviews, Scott Thornbury, teaching unplugged
Simon’s Cat: lesson ideas
Just been reading Larry Ferlazzo’s excellent English language teaching blog and one post that jumped out for me was using Simon’s Cat videos in your lessons (actually I found his blog because I was Googling this topic!) Simon’s Cat is…
Buy the The Online English Teacher
Available now, The Online English Teacher eBook, containing everything the current or aspiring online English teacher needs to know. How to set up your computer for online English teaching How to find students How to get paid How to teach…
News Lesson on Sony’s ePaper Watch
Here’s a great resource from Breaking News English, based around a news report on Sony’s up-and-coming e-paper watch. The news story is written at 3 different levels of difficulty, and comes with a lesson plan and activities underneath the news…
Using TED videos with your learners
http://tedxesl.com/ Here is another great resource for all of you online English teachers. Andrew Jones has taken some of the best TED videos and produced some excellent materials to go along with them. The materials are free to use and…
Build a career as a successful independent English teacher online. Learn all the essential strategies in this complete, step-by-step guide.FIND OUT MORE
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