Tom Garside
Teaching language skills Part 4: Listening skills and subskills
So much of what we mean is unspoken. The way we use cultural phrases, idioms and metaphor, the tone of voice, facial expression and emotion
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Tom Garside
Sep 30, 20197 min read
Teaching language skills Part 3: Reading skills and subskills
Any written text is by definition intended for someone to read. The purpose of written language is to communicate ideas between people
Tom Garside
Sep 23, 20198 min read
Teaching language skills Part 2: Are your students speaking with their mouths or with their minds?
Speaking is central to use of language. Of all the skills we use when we learn, most describe proficiency in another language as speaking it
Tom Garside
Sep 16, 20196 min read
Teaching language skills Pt 1: Are you really teaching language skills in your lessons?
When we think about teaching the four language skills - reading, writing, speaking and listening, we are really thinking about developing...
Tom Garside
Sep 9, 201912 min read
How do you deal with pronunciation in class? Moving from sounds to systems
Pronunciation is one of the fundamentals of language learning. It is the primary factor in spoken language when it comes to understanding
Tom Garside
Aug 26, 20195 min read
5 questions every teacher should be prepared to answer at a job interview
Any job interview can be a stressful experience, and school interviews are no exception. Here are some of the most common questions asked...
Tom Garside
Aug 19, 20195 min read
The many faces of English pronunciation - Why does(n’t) accent matter in TESOL?
This article focuses on the positive aspects of the different sounds that Englishes use: accents, and benefit to ESL language learners
Tom Garside
Aug 12, 20196 min read
Development Strategies and Standards for International Higher Education settings
International Higher Education is a complex setting which often entails a lot of conflicting elements: culture clash, academic expectations
Tom Garside
Aug 5, 20198 min read
The rules of engagement: Ways of increasing student focus through tasks and activities
No matter what you teach, student engagement is a major challenge in every classroom. Learning increases when students are engaged
Tom Garside
Jul 29, 20196 min read
Online and in-service teacher training: The future of ELT training
In order to facilitate improvements in teaching which continue to have an effect after a visiting trainer leaves the building, we need to ta
Tom Garside
Jul 22, 201910 min read
5 Misconceptions about English Tenses
This article aims to clarify five common examples which come up for students and teachers, to help us understand the connected relationships
Tom Garside
Jul 15, 20198 min read
What Language Centres should be looking for in new Teachers
How can a Language centre be sure that it is getting a teacher that can get results from the students? There is a set of core skills!
Tom Garside
Jul 8, 20198 min read
Can teacher talk affect how students think? Harnessing classroom discourse to increase cognition
Cognitive approaches to language learning work under the assumption that the more deeply learners think about what they are learning
Tom Garside
Jul 1, 20198 min read
Slow down, teacher! An argument for less haste in language education
Any teacher working towards assessments or barrier tests experiences the familiar pressure to get through syllabus content so that their stu
Tom Garside
Jun 24, 20195 min read
What is Test Teach Test? An impactful lesson structure for teachers and students
Any initial teacher training qualification in TESOL will rightly stress the importance of clear lesson structure for language lessons.
Tom Garside
Jun 17, 20195 min read
Helping teachers develop in their local contexts: A summary from IATEFL 2019
The traditional form of teacher training and development activity, where an ‘expert in the field’ arrives at the school or training centre,
Tom Garside
Jun 10, 20196 min read
Where West meets East: Avoiding culture clash in Chinese Higher Education
Economic forces often precede changes in international education, with regional development affecting how and why students travel overseas
Tom Garside
Jun 3, 20193 min read
TESOL needs context! Considering local education settings in teacher training and development
Imagine you were retraining as a teacher of Mandarin to Speakers of Other Languages (MSOL), to meet the growing international demand for thi
Tom Garside
May 27, 20194 min read
When did you last see yourself teach? Self-observation as a reflective development tool
Lesson observations are an integral part of most teacher education courses for good reason; we can learn an enormous amount by stepping back
Tom Garside
May 20, 20193 min read
After the TEFL Cert - what next? Teacher Education doesn’t stop with a first certificate
So you’ve finished your teacher training course, and are ready to go out into the world of teaching. Maybe you have a job lined up, maybe
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