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Tom Garside
Nov 30, 20204 min read
Are you testing your students' true language proficiency? knowledge vs performance-based testing
Following on from my recent post about language assessment, another distinction between types of testing emerges when we consider the differ
Tom Garside
Nov 17, 20205 min read
3 ways to make exam preparation a more useful experience for learners' language development
For many teachers (ESOL and otherwise), language assessment is seen as a necessary evil. Testing, evaluation and feedback are the core of
Tom Garside
Nov 2, 20202 min read
The online Trinity CertTESOL course
Language Point Training has been validated to deliver the Trinity CertTESOL in an online modes of study since 2018. We're designed to be
Tom Garside
Oct 27, 20204 min read
The Communicative Approach
The Communicative Approach to language education is held up by many to be the magic bullet that can enable language learners the world over
Tom Garside
Sep 16, 20205 min read
The elephants in the classroom - The realities we need to face as language educators
As we move into the second decade of the twenty-first century, it seems that some old and tired elephants are still standing in the
Tom Garside
Aug 17, 20207 min read
What is flipped learning, and how to flip your physical or online classroom effectively
Whatever your teaching context, it is becoming more and more important for teachers to integrate online elements into what they do. With the
Tom Garside
Aug 6, 20206 min read
What is scaffolding and how can we use it to support learning?
Scaffolded learning is integral to the stages of language acquisition that we guide our learners through when they are taking on new
Tom Garside
Jul 27, 20206 min read
The rule of 7: How to get students to remember vocabulary more effectively
Vocabulary retention can be a battle for teachers and learners alike. We teach more and more vocabulary every day, but when the students’
Tom Garside
Jul 12, 20205 min read
Differentiation - why should you do it more? 4 ways to make sure no student gets left behind
Gather 30 people of the same age from your town or city together in a room, and it won’t take much to discover that every individual is
Tom Garside
Jul 6, 20204 min read
Are your TEFL qualifications recognised where you want to travel and teach?
Are your TEFL qualifications recognised where you want to travel and teach? When you start planning your career in English language teaching
Tom Garside
May 18, 20205 min read
5 ways to check if your TEFL course is really what it says it is - Part 2
TEFL hacks: 5 ways to check if your TEFL course is really what it says it is. If you are looking for an English teaching qualification, but
Tom Garside
May 11, 20204 min read
5 ways to check if a TEFL course is really what it says it is - Part 1
If you are looking for an English teaching qualification, but don’t know where to turn, you’re not alone. The TEFL industry is awash with
Tom Garside
May 8, 20207 min read
5 assumptions commonly made about 'NNEST's, and one way to win the native speakerism battle
If you are an English teacher whose first language is (shock, horror!) not English, you will probably have experienced some kind of
Tom Garside
May 1, 20207 min read
5 online teaching fails to avoid
More and more of us are working online, and the Internet is overflowing with questions from teachers about the best ways of doing this, and
Tom Garside
Apr 20, 20204 min read
Why teachers develop best in their own classrooms
If you are an English-medium teacher working in a school, international university or IB / GCSE programme, your classroom is your own
Tom Garside
Feb 13, 20206 min read
How to teach pronunciation 6: Find your rhythm with sentence stress
In this penultimate article about teaching pronunciation, we look at another suprasegmental pronunciation system which works across
Tom Garside
Jan 29, 20205 min read
How to teach pronunciation 5: Understanding and teaching word stress
In the next three articles in this series about pronunciation teaching, we will look at a tricky area of phonology which is often overlooked
Tom Garside
Jan 3, 20206 min read
How to teach pronunciation 4: What can the Phonemic Chart do for you (and your students)?
This article aims to show why the use of IPA is an essential tool for teaching and learning pronunciation, and that it is worth the effort
Tom Garside
Dec 19, 20193 min read
How to teach pronunciation 3: Accent and Identity
There is a trend in language centres to teach ESOL students how to speak ‘properly’, without an ‘accent’. The rise in the number of ‘accent
Tom Garside
Dec 4, 20194 min read
How to teach pronunciation 2: Drilling
Drilling, or the teacher-led ‘call and response’ activity which anyone who has learnt a second language remembers well, is probably the most
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