Archive for November, 2008

Teach Your Students These 14 Words!

These words make all the difference because they are supposed to contain the twenty most useful prefixes, the fourteen most important roots, and are to be found in an estimated 100,000 words of an unabridged dictionary.

The Sentence Auction (classroom activity, 30-40 minutes)

Before class you will need to prepare 10-15 sentences utilizing whatever grammar and/or vocabulary you have been studying in class. Some of the sentences will need to be correct and some incorrect. Don’t make any errors that are drastically obvious. My advice is to write 3 sentences with common grammatical mistakes (e.g. […]

Blog Roundup – November 14, 2008

Teaching & Education News
Enjoy English – An introduction of a new weekly publication for ESL teachers in China.
Want to be a great ESL teacher? Become a great trainer first.
Universities in the west have been accepting record numbers of Chinese students every year. Are all of these students really qualified? […]

A Chinese teacher’s impression of foreign ESL teachers

Today I sat down with a long time director of international programs at a local Beijing school – lets call her Ms. Wang. The school has been employing foreign teachers for the past 7 years. In that time Ms. Wang has seen foreigners come and go and has worked closely with all of […]

How to transfer your Z visa to another school?

This question could very well arise given a number of different situations. Maybe you want to quit your job or maybe you got a yearlong visa in the middle of the semester. Either way, you need to transfer your visa to whatever school hires you next. You simply can’t just start working […]

Blog Roundup – November 6, 2008

Teaching
Not satisfied with your classes and how students are acting? Getting board with teaching them? This teacher certainly is.
Get some good advice on what to do when teaching English in China stops being fun.
Have you ever experienced carrying heavy English books from your home country back to China? This teacher […]

“How can I improve my oral English?”

If you haven’t gotten this very general question already you certainly will at some point in your ESL teaching career.
This question can be quite difficult to answer. The shortest answer to this question is simply,

Give your class structure – it helps!

Give your class structure – it helps!
In China foreign ESL teachers often find themselves in a situation where a school or training center sends them down the river with no paddle. More specifically, they find themselves with a schedule full of classes for which they have no book, no curriculum, no resources and no […]

Blog Roundup – October 31, 2008

Teaching
My advice is to never spark a political conversation in your class. This especially goes for issues regarding Tibet and Taiwan. It almost always results in some seriously negative feelings and can lead to unwanted arguments in the classroom.
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Teach Grammar With Games, Even To Adult Classes

In every ESL classroom there needs to be some kind of grammar instruction and demonstration. In general, this is the boring stuff students don’t enjoy doing as much. As you probably already know it really helps to find fun ways of explaining, demonstrating, and practicing grammar rules. In my experience, playing games […]