To be remembered, you must first make yourself memorable. To fully understand the power of a great elevator pitch, I first have to come clean with you. After many years of teaching Business English in Korea and China, I returned to an oversaturated ESL / ELT job market, filled with passionate and qualified language instructors […]
This blog post is addressed to English language teachers across Canada. CdnELTchat, formerly known as LINCchat, is a Twitter chat group that discusses relevant issues each month on the social media platform, Twitter.
My first of three years as a TESL Ontario board member will be coming to an end soon, but it feels more like the beginning of what is turning out to be a rewarding professional opportunity. I’m writing this blog entry to share with you why I feel so fortunate to be a member of […]
Every good and firm structure, as everyone knows, must have strong, interconnected parts or components. The PBLA approach to teaching and learning appears to have missing components or components that contradict its stated objective.
ESL instructors often ask about favourites to get conversation started. What is your favourite sport? food? movie? etc. Well, if you were to ask me, “What is your favourite board meeting?” (and surprisingly, no one ever has) I’d have to say the annual joint meeting with the TESL Ontario Affiliate Chapter Representatives (ACRs) and the […]
There is a lot of misinformation out there. How do you help your learners find the facts? The idea for this lesson started when Ontario introduced the new Sex Education Curriculum in 2015. My students wanted to talk about it and everyone had a different idea about what was in this curriculum. I was shocked […]
I was talking with a colleague, Lisa, during lunch break the other day. At our school, the students have a 1-hour class with a pronunciation instructor once per week. Lisa was suggesting the merits of having a similar intensive lesson every week on reading. After our discussion, I began to consider the importance of reading […]
2018 has arrived with a lot of new energy and enthusiasm. At our first TESL Ontario board meeting of the year were 3 newly elected directors: Lara McInnis, Art Rekhtin and Amy Yani. Adding to that, David Hazell sits as the new Chair and I’m adding my efforts as the new Vice Chair. Other board […]
Introduction A few years ago, I had the great opportunity to participate in a series of workshops that promoted the use of drama and its technique in ESL. At the time, I felt I was doing quite well for a new teacher trying to impart and share some speaking techniques with students: I was covering […]
I did not know that I was a researcher until I did academic research for the first time. Like many fellow teachers, just hearing the word research used to make me cringe. It might be the vast implications that research entails that put teachers off, myself included. After all, we all do our own research […]