In this section, you will find a number of articles, which have been written to help you develop your skills and knowledge as a teacher in the professional practice 'Knowing the subject'. From primary-aged students to adult learners of English, the articles you will find here are practical, insightful and full of ideas to support your teaching and planning for all kinds of classrooms.

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Writing and young learners

In this article, Wendy Arnold and Rosie Anderson explore ideas around developing writing skills with young learners.

Reading and Young Learners

In this article, Wendy Arnold and Fiona Malcolm explore why we need to develop reading skills with young learners and offer tips and advice on how we can do it.

Audio and text

Using audio with text is the easiest extension from just using text. In its most effective form this consists of a recording being made of someone reading the narrative or poem. The recording might be made by the author, which gives a satisfying degree of authenticity to the project, but, sadly, not all writers are good readers.  Sometimes, therefore, the voice will be that of an actor. Either way, this is a chance to hear a speaker reading aloud a text that the students have studied.

Text and activity

The 'Text and Activities' method is the most common approach to using fiction and poetry in the classroom. It is low tech in that all we really need are words on a page, but that conceals a problem for many teachers. Where can we find appropriate texts and what about issues of copyright and authorial permission? Once we’ve located the texts, and got permission to use them, how can we best exploit them, especially if our students are reluctant readers.

Film and video

Let us be sure about what we are talking about here. This is not an article examining films that have been made from books or their less common cousins, books made from films. That is another story – as it were – altogether. It is more about the relationship between, say, poetry and film – a relationship which is reciprocal.

Teaching Unplugged

Teaching Unplugged is the term used for a teaching method and philosophy which has three primary aims: teaching through conversation, taking out external input such as course book and technology and letting the lesson content be driven by the students rather than being pre-planned by the teacher. Based on the ‘Dogme ELT’ approach to teaching, its origins lie in an article written in 2001 by Scott Thornbury and Luke Meddings called ‘The roaring in the chimney’. They later wrote ‘Teaching Unplugged’, a comprehensive guide to this type of teaching and winner of the British Council ELTons award for Innovation in 2010.

Research and insight

Browse fascinating case studies, research papers, publications and books by researchers and ELT experts from around the world.

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