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 'Understanding learners'. 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.It also involves dividing lessons into coherent stages, planning board work, selecting and describing interaction patterns for different activities during the lesson, and planning for differentiated learning. 

Planning lessons and courses includes anticipating problems that may arise during the lesson, and planning how to respond to these, describing how learners’ understanding will be checked or assessed and describing when and how feedback will be provided. It is important to be able to describe how a lesson is linked to those before and after it, plan a broad outline for a sequence of lessons, including the recycling of learning content and reflect on the approach and effectiveness of lesson planning, incorporating learner feedback and other evidence.

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Keith Kelly - Ingredients for successful CLIL

Successful CLIL depends on a variety of factors. This paper discusses four factors relevant to successful implementation of CLIL. Firstly, we will look at questions of managing and supporting the CLIL implementation process. Secondly, we will look at the roles and behaviours of teachers in the delivery of CLIL. Thirdly, we will examine the issue of resourcing CLIL in schools. Lastly, but by no means least importantly, we will consider factors to do with the learners in CLIL education.

Course planning

Being able to plan well is one of the key skills that a teacher needs to have.  It involves being able to imagine what is going to happen in the classroom, and to make choices based on this imagined experience.  Planning also involves the ability to zoom out, to see the bigger picture and know how a 2 hour lesson fits into a 100 hour course, but it also involves the ability to zoom in, and work out the mechanics of how a 15 minute activity will work best.

Teenagers and grammar

Say the word ‘grammar’ to teenagers and you might be met by yawns or icy stares. But don’t be daunted – the experience can be positive, or even fun.

Lesson planning

When you are faced with planning whole lessons on your own for the first time it can seem like a daunting task.

Not Unit 5!

In this article, Luke Meddings reflects on the constraints coursebooks can put on the learning experience in the classroom, and offers some suggestions on how we can overcome that.

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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