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Let's talk about my new favorite word: "TEFLpreneur." You've probably pieced together that it's a fun combination of "TEFL" and "entrepreneur." But what does it really MEAN to be an entrepreneur in the ELT industry? What do you need to get started, what does it take to be successful, and why attempt it in the first place? Join me for a reflection on the rise of the TEFLpreneur and some thoughts on whether you could be one, too.
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In this week’s episode, I’m thrilled to welcome Karen Taylor as my guest.
In 1999, KAREN created an amazing teaching tool called the Color Vowel Chart when she realized there had to be a better way to help students with pronunciation.
The Color Vowel Chart took off, and in 2011, she co-founded ELTS (English Language Training Solutions) in response to popular demand. Karen holds an MA in TESOL from the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey and a BA in English Literature from Georgetown University, as well as an International Baccalaureate from the United World College (US campus). A former Fulbright TEFL Specialist, Karen was the Practitioner in Residence at American University for nine years.
She received Ed Tech’s 2020 Visionary Leader award for her work as Head of Education and she is now CEO at Blue Canoe Learning Inc. And if you’re wondering what the name Blue Canoe has to do with teaching pronunciation, you’re about to find out in this episode.
On a personal note, I’m especially excited to have Karen here today because I’ve been meaning to interview her for quite some time. So many teachers have raved to me about the Color Vowel Chart and how it has completely transformed their ideas about teaching pronunciation. There was one instance in particular when a teacher I’ve worked with was telling me all about her experience with the Color Vowel Chart and how she uses it in her classroom, and I asked her if she’d be willing to join me on the podcast to introduce it to our listeners. She said, sure, but wouldn’t you rather interview to Karen directly? I’ll give you her email address! I was shocked that someone who has accomplished as much as Karen would be so accessible, but I reached out to her and here we are! So what you’re about to hear is our first conversation (of what I hope will be many!) and I’m so grateful that Karen gave so much of her time to talk pronunciation with me in this episode. I was very much looking forward to this interview, and I have to say that it was an even more fascinating and fun conversation than I could’ve anticipated. So if you’ve ever wanted advice for how to make pronunciation easier and more fun for your students, get ready, because this is the episode for you.
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In this episode, I'll walk you through engaging, student-centered ideas for presenting new vocabulary words in your lessons.
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In this episode, I'm happy to welcome Brock Brady as my guest. Brock began his career in the ELT industry somewhat spontaneously, as you'll hear from our conversation. He started as a Peace Corps volunteer in Togo, West Africa and from there went on to earn a Master's degree in TESOL before gaining experience in positions such as English lecturer in South Korea and Language Center Director in Burkina Faso and Benin. He served as the co-director of American University's TESOL program in Washington DC and later returned to the Peace Corps – this time as an education sector specialist and the TEFL certificate program manager. Perhaps most notably, Brock served for three years as the president of the TESOL International Association.
Brock's extensive experience in ELT has taken him all over the world, but there was one final frontier he just recently decided to brave: online teaching. I even had the pleasure of working with Brock when he joined my Online English Teacher program to make that final leap in adapting his in-person teaching skills to online teaching skills.
In this episode, Brock and I sit down to talk about the benefits of organizations like TESOL International. We also discuss his own challenges and rewards when it comes to teaching online and why you shouldn't be afraid to start your virtual teaching career at any age.
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In this episode, let's talk about what NOT to do when teaching a vocabulary lesson. I'll go through five of the most common mistakes I see teachers make when planning and teaching vocabulary lessons. We'll talk about why these aren't effective techniques... and what you can do instead.
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Tune in to this week's episode to learn more about practice activities for the ESL lesson. Let's start with a quick refresher of the difference between controlled and freer practice as well as which types of lessons require "practice" to begin with. From there, you'll learn about how to find and acquire useful practice activities plus ideas for using them in your virtual or in-person classroom.
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Lorenzo Sclocco is an ESL teacher and education specialist based in Toronto, Canada. He has been teaching English (General English, EAP, Business English and Exam Classes) at language schools, universities, and colleges since 2009. He also teaches Italian and German.
As a language learner himself, he knows the difficulties that students encounter when learning other languages. Therefore, he uses a communicative and task-based approach in his classes.
In 2018, Lorenzo was the recipient of the “Excellence in Teaching Award” at the University of Toronto, School of Continuing Studies. He considers himself a life-long learner and he is passionate about anything that has to do with languages and pedagogy. He is particularly interested in curriculum development and syllabus design.
When not teaching, Lorenzo can be found going for a stroll in High Park (a very famous park in Toronto) and eating cookies – his addiction!
In this episode, Lorenzo joins me to share essential strategies for course planning and syllabus design. If you’re curious about the elements of an effective course syllabus or are looking for guidance on designing a whole course as opposed to an individual lesson, this is the episode for you!
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Last week, I shared my top tips for teaching reading lessons online, so this week we're talking about online listening lessons! Once again, I'll go through my five best tips for making your lesson work - this time, when there's an audio track involved.
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In this episode, I'm sharing my top 5 tips for teaching reading lessons online, including how to format and share texts, making tasks visible, the benefits of pair checks, and getting the most out of whole class feedback.
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This is the second time Jackie has joined me as a guest on Expand Your Horizons, and I'm very happy to welcome her back. In this episode, we're talking about strategies for maximizing student talk time, minimizing teacher talk time, and making lessons more student-centered in general.
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If you're an online English teacher, you may have experienced some common issues, including tech trouble, breakout room snafus, or even lack of student motivation (how do you get them to participate??). In this episode, we'll go through practical suggestions for the most common online teaching issues.
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Error correction Show Notes
This week’s episode considers common questions around error correction:
Should you correct every error your students make?
If not, how do you know whether to correct an error?
When is the best time to correct an error?
How do you correct errors most effectively?
Tune in for advice on when, how, and why we can correct our students’ errors in an online class.
In this EpisodeWhat you need to understand before you can think about error correction: the two possible purposes of any given activity in a lesson
Why the distinction between accuracy and fluency is essential to deciding if you should correct an error
The one key question to ask yourself to determine whether or not you should correct an error
Delayed error correction: what this is and how it works
Tips for making delayed error correction time-efficient
How to make delayed error correction student-centered
How to correct errors on the spot
Effective error correction methods that prompt students to self-correct
When and why you might not need to correct some errors at all
Looking for more detailed advice about how to teach English online? Check out the Online English Teacher course! -
I’m happy to welcome back a returning guest this week on Expand Your Horizons: Jessie Ebersole. Jessie joined me on the podcast in the fall of 2019, but in case you missed our previous conversation, let me briefly introduce her before we dive into our conversation. Jessie is the Director of Academic Programs at Washington English Center, which is a non-profit English language school for adult immigrants in Washington, D.C. WEC offers 14 levels of ESL classes, and they rely on volunteer teachers for all of those. Jessie started out in the TESOL field as a volunteer herself, and she later went on to complete a master’s degree in TESOL at American University. She has a lot of experience in this field, including teaching at American University’s English Language Training Academy, and working as a draft writer for parts of Intercambio’s textbook series Confidence and Connections.
I’m thrilled to have Jessie back as a guest, because I have a lot of respect for the work she does and for WEC as an organization. Some of you may know that I lived in DC for about 5 years – so I’m quite familiar with WEC, and I’ve had the opportunity to collaborate with Jessie and her staff from time to time – they were even kind of enough to host TEFL Horizons on site for a workshop in 2019. Clearly, a lot has changed since then, so I invited Jessie back to catch up on how the WEC is adapting to online teaching, to get her take on the current state of the ELT industry and to discuss opportunities for volunteer teaching online.
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Welcome to the first Expand Your Horizons episode of 2021! In this episode, I'm sharing a few personal and professional updates, as well as summarizing a few key takeaway lessons I learned about teaching English online in the last year.
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In this episode, we're discussing the key differences to consider when teaching English online vs. in a physical classroom.
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Hello and welcome to this week’s episode of Expand Your Horizons. Today my guest on the podcast is Ricardo Fajardo, who is joining us to talk about teaching a specific type of English class – exam preparation.
Ricardo has been a teacher of English for 24 years and a teacher trainer for the last 12 years. He is currently a CELTA tutor and assessor, which has given him the chance to travel as well as help and learn from other centers. He is also an ICELT and DELTA tutor and works as a freelancer in different projects such as writing materials for coursebooks or helping teachers remotely as an online consultant. He is an accredited IELTS examiner as well as a Cambridge KET, PET, FCE, CAE, and CPE oral examiner, so clearly he has a good deal of experience with proficiency exams and what students need to know in order to succeed on them. In our conversation today, we’re discussing tips for teaching exam preparation classes, and how we might transfer or adapt these strategies to work for online classes.
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We're happy to welcome Andre Alipio to the podcast this week. André has been the DoS at GTP, Global Teaching Practice, for 10 years now, but he has been a teacher trainer since 1995, working for different institutes in Brazil, like International House Sao Paulo. As the director of studies, he is responsible for designing and delivering a range of courses for teachers of English, as well as training tutors of such courses. André is an active CELTA and DELTA trainer, and has trained on courses in Brazil, Mexico, Venezuela, and other countries. He is also a local trainer for ETS products like TOEFL Junior. More recently, André has been developing ELT materials and consulting to the educational market in general. Today, he’s joining me for a conversation that is certainly relevant to anyone who works with young learners or has children who are currently learning at home. At the time of recording this, schools around the world are temporarily closed due to the covid-19 pandemic. This means that those students are currently learning from home by attending their classes online. In this episode, Andre shares practical strategies for how we, as teachers, can help train parents to support their children in online learning.
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In episode 31 of Expand Your Horizons, we're pleased to welcome Eliberto Salinas as our guest. Eliberto has extensive experience as an English teacher and is also a CELTA trainer at International House Mexico, where he is based in Mexico City. Today, he’s joining me to talk about something many teachers find challenging: supporting students of different English levels in the same classroom. join us for our conversation about how to identify and cater to students’ differences in the classroom, including some practical strategies for adapting activities and presenting materials to accommodate students of varying language levels in the same group, even in an online class.
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In this week's episode of Expand Your Horizons, we're talking with Andrew Watson about strategies for teaching young learners online. Andrew has great insight on working with young learners as well as extensive experience in the ELT industry. He got his first teaching job in South Korea in 1994, and since then, he’s held a variety of EFL jobs including teacher, IELTS oral examiner, young learners’ coordinator at the British Council, CELTA and ICELT teacher trainer and developer. He holds a DELTA certification and an MAEd in Applied Linguistics. In our conversation, Andrew and I discuss the key differences between working with adults and working with children in the ESL classroom, and Andrew shares a wealth of practical tips for teaching YLs both in the physical classroom and online.
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We’re kicking off Season 2 of Expand Your Horizons by welcoming a returning guest, Orlando Delgado. Orlando is the Director of Teacher Training & Development Operations for IH Mexico and has been a teacher trainer and CELTA and DELTA assessor for over 10 years around the world. Orlando is very knowledgeable and enthusiastic about online teaching and training in particular – and this week, we’re talking about what’s going on in the world right now and how that affects the ELT industry. We’re currently in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic, which is impacting how we’re thinking about teaching, learning, professional development, and communication in general. In this episode, Orlando joins me for a less formal conversation in which we reflect on what all of this could mean for our industry and bring you some general insight and advice on teaching online.
- Se mer
