TEFL TEFL Resources
Resources to help you find websites, books, and other tools connected to TEFL. Make your English teaching life easier!
Cartoon Grammar
Can’t get enough of comics like Grammarman? Or conversely, comics per se are not really up your (or your students’) alley? How about some classic cartoons - featuring Road Runner and Wyle E. Coyote - to practice first present continuous and then past simple?
The same mind that created Grammarman has also found a fun and engaging way to adapt popular cartoons to practice tenses.
Date: March 19th, 2007 |
No Comments
Grammarman Update
Grammarman comic is special in that it is a living and evolving site: it’s not a blog, but there are regular updates and additions of comics, games, and other content that keeps it fresh.
What is the latest innovation? See if you can guess:
Which classic comic strip provided a base for spinoffs such as Sabrina the Teenage Witch and Josie and the Pussycats? That’s right, it was…
Date: March 10th, 2007 |
No Comments
Around The Web On TEFL: March 3
From a teacher in China: why students need communication skills.
The role of English in Ghana and in Sri Lanka too.
Who is responsible when students and even teachers make mistakes in their own language? asks Australia.
From China: it’s unfair to tie career advancement to English ability.
One British EFL teacher’s impressions of Germany.
Get a feel for Sevilla from a teacher who worked in two very different schools.
Kansas passes legislation to make English the state’s official language.
Date: March 3rd, 2007 |
No Comments
Grammarman Three>Punctuation Problems
In Grammarman Three” the villainous Sammy Colon appears to remove punctuation from Verbo City for a time, One of Grammarman@s sidekicks saves the day+++but can you figure out how$
All kidding and deliberate punctuation mistakes aside, students do sometimes have issues in this area depending on their native language. In my experience, speakers of Slavic languages tend to add commas where they aren’t necessary: He told me, that he was tired. I didn’t know, that you were a police officer.
It is somewhat fitting though, that …
Date: February 24th, 2007 |
No Comments
TEFL Logue Review: The Daily Kimchi
The Daily Kimchi was one of the first TEFL blogs I bookmarked, and I’ve enjoyed keeping up with it since. It’s maintained by Gdog, a techno savvy Canadian who has been teaching in Seoul, Korea, since September.
One of the things I like about the Daily Kimchi is that it’s funny and the posts (on topics from students making fun of him to fusion omelettes) appeal to a general audience, but more than that, it’s a look into the life of someone who is working hard but still appreciating all the local culture has to offer. I don’t have personal experience in Korea – or much experience teaching kids – but it’s not hard to believe that both of these have their own sets of stresses. However, the Daily Kimchi maintains a positive and fun character and at the same time, from what Gdog does include about his classes and work, it’s clear that he takes the work seriously and cares about his students.
If you haven’t guessed from the title and have yet to even glance at the site, I’ll let you know that Gdog takes a particular interest in what Korea has to offer in the culinary sense. In other words: he likes to eat. Some of my favorite posts about food include this one regarding his innovative method of making croutons from breadsticks (check out the comments to see how it inspired me!), one about sushi in Korea, and the YouTube video of a woman eating live octopus.
Date: February 21st, 2007 |
No Comments
What NOT To Bring
Eric at the Adventure Logue had a great post on things he wishes he didn’t have in his pack…so naturally I thought of applying it to TEFL. What should you NOT bring?
Keep in mind this is a general list and there may be exceptions where it does make sense to bring these things…but most often not.
Don’t bring:
Lots of papers, especially ones with grammar exercises – even the ones you come across in your TEFL course. These are not hard to come by at all.If I get a good activity that really needs that copy to make it work, yes; if I myself generate a general list of questions I’m likely to use repeatedly, yes, because in my experience it’s not always fast and easy to use a school printer. But you absolutely do not need to bring copies from Murphy.
A grammar reference book…well, possibly one, but only if you won’t have internet at all and like to have your own material to work from at home. However, of the books available abroad, grammar reference books are some of the easiest to find.
Date: March 17th, 2007 |
No Comments
Smashing Careless Mistakes With Grammarman
Next time a student of my will make a careless mistake (like “Can you learn me how to speak English well?” or “Slovak is a Slovenian language.”) I would show them Grammarman 4:
All kidding next to, (really now), dealing with careless mistakes in class is hard. You often have to know your students well to know if it really is a careless mistake or if it is a “genuine” one.
Date: March 5th, 2007 |
No Comments
Around The Web On TEFL: February 28
Get some lateral thinking puzzles while you appreciate the photography at gdimension.
It makes me proud to be from the Chicago burbs: read about an honest-to-goodness immersion program. In the US. In a class with about half native English speakers and half native Spanish speakers.
Are foreign films taking off in the US?
EU businesses are told to go multilingual…or lose out.
A school in Virginia decides to maintain students’ privacy when asked for information about their immigration status.
Get up to date with university foreign language requirements from Appalachain online.
Why not? The history of …
Date: February 28th, 2007 |
No Comments
Around The Web On TEFL: February 24
A Test of Kazak as a Foreign Language is on the way.
From Japan, why it’s good to encourage young learners to guess.
From the Costa Rica Classroom…another reason to ensure you have good health insurance (and - hope you are feeling better!)
How to use newspaper headlines in class, courtesy of Teacher Dude’s BBQ And Grill.
A worrisome trend in ESL in Canada.
The language decline in the UK is underestimated, according to one author.
A parochial school in Lawrence, Kansas was determined to find a way to offer Spanish classes…and succeeded.
Date: February 24th, 2007 |
1 comment
Around The Web On TEFL: February 19
Get the latest “Another Day In The Life Of…” a kids teacher in Thailand, courtesy of An ELT Notebook.
From Georgia, a new foreign language may be added to the roster in: American Sign Language.
Uh oh. Something is going on with Global Education Corporation? The TEFL Institute? Who? in Chicago.
Ahhh…from Kenya: Language is essentially an art that cannot be mastered simply by knowing the rules of grammar.
English is maybe not the best thing for French.
But the study of French is in fact taking off in India.
Malaysia debates who is responsible for students’ …
Date: February 19th, 2007 |
No Comments
