I asked a dozen teaching colleagues (identified below by their initials) for reflections on the advantages and disadvantages of using authentic materials in the classroom. From their comments – many of which were generously long and thoughtful – three main ideas emerged:

1) We need to define the term ‘authentic’ and also include in the discussion the ideas of ‘adapted’ and ‘semi-authentic’ materials.

2) Authentic materials offer great advantage over materials written for the purpose of language learning.

3) There are also many disadvantages to using them.

(more…)

In the first of a short series of posts, Unlock author Lewis Lansford looks at why we should be using video in the ELT classroom.

1. Video speaks to Generation V

Skype was released in 2003 and YouTube followed in 2005. The iPad was unveiled in 2010. Internet usage has increased from 16% of the world’s population in 2005 to about 40% today (nearly 80% in developed countries). My own kids – aged 8 and 10 – routinely communicate with their grandparents via video chat. For Generation V (the V stands for ‘video’, in case you hadn’t guessed), video isn’t just a passive form of entertainment, it’s also the mode of delivery for interactive communication, and for information accessed on a daily basis. Our students are accustomed to using video, and we teachers can use that to our advantage.

(more…)

Last month, we hosted Gareth Davies’ webinar, ‘Making the Impossible Possible: How to get your students writing’. During the webinar and on his previous blog post, we called for questions for Gareth that we could ask him post-webinar, to delve deeper into creative writing in the EFL classroom. Here’s the full transcript of this interview:

What is your opinion on teachers writing a sample text for students to get used to writing?

This is a good question, reading and writing go hand in hand and there is evidence to suggest that the more reading a student does the better their writing will become, so in general having as much exposure to different texts can only help students.

(more…)