Teaching tips from Breaking Bad

If the six seasons of Breaking Bad have taught us anything, is that Walter White is probably today’s most influential figure in TEFL: the guy put meth back on center stage. Granted, by ‘meth’ he meant crystal meth, not methodology, but we’re splitting hairs.

Fernando Rey

Jun 25, 2016

Doin’ the write thing

Some say you’re not a real English as a Foreign Language teacher until you’ve had your first ‘What can we do to help our students write better?’ meeting. So here’s a list of tools that I think students can find quite useful when it comes to developing their writing skills. And yes, they’re…

Fernando Rey

Jun 25, 2016

Alivelines

It’s been a while. Those of you who check the best-selling lists often or are familiar with the latest materials in the EFL publishing field are probably aware that my monograph is not available yet…and probably never will be, but please don’t tell anybody.

Fernando Rey

Jun 25, 2016

Reality bites

I know it may sound as too much of a coincidence and can see a lot of ‘yeah, right’s’ coming, but get this, today I had to do some supply work and I went to this Conversation 1 group (a cool gang, by the way), when 5' into the lesson one student goes: ‘Fernando, can I ask you a question’, I did what I…

Fernando Rey

Jun 25, 2016

/ˈdʒeɪ ˌpeɡ/

Looking for reference material (*) I came across this book called ‘How to Teach for Exams’ by Sally Burguess, from the ‘How to…’ series by Jeremy Harmer. And right @ the beginning I found this:

Fernando Rey

Jun 25, 2016

Sarah

I just got a very interesting reply to one of my posts in the FB group from Sarah. She asked her students (high school students) about exams and they kinda chorused that they learn more with exams than without. And it got me thinking…I’m not advocating getting rid of exams for good, my research will be circunscript…

Fernando Rey

Jun 25, 2016

Outside the box #2

I don’t go to therapy, but if I did I would talk to my shrink about issues with the ‘schwa’. ;-) I never liked Phonology and I don’t think individual sounds are that important. I know that pronunciation is a lot more than just sounds; you know, suprasegmental features, stress and intonation…

Fernando Rey

Jun 25, 2016

Outside the box #1

One thing that really bothers me @ work is when I find out a student has failed Elementary 1 or 2 and drops out. When that happens, it’s a lose-lose situation. Don’t get me wrong, this is not a manifest, I’m not going ‘Jerry Maguire’ on you guys, but we’re not trying to find a cure for cancer…

Fernando Rey

Jun 25, 2016

TICS, tack, toe

I handed in my monograph like 15 years ago, on Creative Writing…it basically sucked big time, obviously…now after just a few lessons into this course I could tell that I didn’t know what I was doing. I’m leaning more towards starting from scratch on a new topic. It’s amazing how much the world has…