EVERYTHING EFL

In the third episode of my teaching lexically series, I throw a bunch of ideas at you, showing how you can tweak your listening and reading tasks to be more lexical and introduce more meaningful language, directly connected to your students needs and wants.

I challenge you to try some of these out – the good thing is that they’re not hard to implement. Bit by bit, my gorgeous teachers, bit by bit.....

Stuff covered:

- Pre-reading and listening tasks

- Incorporation pronunciation

- Helping your students recognize language within a text/transcript

- Focusing on whole phrases and sentences

- Follow-up tasks

Episode Shownotes:

Reference Source for this episode:

Teaching Lexically, Dellar & Walkley, Delta Publishing, 2016

Don’t forget to engage on Insta or Facebook after the episode.

Theme music by @sean.cass (Instagram).

Join my Breathe Easy, Teacher newsletter community here: http://subscribepage.io/0a49dr

Contact me: ⁠[email protected]⁠

Like, share, DM me and follow me on Instagram @https://www.instagram.com/everythingeflteacher/ and on Facebook

@www.facebook.com/groups/eflteachersupport/

Subscribe to Youtube @Everything EFL for teaching tip videos and full podcast episodes with Closed Captions.

Connect with me on LinkedIn @ https://www.linkedin.com/in/erin-o-byrne-90b58a55/

Subscribe to the podcast on Spotify, Google Podcasts, Apple.... and don’t forget to tell your colleagues. Share the love.

In the second episode of my teaching lexically series, I tackle grammar. How can we get away from the dreaded rules + exercises + sentence-level production and get students using real-world phrases?

Fear not! I give you the briefest of backgrounds to’ grammaticalizing’ lexis, and then I dive into a few simple activities and ways you can incorporate this directly into your teaching.

It takes time and more than a little courage to change your teaching style but I think this series will help you and I’d LOVE you to take one of my suggestions and try it out in your next lesson.

Go on, you know you want to.

Activities and suggestions:

1. Don’t make a big deal of it

2. Layer upon layer of lexis

3. Focus on patterns in discourse

4. Record and use emergent language

5. Single words not wanted!

6. Teach fixed expression with the same grammar

7. Keep real-world situations in mind

8. Use the stuff around you for inspo

Oh and make sure your students write EVERYTHING down!

Don’t forget to engage on Insta or Facebook after the episode.

Episode Show Notes:

References sources for this episode:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4y_QA8J06hc– Colligation, Hugh Dellar, 2017

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gwKa7Xxa_0Q&t=1424s– Teaching Grammar Lexically, Hugh Dellar, 2013

Teaching Lexically, Dellar & Walkley, Delta Publishing, 2016

www.macmillandictionary.com

Theme music by @sean.cass (Instagram).

Contact me: ⁠[email protected]⁠

Like, share, DM me and follow me on Instagram @https://www.instagram.com/everythingeflteacher/ and on Facebook

@www.facebook.com/groups/eflteachersupport/

Subscribe to Youtube @Everything EFL for teaching tip videos and full podcast episodes with Closed Captions.

Connect with me on LinkedIn @ https://www.linkedin.com/in/erin-o-byrne-90b58a55/

Subscribe to the podcast on Spotify, Google Podcasts, Apple.... and don’t forget to tell your colleagues. Share the love.

It’s a long one but it’s TOTALLY worth the listen. My guest is the mighty Hugh Dellar, co-author of Teaching Lexically. The lexical approach is something we should all be working towards to some degree. Here are Hugh’s thoughts on this approach (it’s better than traditional PPP), his opinion on teaching grammar in a traditional way (don’t do it), and some advice for teachers who would like to start incorporating this into their teaching practice (yes you can).

If you enjoyed this episode, I’ll be giving more ideas on how to incorporate the lexical approach into your lessons in a practical way in the next episode.

Hugh Dellar is a London-based teacher, teacher trainer and coursebook writer with almost thirty years’ experience in the field. He co-runs the online teaching and training company www.lexicallab.com and has co-authored two multi-level General English series, INNOVATIONS and OUTCOMES, both published by National Geographic Learning, as well as one level of the high-school series PERSPECTIVES, two levels of the new Pearson series ROADMAP, and two books about methodology and language - TEACHING LEXICALLY and GRAMMAR NONSENSE . . . AND WHAT TO DO ABOUT IT.

Episode Shownotes:

Theme music by @sean.cass (Instagram).

Join my Breathe Easy, Teacher newsletter community here: http://subscribepage.io/0a49dr

Contact me: ⁠[email protected]⁠

Like, share, DM me and follow me on Instagram @https://www.instagram.com/everythingeflteacher/ and on Facebook

@www.facebook.com/groups/eflteachersupport/

Subscribe to Youtube @Everything EFL for teaching tip videos and full podcast episodes with Closed Captions.

Connect with me on LinkedIn @ https://www.linkedin.com/in/erin-o-byrne-90b58a55/

Subscribe to the podcast on Spotify, Google Podcasts, Apple.... and don’t forget to tell your colleagues. Share the love.

Recorded in January of this year, I talked to Jose-Luis and Daniel of ELT in Chile Podcast. If you are interested in living and working in Chile, this episode will let you know which Chilean wine to buy, the subtle nuances of Chilean social exchanges and dispelling or confirming the common myths surrounding Chilean culture. Oh, we talk about teaching in Chile too: the working conditions, linguistic issues, and things you should know about Chilean students. And most importantly, food.

Enjoy!

Episode Shownotes:

Find ELT in Chile Podcast here: https://www.eltinchile.com/

Cueca: one of the national Chilean dances

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2LgAbnsXaNQ

Daniel’s Blog on living and working in Chile:

https://danielguim.com/2019/03/19/17-important-questions-to-ask-before-accepting-a-teaching-job-in-chile/

https://danielguim.com/2019/05/11/the-cost-of-living-in-santiago/

Chorillana: heart attack on a plate!:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chorrillana

Theme music by @sean.cass (Instagram).

Join my Breathe Easy, Teacher newsletter community here: http://subscribepage.io/0a49dr

Contact me: ⁠[email protected]⁠

Like, share, DM me and follow me on Instagram @https://www.instagram.com/everythingeflteacher/ and on Facebook

@www.facebook.com/groups/eflteachersupport/

Subscribe to Youtube @Everything EFL for teaching tip videos and full podcast episodes with Closed Captions.

Connect with me on LinkedIn @ https://www.linkedin.com/in/erin-o-byrne-90b58a55/

Subscribe to the podcast on Spotify, Google Podcasts, Apple.... and don’t forget to tell your colleagues. Share the love.

Do you and your students groan when you reach the ‘environment’ unit in your course book? Well, this cracker of an episode is for you. I spoke to the thoroughly lovely Harry Waters of Renewable English about his career, his passion for the environment and how teachers can approach this topic in a different way to the boring old course book approach of ‘Here’s Our Unit on the Environment’.

Forgive us for not always staying on topic. Digressions include: our love of teacher training, mindfulness, our failed attempts at veganism, a shared affinity for charity shops and leopard-print, the lexical chunk and our mutual hatred of ironing....

Episode Shownotes:

Connect with Harry at

www.renewableenglish.com, @renewableenglish on Insta, @Renewable English on Facebook or @renewableenglish on Twitter

www.eltfootprint.org

https://www.sustainablefashionmatterz.com/

Connect with Vanessa Hartson Walker on @edoandsassy on Insta and her website http://www.kidscan.org.nz

Theme music by @sean.cass (Instagram).

Join my Breathe Easy, Teacher newsletter community here: http://subscribepage.io/0a49dr

Contact me: ⁠[email protected]⁠

Like, share, DM me and follow me on Instagram @https://www.instagram.com/everythingeflteacher/ and on Facebook

@www.facebook.com/groups/eflteachersupport/

Subscribe to Youtube @Everything EFL for teaching tip videos and full podcast episodes with Closed Captions.

Connect with me on LinkedIn @ https://www.linkedin.com/in/erin-o-byrne-90b58a55/

Subscribe to the podcast on Spotify, Google Podcasts, Apple.... and don’t forget to tell your colleagues. Share the love.

Summer’s here: cue the insanity. I can’t promise I’ll solve all your summer issues, but I what I can do is share a little advice and some activities to get you through, especially if you’re a first time teacher in a summer school. If you are more experienced, you might recognise some of the things that went awry during my first summer school way back in the early 2000s. I’d also love to know what your go-to summer activities are. You know the ones: you repeat them every couple of weeks as you are given a new class of tired and distracted students. Have a great summer!

Episode Shownotes:

https://www.fotojet.com/features/misc/photo-comic.html - comic strip / comic strip /photo story maker

https://www.teach-this.com/images/resources/island-adventure-2.pdf- a desert island discussion game

Theme music by @sean.cass (Instagram).

Join my Breathe Easy, Teacher newsletter community here: http://subscribepage.io/0a49dr

Contact me: ⁠[email protected]⁠

Like, share, DM me and follow me on Instagram @https://www.instagram.com/everythingeflteacher/ and on Facebook

@www.facebook.com/groups/eflteachersupport/

Subscribe to Youtube @Everything EFL for teaching tip videos and full podcast episodes with Closed Captions.

Connect with me on LinkedIn @ https://www.linkedin.com/in/erin-o-byrne-90b58a55/

Subscribe to the podcast on Spotify, Google Podcasts, Apple.... and don’t forget to tell your colleagues. Share the love.

Whatever your class demographic, I’m sure you can use your adaptive teacher skills and take something from this episode. My guest this week is the wonderful Wanda Atkins from Wanda’s #saywhat Podcast. She loves to get her students to teach something or to lead. She has some really nice ideas and advice to give students more autonomy and to flex their creative muscles, including what to do with a Mr Potato Head! Digressions include different ways students learn, our responsibilities as teachers, taking risks in lessons and generally setting the world to rights. 

Connect with Wanda @waworkshops on Insta 

Check out her podcast Wanda’s #saywhat Podcast at https://www.buzzsprout.com/1010788or any podcast platform. 

Theme music by @sean.cass (Instagram).

Join my Breathe Easy, Teacher newsletter community here: http://subscribepage.io/0a49dr

Contact me: ⁠[email protected]⁠

Like, share, DM me and follow me on Instagram @https://www.instagram.com/everythingeflteacher/ and on Facebook

@www.facebook.com/groups/eflteachersupport/

Subscribe to Youtube @Everything EFL for teaching tip videos and full podcast episodes with Closed Captions.

Connect with me on LinkedIn @ https://www.linkedin.com/in/erin-o-byrne-90b58a55/

Subscribe to the podcast on Spotify, Google Podcasts, Apple.... and don’t forget to tell your colleagues. Share the love.

This a short but real sweet one. Let's get away from presenting your students with a song of your choice.  Let's do it a different way and get them to let go and lip-synch as a grand finale!  This is what I did with my class:  steal, adapt and tweak according to your students' needs.   

Episode Shownotes:

Theme music by @sean.cass (Instagram).

Join my Breathe Easy, Teacher newsletter community here: http://subscribepage.io/0a49dr

Contact me: ⁠[email protected]⁠

Like, share, DM me and follow me on Instagram @https://www.instagram.com/everythingeflteacher/ and on Facebook

@www.facebook.com/groups/eflteachersupport/

Subscribe to Youtube @Everything EFL for teaching tip videos and full podcast episodes with Closed Captions.

Connect with me on LinkedIn @ https://www.linkedin.com/in/erin-o-byrne-90b58a55/

Subscribe to the podcast on Spotify, Google Podcasts, Apple.... and don’t forget to tell your colleagues. Share the love.

Board gamer, much?

This week I’m joined by English teacher and board games fanatic Zdenek Lukas of teacherzdenek.com

We talk about why board games are such a positive addition to a class and then Zdenek recommends 5 games for you to try.

Find Zdenek and all his social media links at www.teacherzdenek.com

Show notes:

https://en.boardgamearena.com/

https://codenames.game/

https://www.snakeoilgame.com/so-online

https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/41114/resistance

https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/219215/werewords

https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/227026/debatable

https://www.zombicide.com/en/

www.islcollective.com

www.busyteacher.org

Theme music by @sean.cass (Instagram).

Join my Breathe Easy, Teacher newsletter community here: http://subscribepage.io/0a49dr

Contact me: ⁠[email protected]⁠

Like, share, DM me and follow me on Instagram @https://www.instagram.com/everythingeflteacher/ and on Facebook

@www.facebook.com/groups/eflteachersupport/

Subscribe to Youtube @Everything EFL for teaching tip videos and full podcast episodes with Closed Captions.

Connect with me on LinkedIn @ https://www.linkedin.com/in/erin-o-byrne-90b58a55/

Subscribe to the podcast on Spotify, Google Podcasts, Apple.... and don’t forget to tell your colleagues. Share the love.

My guest this week is ELT Trainer, author, vlogger, presenter and all-round wonderful John Hughes. We chat about what kinds of authentic materials to use on lower levels. If you’re fed up with using just menus and maps, you will find a wealth of great resources and ideas here. Topics include photos, videos, social media and simplifying more complex text, with a small digression into how to deliver instructions. Enjoy!

You can find John at his website: www.johnhugheselt.com

Resources Referenced:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1J9Kj1TyZdQ

www.pixarbay.com

www.fotobabble.com

www.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com/text-checker/

www.lyricstraining.com

Episode Shownotes:

Theme music by @sean.cass (Instagram).

Join my Breathe Easy, Teacher newsletter community here: http://subscribepage.io/0a49dr

Contact me: ⁠[email protected]⁠

Like, share, DM me and follow me on Instagram @https://www.instagram.com/everythingeflteacher/ and on Facebook

@www.facebook.com/groups/eflteachersupport/

Subscribe to Youtube @Everything EFL for teaching tip videos and full podcast episodes with Closed Captions.

Connect with me on LinkedIn @ https://www.linkedin.com/in/erin-o-byrne-90b58a55/

Subscribe to the podcast on Spotify, Google Podcasts, Apple.... and don’t forget to tell your colleagues. Share the love.