Real Talk in ELT

English teachers, are you looking for fresh ideas to engage your students in reading? Check out my latest podcast episode featuring an interview with Dorothy Zemach, a graded reader editor and publisher!  Dorothy and I discuss how she creates her own unique style of graded reader books, and why she believes it's important for learners to connect with the story in order to develop a love of reading.  Whether you're a seasoned teacher or just starting out, you won't want to miss this insightful conversation! Tune in now and discover how you can inspire your students to become avid readers. 📚 #EnglishTeachers #GradedReaders #Podcast #DorothyZemach #ReadingComprehension #LanguageLearning  

Thank for watching and listening! Be sure to hit the subscribe button and the bell to get updates on new episodes.  

Contact Kelly: Instagram - @kellypenningtonELT Email - [email protected] www.kellypenningtonelt.com

In this episode, I had the opportunity to sit down with Thiago Silva and pick his brain about working in the Brazilian Air Force and teaching English to air traffic controllers/pilots. Thiago gave me some great insights in the area of English for Specific Purposes (ESP), have a listen!  

Thiago Silva is a former air traffic controller and has almost 20 years’ experience as a teacher. He started off his teaching career as a Maths teacher, but transitioned to English in 2013. Holds the CELTA, the CPE and the Train the Trainer.  Currently, in addition to preparing pilots and air traffic controllers to take their proficiency exams, he is a senior TEAC (Test of English for Aeronautical Communication) rater for Lenguax, UK, and a Checkpoint expert assessor for Latitude, UK. Checkpoint is an English assessment for student pilot selection and admissions. He is also an ICAEA (International Civil Aviation English Association) board member, a conference speaker, and a consultant in the field of Aeronautical English and Radiotelephony Communications.  

Thank for watching and listening! Be sure to hit the subscribe button and the bell to get updates on new episodes.  

Contact Thiago on social media @ths_theenglishteacher and follow his new project (@insighteducation3) for aviation English.  

Contact Kelly: Instagram - @kellypenningtonELT Email - [email protected] www.kellypenningtonelt.com

Reading comprehension is an important aspect of English language learning, and it's crucial to ensure that students are able to not only understand what they've read but also retain and apply the information. One effective way to achieve this is by incorporating engaging follow-up tasks into your English language lessons. In this episode, I explore various follow-up tasks that can be used to extend reading comprehension skills in your students.

In this episode, I sat with Rob Howard to tackle the controversial question: Can we teach Business English to lower level learners? I tried my best to play devil's advocate in this discussion so we could really get down to details and not be too biased from our own experience.  

Rob Howard is the owner of Online Language Center and Business Language Training Institute and founder of EFLtalks. He is a teacher, writer and frequent worldwide speaker and trainer on Business English, Teacher Development, Entrepreneurship, teaching online, and using technology and images. He is IATEFL Poland Vice-president, Joint Coordinator of the IATEFL BESIG, Gallery Teachers Masterclass presenter, iTDi TOEFL course trainer, member of the C Group, Online Event Coordinator for the Visual Arts Circle as well as co-founder of the Independent Authors & Publishers. Living in Poland, he never sleeps… just naps.  

Thank for watching and listening! Be sure to hit the subscribe button and the bell to get updates on new episodes. 

Contact Rob online at: @robhoward_be or http://www.onlinelanguagecenter.com/ 

...and check out his great project EFLtalks (https://www.efltalks.com/)

Contact Kelly: Instagram - @kellypenningtonELT Email - [email protected] www.kellypenningtonelt.com

Reading is a fundamental skill in English language learning, but it's not enough for students to simply decode the words on the page. To truly comprehend what they're reading, students need to develop a variety of sub-skills, such as skimming, scanning, inferring, etc.

In this episode, I sat down with Henrique Antunis from Spark Education. He gives us a no holds bar view of how he treats (and pays) his teachers, builds his courses, his perspective of CPD, and much more!  

Henrique Antunis has been teaching English for 15 years. He holds a degree in Advertising, Theatre and is currently studying Pedagogy. He also holds the Train the Trainer, CPE and the CELTA. Henrique has been an edupreneur since the pandemic hit and has now moved from a single English teacher to a school named Spark Education.  

Thank for watching and listening! Be sure to hit the subscribe button and the bell to get updates on new episodes.  

To contact Henrique on social media:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/hantunis/ 

www.instagram.com/hantunis  

For Spark Education, head over to: 

www.instagram.com/spark.educa 

https://www.linkedin.com/company/spark-educa 

www.sparkeducation.com.br   

Contact Kelly: Instagram - @kellypenningtonELT Email - [email protected] www.kellypenningtonelt.com

In this episode, I had the absolute pleasure of sitting with the impressive Professor Michael McCarthy to talk about his career in ELT and more specifically discuss some of the major revelations he has had as a corpus linguist.   

Michael McCarthy is Emeritus Professor of Applied Linguistics, University of Nottingham, UK, and Teaching Officer at ADTIS, Cambridge University, UK, where he teaches EAP. He is author/co-author/editor of 58 books, including Touchstone, Viewpoint, the Cambridge Grammar of English, English Grammar: The Basics, From Corpus to Classroom, The Routledge Handbook of Corpus Linguistics and titles in the English Vocabulary in Use series. He is author/co-author of 120 academic papers. He was cofounder of the CANCODE and CANBEC spoken English corpora projects. He has taught in the UK, Europe and Asia, has given talks and workshops in 46 countries and has been involved in language teaching and applied linguistics for 57 years.  

Thank for watching and listening! Be sure to hit the subscribe button and the bell to get updates on new episodes.  

Please head over to Professor McCarthy's site:  http://www.profmikemccarthy.org.uk/ 

Contact Kelly: Instagram - @kellypenningtonELT Email - [email protected] www.kellypenningtonelt.com