26 November 2024

December 2024


Click on the event title(s) below for more information. Leave your questions or comments below, or complete the "Contact Us" form to the right for registration information. The events below are open group sessions from our Seminars, Advanced Use of English and Professional Conversation programmes; contact us to ask about scheduling open on-demand or closed private programmes. 

10 November 2024

Creating and Analysing Blogs in the English class

Although there is no road-code or rulebook for blogging, there are general features both for creators and for readers and/or analysts. As a teacher, you likely want your students to respond to and/or analyse blogs, if not actually to produce posts. Here are those features.

28 October 2024

Promote English in your school with Armistice Day


At the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month
The guns fell silent.

Every year on the eleventh of November, people all over the world gather to remember the end of the Great War in the hope that it will not be repeated. Lest we forget. Join us as we explore this significant date in human history.

November 2024

Click on the event title(s) below for more information. Leave your questions or comments below, or complete the "Contact Us" form to the right for registration information. The events below are open group sessions from our Seminars, Advanced Use of English and Professional Conversation programmes; contact us to ask about scheduling open on-demand or closed private programmes. 

27 October 2024

ABC (insert English certificate name here) is not for life

Someone somewhere sometime in the past, in the world of selling certifications (and possibly books, materials and courses), made a smart decision. S/he would start promoting this certification as "for life", and so a myth was born. Sadly, this is at best misleading, if not verging on the untrue.

22 October 2024

Promote English in your school with Guy Fawkes Day (aka "Bonfire Night")

Remember remember
The fifth of November
Gunpowder, treason and plot

Every year on the fifth of November, people all over the world gather to remember democracy, the monarchy, the British system of government and protest with bonfires, fireworks and the burning of effigies. Join us as we explore this curiosity of Britishness.

17 October 2024

Poetry "A Poison Tree" by William Blake

Unknown and/or poorly regarded during his life, William Blake has posthumously become recognised as one of Engliand's greatest poets. Join us as we review one of his works which everyone should know. Suitable for advanced EFL students and teachers, and frequently included in GCSE and IGCSE Literature text lists.

12 October 2024

Essays you need to read


As you are an educated, cultured and sophisticated person, you need to have read certain essays. As you are an effective, caring and influential educator, your advanced and/or upper level students need to read certain essays.

We've got you covered. 

08 October 2024

Plug-and-Play Reading Comprehension / Literature lesson : Essay "The Death of the Moth" by Virginia Woolf

 

Our four-part series on this work by one of the most important and influential feminist literary voices is for students, teachers and advanced users of English. This text, widely regarded as one of the most significant twentieth-centiury essays and which should be read and discussed by all, is also suitable for Cambridge and IB Language, Literature and Lang&Lit programmes. 

29 September 2024

Promote English in your school with World Decimal / World Metric Day

The tenth of October, or "10 /10", provides you with a great opportunity for language acquisition and development, to have a bit of fun and to promote English at the same time. Join us as we run through 10 (what else?) topic areas associated with ten from decimals to 10-codes to idiomatic expressions, for all levels G1 - 12 and all levels beginners to advanced, you can use to raise the profile of English in your community.

23 September 2024

October 2024

 

Click on the event title(s) below for more information. Leave your questions or comments below, or contact us for registration information. The events below are open group sessions from our Seminars, Advanced Use of English and Professional Conversation programmes; contact us to ask about scheduling open on-demand or closed private programmes. 

October 2024 Chilean English Teachers’ Private Lesson Fees Survey

Our October 2024 Biannual Chilean English Teachers Private Lesson Fee Survey closes 15 October. Complete the survey and you can have a copy of the results. Last April saw an increase in what Chilean private English teachers charge. What about the last six months?

14 September 2024

Teaching Writing in the Reception (Early Years and G1 - 2) Levels

Children generally begin learning to write in the Early Years (known in EFL as Very Young Learners and elsewhere as Early Childhood and/or PreSchool) or in the first grades of Lower Primary (known variously as Reception, Infant School and even Grammar School). However, writing at this level is not so much writing (composition) as it is writing (handwriting) and so should be seen by educators as a combination of fine-motor development with emerging literacy and numeracy rather than as language acquisition and development.

Writing methodology - news reports

Using a worked example, join us as we review a quick-and-easy structure and approach for producing a news report (as distinct from an "article").

07 September 2024

Writing methodology - Advanced Editing & Proofreading Practice & Feedback

If you enjoyed our introductory / middle school / B1 - B2 session on editing and profreading, you'll love this Advanced session. This easily replicable model is ready-to-use, plug-and-play, student-centred and at the same time, a great personal challenge for teachers.

04 September 2024

Writing methodology - student editing


One of the most effective tools in teaching writing, or in developing as a writer, is for writers to be able to proofread and to edit their own production. This plug-and-play lesson reviews two short texts and a simple student-centred teacher-friendly editing task.

27 August 2024

September 2024

Click on the event title(s) below for more information. Leave your questions or comments below, or contact us for registration information. The events below are open group sessions from our Seminars, Advanced Use of English and Professional Conversation programmes; contact us to ask about scheduling open on-demand or closed private programmes. 

27 July 2024

August 2024

Click on the event title(s) below for more information. Leave your questions or comments below, or contact us for registration information. The events below are open group sessions from our Seminars, Advanced Use of English and Professional Conversation programmes; contact us to ask about scheduling open on-demand or closed private programmes. 

23 July 2024

Multimodal (Audio/Visual) Language Comprehension : a plug-and-lesson, "Top 10 Things To Do In Santiago"

Teachers new to bilingual and/or international programmes may lack the knowledge and/or experience needed to incorporate visual language in their classes. This session provides a double-period ready-to-use lesson plan with the original multimodal text (video and audio), transcript, language development activities and visual language teaching points with the necessary underlying conceptual content.

30 June 2024

Poetry "Health Fanatic" by John Cooper Clarke

For most, if not all, English teachers today, the "punk poet" is likely unknown and yet his fast-paced, strongly rhymic and rhythmic street or urban poetry is and has been highly influential. Clarke still tours worldwide, reading his witty, humorous and often ascerbic commentaries on the world in which we live. "Health Fanatic" is one of these.

25 June 2024

July 2024

Click on the event title(s) below for more information. Leave your questions or comments below, or contact us for registration information. The events below are open group sessions from our Seminars, Advanced Use of English and Professional Conversation programmes; contact us to ask about scheduling open on-demand or closed private programmes. 

16 June 2024

Cambridge English C1 Advanced (CAE) : examination preparation Semester Two 2024

Open-group preparation for the Cambridge English C1 Advanced (formerly known as "CAE") Examination. We cover knowing and understanding the examination and its components, Practice of & Feedback on each component, and success and preparation strategies. Whether you are registering for the examination, or are considering it and want to know how to succeed, this programme provides what you need to know.

01 June 2024

30+ Typical and Traditional Games for your English Week or English Day

Lookng for ideas for typical or traditonal games for your English Day, or your English Stand at the Parent Association's Kermesse? Don't worry. We can help with our 30+ Typical and/or Traditional Games of chance or0 skill, or just games of fun, none of which require buying or building equipment. Many of these games can be used for fund-raising.

13 May 2024

Advanced Usage : the making of made


Are you ever unsure of, or even caught unawares by, English mades?

            made by, made for, made from, made in, made of, made on, made out of, made to, made up, made up of, made up with, made with ...

So do it! Join us for explanations and explorations so that you don't have to fake it 'til you make it.

05 May 2024

The Key to Effective Pairwork

Pairwork is one of the most effective teaching strategies and should be one of the primary approaches of all teachers, not just English Language and Lang&Lit. This Philosophy and Practice / Methodology seminar for G7 - 12 levels (G5 - 6 teachers will also find it useful) reviews the nuts and bolts of succesful pairwork, and how to avoid some of the more common reasons why pairwork activities are not a huge success.

Planning a Novel Study


If you have not taught a Literature or a Lang & Lit novel study before, or if you want to know how to incorporate a novel unit into your programme, this one-hour overview will get you started on the right path.

01 May 2024

Advanced Vocabulary : sit, seat, sitting, seating


Do you sit or be seated? Do you sit someone or seat someone? Is it a sitting or a seating? A siting or a seating? What about sit up and sit down, or a sit-in and a sit-down? Or a sit rep?

24 April 2024

May 2024

Click on the event title(s) below for more information. Leave your questions or comments below, or contact us for registration information. The events below are open group sessions from our Seminars, Advanced Use of English and Professional Conversation programmes; contact us to ask about scheduling open on-demand or closed private programmes. 

20 April 2024

Celebrate Star Wars Day

For Star Wars fans, "May the Forth be With You" has a special significance. and so the obvious date to celebrate all things Star Wars is the fourth of May. Take advantage of the students' interest in things far, far away to promote and to celebrate the joys of English.

09 April 2024

Celebrate World English Day

Have you considered celebrating World English Day, 23 April each year? Quite apart from English Week and an English Club, World English Day allows you to "honour the importance of the English language and its role as a universal means of communication". Join us in this overview or introductory session as we explore what, when, why and things you can do to observe the day which marks our raison d'être.

07 April 2024

Planning and Running an English Club or Workshop

English teachers are often tasked with running an afterschool English Club or High School "English Workshop" with little or no guidance, while even those with experience look for support and new ideas. These sessions provide a road-map to a successful English Club (or Workshop) and ideas you can incorporate into yours.

04 April 2024

Creating a student-centred teacher-friendly lesson using an online video

Students today are increasingly more visual and image-oriented than even those of yesterday, let alone of yester-year. Video-based lessons are appealing to students and advantageous to teachers, and with a little time, thought and attention can provide significant learning and language-practice opportunities.  

30 March 2024

Philosophy & Practice : the English of Upper Primary / Lower Secondary / Middle School mathematics

It's probably a few years since you did Upper Primary / Lower Secondary / Middle School (second cycle) mathematics, but the experience for your students will be more recent. Take advantage of this enthusiasm and make your maths colleagues your friends by reviewing the English of Middle School Mathematics.

29 March 2024

April 2024

Click on the event title(s) below for more information. Leave your questions or comments below, or contact us for registration information. The events below are open group sessions from our Seminars, Advanced Use of English and Professional Conversation programmes; contact us to ask about scheduling open on-demand or closed private programmes. 

21 March 2024

Single-topic and single-skill C1 Advanced (CAE) preparation support

You may be preparing for Cambridge English C1 Advanced (CAE) on your own and have identified gaps in your knowledge or competencies, or you may have taken a course and have uncertainties about some aspects of the examination. Perhaps you have already taken C1 Advanced and did not reach the level you seek.

20 March 2024

Assessment for Learning is the future; Evaluation of Learning is the past


When a teacher looks at student work, s/he can look at it through the lens of the future and in terms of Teaching & Learning, or through the lens of the past and as Measurement & Reporting. However, s/he must be clear in purpose and not mix the two, even though the same task or activity could be used with both. Join us in this Philosophy and Practice (methodology) discussion as we weigh these two very different functions of education.

22 February 2024

March 2024

Click on the event title(s) below for more information. Leave your questions or comments below, or contact us for registration information. The events below are open group sessions from our Seminars, Advanced Use of English and Professional Conversation programmes; contact us to ask about scheduling open on-demand or closed private programmes. 

21 February 2024

Advanced Use of English Vocabulary : still not yet already? any more?

Have you still not finished already? Are you still to start? Or yet to finish? Already done it or done it already? We could go for a full hour on the distinctions and nuances of these simple little words.

16 February 2024

Advanced Vocabulary : er, who does that?

The easiest way of saying who does what in English is to add "-er" to the verb thus talk > talker. Of course, this is not the only way. Variants and exceptions abound, traps lie in wait and sometimes competing and commons forms from the same origin mean completely different things.

10 February 2024

Multimodal (Audio/Visual) Language Comprehension : a plug-and-lesson related to green energy

Teachers new to bilingual and/or international programmes may lack the knowledge and/or experience needed to incorporate visual language in their classes. This session provides a double-period ready-to-use lesson plan with the original multimodal text (video and audio), transcript, language development activities and visual language teaching points with the necessary underlying conceptual content.

02 February 2024

Advanced Use of English : agree (or not)

You might think that using "agree" and its family in English accurately and appropriately does not present too many problems, however at an advanced level, and for E2L / ESL and E1L users, you would be wrong. Discussing agreeing is more tricky than it looks and, like so many other words and phrases at these levels, nuance is everything.

26 January 2024

February 2024

Click on the event title(s) below for more information. Leave your questions or comments below, or contact us for registration information. The events below are open group sessions from our Seminars, Advanced Use of English and Professional Conversation programmes; contact us to ask about scheduling open on-demand or closed private programmes.