August 2005 - issue 8/05
DEVELOPING TEACHERS.COM NEWSLETTER
Welcome to the August Newsletter.
George Murdoch joins us for the first time with an article about
classroom observation, Greg Gobel returns with a lesson plan for
CAE students, plus a new review up on the site & the usual link
sections. Trust you find it all useful.
More free Google GMail accounts to give away - if interested, get
1. THE SITE
3. TEACHING LINKS
4. DAYS OF THE MONTH
5. BOOK REVIEW
6. WEEKLY TEACHING TIPS
7. PS - Internet/computer-related links
8. THE BIT AT THE END
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1. THE SITE - ARTICLES
Classroom Observations - making them useful for teachers by George Murdoch
What is at stake
Observations are a familiar part of professional life for most
EFL/ESL English teachers working in government schools, tertiary
level institutional language programs, private language schools
or British Council centres around the globe. However, is it
always certain that the professional training of those empowered
to conduct observations has fully equipped them for their role as
evaluators of classroom teaching? Even though observers are
normally experienced teachers, all too often the step up from
teaching to observing others teach can unintentionally result in
adopting behaviours and practices which are not always in the
developmental interests of teachers.
An awful lot is at stake when a director of studies or supervisor
observes a teacher in a language teaching operation. No matter
how informally or casually the classroom visit is presented, the
teacher is aware that his performance is under review. Depending
on how the lesson and discussions with the supervisor proceed,
the observation experience is bound to have a considerable
uplifting or demoralising impact in terms of the teacher's self-
image and his or her professional standing within that teaching
community. A poor performance will inevitably affect not only the
teacher's confidence and relationship with the person who is
observing the lesson, but also his/her more general reputation
among the teaching staff and others in the organisation. On the
other hand, a good performance can boost a teacher's self image
and confidence level, so he or she feels a valued, respected
member of staff with all the motivational benefits that flow from
such a feeling.
Given the importance of observations in the professional lives of
teachers, it is vital that those who conduct observations should
carry them out in as supportive and constructive a way as
possible. Those who observe are (or should be!) teachers
themselves, even though they may currently enjoy a more
prestigious title! They need therefore to recall the damage that
can be caused by the extremes of being overly critical of a
teacher's classroom performance, or an inability to focus on
areas which might help a teacher grow and overcome difficulties.
In this article, I will describe a number of key procedures and
strategies that need to be adopted by observers to make the
observation process meaningful, supportive and of practical use
from a teacher's perspective.
To view the article
Greg Gobel has a lesson plan up on the site centred around the
CAE exam, the Frankenstein story & error analysis. Here is a bit
of the preliminary information:
* To sensitize learners to the types of mistakes in Eng in Use
Part 3 through an outline of the story of Frankenstein and for
learners to successfully practice correcting mistakes in a
challenging literature extract from Frankenstein adapted to an
Eng in Use Part 3 style.
* For learners to demonstrate gist understanding of a complex
piece of literature and to infer the meaning of some literary
* For learners to work out story line from lines from the book
and with help of teacher's guiding questions.
* For learners to conduct role play based on ideas and
interaction of characters in the text
We are just starting Unit 5 in the CAE Gold coursebook. This will
be the second class after the holiday break. The theme of the
unit is 'cloning'/'genetic engineering'. In the previous lesson
we established this theme with basic theme-related lexis through
playing bingo and manipulating parts of speech for these words,
reflecting Paper 3, Part 4 of the CAE exam. We also made use of
authentic text that I gathered from the internet (including pros
and cons about human cloning from Raelian/Clonaid websites, the
Children of God for Life website, truthtree website, BBC news
archive, and the American Medical Association website). Learners
engaged in a contextualized debate about human cloning based on
the information in the authentic texts. For homework, they did
the exam practice reading on pages 60-61. This reading focuses on
the gapped text exam activity in the context of Dr. Richard Seed,
a famous pro-clone doctor.
To view the plan
Thanks to George & Greg
ARTICLES - If you've given a course or seminar or have a lesson
plan & would like to give it a public airing, do get in touch.
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TO GET IN TOUCH
No ordinary Master's: become an action researcher with Aston
University's MSc in TESOL Aston University Language Studies Unit:
I'm just about to start a summer class which is mixed ability.
It's going to be a multi-nationality class doing project work.
Haven't dealt with mixed ability classes before, so does anybody
have some tried and tested guidelines or warnings? I'd appreciate
Although the event has passed, do get along & sign up at the
discussion list Costadina23 tells us about:
I'm the moderator of the Global Issues Special Interest Group of
IATEFL. From July 19-23, we're having a fielded discussion on
Critical Citizenship. Our guest speaker is Prof. Manuela
Guilherme. If anyone would like to join, they can go through our
web site: www.iatefl-gisig.org. Thank you, Estelle Angelinas -
GISIG discussion list moderator
ajeneric needs some ideas:
I hope this is the appropriate place for posting this. I'm
perplexed and would welcome your insights and ideas. My Thai
students have studied English for 8-12 years. Most of them cannot
understand a sentence unless I speak "Thainglish"--Thai
pronunciation of English and Thai syntax. A similar thing
happened when I taught in China. So, I began thinking about why
my students seem to be so handicapped despite years of study
(albiet, for the most part, only in the classroom).
They have severe listening skills problems, which probably
results in severe pronunciation problems. But I suspect that
their severe pronunciation problems also affect their listening
I believe that learners' pronunciation problems are rooted in L1,
particularly because textbooks and dictionaries use Thai script
for pronunciation of English words. Their listening problems are
poorly developed because their Thai English teachers, I suspect,
have tended to translate a lot for them. Definitely other
students translate for them--a culturally appropriate response in
Thailand, China, and elsewhere in Asia, but it certainly
interferes with a learner's ability to hear and respond in
Because there are only 8 consonants sounds available at the end
of a Thai word, English is incredibly difficult for them to
reproduce. That's why "mad, math, mass, mat" are all pronounced
as "mat." Because Thai spelling doesn't allow a consonant sound
after the long /i/ sound (as in "fine"), they transfer it to"fine," "five," "find" and say each as "fi". Surely, relying on
transcription for pronunciation is a sad mistake and probably the
damage has been done, but I feel I need to help them.
Nonetheless, I am a bit bewildered about how to help them most
I've been using Clear Speech from the Start, which helps a lot,
but it is not enough. I discovered that they have never been
taught phonemes and suspect that this might help. Any ideas on
In thinking about their listening problems, I suspect that
learners' inability to isolate words in streaming speech often
relates to this pronunciation problem. For example, should an
English speaker say, "Jane is mad at him" they actually hear it
as "Jane is mat at him." They can only recognize it when it is
written on the board.
I place a lot of emphasis on listening skills (developingteachers.com has been tremendously helpful in this),
but I'm not pleased with the results. I'm not looking for
miracles, but I just feel if they mishear spoken English because
they cannot hear sounds, I should focus on them.
Thanks for your insights.
does anyone have any forms, formulas, blueprints, how-to sheets
for course planning? I will need to discuss a course I have
taught for a job interview, and will need to be detailed and not
forget anything at the same time... thanks!
Cliff has a job offer - much more information in the posting:
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second potential city in Taiwan, we need qualified educators to consolidate our kids' English ability!
Lots of different Forums to choose from. Post your jobs, your CV,
your questions, finds on the net, ideas, activities, questions,
grumbles, suggestions, your language courses, your training
courses...they are there for you to use.
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SiteSkimmer Linkletter to enjoy the net. To sign up for the free
3. TEACHING LINKS
From the BBC Learning English site: 'The English language is
permanently evolving and developing. New words and expressions
are coined and existing words change their meaning as society,
culture and technology progress. Professor David Crystal is one
of the world's foremost experts on language. He has recorded 26
short talks on some of these words and expressions that have
recently made it into the language, if not necessarily into
dictionaries. Each unit contains the text of the talk by
Professor Crystal. You can also listen to the talk and download
the transcript, audio (MP3) and a lesson plan for teachers. The
lesson plan contains teacher's notes, worksheets for students as
well as a key to the answers.'
'Lesson Plans - Words in the News - A weekly lesson plan based
on our Wednesday Words in the News story. Each lesson plan comes
with notes and instructions for teachers, worksheets for students
and a full answer key.'
From the same, a weekly online soap call 'Flatmates' - great
idea. Now wouldn't it be good to be able to download the
programmes for use in our classes
Always worth a mention - 'Wikipedia, the free-content
encyclopedia that anyone can edit.'
4. DAYS OF THE MONTH
A few days to plan your lessons around in August:
1st - World Wide Web Anniversary
12th - International Youth Day
13th - Lefthanded Day
31st - Malaysia Independence Day
La Tomatina Festival, Spain
The Burning Man Project in Nevada
To see the list of Days
Wikipedia's excellent focus on days of the year:
Some holiday origins.
5. BOOK REVIEW
There is a new review up this month. Real English Grammar:
Intermediate to Upper Intermediate by Hester Lott (Marshall
Cavendish) is a relatively new grammar book well worth
recommending to your intermediate students.
To read the review
If you're going to Amazon.com or Amazon.co.uk then please go
through our Books page. You will pay the same & we will receive a
few pennies to keep the site & newsletters free. Thanks.
6. WEEKLY TEACHING TIPS
Free weekly practical teaching tips by e-mail.
Recent Tips have included:
- Olive Oil Texts - ideas on using reading texts
- Aiming Personally - setting personal aims in your lessons
- Rounding Off - ways of finishing courses
- High Snoozing - lesson ideas around an article
To see the Past Tips
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CAMBRIDGE ESOL TEACHER TRAINING COURSES
Train in Spain - Courses running in the near future at the
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Full-time four-week courses, next courses September, October,
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Part-time course twenty-week course starts October '05
CAMBRIDGE CERTIFICATE IN ELT to YOUNGER LEARNERS EXTENSION
Full-time course two-week course in September '05
Part-time course ten-week course starts October '05
CAMBRIDGE DIPLOMA IN ELT - DELTA
Full-time two-month courses October/November '05, January/February '06
Part-time course six-month course starts October '05
10% discount on all courses if you mention the newsletter!
Reasonably priced accommodation can be arranged for the duration
of all courses.
7. PS - Internet/computer-related links from SiteSkimmer.com
A few computer use rules of thumb:
- make copies of all-important files
- run scan disk & then defragment the hard drive
- use firewall software
- use a virus scan & update the files every week
- install security patches that software providers offer
- update your DirectX files regularly
- don't open attachments without scanning for viruses first
- don't respond to spam - just delete & forget
- don't send personal or bank information by email
- turn off your computer at night
The following links are taken from the Site Skimmer.com
Linkletters. Sent out free every fortnight, fifteen links every
issue to follow up & help you enjoy the internet. To subscribe:
Serious coffee stuff!
'Free Online Graph Paper / Grid Paper PDFs - Downloadable and
very printable, I find these PDFs extremely useful. So, you can
make a 24x30 inch sheet with a green one-inch 10 point grid.
Obviously I cannot anticipate all needs, but the grids below
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'Download a 12 sided calendar - Download a dodecahedral calendar
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'Real scary recipes from real scary vintage cookbooks.'
'Utterly Outrageous Recipes -"don't knock it if you haven't tried
'Scott Pakin's automatic complaint-letter generator'
8. THE BIT AT THE END
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