Alice Pilkington qualified as a CELTA (Certificate in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages) certified teacher in October 2009. She started working in Rome before moving to Istanbul, where she’s spent the past three and a half years teaching English to “everyone from 8-year-olds to company executives; students to bored housewives”. Having taught in two very different countries to a diverse range of English learners, Alice shares with us the five lessons she’s learned:
"I am probably not emotionally suited for this job. I take everything very personally and if a lesson goes wrong or an activity I have taken time and energy to plan doesn’t work, I feel like a complete failure. It’s a trial and error experience but when things go wrong, they can go very wrong, and it really makes you doubt your abilities as a teacher.
Having said that, the lessons that do go well can make up for these negative feelings. I shouldn’t take things personally; the majority of my colleagues don’t and it saves them a lot of sleepless nights"
"There are very few feelings that I’ve experienced that compare to seeing a student use a word that you have taught them – it makes you feel like a proud parent. Equally, seeing a student improve over a series of months is so joyful.I have been teaching English university preparation students for the past year.
In September, they could barely say what their name was and what they did over the weekend. Nine months on and they’re capable of reading academic texts and speaking at length about marketing strategies and environmental problems. It’s a wonderful thing to observe"
"Turkish students love hearing about how you appreciate their food and cultural traditions. Equally, they are genuinely interested in understanding how things operate in the UK and enjoy hearing personal anecdotes.I tend to be very open with my students – even about my personal life.I think it is partly because I have striven from the very beginning of my career to be seen as their equal.
Turkish students are used to having a huge respect for teachers, and there is a hierarchical system in schools here, which I can never go along with. In my first lesson with most students, I tell them that they must call me by my first name (usually you refer to teachers here as ‘hocam’ which means ‘my teacher’ and shows respect) and this can take a long while for them to get used to."
"Lessons that you spend hours preparing for generally don’t go as well as you had hoped. There were several times when I’d spend hours cutting and sticking things on pieces of card and placing pictures all over the classroom, hoping it would get some vocabulary action going, only to start the class and receive no response from the students.
Conversely, lessons where you don’t feel very motivated or have no idea what you are going to do until you get into the classroom (which I call the ‘flying by the seat of your pants’ lessons) can turn out to be the best ones. I once had a lesson in which I was, admittedly, rather hungover. On the way to the lesson, I grabbed a book called ‘Taboos and Issues’, full of discussion topics, which I used as a basis for a rather impromptu lesson on addictions, which was very successful indeed."
"Teaching English is a love/hate profession. There are weeks when you absolutely loathe it and want to quit, but then within the space of a lesson or two, you get inspired by something completely unexpected, rediscover your joy for it and love it again."
Read our posts 'Key lessons on teaching English in Spain' and 'Teaching English in France'.
This year marks 10 years since the launch of the Global Scale of English (GSE) and what a journey it has been. As we celebrate this important milestone, it’s time to reflect on everything that has been achieved over the past decade.
Picking out the right graded readersfor your young learnerstakes a little thought.There are thousands and thousands of stories out there. Not only do you have to find the right level but also arange ofbooksthat will keep them captivatedas they learn to read.
In this brief guide, I’ll be helping you to choose the right Disney Kids Readers for your students, so they can participate in guided and independent reading in class and at home.
Let’s delve in.
First, what’s the difference between guided and independent reading?
In class, students typically read aloud in a small group with a teacher. The teacher supports the children as they decode the words, navigate elements of pronunciation, and make sense of the meaning. At home, a child reads aloud to a parent or caregiver. This is a terrific way to involve parents in a child’s path toward reading fluency.
Independent reading, on the other hand, is when students read silently to themselves. These studentsarealreadyreadingwith some confidence. They candecode common words and have a good handle on sight words.Their reading speed is fluent enough to focus on the meaning ofthe text.
So, how do you know which reader to choose for your students? Well, graded readers are already organizedby level. They also often provide metrics to help teachers make informed decisions about what reading level a child is at.
Let’stake a lookat Disney Kids Readers as an example:
In today’s fast-paced business landscape, proactive succession planning is essential for HR professionals. Preparing the next generation of leaders is a business-critical initiative, to ensure organizational continuity, agility and long-term success.
Succession planning is often high up on the HR agenda, as it also promotes progression, reduces business disruption, and attracts top talent. There are many components to effective succession planning, including skills development, but one skill that’s often overlooked in this process is communication. One often overlooked yet highly influential component of effective succession planning is language proficiency.
At app ELL, we believe strongly in the power of language and have designed our succession planning strategy with this in mind. The focus is on creating multilingual leaders who are not only proficient in their respective fields but also have a deep understanding of global culture and market dynamics.
In this blog post, we explore how communication skills and specifically language proficiency plays a pivotal role in succession planning and the development of future leaders. We’ll also provide actionable insights for HR professionals and managers on integrating language development into their succession strategies. As well as some insights from our very own ELL HR team.
