Dominic Walters, Autor em RichmondShare Blog | High quality content and interaction in the ELT world

Dominic Walters

Do you speak Brazlish?

3 de novembro de 2017

In 1985, Braj Kachru published a book called ‘Standards, Codification and Sociolinguistic Realism: The English Language in the Outer Circle’. In it, he placed the world’s Englishes into one of three concentric circles: the inner circle, which is composed of those countries where English is the first, or dominant, language; the outer circle, represented by those nations...Read More

Reflections about Education

brazilian_english, lingua_franca

Testing Times

5 de setembro de 2017

by Dominic Walters

I feel for test designers. They have an impossible task. To design a test of language proficiency that is considered valid and reliable by the various stakeholders involved in the testing process. This is particularly true of the test takers themselves. And it was in relation to these people that two stories recently caught my...Read More

Language testing & assessment

International English Language Testing System (IELTS), language proficiency, Pearson Test of English (PTE), test

´Americanization´ or ´Americanisation´?

3 de agosto de 2017

by Dominic Walters

‘Trousers’ or ‘pants’? ‘Lift’ or ‘elevator’? ‘Colour’ or ‘color’? ‘Theatre’ or ‘theater’? Which lexical item do you use? Which form of spelling do you opt for? Do you teach ‘American’ or ‘British’ English? Or both? How do you decide what to teach? Does it matter? Well, according to some recent research, it does matter, and...Read More

Vocabulary

British vs American, lexical, spelling, vocabulary

Repeat, repeat, repeat

13 de julho de 2017

by Dominic Walters

I want to talk about Spaced Repetition. What it is, how it applies to language learning and what we can do to cater for it in our teaching. First of all, let me tell you how I normally acquire new vocabulary in Portuguese. I come across an unfamiliar word in a conversation or in a text...Read More

Language Acquisition

Repetition, spaced repetition, vocabulary

It is never Finished

6 de junho de 2017

by Dominic Walters

When you think of Finland, what comes to mind? Naked saunas? Ice fishing? Smoked fish? Nokia? What might also spring to mind is a highly successful education system. Successful in terms of academic attainment, the number of students leaving school and entering higher education, and levels of satisfaction amongst pupils, parents and teachers. What makes...Read More

Reflections about Education

PBL, Phenomenon-Based Learning

The future is now

7 de abril de 2017

by Dominic Walters

First we had industrialization. Then this was followed by electrification, which in turn preceded the age of digitalization. And now, apparently, we are accelerating at what seems like breakneck speed towards what the International Bar Association calls the ‘Industrial Revolution 4.0’. This fourth industrial revolution is being, and will be, marked by dramatic changes in...Read More

Reflections about Education, Technology

critical thinking, education, future, Reflections, technology

On tenterhooks

3 de março de 2017

by Dominic Walters

I went for a meeting last week with a woman who was interested in having English lessons. She said she needed to improve her English as the company she worked for had just signed a lucrative contract with an American firm. In all respects, she was an uninhibited and confident person who held a high...Read More

Reflections about Education, Skills, Teacher Development

reflections about education, skills, teacher development

Training Doubts

3 de fevereiro de 2017

by Dominic Walters

During the final grading meeting of a CELTA course I was assessing recently, one of the tutors asked me about the extent to which a trainee’s language should be taken into account when deciding on a final grade. It is an issue which has come up again and again in recent years, especially since the internationalization of teacher training courses...Read More

Reflections about Education

reflections about education

Cultural Matters

3 de janeiro de 2017

by Dominic Walters

Recently, I was fortunate enough to spend a couple of weeks in London, visiting family and friends. I also took the opportunity to assess a CELTA course over there. In one of the pre-intermediate lessons I was observing there were a good many Japanese and Brazilian learners. These students seemed to be playing their stereotypical...Read More

Reflections about Education

brazilianculture, brazilianlearners, CELTA, japaneseculture, stereotypical

Teaching older people new tricks

3 de dezembro de 2016

by Dominic Walters

One phenomenon I have noticed over the past two years is the noticeable rise in the number of ‘elderly’ people wanting to have English lessons (by ‘elderly’ I am using the US Census bureau’s definition of anyone over the age of 65). A combination of factors have probably led to this increase in interest. These factors are...Read More

Teacher Development

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