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

Dominic Walters

Talking Communicatively

3 de fevereiro de 2015

I was talking to a teacher the other day. He had just completed his CELTA course with a grade B although he had already been teaching for a couple of years beforehand. A nice chap all in all, and very enthusiastic. I am not sure how, but after the initial chit-chat which broke the ice,...Read More

Teacher Development

communicative approach

Murphy’s Law

3 de janeiro de 2015

by Dominic Walters

I am pretty sure that anyone who has either learnt English as a student or been a teacher even for a short period of time must have come across the English Grammar in Use series by Raymond Murphy. Apparently, they are one of the best selling grammar books of all time. Go into a staff...Read More

Grammar

English Grammar in Use, grammar books

Santa Clause or Father Christmas? Gifts or presents?

3 de dezembro de 2014

by Dominic Walters

I asked a student of mine recently whether he still believed in Father Christmas. He looked at me nonplussed before asking me who Father Christmas was. I replied that he was the big, fat man who delivered children presents at Christmas time. “Presents?”, he asked. “Gifts’, I said. To which he smiled and said, “Ah,...Read More

Language Acquisition

american english, british english, spelling differences, vocabulary

‘Swamped’ with options

3 de novembro de 2014

by Dominic Walters

A couple of weeks ago, the British defence secretary Michael Fallon claimed British towns are being “swamped” by immigrants. He made the claim in response to a question posed by an interviewer on Sky News. The Conservative Party, to which Michael Fallon belongs, was none too happy and quickly forced Mr Fallon to withdraw his...Read More

Vocabulary

choosing words, synonyms, vocabulary

Let ‘Hangman’ Hang

3 de setembro de 2014

by Dominic Walters

To start off with, let me just say that I have never ever liked ‘Hangman’. You know, the game where you have guess the word(s) by calling out letters of the alphabet before the man is hung up on a scaffold. It is not because the act of hanging runs contrary to my political sensibilities...Read More

Games

classroom games, hangman, vocabulary

Trying too hard

5 de agosto de 2014

by Dominic Walters

Did anyone read a recent article in Time magazine entitled ‘Want to Learn a Language? Don’t Try So Hard’? (Abrams; 2014) It outlined a study undertaken at MIT University which basically found that whereas young people up until the age of puberty use procedural memory to learn a language, adults will use a different type...Read More

Language Acquisition

adult learners, declarative memory, procedural memory, younger learners

Towards a smaller future

3 de julho de 2014

by Dominic Walters

Am I right in assuming that more and more people are now looking beyond traditional learning experiences in a school setting to a more individualized and needs focused learning normally provided through one-to-one and small , closed lesson formats? In my experience, and judging by what colleagues say, this certainly seems to be the case...Read More

Teacher Development

language teaching, lesson formats, private courses

Talking football

3 de junho de 2014

by Dominic Walters

You may or may not be aware that the football championship is just around the corner with national teams beginning to arrive, stadiums being finished and with thousands of people brushing up on their English. Football (or ‘scoccer ’) is the most popular sport in the world, played and talked about by millions of people. It...Read More

Vocabulary

championship, football, idiomatic expressions, idioms

When is it good to talk?

5 de maio de 2014

by Dominic Walters

I was doing a CELTA course assessment last month and observing the post-lesson feedback with the tutor and the trainees when an interesting issue arose. The tutor asked one of the trainees to comment on the amount of teacher talking time (TTT) which had occurred during her lesson. The trainee agreed that there had been...Read More

Resources, Teacher Development

input, learners, teacher talking time, teacher training

Learning to Grammar

3 de abril de 2014

by Dominic Walters

Three private students of mine recently proclaimed that they believed they had become less fluent since the beginning of our lessons a little over two months ago. They were naturally preoccupied given that they were paying good money to improve their English. Needless to say, I had to put their minds at ease, and it...Read More

Grammar, Skills

Accuracy, fluency, grammar, skills, teaching

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