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May 10, 2023
Pick the word pronounced differently from the others. You were sure, and you were wrong. There is no clever rule for this one, and pretending otherwise does not help.
May 5, 2023
Gap-fill opens and closes every IELTS listening paper. It does not ask you to understand everything, it asks you to catch specific information, like a waiter taking an order.
May 3, 2023
Time yourself saying three sentences, then beat your own time. Where you stall is exactly where your fluency is breaking, and now you know what to drill.
May 1, 2023
Nobody wants to be watched for two hours to say three sentences. Give people a reason and the right conditions, and the cameras come on by themselves.
Apr 28, 2023
The answer depends entirely on why you pressed play. Watching to relax and watching to study are two different activities, and mixing them serves neither.
Apr 24, 2023
The Cambridge sequence for teaching a word's pronunciation has three steps, and the spelling only helps for the first two. By the third it gets in the way.
Apr 20, 2023
Punctuality, care with words, criticism that names the work not the person, and total clarity about how you are marked. What CELTA tutors did differently.
Apr 19, 2023
Listening is not one skill but three, and each one has a different job. Once you know which one a task needs, practice gets far more efficient.
Apr 14, 2023
Online study only saves you money if class time goes on the things you cannot do alone. Here is how I set up the room, the mic and the homework.
Apr 13, 2023
Plenty of learners spend a fortune and still stall. After leaving a language centre that would not let me teach properly, here is what I think actually moves the needle.