In this issue of Modern English Teacher

Emergency Remote Teaching

Michael Lacey Freeman looks at how readers can bring a class together, Wing Wu describes three apps to promote virtual talk during real-time teaching and Daniel Costa analyses a famous speech as a way of helping EAP learners.

Other topics in this issue include: keeping online learners' attention, the importance of subskills in exam preparation, and activities which promote language learning through the local community — plus much more.

In this issue of Modern English Teacher

Testing and Assessment

John Hughes offers ideas on coping with both teaching and exam preparation, Nick Manthei describes an eclectic approach to assessing young learners, and Kendal Rolley looks at interaction-based assessment.

Other topics in this issue include: making class debate meaningful, taking the stress out of observation, and a new approach to teaching academic writing — plus much more.

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Latest blog

Remote Reflections – A term of online teaching

Dave Dodgson

The last few months have brought unprecedented challenges and changes to the way we teach and learn. In this month’s post, blogger David Dodgson reflects on some of the successes and difficulties of this term and how they might affect his future teaching.

New to MET? Try a free article

The power of gratitude in the language classroom

Jeffrey Wilang

How do you come across to your students? How encouraging are you? Read this study and find out how important it is to be positive in your role of teacher.

From one day to the next

Caroline Knight

Caroline Knight describes the process of getting the students in the school to go from live teaching to online teaching within a week.

New for subscribers

Young learner language assessment

Nick Manthei

Nick Manthei describes four different approaches to testing and assessment which should satisfy all stakeholders.

Making class debates meaningful

Jason Anderson

Jason Anderson sets out clear guidelines for planning and organising debates in class. Good preparation increases the likelihood of lively and interesting debate generating more language to work from.

Why use readers?

Michael Lacey Freeman

Michael Lacey Freeman suggests ways of using readers to engage young learners by using their curiosity, imagination and reflection.

Young learner language assessment

Nick Manthei

Nick Manthei describes four different approaches to testing and assessment which should satisfy all stakeholders.

Making class debates meaningful

Jason Anderson

Jason Anderson sets out clear guidelines for planning and organising debates in class. Good preparation increases the likelihood of lively and interesting debate generating more language to work from.

Why use readers?

Michael Lacey Freeman

Michael Lacey Freeman suggests ways of using readers to engage young learners by using their curiosity, imagination and reflection.

New for subscribers

Young learner language assessment

Nick Manthei

Nick Manthei describes four different approaches to testing and assessment which should satisfy all stakeholders.

Making class debates meaningful

Jason Anderson

Jason Anderson sets out clear guidelines for planning and organising debates in class. Good preparation increases the likelihood of lively and interesting debate generating more language to work from.

Why use readers?

Michael Lacey Freeman

Michael Lacey Freeman suggests ways of using readers to engage young learners by using their curiosity, imagination and reflection.

Sponsored advertorials

Implicit and explicit critical thinking activities

National Geographic Learning

Paul Dummett presents a few examples of what implicit and explicit critical thinking activities look like.

A Working Model for Critical Thinking in the ELT Classroom

National Geographic Learning

In our October article on the topic of Critical Thinking in ELT, my co-author Paul Dummett suggested that critical thinking in English language teaching should involve more than simply identifying fact from misinformation or searching texts for supporting evidence. We argue instead that critical thinking is more encompassing and should be viewed as a ‘critical disposition’ (Davis and Barnett, 2015) or as an enquiring mindset towards learning.

Bringing Shakespeare into the classroom

Helbing English

‘To be or not to be…’ This famous Shakespeare quote may be familiar to your students even if they haven’t read or seen Hamlet. In fact, given much of our everyday language contains expressions and idioms from Shakespeare, your students might recognise more words from his plays than they think. Consequently, it is worth tapping into his plays to enrich your language classroom.

Implicit and explicit critical thinking activities

National Geographic Learning

Paul Dummett presents a few examples of what implicit and explicit critical thinking activities look like.

A Working Model for Critical Thinking in the ELT Classroom

National Geographic Learning

In our October article on the topic of Critical Thinking in ELT, my co-author Paul Dummett suggested that critical thinking in English language teaching should involve more than simply identifying fact from misinformation or searching texts for supporting evidence. We argue instead that critical thinking is more encompassing and should be viewed as a ‘critical disposition’ (Davis and Barnett, 2015) or as an enquiring mindset towards learning.

Bringing Shakespeare into the classroom

Helbing English

‘To be or not to be…’ This famous Shakespeare quote may be familiar to your students even if they haven’t read or seen Hamlet. In fact, given much of our everyday language contains expressions and idioms from Shakespeare, your students might recognise more words from his plays than they think. Consequently, it is worth tapping into his plays to enrich your language classroom.

Sponsored advertorial

Implicit and explicit critical thinking activities

National Geographic Learning

Paul Dummett presents a few examples of what implicit and explicit critical thinking activities look like.

A Working Model for Critical Thinking in the ELT Classroom

National Geographic Learning

In our October article on the topic of Critical Thinking in ELT, my co-author Paul Dummett suggested that critical thinking in English language teaching should involve more than simply identifying fact from misinformation or searching texts for supporting evidence. We argue instead that critical thinking is more encompassing and should be viewed as a ‘critical disposition’ (Davis and Barnett, 2015) or as an enquiring mindset towards learning.

Bringing Shakespeare into the classroom

Helbing English

‘To be or not to be…’ This famous Shakespeare quote may be familiar to your students even if they haven’t read or seen Hamlet. In fact, given much of our everyday language contains expressions and idioms from Shakespeare, your students might recognise more words from his plays than they think. Consequently, it is worth tapping into his plays to enrich your language classroom.

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Latest book reviews

Alan Maley’s 50 Creative Activities

Mark Rooney reviews Alan Maley’s 50 Creative Activities.

ETpedia Management 500 ideas for managing an English Language school

Matthew Hallett reviews ETpedia Management 500 ideas for managing an English Language school by Fiona Dunlop, Keith Harding and Robert McLarty.

New from our publisher

In this Pavilion ELT vlog, Damien Herlihy takes pause from his  ‘The Internet as a Virtual Textbook’ series to discuss the challenges the ELT profession has been facing due to Covid-19, and what he’s learnt so far.