In any teacher trainer workshop or webinar when asked for ideas on a given picture, a given quote, etc there will be a constant flow of ideas coming in from keen teachers willing to have their say, often ideas are mediocre at most compared to what the speaker will enlighten us with but it's ideas, it's a willingness to participating
Put the same situation into a classroom and ideas, the same method, the same show a photo and elicit ideas technique and students go quiet.

Upper-intermediate/Advanced lesson:

Procrastination
film-english-com
+ video from "Tales from mere existence in youtube"

teach v/n/person who...
vocabulary:
get things done
get down to doing
...avoding doing... pattern
(maybe contrast avoid with help and prevent?)
 since I am...
get expressions in the video (youtube) - notice - meaning - classify

L1 and non-native teachers

There seems to be little controversy nowadays about the use of students L1 when common in the class. I've always been a supporter of this as it speeds up the process of understanding rules and creating equivalences when things work out differently in the L1 and target language. Again, this is for adults who have studied English all their lives and they can't seem to get through the stage of only using the present continuous and still get the stay instead of be.
This really makes the process quicker and it sheds light on them.


As a non-native speaker teacher, you
- can better empathise with your learners
- have a clearer idea of what can be tricky for them to learn because you may have gone through a similar process
- know more than one set of grammar rules and find it easier to find examples and provide explanations
- ...

... expand later

cambridge english teacher has a great webinar given by Sylvana Richardson which will resonate with many of you, non-native teachers. Check it out if you have a spare hour.

I became a teacher because...

I became a teacher ...
for selfish reasons.

How can a teacher be selfish?
As far back as I can remember, I have always wanted my job to have an ever-lasting positive impact on the "receiver's" life. I've wanted it to stay with the person so they can benefit from what I do. And the truth is that much as teaching has its challenges, involves a good deal of frustration sometimes, it also involves a great sense of worthiness, satisfaction and fulfilment.
I like it when I can help others with whatever knowledge I have. I wonder what that says about me.

Beginners

To Frustrated teachers
You think you're not measuring up?
you're a bit dissatisfied with your teaching method?
Slow learners? or wrong method?

Before you flog yourself for not succeeding in getting them to learn what you want them to learn and how you want them to learn it, speak to your students, get their feedback. The odds are that you'll feel uplifted by what they say about you. They want results, if there are results, if they feel they are making progress they are likely to be happy with your performance even if they and you think you can perform better.
Try not to be too tough on your teaching skills, on yourself. 

What I do with false beginners is book work plus writing and speaking practice that involves them and their family, friends or colleagues to get them to use the phrases seen. And get them to take one step further. We're doing Jobs, ask them what the people in the photos studied to become xyz and see how much they retain, show analogies with endings as a secondary (or terciary) objective, as an awareness-raising goal.

Ideas with readers:
Readers reading seem to be a task they enjoy. Read at home (listen and read with audio available), go through vocab they lookeed up at home in class, read in class,choose scenes and perform, put illustrations in order (negotiate, discuss),
favorite character, why? describe
favourite scene, why?
summary of book/chapters
author
time it was set in
test their new vocabulary
chronology of events
translate paragraphrs
...

How to improve your listening skills

 How to improve your listening skills (and oral production).  -written three years ago or + I am actually transfering stuff from my howadultslearn wiki onto the blog here.

A lot of students see themselves to be familiar with grammar but they feel stuck with listening, understanding skils. It's a very tricky area. Understanding oral production can be very hard, it's not easy. After a certain age, our phonological system stops being able to produce new sounds (new to our existing sounds). That makes the listening and the production of certain sounds hard, which also has an impact on our listening understanding skills. It's not quick. Yet, it's not only that. The way I see it, if you lack a good grasp of grammar, clearly understanding the difference between tenses so as to get the right idea (ie finished or unfinished), a wide range of vocabulary of the topic you are spoken about and an awareness of connected speech, weak forms, etc it's going to be hard to truely achieve this level of understanding students aim to. I am not saying it's impossible to achieve, I am a non-native speaker myself. Improving your listening, as students says, is achieveable but often slow and it requires training and help in most cases. On top of that there's the primary or secondary school background, a lot of students in Spain have a not nice aftertaste of their school year as far as English goes and they are a bit stuck, blocked more than unable to understand.
So get reading, get listening, get someone to help you polish up and listen out for little sounds that make a world of a difference in the sentence, learn the connectors and conjuctions, not just the key words that help you interpret the general idea but they show you the flow of the utterance. You won't understand if you dont know the language or the grammar, you'll think you understand cos you make two and two together out of the key words you do catch. Make a bigger effort and analyse the whole sentence without being obssessed with it as probably there's no need for it!

See below:

I know of a website which teaches English in Spanish: (i'll translate that shortly): here is a part of a contribution i made to it. This is a bit of a piece of advice for those who find understanding oral production hard:

Al fin y al cabo todos tus seguidores ya tienen la base que les dejaron los profes de rpimaria y secundaria. Creo que es muy indicado explicar conceptos, compararlos.

Hay que entender que para...por ejemplo, listening, para mejorar el listening skill hay que aceptar que es un proceso lento, que require de tener consciencia de los sonidos y de las diferencias entre sonidos, que si no se tiene el vocabulario es normal no entender, y que el cerebro os dará la palabra más parecida que sepáis a lo que oigáis (hoy por ejemplo he hecho un listening con una alumna donde aparecía la palabra "strains" que no conocía y ella ha pensado en "strange"...solo hay un sonido distinto y entendia lo que sabía, no lo que no sabía) ; y que es muy bueno entender la relación entre palabras para captar lo que resulta dificil de captar (weak forms)(pronunciación), aprender vocabulario no palabra a palabra sino en collocations

How to gain fluency

 How to gain fluency -- written three years ago

What do they need to be fluent in another language? The one million dollar question many would like answered. Doing so is not as easy as providing an answer to it. We teachers have reeled off ways and tools and methods, etc that should and would help students gain fluency. Haven't we? But do they? Well yes. But it takes a while.
We have all said that it's as little difficult as trying not to think in your own language and translating word by word! No need to say that in the first place would be having vocabulary enough and the speed to retrieve and use this when you need it. And if they are not quick enough to use what they know you know, having enough strategies, resources to keep speaking coherently while they are digging for the right expression/word. Yes! expression: it's much effective to learn in chunks. I always tell them to try no to learn one word at a time, but the word with the preposition it goes with or the word it usually goes with, ...i'll give you examples later.
In my opinion, unless they have an ok command of the language, exposure to real life, authentic and native speed delivery is usually frustrating! Exposure to stuff they feel you understand most of it, it's pointless to have lots of native input if they have no idea of the words used, pronunciation and the effect of mispronunciation!
It's true that much as pronunciation is important we will all agree that it's not a matter of sounding like a native speaker, as long as what they produce is understandable, it should be fine! there's really no need to speak native-like! specially if they communicate with other non-native speakers. Plus students would certainly agree that it's a lot more encouraging if you speak to other learners with slightly higher levels than you.

More later...

And how do you evaluate speaking?
- with the range of structure and vocabulary they use now as opposed to xyz ago.You can record conversations and months later record a similar one and compare. Alternatively, take notes of the students strengths and weaknesses.
- how quickly they understand what's being said/asked and if they respond accordingly
- how fluent they've become
- what mistakes have been addressed/ corrected
- how much self-correction there is / awareness of mistakes, confidence.


how to become more fluent:
- speak more, listen to real english, meet native speakers and good users (and get corrected). listen and write to help you remember things. take a notebook with you to write down words.
-listen to what native do..: insert expressions, stress words / patterns..
-think in english
-speak to yourself in english
-read out loud
-the more vocab you know and pronounce correctly (therefore can identify at normal speed delivery) the more quickly you'll learn it. the more confident they'll get and as a result eventually more fluent.
-have very clear patterns of use of confusing words (ie. manage to / sth)
-dictations and write expressions they hear.

What linguists and experts and many others often say that the ability to improve your skills at speaking a certain language is gained by speaking may be true for some but I'd dare to say that with the right feedback and corrections and motivation from the teacher (to me, there's nothing like having a teacher up to a certain level). Correction and understanding why structures are the way they are, having the right word or expression for the right context so as long as there is relevant previous exposure to English and correction, in this case ... Many adults want to know and understand their mistakes, both those accuracy- and fluency-oriented students.
Yet some learn to speak by taking a very active role in listening. (it worked well as just by listening for contexts in which a certain word that caught their attention - even if they had never came across the word or expression - you learned it. From my experience, those accuracy-oriented students find dictations a good way of learning to speak, reading out loud may be too, although i am in the process of testing this.

It also helps being familiar with sth, I think it's important to develop an awareness of the process, first being made aware of words, discourse markers, etc, knowing sth exists or sth is said this way or that, and being reminded of it (often). Then identifying it in a utterance, spotting it again and again (as a word, an expression, a phrasal verb..) and associating this words with a meaning according to context (be quick enough to put together the words and the meaning according to where it appears in and the final stages of learning (and at last acquiring it hopefully) using it, and being corrected if not used appropiately.

Lesson of the day for me...as the teacher.
Once again life tells me you can't judge a horse by its teeth. People who seem to be in two different worlds might be closer than you judge them to be.

IATEFL British Council

I have to teach someone who writes like English sounds. He is a spear of Arabic.
ai houp tu si you sun - I hope to see you soon
trai it mor - try it more
samar - summer

Maybe work on your handwriting from Collins will help--not sure it will, having taken a look at the book now.

I'll try writing what he wrote in correct spelling, so that he identifies what he says and hears with the correct spellins.
I will also help him identify patterns of pronunciation.
I'll suggest reading and listening at the same time, with my help first and on his own.

I'll have to find out how to do this because it's going to be a huge challenge.
Any ideas?

Most books are made for people learning english from scratch
yet the reality is that most people have studied english in the past, are somehow familiar with things they can't use and ask the teacher about this when it¡s just another level, usually higher.
how do you deal with this situation?...
(cambridge stepteach talk thornbury)

Connectors advanced levels

advice: http://elblogdelingles.blogspot.com.es/2013/05/4-consejos-para-reescribir-con-exito.html

http://www.eslflow.com/transitionalconnectingandlinkingwords.html            lots lots lots of links!!!!

http://esl.about.com/od/writingadvanced/a/wc_opposition.htm                    + other links

http://www.xtec.cat/~ogodoy/sac/rephrasing/rephrexercises.htm                  click on exercises on the left

http://www.agendaweb.org/grammar/conjunctions-english-exercises.html    lots of links
http://www.agendaweb.org/grammar/conjunctions-connectors-exercises.html  (easy)

exercise online
http://www.englishexercises.org/makeagame/viewgame.asp?id=2163
http://www.englishexercises.org/makeagame/viewgame.asp?id=5348
http://www.tolearnenglish.com/exercises/exercise-english-2/exercise-english-91807.php

CAE level material

http://www.flo-joe.com/cae/students/writing/linking/                   4 exercises CAE level

http://www.esl-lounge.com/student/grammar/4g67-linking-words.php

http://www.learn-english-today.com/lessons/lesson_contents/exercises/linking-words-ex.htm

Create your own lessons with videos from youtube and ted through    http://ed.ted.com/

Sign up, create your own lessons (watch tutorial). I have created a few ones but I don't quite like some of the tools there, but it looks cool and if you have a clear idea of what you aim at and have watched the video a few times, it's pretty straightforward. 

Reported Speech

REPORTED SPEECH WEBSITES and resources

http://www.perfect-english-grammar.com/reported-speech.html

http://www.learnenglish.de/grammar/reportedspeech.html

engvid

intermediate  http://www.engvid.com/english-grammar-reported-speech/

http://www.engvid.com/say-tell-reported-speech/  say and tell

advanced  http://www.engvid.com/grammar-reported-speech-indirect-speech/

slideshares (many)

http://www.englishlearner.com/tests/report.html

http://www.englisch-hilfen.de/en/exercises_list/reported.html

http://a4esl.org/q/h/9901/tm-reported1.html

http://a4esl.org/q/h/9807/lm-reported.html

http://www.ego4u.com/en/cram-up/grammar/reported-speech

http://esl.about.com/od/grammarintermediate/a/reported_speech.htm

http://www.eslus.com/LESSONS/GRAMMAR/REPORTSP/Rs1.htm

     games online (search)

grammar spectrum:  pre intermediate and intermedia

new english files
english grammar in use
how english works
longman grammar

domino (reward)

in company...

etc.

Such

Such, dictionary entry for more specific examples

Such (+ adjective +)  noun
That's such a good film.
It seems like such a long way to drive for just one day.
Oh Richard, you're such an idiot!
Such cruelty really is beyond my comprehension. -- notice no article here because cruelty is an abstract noun, therefore uncountable.
I'd put on such a lot of weight that I couldn't get into my trousers


such as (for example)
That sum of money is to cover costs such as travel and accommodation.

as such
There wasn't much vegetarian food as such, although there were several different types of cheese.
We don't have a secretary as such, but we do have a student who comes in to do a bit of filing.

download CAE and CPE books

http://cae-cpe.blogspot.com.es/

CFE word formation links and tips

WORD FORMATION – USE OF ENGLISH FOR FIRST CERTIFICATE

Recommendations for doing these exercises at home.

Don’t worry if you make many mistakes in your first attempt. You get better by repeating and repeating, but first, make sure you understand what you’re reading as well as any attempt at producing the word. Two of the objectives are to help you become familiar with words you didn’t know and to develop an intuition how to create derivatives.

-          Read the whole text once or twice and identify words you don’t understand.

-          Use google images or a dictionary to find out what the words are or mean.

-          Read text a second time, ensuring that you understand the meaning of words and identify what word type you need in each gap (noun, adjective, verb, adverb, opposite adjective?)

-          Do the exercise and check the answers.

-      Added value:    Cut and paste the text onto google translate or reverso and listen to it. Make you know how to pronounce words and sentences.

-          Do it all over again, two or three times.

-          Go back to this text in a few days’ time and do it over again.

Further exploitation of the text: Do you understand the suffixes? Does it make sense? Do you have an equivalent for such and such word? If not, what helps you identify the idea/meaning? 
If you translated the text, how different would it be from the English version? Would sentences be considerably different? 

A number of exercises FCE level:

http://www.flo-joe.com/fce/students/strategy/p3pt5a.htm

many (18) exercises FCE-like:

http://www.esl-lounge.com/student/first-certificate-word-formation.php

more:

http://www.examenglish.com/FCE/fce_use_of_english_part3_test2.htm

http://englishaula.com/en/use-of-english-part-3-word-formation-exercise-exam-2-fce-cambridge-first-certificate-english.html

http://www.tinyteflteacher.co.uk/learning-english/FCE/word-formation-verbs.html

negative words: http://www.tinyteflteacher.co.uk/learning-english/FCE/word-formation-negatives.html

https://etornauta.wordpress.com/category/word-formation/

http://www.autoenglish.org/FCEUse/FCEUsePart3.htm