ELT Straight Talk

Speaking at the MaWSIG pre-conference event at IATEFL 2014

I’ve finally taken the plunge. I’ve been thinking about starting a website or blog for years but was put off by my fear of not keeping it up. I’m one of those people with a cupboard full of banjos and karate outfits. Then, three things happened this year that prompted me into action.

First TeachingEnglish invited me to be a regular monthly blogger. I saw this as an opportunity. It was a chance to see whether a blog was really for me, whether I’d actually enjoy it. And I thought, “If I can keep up a monthly blog post as a guest blogger, I’ll be able to keep up my own blog.”

The second thing was my first experience of attending the 2014 IATEFL conference. It gave me a boost of motivation and put me in touch with lots of people who are passionate about our profession. Some of these people have shown me that there is a growing community of ELT bloggers out there, sharing ideas and resources and debating every aspect of our profession. I think I’d like to be a part of that.

The third thing was that I was asked by the British Council to write some teacher training materials for English teachers with a very low level of English. It isn’t the first time I’ve written materials for non-native English teachers with an A1 or A2 level of English but it made me consider some of the difficulties these teachers face when they access ELT websites and blogs as a way of continuing their self development.

I’m planning to have a couple of regular sections on the blog. Some of these will be in the archives (until I find a better way of displaying them): 1. Straight talking ELT, with easy-to-understand introductions to all things ELT – methodologies, buzz words, trends and approaches. 2. Lesson plans, with the focus on simplicity because teachers like simple activities which require little or no preparation. 3. Straight talking guests, with posts by … and interviews with … ELT professionals. As things get up and running I’ll add a section called 4. Straight talking from teachers and learners, where teachers and students will share their experiences about the ways they teach and learn.

Thank you very much for taking the time to read my first blog post.

Katherine