The behaviourist approach to language learning grew out of the belief that students could learn a second language by being taught to produce the correct "response" to the appropriate "stimulus". The student would then receive either instant positive or instant negative "reinforcement"....Read On

How To Do Listening in the ESL Class

What can be done at different stages of a listening activity to help our students? It is helpful to divide a listening activity into three distinct stages: the pre-listening, the while-listening and the after-listening. The pre- stage is vitally important if we want our students....Read On

The Benefits of Computer Aided Language Learning

Computers can be a huge help to both students and teachers, but there needs to be a lot of thought given to how best to use them. Simply dumping students on computers for a couple of hours without thought as to what they will actually be doing will not be helpful. Using computers allows a teacher....Read On

Prescriptive Teaching in the ESL Classroom

Being prescriptivist means not only describing the system of language to the students but also insisting that the students conform to using only what the teacher uses or what is presented in a course book. Students would then have errors corrected which are not necessarily....Read On

To Separate A Language From Its Culture - Or Not?

A language cannot be separated from the culture in which it is embedded. Is this true? What implications does this have for the English language teacher? There are strong links between the culture of a country and its language. Language is worn as a badge of ethnicity, a badge of cultural independence worldwide....Read On

Difference Between Learning and Acquisition in ESL.

Stephen Krashen draws a big distinction between learnt and acquired language, a distinction that has caused controversy in itself, quite apart from his ideas for promoting this acquisition. According to Krashen, students who are taught in a formal, form-focussed way will "learn" the language but never fully acquire it. Read On

Role Plays and Simulations.

How can we best utilise role plays and simulations in the ESL classroom to maximise their usefulness and give students at least a taste of what they may face in the "real world"? Read On