CELTA | Spicy Tooth

Why I prefer Zoom for English language teaching

Here in the UK, we’re a few weeks into remote teaching and learning and many of us (teachers and students) have been trying to get to grips with online classes. At the place where I work, Teams is being heavily pushed onto us by the senior management as a platform that is easy to use….

Resources for teaching remotely

Recent events have resulted in the closure of educational establishments around the world. Some schools appear to be better prepared than others for the remote delivery of lessons. Unfortunately, the organisation where I work is scrambling to try to get things organised after having closed to students. While applications that enable classes to be taught…

Teaching Contexts (CELTA)

One of the input sessions on our CELTA course looks at different teaching contexts. As the end of the course approaches, this is quite an interesting and valuable session because it gets the trainees thinking about different contexts they could find themselves teaching in post-CELTA; it’s easy to think that the classes you might find…

Warmers and fillers

Warmers and fillers are short activities that are used at the start a lesson or in the middle of a lesson to fulfil one or more purposes. These may include engaging learners, introducing some variety into a lesson and developing group dynamics. It is useful for a teacher to have a bank of these activities…

Online-Stopwatch.com

Do you ever find it difficult to know the right time to tell learners to stop doing an activity? Do you find it difficult to fit everything you planned into the lesson? Using a timer may be the answer! Online-Stopwatch.com provides you almost every kind of timer you could ever want and some you never…

Newspapers

There are an incredible range of online newspapers, many of which are free. A lot of online newspapers have e-editions, that present the newspaper as it would appear in a traditional newspaper. Here are a selection of e-editions: The Metro was originally a free London newspaper that was distributed at London Underground stations. It has…

BarryFunEnglish

BarryFunEnglish is a site with a comprehensive range of resources for practising English. There are interactive and printable flashcards, games, worksheets and teaching tools. The teaching tools and printable flashcards are completely free to use, while the other resources ‘cost’ 1 credit per use. Signing up for a free account gives you 8 free credits…

Bingo card creator

myfreebingocards is one of many free bingo card creators on the Internet. Not only does this site come with a wide range of ready-made topics for bingo cards, but there is also a bingo card generator that allows you to enter your own words. A variety of themes are available to make your bingo cards…

Padlet

Writing is very often a solitary activity. I remember when I was a student, being set an essay or assignment, sitting there with a blank sheet of paper in front of me, not knowing where to start. Padlet is a great online tool that allows you to write and see what others have written in…

Phonology resources

Here are a selection of resources related to phonology: Adrian Underhill’s interactive phonemic chart (and pdf version) is useful for trainees and students alike. He is the author of Sound Foundations, a book on teaching phonology, and also has a series of videos on YouTube on pronunciation, as well as The Pronunciation Blog. Cambridge English…