Archive
Teaching English without a Course Book – Week 2
NEW from i to i – 20 Free Classroom Activities!
Whether it’s your first day in the classroom or your fiftieth – every ESL teacher is in need of a little helping hand every now and then.
Here are 20 free classroom activities from i-to-i which include classroom tips and accompanying handouts which you can photocopy for your lessons!
Get yours here!
FREE English Vocabulary and Pronunciation Workout! (Video of online lesson)
This is a recording of a free class I taught on WizIQ.com on 28.02.13: http://www.wiziq.com/online-class/1140564-free-english-vocabulary-and-pronunciation-workout You can download the free material that we used here: http://www.scribd.com/doc/127589616/Auto-Mode-3-Example
Auto Mode 3 – Practise vocabulary, grammar, and pronunciation skills together!
FREE English Class on the topic of “Clothes”! (VIDEO)
You are welcome to join us for this FREE pre-intermediate English language class on the topic of “Clothes”. It was a pleasure to teach this class last night in partnership with MySchoolo.com
The First English Banana Trust Summer School was a Great Success!
Last week the first English Banana Trust Summer School was held at Greshams School in Holt, Norfolk. The focus was on teacher training and how to teach without a course book, and we were pleased to welcome four English language teachers from Russia, Hungary, and Serbia. Course tutor Matt Purland focused on training the teachers to teach without using a course book, based on methods from his recent manual You Are The Course Book. The teachers thoroughly enjoyed the week, which was sponsored by English Banana Trust. Apart from five hours of lessons per day – and plenty of homework! – the participants were able to enjoy a diverse number of outings ranging from a visit to the famous seal colony at Blakeney Point, a guided tour of Norwich with an experienced historian, and several delightful shared meals and get-togethers with trustees and friends of the Trust.
Here are a few comments from some of the participants at the end of the course:
‘I feel I’ve gained enough confidence to teach without materials. I also feel that my creativity has been exposed to the higher level and that’s really good and exciting.’ – Marija
‘I feel the passion to continue my self-education in this area which I consider to be really innovative…’ – Nadia
Course tutor Matt commented: ‘I would like to thank the Trust for all their hard work and dedication in staging the summer school this year. We have all really gained a lot out of it. It was wonderful to watch our teachers in action and to see them grow in confidence and be able to teach their own lessons without a course book – or any printed material.’
If you would like to get involved with next year’s EBT Summer School – as either a participant or a tutor – please contact English Banana Trust at: ebtrust@englishbanana.com
Or if you would like to book Matt to run a similar week-long training course at your educational establishment, please do get in touch at: info@englishbanana.com
Here are some photos of the participants hard at work in the classroom, and (in bottom picture) with tutor Matt after the final session of the course:
Planning an English Class without a Course Book to Hold your Hand
Talk a Lot English Invites You to Discover… YOU ARE THE COURSE BOOK!
You are very welcome to join me for my next FREE online lesson on WizIQ.com next Tuesday evening at 8pm CET:
For full details, please click here:
Two Free English Lessons this week on WizIQ.com!
This week I’m doing two free lessons on WizIQ.com. You are welcome to sign up below! Hope to see you there. 
How to Teach English without an Expensive Course Book Public Class
Wed, Mar 07, 2012 | 8:30 PM (Central European Standard Time)
http://www.wiziq.com/online-class/778438-how-to-teach-english-without-an-expensive-course-book
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English Banana Trust Free Summer School – Q&A Session #1 Public Class
Sat, Mar 10, 2012 | 5:00 PM (Central European Standard Time)
http://www.wiziq.com/online-class/779030-english-banana-trust-free-summer-school-q-a-session-1
English Banana Trust is Featured in the North Norfolk News (02.02.12)
Membean for Students and Teachers (FREE VIDEO)
Extend Your Vocabulary Easily with Membean.com!
We’ve recently been trying out a brand new web service which aims to help you to extend your vocabulary. Membean is a really fun way to “lock in” new words – through a variety of methods.
We asked Membean Founder and CEO Ragav Satish to explain more about the goals of this valuable site:
“Membean is a unique web-based vocabulary learning environment that has its roots in research on human memory and learning. At Membean vocabulary comes to life through engaging video, rich imagery, interactive visualizations, quirky memory devices and unforgettable passages. Once a word is learned it must be maintained in the memory. This is where Membean’s unique Adaptive Reinforcement Engine comes in. Based on your interaction with the tool, it knows when to show you a new word, what questions to ask you and when you need to re-learn a word.” It really is fantastic! Here is an example of a word definition page, for the word “panache”:
The other great thing about Membean is that it really motivates you to learn – plus it is totally addictive! You can sign up for a free membership today, and find out what we mean!
NEW! Free Lesson Plan: “Time Travelling Job Swap”
More than 1.6 Million English Banana.com Free English Books Downloaded since 2008!
We recently had a count up and we’re excited to announce that (since April 2008) more than 1.6 million people have downloaded English Banana.com free English printable books!
The actual total to date is 1,615,276 , which averages out at 1,224 free downloads every day over the past 3.5 years!
This stat comes from the number of books downloaded from our pages on CNET and Scribd. Check them out and maybe you will find something useful for either teaching or learning English! This figure doesn’t include downloads from other websites where the books are hosted as well, e.g. Google Books, Guardian Teacher Network, Slideshare, and other file-sharing sites – so the total number of English Banana.com books downloaded over the past few years will be actually much higher!
The last time we did the count (about this time last year) the total figure was just over 820,000 books downloaded, which means that the number of people who have been able to benefit from our free material has more than doubled in one year! This is really exciting for us here at English Banana.com!
The most popular free English Banana.com books – by a large margin – are Talk a Lot Elementary Book 1, and Big Grammar Book. We are absolutely thrilled to see that the material is being so widely distributed on the internet and used in many different teaching situations around the world. We love getting feedback every day from teachers and students who are benefiting from using the material. You can see some of the places where they are being used on this Google Map, and find out how people are using our free licences, which make the free material really FREE.
If you are a teacher or student who enjoys working with English Banana.com material, why not email us a picture of yourself using it in the classroom. We’d love to see it!
Download this New Free Printable Lesson on the Topic of Work and Being Off Sick!
10 Levels of Politeness in English
Imagine the scene: a young couple arrive home after a long day at work. One of them is hungry. There are many different ways to get what you want in English, but being polite will probably be the most effective way. But how polite should you be? Look at the following levels of politeness, and decide which level is the most acceptable:
↑ MORE DIRECT ↑
1. “Dinner!”
2. “Make dinner!”
3. “Make dinner, please.”
4. “Can you make dinner, please.”
5. “Could you make dinner, please.”
6. “Could you possibly make dinner, please.”
7. “Could you possibly make dinner, please, if you have time.”
8. “Could you possibly make dinner, please, if you have time – if you don’t mind.”
9. “I was wondering whether you could possibly make dinner, please, if you have time – if you don’t mind.”
10. “Sweetheart – I was wondering whether you could possibly make dinner, please, if you have time – if you don’t mind.”
↓ MORE POLITE ↓
Answer: Level 5 or 6 would be fine in this situation, while Levels 1-3 are too direct. In general, English ears hate to hear the imperative voice (giving orders). Levels 7-10 are maybe too polite and too formal for a young couple who know each other well. As you can see, the more words and clauses in the sentence – and especially the more modal verbs – the more polite it becomes.
Free Exam Practice: iPass IELTS Speaking Video 1
Practice Sentence Blocks – Town (Talk a Lot Elementary Book 1)
How to Make Sentence Blocks – Talk a Lot Free Spoken English Course
Teacher Tip #6 Teaching Long Sentences or Words Using Chunking
I’ve found a really useful video on the topic of chunking from Meylysa on YouTube. Thanks Meylysa! Don’t forget to check out my free lesson this Saturday on WIZQ.com, where we’ll study more about chunking!
Thursday 11th August: Practice IELTS Speaking Test…!
Practice Parts 1-3 of the IELTS Speaking Test and get personalized help and advice with an experienced Teacher of IELTS!
Why should you pay to learn English with me? Well, here are 7 good reasons:
* I’m an English native speaker
* I’ve been teaching English full time since 2002, so I’m experienced
* I’ve been teaching on WizIQ since 2009, so I know how to teach online
* I have nearly 200 member recommendations on WizIQ, which isn’t easy to get
* I’ve written hundreds of pages of material for learning English, including 11 books and all the material on English Banana.com website
* I really want to help YOU to improve your English – speaking, listening, reading, writing, grammar… Tell me what you want to work on and we’ll do it!
* Finally… my lessons are cheap! Let’s face it: $10 an hour for a quality lesson isn’t expensive ;o)
