Blogs

  • Those aren’t real tortellini!

    Published on 10th March, 2010 in Global Bloggers by Leah Kaplan

    Italians will readily admit that the only glue holding the myriad of Italian peoples together is a strong cup of espresso. Not even the ubiquitous pasta is the same from one city to the next: ask a Bolognese his opinion about the tortellini made in Modena (20 kilometers away) more…

  • Happy Trails in Switzerland

    Published on 9th March, 2010 in Global Bloggers by Amy Jost

    Happiness – what a nice topic to discuss in English class. You can’t help but feel better just thinking about it.
    We began our lesson from Global’s unit 6 writing down 5 things that make us happy. No ranking was called for, no judgments would be made, we simply more…

  • Welcome to a new Global blogger

    Published on 5th March, 2010 in Global Bloggers by Leah Kaplan

    We’d like to welcome our newest Global blogger to the site, and we’ll let her introduce herself…
    English alla Bolognese: Leah’s adventures in EFL teaching
    I came to Bologna as a university student on a semester abroad and fell in love. I fell in love with my Bolognese husband, but also more…

  • English and an Alpine Nation

    Published on 4th March, 2010 in Global Bloggers by Amy Jost

    Is global traveling possible without the use of English? My students would have difficulty traveling outside of central Europe with only their mother tongues of German, French or Italian. The Swiss generally welcome English and the ease it lends them when relating to the outside world, especially when more…

  • Reading to speaking

    Published on 2nd March, 2010 in Teaching Tips by Frances Watkins

    After a ‘heads down’ activity such as reading, where students have been actively but quietly focused, I try to counter-balance this with a speaking activity. (See ‘meat and rice’ weeks 1 and 2). Some texts lend themselves perfectly to a discussion or personalisation task, but here are some general ideas more…

  • Dispatch from Spain – Pepsi or Pesi?

    Published on 2nd March, 2010 in Author Blog by Lindsay Clandfield

    Here’s a commercial that is running on Spanish television recently. It features the Spanish football (soccer) player Fernando Torres – currently a star striker with Liverpool.

    What’s interesting about this advertisement is how it shows Torres, who is Spanish, getting irritated by the director’s attempts to correct his pronunciation. Finally he more…

  • Rocket Science

    Published on 24th February, 2010 in Global Bloggers by Amy Jost

    ‘Frauen und Technik’, is a German idiom which translates to ‘Women and Technology’ and is said in a sexist way, suggesting women can’t manage technological challenges. My students, all males, mostly engineers, have been known to sigh “Frauen und Technik” to me in class.
    So it was with a more…

  • Dispatch from Ireland – Amazing books, buildings and beer

    Published on 24th February, 2010 in Author Blog by Lindsay Clandfield

    “We have sold the myth of Dublin as a sexy place incredibly well; because it is a dreary little dump most of the time.” Well, this rather nasty quote from Irish author Roddy Doyle is NOT really one I would agree with. This was my second visit to Dublin, and more…

  • Brainstorming: variations on a classic technique

    Published on 23rd February, 2010 in Teaching Tips by Frances Watkins

    Brainstorming is a commonly used technique in our classrooms at all levels. It focuses students and prepares them for a topic, it can enforce co-operation and thus energise students and it shows students (and you) what they already know. In addition, it can be fun if handled as a competition. more…

  • Dispatch from the UK – ESOL, EFL, ESL… what’s the difference?

    Published on 18th February, 2010 in Author Blog by Lindsay Clandfield

    Most teachers will be aware of what the three basic acronyms above stand for in our field, but in case you aren’t here they are again:
    - English for Speakers of Other Languages
    - English as a Foreign Language
    - English as a Second Language
    In the UK the first two, and especially ESOL, more…

  • Spelling 2

    Published on 18th February, 2010 in Teaching Tips by Frances Watkins

    Last week I gave two very simple suggestions to practise spelling, and using this to either reinforce vocabulary, or to use as warmers to lead in to a topic, for example. Here are three more suggestions, which you’ll find similarly focus students’ minds.
    - Spell out words to students but more…

  • Olympics, here we come!

    Published on 16th February, 2010 in Global Bloggers by Amy Jost

    For the first homework assignment, I asked my students to choose four pages out of the Global Pre-intermediate book that interested them. The Olympic story in Unit 9 was a unanimous “must”, seeing as how the Winter Olympics were beginning on Feb. 12th, so a mere week after that more…

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