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Charlie Ellis

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Charlie is a researcher and EFL teacher who writes on culture, politics, sport and specialty coffee. He has published several academic articles on political ideology and culture. His current projects include examining the thought of the political theorist and essayist Bernard Crick, and work on the rich cultural life of the Scottish artist and promoter of the visual and performing arts Richard Demarco. ---- Email: charliejellis@gmail.com

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Ready for anything

One of the realities of the ELT sector is the difficulty of finding permanent positions. Teachers who are job hunting often need to do a little bit extra to get their 'foot in the door'. This can include cover work at very short notice. This article suggests that teachers should prepare themselves to grasp these opportunities by having lessons up their sleeves. In addition, having these ready to deploy may help get you through some tight moments in your teaching career. A lesson in 15 minutes The need to have lessons up my sleeve came home to me early in my...

What Theodore Zeldin can teach language teachers

Explore how meaningful conversations, inspired by Theodore Zeldin and how it can transform language learning and foster genuine cultural exchange. Humans have already changed the world several times by changing the way they have had conversations. Theodore Zeldin, Conversation (1999) Conversation classes are usually considered a way to supplement ‘proper’ language lessons and improve fluency. But surely we are all aiming to create meaningful conversations in all of our classes? When new students arrive in a class we usually try and integrate them through asking a few questions about where they are from. Ideally, this evolves into a meaningful exchange between students: a...

Why teachers should embrace ‘triple teaching’

Charlie Ellis argues that by reusing materials at different levels you can grade appropriate tasks and save time on the search for resources to use.

Global Voices – Charlie Ellis

The author shares his teaching and learning experiences.

Helping your students discover the value of writing

The author describes writing as a way of changing the pace of lessons into a more reflective stage where learners organise their thoughts and redraft their writing.

Not music to my ears

Charlie Ellis offers some advice on how to turn apathy or other negative attitudes into a positive learning experience and advises learner choice when it comes to topics.

What speciality coffee can tell us about language teaching

Charlie Ellis argues that care needs to be taken in your choice of material, the approach you use, and the way you handle the class. You also need an ability to adapt to your students’ needs and to continue to develop personally.

A rapport building activity on adjectives

Being able to remember and pronounce well your students’ names is a good starting point for showing the importance of pronunciation. The article develops this idea into a fun and engaging activity for building rapport.

The afflictions of ELT: four teacher maladies and their symptoms

Charlie Ellis takes a light-hearted look at the maladies that commonly afflict English language teachers – he identifies four possible afflictions and their typical symptoms.

Classroom language: an overlooked teaching opportunity

Charlie Ellis finds that many typical classroom phrases have relevance beyond the classroom, so teaching them has benefits that go far beyond classroom management.

Fringe benefits: using an arts festival as a resource

Charlie Ellis explains how the Edinburgh Fringe Festival provided him with resources and inspiration for his teaching, and suggests how you can add a Fringe flavour to your lessons.

Oblique strategies: finding inspiration from cards

Charlie Ellis uses the ‘Oblique strategies’ cards developed by Brian Eno to provide inspiration for his teaching – and develops his own set of cards which can be used at random.

In defence of politics: tackling a taboo subject

Charlie Ellis argues that there is a place for the discussion of politics, as defined by Bernard Crick, in the language teaching classroom and that it shouldn’t be regarded as a taboo subject.