Chia Suan Chong

175 POSTS

Chia Suan Chong blogged for English Teaching professional for 8 years, every fortnight, writing her final post back in September 2019. During her time as a blogger, she wrote 173 blog posts, writing from 5 different cities Ã¢â‚¬â€œ through holidays, through changes in her career, through 3 periods of maternity leave. She took on different roles as she continued to blog as a teacher, a teacher trainer, a communication skills trainer, an intercultural skills trainer, a writer, a freelancer and an educator and her blogs reflected those experiences as well as discussing controversial and topic issues in ELT and reporting back from conferences. Fascinated by the interplay between culture, language and thought, Chia is now an intercultural skills trainer, materials developer and author. She continues to write for Pavilion ELTÃ¢â‚¬â„¢s magazines and had a long-running column in ETp called "Not Only But Also". She is also the author of Successful International Communication (published by Pavilion Publishing and Media, 2018), and is now based in York.

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Top ten skills for the international communicators to cultivate

2014-07-25

What does it mean to be an international communicator? What kind of skills do our students need to communicate effectively in an intercultural arena? Chia Suan Chong lists her top ten.

The working hours of a teacher – part 2

2014-06-26

This week, Chia Suan Chong looks at the responses she received following her blogpost on working hours.

The working hours of a teacher – Part 1

2014-06-05

In her blog this week, Chia Suan Chong looks at how long teachers work inside and outside of the classroom.

Uncountable nouns, noncount nouns, or uncount nouns?

2014-05-22

In her blog this week, Chia Suan Chong looks at issues around countable and uncountable nouns...

ELT Blogs to follow in 2018

2014-04-24

Earlier this month, ETprofessional asked this question on Twitter: “What are your favourite ELT blogs and why?”

Top things to do at a conference

2014-03-20

With IATEFL almost upon us, self-confessed conference addict Chia Suan Chong blogs on how to get the most out of conferences.

How much metalanguage do you use?

2014-03-06

In her blog this week, Chia Suan Chong looks at the debate around the use of metalanguage in the classroom.

Understanding Intercultural Communication – Giving Feedback

2014-02-19

In this week's blogpost Chia Suan Chong really gets to the meat of the art of feedback...

Influencing Second Language Learning – Post-Structuralism and Learner Identities

2013-12-19

This blog, the final in Chia's series on influencing second language learning, she looks at the ideao of post-structuralism in learner identieis...

Influencing Second Language Learning – Motivation & Acculturation

2013-12-10

In this blog, Chia Suan Chong looks at how motivation and acculturation can influence second language learning.

Influencing second language learning – personality factors

2013-11-13

A fellow teacher told me about two learners in his class – one, he says, is a better learner than the other. Which one do you think that might be?

Going beyond Accuracy vs Fluency

2013-10-31

Much of what we do in the language classroom is categorised as a focus on accuracy or a focus on fluency. We should either be correcting our students’ grammar usage, or helping them get rid of those gaps in between utterances. But is the development of communicative competence and the work on communication skills also part of a focus on fluency? Or are they different things? Chia Suan Chong explores.

Ten tips for listening to our students

2013-10-11

Some say that our classrooms should feature 70% of student talking time and only 30% of teacher talking time. But how can we get students talking for the majority of their time in the classroom if we don’t know how to listen? Chia Suan Chong, our ETp blogger, explores how listening to students can encourage them to communicate and offer ten tips to help teachers become better listeners.

The universality of ‘pastries’ – why we sometimes fail to understand each other

2013-09-26

A confusing conversation in her local petrol station one day led Chia Suan Chong to explore the factors that can cause misunderstanding, from possible expectations of her non-native appearance to the regional variations of language use. She soon realised that sometimes having the right words still isn’t enough.

Types of board games for the ELT classroom

2013-09-10

In Part 1 of this 2-part series, Chia Suan Chong looks at board games that help develop and recycle students' vocabulary and nurture their ability to explain.