Chia Suan Chong

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 – 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 ELT’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.

The Future of (Business) English teaching and BESIG 2016

Looking back on the talks and workshops at the BESIG Munich conference, Chia Suan Chong considers the direction that (Business) English training is taking in an age of global communication.

Critical thinking skills in the classroom: Socrates, Bloom and De Bono

Expanding on her article in the newest issue of ETp, Chia Suan Chong looks at how we can systematically incorporate the developing of critical thinking skills in the classroom using the frameworks of Socrates, Benjamin Bloom and Edward de Bono.

And the ELTon goes to…Winners of the ELTons 2019

On 10th June, the ELTons awards, often referred to as the Oscars of ELT, were held in London. Chia Suan Chong talks about the six category winners and shares her experiences as red carpet interviewer for the event.

What does it mean to be fluent? – to the layperson

In a first blogpost in a new short series, Chia Suan Chong looks at what fluency, and being fluent in a second language, means to the layperson.

Are you encouraging a growth mindset?

Do your students define success with a grade? Does negative criticism make them want to give up? Chia Suan Chong looks at the differences between a fixed mindset and a growth mindset and asks several questions to help teachers reflect on the mindset they might be encouraging in the classroom.