David Dodgson

53 POSTS

David Dodgson blogged for Modern English Teacher over 4.5 years up to the end of 2021. During his time as the MET blogger, David wrote 52 posts spanning his teaching and managerial experiences across 3 different countries and 3 different jobs and drawing on his 20+ years in ELT. Throughout his career, David has worked in Kazakhstan, Bahrain, Turkey and Gabon, gaining experience with young learners, adults, EAL students and exam preparation classes, and holds an MA in EdTech and TESOL and the Trinity DipTESOL. When he finally returned to the UK, he relished the challenge of teaching in the UK for the first time as EAL Coordinator in a leading independent school, which was reflected in some of his more recent posts. David still continues to write, so expect to see articles from him in the new-look MET, as well as in publications like MET, ETp and TESL-EJ. You can find his personal blog here. His interests include supporting learning with technology, and teacher self-development. He also uses digital games as authentic materials for language learning, and blogs about it at eltsandbox.wordpress1.com. David believes that writing articles and blog posts allows you to be part of the wider ELT community, provides a platform to share and reflect on your experiences and to learn from others by engaging with the world of ELT beyond your own personal teaching context. So above all, his advice is to "write on"!

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Five Sizzling Summer Reads for English Learners

2019-05-16

A common question asked to teachers is ‘What can we do outside class to improve English?’ In this blog post for Modern English Teacher, David Dogson explains why his answer is ‘read’ and recommends five original novels that are great for secondary students and older at intermediate level and above.

Dos and Don’ts for Using Authentic Materials in the Language Classroom

2019-04-09

MET blogger David Dodgson now switches his focus to the use of authentic materials in the English language classroom. He offers advice on what to do and what to avoid when selecting, adapting, and utilising articles, images, videos, songs, and other ‘real world’ media to supplement our courses and achieve our learning goals.

6 Reasons for Using Coursebooks (from a teacher who doesn’t usually like them)

2019-04-09

Having looked back at how his approach to lesson planning has changed over the years, MET blogger David Dodgson this month (in conjunction with our current Modern English Teacher issue on using coursebooks) revisits the on-going materials debate. After many years of extolling the virtues of being coursebook free, he this time considers the debate from the other side and examines the benefits of published materials.

Another year on

2019-01-09

In his first blog post of 2019, MET blogger David Dodgson looks back on his post from January 2018 and reflects on how far he got in achieving his goals for the year just gone.

On Form: Finding and Applying for TEFL Jobs

2018-11-02

In the third post in his series on career development, MET’s resident blogger David Dodgson shares advice and ideas on finding the right job in the wide world of ELT. From identifying the best openings to filling out the dreaded application form, David shares his own experiences and invites your advice through the comments section.

Project Handover

2018-10-31

In his latest post, our resident blogger David Dodgson, describes a recent project he gave to two classes with very different results. He shares his reflections on why the first attempt did not work out as planned and how handing more control and ownership of the project over to the second class resulted in a much more engaging learning experience.

From TEFL Job to TEFL Career

2018-08-14

In the first of a new series of posts, MET resident blogger David Dodgson looks at how to make the transition from English language teaching as a job to a career.

Starting the Year with some R&R

2018-04-06

The New Year is a common time to reflect and make resolutions. In his first post of 2018, MET’s resident blogger David Dodgson guides us through his process of reflecting on his teaching and development in 2017, and using those reflections to inform goals and ideas for 2018.

4 Misconceptions about Pronunciation

2018-03-06

Inspired by the January 2018 issue of Modern English Teacher and a recent debate in his teaching centre, MET resident blogger David Dodgson addresses some common misconceptions about teaching pronunciation, and suggests some quick and easy ideas for incorporating more pron work into our classes.

Tried and Tested

2018-02-05

In this month’s post, Modern English Teacher’s resident blogger David Dodgson shares his reflections inspired by two articles on preparing students for tests from our July 2018 special edition on classroom research. He discusses ways to encourage learners to be more involved in the preparation process while also becoming more familiar with the exam format and task requirements.

Revisiting Reflections: A Blogging Retrospective

2017-12-08

We all know the value of reflection for our development as teachers. It helps us learn from experience and focus on key areas. But do these reflections always need to be recent? What can we learn from revisiting our past reflections? That is the focus of our post this month as David Dodgson offers a retrospective on his first blogs from a decade ago.

Action to Research (and back again)

2017-11-08

In the third post of this series about research in the classroom, David Dodgson explains how he engages in cycles of action research to investigate and experiment with new ideas, understand learners better, and develop professionally.

From Research to Action – Using Articles to Inform Practice

2017-10-12

In the second post of this series about research in the classroom, David Dodgson highlights how two Modern English Teacher articles informed his approach to introducing mobile devices with his teenage learners.

A Focus on Phonics

2017-08-30

Linking between our two most recent issues on Speaking and Pronunciation, and Teaching Reading, David Dodgson takes a look at phonics. This method of introducing letters and sounds when teaching young learners to read and write has become increasingly popular in EFL contexts in recent years. However, our resident blogger is not entirely convinced and in this post, explains why.