John Hughes

You might be following a coursebook or using published materials in your classes. Or you might be expected to produce your own lesson materials. Either way, when you look at the material, how much of it is dedicated to pronunciation? Are there two small exercises out of 12 in a two-page lesson? Or on a powerpoint slide deck, is there only one slide dealing with an aspect of pronunciation? Or maybe there’s nothing about pronunciation at all! It’s all too common that teaching materials provide large amounts of space to grammar and vocabulary, but much less to pronunciation. It isn’t...

When it comes to integrating global issues into lesson planning and materials, sustainability is probably in your list of top ten topics. Certainly, it’s increasingly appearing in publishers coursebooks; and many ministries of education around the world now insist that it forms part of their national curriculums. As a bottom-up, grass roots movement, English language teachers themselves are ensuring sustainability forms part of their day-to-day classroom content. Teacher-led initiatives such as ELT Footprint (eltfootprint.org) which offer a place for educators to share materials and ideas on sustainability issues also – justifiably – reflect its prominence. Teacher concerns And yet, while many...

In the January/February 2023 (Volume 32, Issue 1) edition, seven of our regular friends from MET shared their favourite speaking activities in the It works in practice feature. Here John Hughes explains his 'Creating a mouse trap' activity.

John Hughes describes some of the differences between online and live teaching materials. He looks at formats, content, learner skills as part of the process in producing useful online resources.

John Hughes tenders ten steps towards developing your skills as a materials writer.