Matt Done

I first entered the ELT profession in 2005. Like many people with a similar background to me, my entry point into teaching was a four-week course. On completing it, I secured my first job and braced myself for my first summer of teaching. I was nervous, naturally, but had two things to help me: the knowledge and experience from the four-week course and the coursebook which I'd been assigned by the school. Despite my apprehension, I thoroughly enjoyed my early experiences of teaching and soon enough it became my full-time job. In those formative years of my career, I made...

It presents arguments for and against integrating SLA findings into teaching practice, before arguing that a knowledge of key SLA findings can indeed empower and motivate teachers.

Faced with a high-level class Matt Done had to create his own materials from online sources. He describes the process and the benefits.

Read this article and see how your ideas compare. Input, interaction and connections are among the aspects covered.

Do your learners communicate in a real way at any stage of the lesson? Are most stages of the lesson variations on the grammar or vocabulary input? Is there room for more realistic language in our classrooms? The article shows the importance of being aware of these questions  and offers a solution.

Matt Done asserts that when it comes to learning vocabulary, depth of knowledge is just as important as breadth and students should be encouraged to explore new words more thoroughly.