Met Editor

María Elena, Peru Hello! I’m María Elena Mendoza, from Peru, and I’ve been teaching English for about 20 years. Over that time, witnessing how teaching and learning have evolved has been nothing short of an adventure. Think of it as a front-row seat to the world’s most unpredictable reality show – where technology constantly raises the stakes and teachers like me learn to adapt, often on the fly! I’ve had the privilege of working for a distinguished Peruvian language school that’s been around for over 80 years. Yes, we’ve been teaching English since long before ‘googling it’ was even a concept....

English language learners (ELLs) have many options for learning colloquial language, but what propels them into academic and higher levels of fluency is academic vocabulary acquisition. Jim Cummins (1981, 2000) conceptualised the distinction between basic interpersonal communication skills (BICS) and cognitive academic language proficiency (CALP), where BICS is colloquial English and CALP is academic language. Although students demonstrating high levels of BICS appear to have commensurate levels of fluency and vocabulary, this ability can mask diminished levels of CALP vocabulary development. To lift the BICS mask, it is imperative to design lessons that drive a deeper acquisition of academic...

In his ESL teaching bible, Learning Teaching, Scrivener describes classroom management as a teacher’s most important job, which is to ‘create the conditions in which learning can take place’ – a mammoth task that involves far too many things to cover in one short article. So, rather than try, I thought I’d take you on the journey I travelled when learning teaching – specifically learning classroom management. Where did it all start for me? When I consider my own approach to classroom management, and any success I had in the early days, I find myself thinking of my mother. Years after the...

Artificial intelligence (AI) is all over the news, and it’s especially making waves in education. But here’s a reality check: 85% of teachers haven’t even touched generative AI tools, according to the On EdTech Newsletter (2024). Even so, there’s one area quietly undergoing a profound transformation due to AI: language learning, especially for refining English speaking skills. Compared to previous generations like mine, today’s learners are experiencing a monumental change in the learning process. No longer held back by barriers of opportunity, cost or geography, English language learners are now empowered to achieve proficiency, unlocking global academic and career opportunities. Game...

Since the pandemic, I have been teaching on online pre-sessional English courses for a UK university, with the students dispersed across China (which is why the Chinese context is cyclically highlighted in this article). Many of these students lack authentic English practice, and some admit to never having spoken to a foreigner before (issues that are not exclusive to Chinese learners). Even though they are set regular collaborative discussion-led homework tasks, such homogeneous class groups invariably end up communicating overwhelmingly in their first language. Last summer, I devised this list of realistic ideas for my online students to get more...