Met Editor

I started working with Ukrainian refugees in March of 2022, soon after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine broke out. As the number of refugees from Ukraine and other countries is steadily growing, I believe it is important to share my experience, and that of people I have interviewed. I hope to be able to increase teachers’ understanding of how to provide useful, compassionate and relevant English lessons for those that require such help. While I have experience and data relating specifically to refugees from Ukraine, I believe the information that follows is helpful to teachers who work with students...

  Anna Machura The MET Spotlight Series shines a light on key topics we’ve explored in MET. In these webinars, our fantastic MET contributors will explore their chosen topic in more detail, and share their expertise alongside practical tips, useful ideas and more. How can you turn your classroom into an oasis of growth? In this interactive webinar, experienced teacher and dedicated therapist Anna Machura will show how she puts a range of proven therapeutic strategies and techniques into action to create a feel-good lesson. Link to VIMEO video

Developing Intercultural Language Materials Freda Mishan and Tamas Kiss Routledge ISBN 978-1032651378 With their wealth of expertise, Freda Mishan and Tamas Kiss offer an insightful guide to understanding culture and bringing intercultural teaching into the classroom. Developing Intercultural Language Materials takes readers on a journey through four distinct yet interconnected sections: Research to Implications; Implications to Application; Application to Implementation; and finally, Implementations to Research. This book review will explore each part in detail. The first part, titled ‘Research to Implications’ serves as a guide to help readers navigate the key findings from academic research. Acting as a foundation for the book, this chapter...

The Minimal Pair Collection: PronPack Accent-friendly Pronunciation Teaching Mark Hancock Hancock McDonald ELT ISBN 978-1838404062 It is now 37 years since I did my RSA Cert TEFLA in Cambridge and balked at teaching sure and shore as homophones. In my Scottish accent, they weren’t. The speakers in the 80s coursebook listenings all had plummy, ‘accentless’ voices. I remember learning about RP (received pronunciation), and understanding that ‘received’ meant ‘approved’ or ‘sanctioned’ ( not that you had been to a reception at Buckingham Palace.) And on the phonemic chart, hung on every classroom wall, where the heck was the ‘ch’ sound, as in ‘loch’? Decades...

Many of my ESL students in East Asia have asked me to help them learn about the rhythms and cadences of the English language. They will tell me with desperation in their eyes that they do not want to speak what they often describe as ‘monotone’ or ‘robot’ English. I developed the game ‘Drama queen English’ specifically for them. Of course, we all know what a drama queen is. This is a person who over-reacts emotionally and often makes a big deal out of nothing. I think the term applies to men as well as women – I know...