interviews

Creating Creativity in Language Teaching (with Alan Maley)

Creating Creativity in Language Teaching (with Alan Maley)

“You can’t use up creativity. The more you use, the more you have.” Maya Angelou. But how to get started? We speak with Professor Alan Maley, author of Creativity and English Language Teaching, about how constraints can prompt creativity in teachers and what teachers can do to bring in their lives, interests and personalities to make the classrooms more creative.

Building the Perfect Coursebook (with Professor Brian Tomlinson)

Building the Perfect Coursebook (with Professor Brian Tomlinson)

Professor Brian Tomlinson from University of Anaheim wrote his first coursebook with Rod Ellis in the 1960’s and has been involved in materials design since. We ask him: how do you write a great coursebook?

Building Autonomous Teachers (With Ian McGrath)

Building Autonomous Teachers (With Ian McGrath)

Ian McGrath, author of Learner Autonomy, Teacher Autonomy: Future Directions talks to us about teacher autonomy. How can teacher education help make teachers more autonomous? How do observations from supervisors and student testing encroach on teachers’ decision making? And how can observations and testing be redesigned to give teachers the freedom to teach students the way they need to be taught?

Does Professional Development Make a Difference? (With Thomas Guskey)

Does Professional Development Make a Difference? (With Thomas Guskey)

I speak to world expert on teacher development, Professor Thomas Guskey, about how to evaluate professional development. What evidence should we use? How can we tell when it’s successful? What can go wrong in professional development? And how can teachers be at the center of the checking process?

Stages and Stories in Second Language Acquisition (with Stephen Krashen)

Stages and Stories in Second Language Acquisition (with Stephen Krashen)

What stages do students pass through in learning a language? Stephen Krashen, Professor Emeritus at the University of California, tells us about the conduit hypothesis. We discuss the role of reading, the growing importance of listening and how to encourage students to read and acquire more through comprehensible input.

The Past, Present and Future of Second Language Acquisition (With Vivian Cook)

The Past, Present and Future of Second Language Acquisition (With Vivian Cook)

We talk with Vivian Cook, Professor Emeritus at Newcastle University about second language acquisition; how it has progressed in the twentieth century, how it gets used by language teachers and what the future holds for SLA.

Podcast: How Teachers Can Find The Right School and How Schools Can Find The Right Teachers

Podcast: How Teachers Can Find The Right School and How Schools Can Find The Right Teachers

We interview Jessica Keller who has recruited over 1000 ESL teachers in China, Korea, Japan and the USA about the importance of recruitement as well as do's and don'ts for schools and teachers during the recruitment process.