When the day starts with a plenary such as Silvana’s on day 2 of IATEFL you know two or three things. 1. it’s going to be a very good day, 2. things are going to change for the better and 3. Silvana’s profile is going to skyrocket. I hardly know were to start. I didn’t…
Stories from IATEFL 2016 – 1
IATEFL 2016 Day 1 Wow. Just wow. It is safe to say that this year, my 10th at IATEFL (I’ve been every other year!), was the most inspirational, worthwhile and valuable conference I’ve experienced! And I made so many stories… The first special moment involved, I’m honoured to say, the star of IATEFL 2016: Silvana…
IATEFL 2016 – Collecting stories
With the opening plenary given by David Crystal – a man who tells such wonderful stories about the English language (was it really 20 years ago I first saw him speak during my English A-Level?) and the closing plenary by Jan Blake – I’m so looking forward to her stunning storytelling (and if you haven’t…
10 life experiences I wouldn’t have without ELT
With IATEFL fever upon us I pause to reflect on my career in ELT. It is an exciting time to be part of the Irish ELT scene. For various reasons we have had to look over the pond to our UK counterparts for the past few years for TD events, opportunities and inspiration. The tide…
3 tips: How to make your language school REALLY good…
Ok, my SLA part 2 post is still in the drafts folder and is coming soon. Possibly with a part 3… In the meantime I turn my attention to overall school efficacy. During my time as a DOS, and now with the various contacts I have thanks to my work at UCD, I was/am often…
Second Language Acquisition for Dummies…PART 1
Not really for dummies. For all the very clever people reading this. Part 1 is all about why SLA is useful and then Part 2 will look at an SLA overview. It’s a pretty big field and academics are always arguing about how much SLA knowledge is even useful to teachers anyway. The applied linguistics/SLA…
What method do you teach with?
Early last semester a student of mine on the MA TESOL asked me this question. Thank you for the inspiration, who know who you are… And the answer is, I don’t. Teach with a ‘method’ in mind, that is. And not because I place myself in the ‘post-method‘ era. Or because I stick exclusively to…
Being a teacher
And…just about caught my breath after Semester I in my new job! I plan to be on here more regularly now that I have (almost) got my head around how things work there. This is the first of a few posts which look at the world of TEFL from the perspective of the teacher. In…
My swan song
After almost five years at Swan, I am leaving! I’ll still be in the field, so I plan to take everything I have learned here at Swan with me. And that is a lot…I’m immensely proud of what I have learned and achieved at Swan. It’s an intense job and the scope of my role…
A research agenda inspired by a McDonalds Veggie Burger?
This isn’t really about veggie burgers. It isn’t 100% about research agendas, either. It’s about something essential to teaching, TEFL and language practitioners. Something which, if you are not engaging in it regularly then you are not really doing your job. It’s about reflection. I’ll start with a little story about how I found the topic…
Ode to a Marketing Manager
As I type this, Danielle – our International Marketing Manager, is preparing for a 3 week trip to Brazil. That’s a long time and a long way from home. Now, any job title with ‘International’ in the title sounds very glamorous. You may imagine, therefore, that Danielle’s job involves jet setting around the world, travelling…
ELT Ireland – the first Conference
Ok, first of all I stole the name of my presentation from Josh Round’s brilliant blog, Be the DOS! It’s catchy and a bit of publicity for him over here on the Emerald Isle, and Josh kindly gave me permission! Second, in the midst of moving house that very weekend – luckily to a location…
Rachael TESOL 