A cloze test (or gap fill exercise) is a simple exercise where a text has certain words removed and students must suggest suitable alternatives to go in the gap. Cloze tests are a common activity teachers use to get students to focus on a particular language item. They can be […]

Classroom Motivation is concerned with getting your students involved in the lesson and enthusiastic about learning. To be motivated the students must be engaged. This means that they must feel personally involved in the lesson. If they are not involved then this opens up a distance between them and the […]

If only teaching were all about teaching and not about keeping order in the classroom or, as it’s sometimes known, Classroom Management. A major part of teaching has nothing really to do with imparting information and helping your students learn. Instead it’s all about the lesson-to-lesson issues of running a […]

Classroom Focus is concerned with who is the main focus of teaching in the classroom. Essentially there are two possible foci: the teacher – the class is Teacher Centered the students – the class is Student Centered Traditionally classes have been Teacher Centered however more recently classes have become more […]

Chalkface is a term believed to have been coined by Professor Ted Wragg in the Times Education Supplement in the 1980s. It is a reflection of coalface, the toughest point in coal mining where coal is hewn from rock. Like the coalface, the chalkface is where the real, dirty, tough, […]