
Test validity
In very simple terms, validity tells us whether a test works well for the purpose that we will use it for.
People often talk about a test being good or bad, or whether it is fit for purpose. In techn...

Don’t Panic! It’s Just an Exam!
Five Essential Approaches to Test Taking
Is it that time of the year again? My, oh, my, how time flies! After months and in many cases years of preparation, it all comes down to that final exam which...
New & Popular

Teacher research: Giving students roles to help develop their identities
Throughout my long career I have been committed to two fundamental goals: the professional development of my teachers and using the learning environment as a space to develop identities. In this artic...

Getting to know Computer Adaptive Testing and the LanguageCert Test of English (LTE) Listening & Reading
Introduction
Over the last 30 years or so, computers have had quite an impact on language testing. As regards Computer Adaptive Testing (CAT) in particular, it is currently on the leading edge of ...

Learning by Heart - a Plea for Poetry
Learning by Heart - a Plea for Poetry
A strange expression that. A very guilty one as well. The “by heart” approach has carried all the negative effects of Behaviourism in Education so the demonizati...

Choose the right graded readers for your course
Research shows that the more students read in English, the more proficient they become. Reading can significantly improve students’ level in all four skills: reading, writing, listening, and speaking....

Going materials-light
“One day I will find the right words, and they will be simple.”
― Jack Kerouac
If I need a series of complicated crafts, 5 different books, 15 photocopies and 3 different classroom setups to teach t...

Reflecting on Quotes in Class/Life
Learning a foreign language is an emotional roller coaster mixed with amazing highs and frustrating plateaus. Many a times you feel like you’re not making any progress at all. It’s so easy to become...

How Teachers Can Use Their Hobbies to Boost Student Engagement
Infusing lessons with their personal interests can help teachers model the benefits of perseverance and curiosity.
When you’re a teacher, a big part of your job is battling student misconceptions. Of...

The four Cs as Global Skills
Living in the 21st century world can be complicated and stressful. A lot of the interpersonal and interactive skills that we need in our everyday lives – things such as digital literacies, intercultur...

Teaching Success the Dweck Way
In New York Concrete jungle where dreams are made of There’s nothin’ you can’t do Now you’re in New York These streets will make you feel brand new Big lights will inspire you Let’s hear it for New...

Cut, cut, cut… Steps to adapt during writing and speaking
Throughout my professional life, I try to be flexible! Flexible to the lesson plans I create, to the materials, to the way I manage and lead my classes. This is sometimes difficult as we have to take ...
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Don’t Panic! It’s Just an Exam!
Five Essential Approaches to Test Taking
Is it that time of the year again? My, oh, my, how time flies! After months and in many cases years of preparation, it all comes down to that final exam which...

Grading Exam Papers: Dismantling Your Teaching
Summer of 2021 was a disillusioning experience: working as an exam marker brought me before grave teaching decisions of the past. And several others chosen not to be made.
An accepted application for...

Why Test and not Assess?
In the ELT community, there are so many opinions when it comes to Tests & Exams. There is a major revolution in Social Media where there are many educators who complain about Exams, Testing, Exam ...

E Class? Who Cares! Let’s Just Skip over to Lower!
Since its conception, the CEFR (Common European Framework) has offered a reference for languages as regards learning, teaching and assessment. This has established a solid, yet immense network of serv...

Exams, exams, exams stress…perhaps, perhaps, perhaps
It’s this time of the year! Again! Another examination period is coming and with that stress, pressure, anxiety, lack of sleeping or bad eating habits appear. Is this normal? Well, if you take it fr...

Exam-Prep: The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly
The exam period is looming on the horizon, while practice tests, vocabulary lists, and more exam-related instruction begin to intensify. You are flirting with the idea of incorporating some extra s...

Exam Time and the teaching is…
It is not the first time ELT NEWS focuses on language exams and it won’t be the last. Our educational system relies on tests scores to discriminate strong and weak learners. In addition, the five o...

Communication can change your… colours
I bet you have all listened to this Cyndi Lauper song. Quite cheesy I would say as seeing the true colours of someone could lead not to love but to a million different emotions to start with. ...

Teacher well-being - ‘Teacher what?’
..you think to yourself when you see this title and you smile ironically but you start reading the article because you still want to -slash- need to think positively!
Let’s try to describe what a ...

IELTS online – the most trusted English test, soon from the comfort of your home
Get ready for IELTS Online, a flexible new way to take your IELTS Academic test.
English language test IELTS has announced that a secure online version of the exam will be rolled out globally in earl...
ELT Magazine Selections
Exams & Exam Preparation
Don’t Panic! It’s Just an Exam!
Five Essential Approaches to Test Taking
Is it that time of the year again? My, oh, my, how time flies! After months and in many cases years of preparation, it all comes down to that final exam which...

Grading Exam Papers: Dismantling Your Teaching
Summer of 2021 was a disillusioning experience: working as an exam marker brought me before grave teaching decisions of the past. And several others chosen not to be made.
An accepted application for...

Why Test and not Assess?
In the ELT community, there are so many opinions when it comes to Tests & Exams. There is a major revolution in Social Media where there are many educators who complain about Exams, Testing, Exam ...

E Class? Who Cares! Let’s Just Skip over to Lower!
Since its conception, the CEFR (Common European Framework) has offered a reference for languages as regards learning, teaching and assessment. This has established a solid, yet immense network of serv...

Exams, exams, exams stress…perhaps, perhaps, perhaps
It’s this time of the year! Again! Another examination period is coming and with that stress, pressure, anxiety, lack of sleeping or bad eating habits appear. Is this normal? Well, if you take it fr...

Exam-Prep: The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly
The exam period is looming on the horizon, while practice tests, vocabulary lists, and more exam-related instruction begin to intensify. You are flirting with the idea of incorporating some extra s...

Exam Time and the teaching is…
It is not the first time ELT NEWS focuses on language exams and it won’t be the last. Our educational system relies on tests scores to discriminate strong and weak learners. In addition, the five o...

IELTS online – the most trusted English test, soon from the comfort of your home
Get ready for IELTS Online, a flexible new way to take your IELTS Academic test.
English language test IELTS has announced that a secure online version of the exam will be rolled out globally in earl...

The history of the Cambridge Exams
Cambridge English Language Assessment is part of the University of Cambridge and has been providing English language assessments and qualifications for over 100 years. The first Cambridge English ex...

The 100% culture
In the English Language Teaching business our most-quoted number is 100. It’s all about 100%. Of what? Of language exams success of course! Everybody has to pass. 90% is not good enough. 70% is a to...
Education
Teacher research: Giving students roles to help develop their identities
Throughout my long career I have been committed to two fundamental goals: the professional development of my teachers and using the learning environment as a space to develop identities. In this artic...

Getting to know Computer Adaptive Testing and the LanguageCert Test of English (LTE) Listening & Reading
Introduction
Over the last 30 years or so, computers have had quite an impact on language testing. As regards Computer Adaptive Testing (CAT) in particular, it is currently on the leading edge of ...

Learning by Heart - a Plea for Poetry
Learning by Heart - a Plea for Poetry
A strange expression that. A very guilty one as well. The “by heart” approach has carried all the negative effects of Behaviourism in Education so the demonizati...

Choose the right graded readers for your course
Research shows that the more students read in English, the more proficient they become. Reading can significantly improve students’ level in all four skills: reading, writing, listening, and speaking....

Going materials-light
“One day I will find the right words, and they will be simple.”
― Jack Kerouac
If I need a series of complicated crafts, 5 different books, 15 photocopies and 3 different classroom setups to teach t...

Professional Development
Communication can change your… colours
I bet you have all listened to this Cyndi Lauper song. Quite cheesy I would say as seeing the true colours of someone could lead not to love but to a million different emotions to start with. ...

Teacher well-being - ‘Teacher what?’
..you think to yourself when you see this title and you smile ironically but you start reading the article because you still want to -slash- need to think positively!
Let’s try to describe what a ...

Successful Continuous Professional Development
Professional development is very important in educators’ personal and professional life. We have all seen teachers, who passionately attend preservice courses but are left unsupported afterwards. Th...

Doctors specialize, shouldn’t you as an English teacher?
In my experience of 32 years in the ELT trade I have seen and worked in most sectors and I have one thing to say: it’s about time that the majority of EFL teachers who teach general English move on ...

Life-long learning -those were the days…
It’s been a school year like no other. Τhere was a moment, last spring, when every parent suddenly realized how deeply their lives and livelihoods depended on an institution too often in the backgr...

Earn your Trinity TESOL certificate at QUALIFY
There are several reasons to earn your Trinity TESOL certificate at QUALIFY
With a Trinity CertTESOL, you can teach anywhere
It’s easy to apply for a Trinity CertTESOL course at QUALIFY
Trin...

News

Using asynchronous learning to supplement the course
Admit it! The first thing that crossed your mind when you read supplementary material was handing out piles of photocopies to make up for last year’s lack of face-to-face teaching. No matter how co...

Adapting reading activities for the online classroom
The new classroom environment, the online classroom, involves adapting the printed coursebook we have been using so far, to fit the needs and demands of online teaching and learning. When adapting ...
Fortune Cookies by Dimitris Maroulis
1
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Decoding CODA
“There are three classes of people: those who see, those who see when they are shown, those who do not see” Leonardo Da Vinci
Text by: Dimitris Maroulis
The Appetizers
Child of Deaf Adults is what ...
2
Read More

Imagine IF…
“Our role is to create the right conditions for life and learning to flourish. When we do that, we realise we have been in the miracle business all along”
(Sir Ken Robinson)
The Appetizers
There ar...
3
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The Power of Metaphors
“Your time is limited: don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma – which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinion drow...
4
Read More

The Pygmalion effect: Positive encouragement and praise
“The greatest discovery of my generation is that human beings can alter their lives by altering their attitudes of mind” (Williams James, 1842-1910)
The Appetizers
In educational psychology, Acade...
5
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From “lost and lackadaisical” to “assertive learners” within a month!
Things which matter most must never be at the mercy of things which matter least” Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
The appetizers
I quote from Tim Murphey: “I had a couple of students in my classes at t...
Special Education Needs
The 3 Principles to Supporting Special Educational Needs Students
Research in the field of special educational needs and inclusion has equipped the educational community with evidence-based practices and ideas to support classroom diversity. How come that stude...

Teaching Dyslexic Learners Online
Technology is a gift for students with dyslexia, provided that it is used properly. This is because most dyslexic learners are visual learners and computer materials are designed to be accessed t...

Teaching Reading to students with dyslexia
Dyslexia is a specific learning disability that is neurological in origin. The person diagnosed with dyslexia face difficulties with accurate and fluent word recognition. What is more, poor spelli...
Teaching English to Dysgraphic Learners
Dysgraphia [dis-gra-fee-uh] is a learning disability that makes it difficult for a person to handwrite and organize written expression. Dysgraphia is not related to one's ability to read, nor is it ...
Mind mapping and dyslexia: The current trend of graphic organizers for effective English language teaching
The common saying “a picture is worth a thousand words” gives prominence to the idea that an image is more powerful when engraved on our mind than a multitude of words. Visual representations...
Featured

Test validity
In very simple terms, validity tells us whether a test works well for the purpose that we will use it for.
People often talk about a test being good or bad, or whether it is fit for purpose. In techn...
Read More
Don’t Panic! It’s Just an Exam!
Five Essential Approaches to Test Taking
Is it that time of the year again? My, oh, my, how time flies! After months and in many cases years of preparation, it all comes down to that final exam which...
Read More
Assessing Speaking
In practice, we often use the words test and assessment interchangeably. But they do have slightly different meanings.
Students need to know what is expected from them, how they can best prepare for ...
Read More