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School of Foreign Languages in Athens & Online

Conversational English and Speaking Skills Development

R is for Relevance

This must have happened to you, too. You are in a desperate hurry to get on with something and  your friend, sister, husband or boss, start rabbiting on about completely unconnected things, like details of the traffic, the clothes someone wore or his relationships etc. You think: “Get to the point!!!” Watch this experiment – the…
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T is for Turntaking

If you turn on Greek TV during a talk show or multiple interviews or even some sitcom, you will note that Greeks do interrupt each other freely The following video shows how mother tongue teachers may teach this feature of good communication skills. Teachers can use if to drive home this business of waiting for…
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G is for Genre

Definition  Genre ( /ˈʒɑːnrə/ or /ˈdʒɑːnrə/; from French, genre French pronunciation: [ʒɑ̃ʁ], “kind” or “sort”, from Latin: genus (stem gener-), Greek: genos, γένος) is the term for any category of literature or other forms of art or culture, e.g. music, and in general, any type of discourse, whether written or spoken, audial or visual, based on some set of stylistic criteria. Genres are…
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N is for New Information

What is New information in a sentence? Some definitions Chafe (1976) defines given information as “that knowledge which the speaker assumes to be in the consciousness of the addressee at the time of the utterance,” while new information is defined as “what the speaker assumes he is introducing into the addressee’s consciousness by what he…
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Dyslexia Checklists

  Checklist 1 taken from Dyslexia Action  If the answer to most of the following questions is ‘Yes’ it would be wise to seek advice: All ages 1. Is he bright in some ways with a ‘block’ in others? 2. Is there anyone else in the family with similar difficulties? 3. Does he have difficulty…
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Κρίση ή έλλειψη κρίσης;

Κρίση και στην ξενόγλωσση εκπαίδευση; Η συγκεκριμένη ανάρτηση δεν θα είναι ανάλυση της οικονομικής κατάστασης των Ελλήνων και το πώς τα «βγάζουμε» πέρα μετά την ανακοίνωση της οικονομικής κρίσης. Το σκεφτόμουν πολύ καιρό αν θα έπρεπε να γράψω αυτά που έχω στο μυαλό μου και στο τέλος το έκανα στo δικό μου ιστολόγιο στην αρχή,…
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What kind of teacher are you? Are you in your students' "Hall of Fame"?

<![CDATA[The interest in the qualities of good teachers is not new. This post includes some thoughts on a study I conducted a few years ago with two groups of different learners (50 adults and 60 young learners between 11-13).  The adults who took part in this interim study were contacted by me directly. The young…
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What kind of teacher are you? Are you in your students’ “Hall of Fame”?

The interest in the qualities of good teachers is not new. This post includes some thoughts on a study I conducted a few years ago with two groups of different learners (50 adults and 60 young learners between 11-13).  The adults who took part in this interim study were contacted by me directly. The young…
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Visual Delights & Spike Milligan

I am a big time fan of Spike Milligan, who has nothing whatsoever to do with foreign language teaching or foreign language teacher education but who has given me hours of great delight and, at times, inspiration for materials or activity design. In 1985, he brought out a book called “Further Transports of Delight” with…
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games for the English classroom

TEFL Pursuits

I find it a great game for learning about content as well, something which I find quite important in adult and younger classes. My own downfall is usually the sports category – the orange one in the Genus edition – which I dread! There are also many online versions of this great game, like this “Bring…
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