Some Free Downloadable E-Books for EFL teachers and students
http://esl-pro.com/Workbooks.aspx
School is over!
Physics Teacher: "Isaac Newton was sitting under a tree when an apple fell on his head and he discovered gravity. Isn't that wonderful?"
Student: "Yes sir, if he had been sitting in class looking at books like us, he wouldn't have discovered anything."
Freddie comes home from his first day at school. His mother asks, "What did you learn today?" Freddie replies, "Not enough. I have to go back tomorrow."
TEACHER: Now class, whatever I ask, I want you to all answer at once. How much is six plus four?
CLASS: At once!
FATHER: I hear you skipped school to play football.
SON: No I didn't, and I have the fish to prove it!
Adopting a Reflective Approach to Professional Development
By Nasreddine Mohamed Sarsar
Abstract
The bulk of literature about education places enhancing teacher professionalism at the core of any educational improvement. In fact, researchers in the field of education have premised their arguments on the assumption that raising students levels of performance necessitates promoting the professional growth of teachers. It is no wonder, then, that professional developers have designed and implemented numerous PD programs in an effort to bring about positive educational change and improvement. It is incontrovertibly true that the success of any professional development endeavor depends greatly on the willingness and readiness of the target participants, teachers.
Since most, if not all, professional development programs in the context where I work are "grounded in a disease model" (Clark, 1992: 79), almost all the teachers flinch at their mention and show great reluctance to get involved. I side with Diaz-Maggioli (2004) to admit that "the term "professional development day conjures only images of coffee breaks, consultants in elegant outfits, and schools barren of kids" (p. 1). This negative attitude towards professional development is caused by the assumption "that teachers need to be forced into developing [and that they] have deficits in knowledge and skill that can be fixed by training" (Clark, 1992: 79). Operating on this premise, professional developers find it compelling to adopt a technical- rational approach to professional development cramming teachers with external and ready-made solutions and ignoring their reflective practice.
In this research paper, I argue that professional development based on such a premise and such an approach would hardly yield any positive outcomes. Drawing on the work of Dewey (1933) and Schön (1983 and 1987), the notion of the teacher as a reflective practitioner will be brought into the topic in an endeavor to encourage teachers to slot in reflection into their daily teaching practice. My belief is that by doing so, teachers will adopt a self-directed professional development approach that will get them easily involved in the process of lifelong learning.
FULL ARTICLE PDF File 323KB - 16 Pages.
Communicating, Learning how to Read and Culture:
Three Almost ‘Absent’ Elements in Iranian English Textbooks
Mohammad S. Sanati Far (MA in TEFL)
Key Words: communicating, syllabus, curriculum, teaching methods, presentations
Abstract
In this article, a critical look has been shed on the content of the Iranian high school English textbooks. Communicating, learning how to read and culture as claimed and articulated in the ELT Curriculum of Iran’s Ministry of Education- Textbook Design and Authorship Section (1383 Version) as three main communicative goals underlying textbooks are three elements which can hardly be seen throughout the book. To prove this absence, the contents of the textbooks which theoretically claim to be communicative were checked against the details of the ELT Curriculum of Iranian Ministry of Education’s Textbook Design and Authorship Bureau. The inefficient output of English language learning in schools is also a clear evidence.
General EFL
Asia Journal of English Language Teaching. www.cuhk.edu.hk/eltu/DP/
Research-oriented journal on topics relevant to teaching in Asia. Published ant eh Chinese University of Hong Kong.
BBC / British Council http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/
Ideas on teaching, tips and lesson plans, etc.
Boggles World. www.bogglesworld.com
Loads of activities; also a job search site.
British Council / Learning English. http://www.learnenglish.org.uk/
Links to themes, songs, cartoons, stories, poems, etc.
Dave's ESL Cafe. http://www.eslcafe.com/
Lots of ideas and materials for both teachers and students - the links are especially useful.
E. L. Easton. eleaston.com (Teaching aids for English and other languages.)
English Teaching Forum. exchanges.state.gov/forum/
A quarterly journal on teaching of English as a foreign language. Articles contributed by teachers around the world. Published by the United States Information Agency.
English Teaching Professional. www.etprofessional.com/
Selected articles from this ELT magazine are available at this website.
ESL Lounge. www.esl-lounge.com
Lesson plans, teaching aids, flash cards, role play cards, book reviews, etc.
ELT Spectrum. http://www1.oup.co.uk/elt/magazine/
An online magazine from Oxford University Press, with teaching tip's, articles, interviews with authors, discussion forums, and more.
ESL Magazine. http://www.eslmag.com/
A bi-monthly magazine serving ESL/EFL professional worldwide.
Everything ESL. www.everythingESL.net
Lots of lesson plans, activities, and so forth. More ESL than EFL focused.
The Gateway to Education Materials. www.thegateway.org
Search engine for lesson plans in many areas - including EFL.
Humanizing Language Teaching. www.hltmag.co.uk
Interesting variety of articles and features for language teaching.
IATEFL Newsletter. http://www.iatefl.org/iatefl%20newsletters.html
The newsletter of IATEFL (the International Association of Teachers of English as a Foreign Language), an organization based in the UK.
The Internet TESL Journal. http://iteslj.org/
A monthly web journal started in 1995; includes articles, research papers, lesson plans, teaching techniques, book reviews, and links. Of particular use is the "Lesson Plans" section at http://iteslj.org/Lessons/
Journal of the Imagination in Language Teaching and Learning. www.njcu.edu/cill/journal-index.html
Pretty much what title says.
Karin's ESL Partyland. www.eslpartyland.com
Resources for both teachers and students.
The Language Teacher. jalt-publications.org
This is a monthly publication of the Japan Association for Language Teaching; has lots of very readable and practical articles. JALT Journal also available at same site.
Learning/Teaching English. http://www.tolearnenglish.com/
Resources for both students and teachers.
Lingua Center (U of Illinois, Intensive English Institute). www.iei.uiuc.edu/free.html
Broad range of resources and links.
Longman. http://www.longman.com/
Some resources for teachers and students, but also lots of ads for Longman publications.
Purdue University. owl.english.purdue.edu
Has quite an abundance of resources, especially handouts for different aspects of writing, and also links to other web sites.
The Reading Matrix. http://www.readingmatrix.com/
A journal focusing on reading issues. Lots of other reading-related resources available at this site.
SEAMEO Regional Language Centre. http://www.relc.org.sg/
Articles on language teaching in RELC Journal.
Sites for Teachers. http://www.sitesforteachers.com/
Has links to a huge number of web sites for teachers.
Teaching Fish. http://www.teachingfish.com/
Lots of games, activities, EFL/ESL resources; also job search links.
TEFL China Teahouse > Teaching. http://teflchina.com/teach
A website to support English teachers in China. Articles, lesson plans, and informal tips and discussion by Chinese and foreign teachers.
TESL-EJ: Teaching English as a Second or Foreign Language. www-writing.berkeley.edu/TESL-EJ
Selected articles from this ELT magazine are available at this website.
TEFL Web Journal. http://www.teflweb-j.org/
New quarterly teacher magazine.
TESOL Matters Online. www.tesol.edu/pubs/articles/index.html
A newsletter published by TESOL - Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages - an international organization based in the US. The "Wandering the Web" column (http://www.tesol.edu/pubs/magz/wanweb.html) provides information on useful websites for teaching.
Wordskills. http://wordskills.com/index.shtml
Has a variety of resources, including book recommendations, level tests, mini grammar lessons and so forth.
Miscellaneous Useful Websites
"www.bartleby.com is massive and amazing. It has tons of literary material -- complete works of Shakespeare and anthologies such as the Harvard Classics & Shelf of Fiction and Cambridge History of English and American Literature, which have pretty much any novel, play, poem, essay or story written before 1900 that you ever wanted to read. There is also critical material for all of that. But the biggie is the reference collection, which includes a complete Columbia encyclopedia, dictionaries, most usage and style manuals, thesauri, quotation collections, Gray's anatomy, the Columbia Gazetteer of North America, King James Bible, Farmer's Cookbook, Emily Post's Etiquette and other stuff, all in their complete forms. It's pretty much a whole public library online - but easy to use and without overdue fines."
www.goodkate.homestead.com/home.html
Materials and resources created and shared by Kate Goodspeed (former Amity teacher).
http://www.google.com/
For the fastest searches on the net!
http://www.grammarlady.com/
Answers any questions about grammar you may have.
www.half.com
Books, music, etc. for half the price.
http://www.newsunlimited.co.uk/
This is for the Guardian, a UK newspaper. You can subscribe to the Wrap, a daily news summary sent to you by e-mail
http://www.powells.com/
A new and used bookstore. If you buy US $50 worth of books they will ship them anywhere in the world free.
www.scmp.com
The South China Morning Post, a Hong Kong daily newspaper.
.http://www.sinohotels.com/
Book Chinese hotels online.
Teaching Speaking
The talking topics below can be used and adapted for small group discussions, speeches, debates, warm-ups, English Corner, etc. They are also useful as essay or journal topics for Teaching Writing.
Argumentative Topics
http://www.gc.maricopa.edu/English/topicarg.html
Brain Candy Mind Games Collection: Questions to Make you Think
http://www.corsinet.com/braincandy/question.html
Cambridge First Certificate level discussion course for English language learners
http://www.btinternet.com/~ted.power/discuss.html
Conversation Questions for the ESL- EFL Classroom
http://iteslj.org/questions/
Conversation Teaching Page (with links to conversation topics)
http://www.eslpartyland.com/teachers/nov/conv.htm
Easy oral language topics
http://hometown.aol.com/rcswallow/OralLangTopics.html
Eslflow's guide to communication skills
http://www.eslflow.com/speakingtalktopics.html
A Month of Discussion Topics
http://www.etanewsletter.com/discussion.shtml
Prepare for Discussion - List of Topics - The Language of Discussion
http://www.btinternet.com/~ted.power/dis00.html
Regents' Test Essay Topics (also useful as speech and discussion topics)
http://www.lcc.gatech.edu/regents/samples.html
Sounds of English. www.soundsofenglish.org
A website dedicated to pronunciation - American English. Information, activities, exercises, links, etc.
Teaching Writing
100 Writing Topics
http://www.srv.net/~allenh/leave/writing_topics.html
Guide to Grammar and Writing. cctc2.commnet.edu/grammar
Grammar for writing.
More Than 180 TOEFL Writing Topics
http://www.toefl.org/testprep/prepindx.html
Purdue University. owl.english.purdue.edu
Has quite an abundance of resources, especially handouts for different aspects of writing, and also links to other web sites
Regents' Test Essay Topics (also useful as speech and discussion topics)
http://www.lcc.gatech.edu/regents/samples.html
Web Resources for Writing CVs and Job Applications
The following web sites contain useful career advice, especially for graduate students looking for a job. Students can use the guidelines and samples to help them compose their own CVs and letters of application. Many of the web sites give advice on job interviews and can also be used in an Oral Skills course.
http://www.support4learning.org.uk/
http://www.internationalstudent.com/resume_writing/letter_guide.shtml
http://www.internationalstudent.com/resume_writing/writing_tips.shtml
Teaching Literature
www.bartleby.com
Tons of literary material -- complete works of Shakespeare and anthologies such as the Harvard Classics and Shelf of Fiction and Cambridge History of English and American Literature, which have pretty much any novel, play, poem, essay or story written before 1900 that you ever wanted to read. There is also critical material for all of that.
www.bedfordstmartins.com/charters/litwriters/index.htm
Scroll through an extensive list of writers of fiction, poetry and drama. Click on an author for study and discussion questions and writing suggestions. This index covers most any writer that would appear on a "Survey" course syllabus, but it may not cover all the texts you are teaching.
www.bedfordstmartins.com/litlinks/home.htm
This is a huge list of links to websites with author-specific information. Choose "Fiction", "Drama", "Poetry", "Essays", "Critical Theory" and then scroll through an alphabetical list of writers in that category.
cw.prenhall.com/bookbind/pubbooks/mcmichael
Good resource for American Literature. Online companion to Anthology of American Literature by George McMichael. The site is divided into sections on Colonial Literature, Literature of Reason and Revolution, The Age of Romanticism, The Age of Realism and 20th Century Literature. Each section has an in-depth timeline for historical background, sample essay questions, author profiles, additional resources and message boards.
www.luminarium.org
A pretty comprehensive site for Medieval, Renaissance and 17th Century English Literature. Some of the critical articles are kind of lame, but the historical and biographical info. is good.
vos.ucsb.edu
The "Voice of the Shuttle" is a big online resource for humanities managed by the University of California at Santa Barbara. Click on "English" or "Literature" on the homepage and go to town. It's kind of hard to tell where the links will take you but, with so many, there must be some pretty good stuff here.
xroads.virginia.edu
Website for University of Virginia American Studies Department. Click on "hypertexts" to reach the actual writings of famous authors plus some critical material. Surf this site for other links and background information. It may be good for history and culture courses too.
Teaching Video
www.ipl.org/ref/QUE/PF/movies.html
http://www.rottentomatoes.com/
Reference Works
www.bartleby.com
The reference collection includes a complete Columbia encyclopedia, dictionaries, most usage and style manuals, thesauri, quotation collections, Gray's anatomy, the Columbia Gazetteer of North America, King James Bible, Farmer's Cookbook, Emily Post's Etiquette and other stuff, all in their complete forms.
Student Websites
Aardvark's English Forum. englishforum.com
Lots of resources for students.
Activities for ESL Students. a4esl.org
Lots of quizzes and activities for students.
Ask Oxford. www.askoxford.com
What you would expect from a dictionary-related web site.
Dave's ESL Cafe. www.eslcafe.com
Lots of ideas and materials for both teachers and students - the links are especially useful.
The English Listening Lounge. www.Englishlistening.com
Site for listening practice. Has Chinese language version.
ESL Resource Center. www.eslus.com/eslcenter.htm
Lessons for students.
Karin's ESL Partyland. www.eslpartyland.com
Resources for both teachers and students.
Learning English Online. www.aec.ukans.edu/leo
Online classes, activities, resources for students.
Learning/Teaching English. www.tolearnenglish.com
Resources for both students and teachers.
TEFL Games. teflgames.com
Lots of word games and so forth.
Topics. www.rice.edu/projects/topics/Electronic/Magazine.html
Magazine for students of English - lots of interesting features.
تدریس خصوصی زبان انگلیسی
مکالمه- گرامر- دبیرستان- دانشگاه و ...
خصوصی و نیمه خصوصی
تلفن: ۰۹۳۵۸۴۹۸۳۶۸
Here Are The 9 Steps To
Master All Areas Of Your English
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STEP 1) Grammar You will be surprised how easy English grammar can be. |
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STEP 2) Listening Use the "help section" to learn and understand any new words or phrases from the video. This will expand your vocabulary naturally and quickly. |
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STEP 3) Vocabulary |
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STEP 4) Pronunciation Now you can pronounce every word exactly like a native English speaker :) |
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STEP 5) Speaking Now we give you unlimited chances to speak English. You can request a private lesson with a very experienced native English speaking teacher anytime. |
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STEP 6) Essentials
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STEP 7) Chat Friends This is really an amazing feature of the membership! |
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STEP 8) Forum There are many people and activities to enjoy here, open 24 hours, 7 days for you. |
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STEP 9) Language Exchange You will be speaking like a native very soon! |
Happy Teacher's Day
Who nurtures new green sprouts,
Encourages and leads them,
Whenever they have doubts.
Whose sunny temperament
Makes studying a pleasure,
Preventing discontent.
With methods crisp and clear,
Lessons of bright colors
And a happy atmosphere.
While it’s snowing hard outside,
Keeping students comfortable,
As a warm and helpful guide.
With a pleasant attitude;
You’re a teacher for all seasons,
And you have my gratitude!
زمانها در انگليسي
ادامه مطلب
کوتاه ولی عمیق
آنچه جذاب است سهولت نیست، دشواری هم نیست، بلكه دشواری رسیدن به سهولت است ...
وقتی توبیخ را با تمجید پایان می دهید، افراد درباره رفتار و عملكرد خود فكر می كنند، نه رفتار و عملكرد شما...
سخت كوشی هرگز كسی را نكشته است، نگرانی از آن است كه انسان را از بین می برد...
اگر همان كاری را انجام دهید كه همیشه انجام می دادید، همان نتیجه ای را می گیرید كه همیشه می گرفتید...
افراد موفق كارهای متفاوت انجام نمی دهند، بلكه كارها را بگونه ای متفاوت انجام می دهند...
پیش از آنكه پاسخی بدهی با یك نفر مشورت كن ولی پیش از آنكه تصمیم بگیری با چند نفر...
كار بزرگ وجود ندارد، به شرطی كه آن را به كارهای كوچكتر تقسیم كنیم
كارتان را آغاز كنید، توانایی انجامش بدنبال می آید...
انسان همان می شود كه اغلب به آن فكر می كند...
همواره بیاد داشته باشید آخرین كلید باقیمانده، شاید بازگشاینده قفل در باشد...
تنها راهی كه به شكست می انجامد، تلاش نكردن است...
دشوارترین قدم، همان قدم اول است...
عمر شما از زمانی شروع می شود كه اختیار سرنوشت خویش را در دست می گیرید...
آفتاب به گیاهی حرارت می دهد كه سر از خاك بیرون آورده باشد...
وقتی زندگی چیز زیادی به شما نمی دهد، بخاطر این است كه شما چیز زیادی از آن نخواسته اید...
در اندیشه آنچه كرده ای مباش، در اندیشه آنچه نكرده ای باش...
امروز، اولین روز از بقیة عمر شماست...
برای كسی كه آهسته و پیوسته می رود، هیچ راهی دور نیست...
امید، درمانی است كه شفا نمی دهد، ولی كمك می كند تا درد را تحمل كنیم...
بجای آنكه به تاریكی لعنت فرستید، یك شمع روشن كنید!
آنچه شما درباره خود فكرمی كنید، بسیار مهمتر از اندیشه هایی است كه دیگران درباره شما دارند...
هركس، آنچه را كه دلش خواست بگوید، آنچه را كه دلش نمی خواهد می شنود...
اگر هرروز راهت را عوض كنی، هرگز به مقصد نخواهی رسید...
صاحب اراده، فقط پیش مرگ زانو می زند، وآن هم در تمام عمر، بیش از یك مرتبه نیست...
وقتی شخصی گمان كرد كه دیگر احتیاجی به پیشرفت ندارد، باید تابوت خود را آماده كند !
كسانی كه در انتظار زمان نشسته اند، آنرا از دست خواهند داد...
كسی كه در آفتاب زحمت كشیده، حق دارد در سایه استراحت كند !
بهتر است دوباره سئوال كنی، تا اینكه یكبار راه را اشتباه بروی !!!
آنقدر شكست خوردن را تجربه كنید تا راه شكست دادن را بیاموزید...
اگر خود را برای آینده آماده نسازید، بزودی متوجه خواهید شد كه متعلق به گذشته هستید...
خودتان را به زحمت نیندازید كه از معاصران یا پیشینیان بهتر گردید، سعی كنید از خودتان بهتر شوید ...
خداوند به هر پرنده ای دانه ای میدهد، ولی آن را داخل لانه اش نمیاندازد !
درباره درخت، بر اساس میوه اش قضاوت كنید، نه بر اساس برگهایش !
انسان هیچ وقت بیشتر از آن موقع خود را گول نمیزند كه خیال میكند دیگران را فریب داده است !!!
كسی كه دوبار از روی یك سنگ بلغزد، شایسته است كه هر دو پایش بشكند !!!
هركه با بدان نشیند، اگر طبیعت ایشان را هم نگیرد، به طریقت ایشان متهم گردد ...
كسی كه به امید شانس نشسته باشد، سالها قبل مرده است !
اگر جلوی اشتباهات خود را نگیرید، آنها جلوی شما را خواهند گرفت !!!
اینكه ما گمان میكنیم بعضی چیزها محال است، بیشتر برای آن است كه برای خود عذری آورده باشیم ...
Creating Portfolios;
A More Practical and Reliable Technique for Ongoing Assessment in EFL Classes
M. S. Sanati Far (MA in TEFL)
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THINGS EVERYONE SHOULD KNOW (or 50 Completely Useless Facts!) | ||
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The word "queue" is the only word in the English language that is still pronounced the same way when the last four letters are removed. Beetles taste like apples, wasps like pine nuts, and worms like fried bacon. Of all the words in the English language, the word 'set' has the most definitions! What is called a "French kiss" in the English speaking world is known as an "English kiss" in France. "Almost" is the longest word in the English language with all the letters in alphabetical order. "Rhythm" is the longest English word without a vowel. Horatio Nelson, one of England's most illustrious admirals was throughout his life, never able to find a cure for his sea-sickness. The skeleton of Jeremy Bentham is present at all important meetings of the University of London Right handed people live, on average, nine years longer than left-handed people Women blink nearly twice as much as men. Adolf Hitler was a vegetarian, and had only ONE testicle. |
Honey is the only food that does not spoil. Honey found in the tombs of Egyptian pharaohs has been tasted by archaeologists and found edible. Coca-Cola would be green if colouring weren’t added to it. The average lead pencil will draw a line 35 miles long or write approximately 50,000 English words. More people are allergic to cow's milk than any other food. The six official languages of the United Nations are: English, French, Arabic, Chinese, Russian and Spanish. Earth is the only planet not named after a god. Some worms will eat themselves if they can't find any food! The worlds oldest piece of chewing gum is 9000 years old! The longest recorded flight of a chicken is 13 seconds Queen Elizabeth I regarded herself as a paragon of cleanliness. She declared that she bathed once every three months, whether she needed it or not Slugs have 4 noses. A man named Charles Osborne had the hiccups for 69 years! The average person laughs 10 times a day! An ostrich's eye is bigger than its brain --------------------------------------------------- You can see the correct answer here. | |
Bill Gates
Every Body knows that Bill Gates is the cofounder of one of the most famous brands in the computer industry. Bill Gates is one of the richest men in the world and has the number ONE position for many years.
Gates was born and grew up in Seattle, Washington USA. His father, William H. Gates was a Seattle attorney and his mother, Mary Maxwell Gates was a school teacher. Gates had two sisters. Bill Gates started studying at Harvard University in 1973. He met Paul Allen, his partner, there. Gates and Allen worked on a version of the programming language.
Gates suggested that there should be a computer on every office desk and in every home. In 1975, the company Micro-soft was formed. Microsoft helped to make the computer easier to use with its developed software, and made it a commercial success. The success of Microsoft began with the MS-DOS computer operating system.
It is believed that his richness helped him to create one of the world’s largest charitable foundations. The Bill and his wife Melinda Gates Foundation has an endowment of more than $28 billion, with donations totaling more than $1 billion every year. The foundation was formed in 2000.
Bill Gates continues to play a very active role in the Microsoft Company, but it is thought that he has handed over the position to Steve Ballmer. Gates now holds the positions of “Chairman” and “Chief Software Architect”. He plans to have fewer responsibilities at Microsoft and will finally devote all his time to the Foundation.
In 2006, Warren Buffett, the second richest man in the world, donated much of his vast money to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.









