Author Archives: Dan learnercoachingelt

Activities for giving your Coursebook the Coaching Twist

Posted on May 6, 2013

In the last post I argued that coursebooks may have something to offer independent learners and their language coaches (that’s you). This runs counter to a common viewpoint in ELT that coursebooks stifle independent learning. I suggested that you re-evaluate … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 5 Comments

Giving your Coursebook the Coaching Twist

Posted on April 25, 2013

I’m an ELT materials writer as well as one of the authors of this blog, so I was interested to find some research looking at the compatibility of coursebooks with notions of learner autonomy. In it the authors conclude by … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , | 3 Comments

Cups

Posted on January 10, 2013

In some UK primary schools they are using coloured cups as a very simple and powerful tool to help teachers and learners to direct and measure their learning. Here is how it works. The children each have three coloured cups: … Continue reading →

Posted in Organising learning, Roles, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , | 7 Comments

Mission not impossible

Posted on May 11, 2012

This activity is for students of any level or learning situation. To make it more fun you can drip feed the activities to them with a daily e mail, creating some excitement about what their mission will be today. The … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , | Leave a comment

FAQ: How can I study outside class?

Posted on April 8, 2012

A guest post this week from Secil Canbaz, based on her recent talk at IATEFL, Glasgow. Thanks Secil for this report on your action reseach, which illustates the kind of impact coaching can have on students and teachers. I’m an … Continue reading →

Posted in Organising learning, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments

Learner Coaching at IATEFL

Posted on March 25, 2012

There were four talks (at least) on coaching this year at IATEFL, Glasgow, suggesting there is growing interest. Secil Canbaz spoke about her successes with what she referred to as directive coaching with university students in Ankara,Turkey. Sandy Millin, who … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 2 Comments

Nudging towards reading

Posted on March 15, 2012

Last weekend I gave a talk at TESOL Spain on coaching learners in reading. Thanks to all of you who came. I promised to post some of the links that were mentioned, which I will do here, but I also … Continue reading →

Posted in Motivation, Reading, Roles, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

From Pedagogy to Heutagogy

Posted on March 12, 2012

My thanks to Richard Whiteside from Active Language in Cadiz for drawing my attention a few weeks ago at the FECEI conference in Madrid to heutagogy. Read on if you want to know about heutagogy and its ancestors pedagogy and … Continue reading →

Posted in Motivation, Uncategorized | Tagged , , | 6 Comments

What’s happening out there?

Posted on March 2, 2012

We are more and more aware that things are happening in your classrooms along coaching lines. The blog has followers and friends have told us that they’re making changes in their classes, trying things out and generally paying more attention … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Good Learning Questionnaire

Posted on February 6, 2012

A big thanks to our friend Carmen Plaza this week for this guest post, as well as an accompanying activity which we’ll be adding to the collection. Carmen teaches adults and kids in Cadiz, Andalucia. Like Mark did in his … Continue reading →

Posted in Organising learning, Speaking, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , | 5 Comments