Greetings from Dubai

Greetings from Dubai

Greetings from the UAE! As you (might) know, I now live and work in Dubai, as of approx 2 weeks ago, which is why I’ve been less active on social media as well.  I’m still adjusting to my new life, but I DO plan to continue sharing useful...
How NOT to Teach IELTS

How NOT to Teach IELTS

I talk a lot about how to teach IELTS. Now here’s a chat about how NOT to do it as well, to avoid ‘demoralizing’ (our learners) and ‘fossilizing’ (their typical mistakes) … Check it out! What’s ONE of your current IELTS...
How I Teach Skills

How I Teach Skills

I’m looking for contributors to my blog! Are you an English teacher who’s also passionate about teaching SKILLs well? Do you feel you have ‘stuff to stay’ about how skills (/a particular skill or sub-skills) could be taught? Are you interested...
Basic ELT Assessment Concepts

Basic ELT Assessment Concepts

If you’re new to #assessment and #itemwriting (especially #ELTassessment and #ELTitemwriting), you might want to start by Googling/revising the following key terms and ideas. Core Terms: –reliability (test, scorer/intra-rater vs inter-rater) –validity (face,...
Perspectives on Assessment

Perspectives on Assessment

If you’re new to #ELTassessment and #ELTitemwriting, you might find this conversation I had with Jim Fuller on his YouTube Channel, Sponge ELT useful. And because the topic might be quite advanced at first, here’re some scaffolded...
You’re a Star!

You’re a Star!

THANK YOU if you signed up to be a reviewer of one of my IELTS teacher training courses,  • How to Teach IELTS Listening • How to Teach IELTS Reading • How to Teach IELTS Writing • How to Teach IELTS Speaking  and sent me your reflections...
Is the CELTA Enough?

Is the CELTA Enough?

The other day I got this very insightful comment (question?) on LinkedIn: “Dear Fatime,  I doubt it that a CELTA qualified teacher is unable to teach IELTS. CELTA is the most thorough course and trains you how to teach English communicatively with observed...
Food Fraud

Food Fraud

Do you also like to turn interesting AUTHENTIC materials into IELTS teaching opportunities? As we discussed it with Jane Ritter yesterday on Teachers Talk Radio, there’re many good reasons to do so. Here’re a few ideas for you, based on the topic of food...
Genre Transfer Activities

Genre Transfer Activities

Next time when you’re lost for ideas while PLANNING an IELTS lesson, try including some sort of a GENRE TRANSFER ACTIVITY. For example, let’s say your learners have just read an article about Albert O Hirschman’s book ‘Exit, Voice and...
REALLY Earned Skills?

REALLY Earned Skills?

“…I prefer teaching reports, because it was a challenge for me to get my head around when I started teaching them (I’d never had to report on a chart or diagram before), I had to learn the tricks from scratch myself, so passing on that learning is...
Ideas AND Resources

Ideas AND Resources

“I did not expect to find so many documents, materials, and resources. It was a pleasant surprise”. Are you looking for an IELTS teacher training course as part of your 2023 #CPD? Did you know that if you take my IELTS teacher training course, How to Teach...
A Breath of Fresh Air

A Breath of Fresh Air

Check out what this recent Bootcamp graduate had to say about the course: 1) Why did you sign up for the course? What did you need help with? I signed up for the course, as I wanted to learn about a new take on teaching IELTS. After having taught it for many years,...
On Rewriting

On Rewriting

Do you ever ask your IELTS learners to REWRITE an essay, report or letter they wrote? Why/why not? We sometimes put a ton of effort into writing them FEEDBACK, but do they read it? And even if they do, does it ‘STICK’? After all, we know that we learn best...
Setting the Mood

Setting the Mood

SO hard to get into a Xmas mood in 35 Celsius…  Is there a SKILL or ACTIVITY type that you tend to struggle to get your IELTS students ‘in the mood’ for? What is it? What makes it a drag for them? Let me know!...
Bloom’s Taxonomy

Bloom’s Taxonomy

Love it? Hate it? If the former, how do you use it in your everyday teaching?  And when was the last time that you made your IELTS learners CREATE, EVALUATE, ANALYZE, APPLY, UNDERSTAND or REMEMBER something? Bloom’s Taxonomy-Based IELTS Homework Choice...
Meta Much?

Meta Much?

How much ‘TECHNICAL’ (i.e. linguistic or methodology-related) vocab do you use with your IELTS learners? Just because we know certain CONCEPTS or the names of various (teaching or SKILLS-related e.g. reading techniques), it doesn’t mean our students...
Would You Like to Review a Module?

Would You Like to Review a Module?

As some of you might know, my IELTS teacher training course, How to Teach IELTS -The Ultimate IELTS Teacher Training Bootcamp– is becoming MODULAR and SELF-STUDY in January. I’m looking for a few more REVIEWERS to do a module FREE, in exchange for...
What to Promise Our IELTS Students

What to Promise Our IELTS Students

I know it can be hard to know what to responsibly PROMISE our IELTS learners when they are considering signing up to do their exam PREPARATION with us. We do want to have enough students, after all… Yet it’s important to be STRATEGIC about what RESULTS we...
Sausage IELTS Courses

Sausage IELTS Courses

A while back I asked my connections on LinkedIn how they felt when they first started teaching IELTS. I got to read a lot of teachers’ stories, and the majority were speaking to how FRUSTRATED and UNSUPPORTED they were feeling at the time. 🙁 Unfortunately, I...
Avoidance as a Strategy

Avoidance as a Strategy

Have you noticed your IELTS students (consciously or unconsciously) using AVOIDANCE when they aren’t sure of a particular grammar area? While it can be a useful strategy at times, if overused, it might result in their GRAMMATICAL RANGE AND ACCURACY being...
Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving!

There’s always so, SO much to be thankful for, in any (ANY!) moment in life. (It does take SKILL to learn this though…). This year I’m especially thankful for all the LEARNING that starting my own ‘eduprize’ has been providing me...
Fit for Purpose?

Fit for Purpose?

“Timoteo, you smell like humans!” This is the lovely Timoteo, my friend Claudia’s dog.  According to Clau, he was smelling bad even after she had bathed him in dog shampoo, so she decided to up the ante and also bathed him in human shampoo. :O Fit for purpose? Maybe...
IELTS Writing Checklists

IELTS Writing Checklists

Other than omitting the OUTLINE writing stage, many IELTS learners also typically fail to see the importance of saving 2-3 minutes for checking their work when they are done.  This is a shame because we typically manage to pick up on various MISTAKES we have...
The Angle ABC

The Angle ABC

Do your IELTS students struggle to brainstorm for ideas for their ESSAYS? Teach them The Angle ABC method! Get them to think of some adjectives starting with the letters of the alphabet (e.g. artistic, biological, cognitive, developmental, economic, etc.) to ask...
Resilience, Reframe… Rinse and Repeat

Resilience, Reframe… Rinse and Repeat

After being completely locked down in one place (a nice place, Cancun, but still…) during the pandemic, this year I’ve had to move around… TOO MUCH. Or so it feels… The last time I travelled was last week, this time from Miami to Merida, Mx,...
When NOT to Be Autonomous

When NOT to Be Autonomous

I’m a HUGE, (…HUGE) fan of learner autonomy. I love to SELF-STUDY stuff, always did, always will.  …DISCOVER and COMPILE my own (life) curricula… AND… I also realize that there are times when this is LIMITED (…if not outright...
Exciting Detours!

Exciting Detours!

The TWO important, much-awaited changes I’m making to my course, How to Teach IELTS –The Ultimate IELTS Teacher Training Bootcamp– as of January are as follows. The course is becoming • SELF-STUDY, and  • MODULAR. This means that it’ll also be •...
2022 Has Been a WEE Bit Intense…

2022 Has Been a WEE Bit Intense…

Actual footage of me on the beach yesterday… 😀 😀 I’m feeling a bit patchy and rusty these days too… A LOT (of good things…) have happened this year, but probably a bit fast too, TBH… 😀 How’re YOU approaching the end of the year?...
Ready for Feedback?

Ready for Feedback?

If a learner’s ‘affective filter is lowered’, they’re more ready to learn in general, including becoming more receptive to feedback. What do YOU do to build rapport to ‘plow the soil’ first, for your constructive comments?...
My Favorite Question Words

My Favorite Question Words

Being a successful teacher, (teacher trainer, coach, etc.) is, to a large part, about asking GOOD QUESTIONS. They can be quite closed (i.e. yes-no Qs), or more open (usually starting with a question word). Display, or more ‘genuine’. Longer, or...
I

I <3 IELTS Listening

This week is ALL about listening sub-skills for me (…and my happy campers 😀 ;P) Which SKILL do you enjoy teaching the most for IELTS? What makes it easiest for you? #showmehow #skillsfirst #IELTSTeacherTrainer #TeachingIELTSafterCELTA #IELTSlistening —...
ELT Myths

ELT Myths

I love to think about common myths … and see if I can bust them. 😀  For example, in ELT there is a common misconception around how it’s pretty impossible to teach critical thinking on LOWER LEVELS, or to YL. What other ELT myth do you know is not...
And We Should Do the Teaching

And We Should Do the Teaching

I got some lovely feedback from a teacher the other day who was saying that   “I find it so valuable that you dig deeper and challenge teachers so that they move away from testing only as IELTS is so much more than that!” I completely agree that we should...
Thank You for Making Me Problem-Aware

Thank You for Making Me Problem-Aware

Sometimes when we take a course we already have our ROI (Return on Investment) just by having our awareness raised of an issue we  A) either didn’t know existed,  or B) didn’t know WE had If on top of this eye-opener we also get a few useful,...
Co-Constructed Dialogues

Co-Constructed Dialogues

In IELTS dialogues, meaning is often CO-CONSTRUCTED between the two (or more) speakers. Speakers often gradually come to a mutual understanding of what they are talking about by regularly checking they understand what the other person has said, using phrases...
Bootcamp Kick-Off Questions

Bootcamp Kick-Off Questions

These are the questions on my IELTS teacher training course’s kick off call. Even if you aren’t taking the course this time but are teaching IELTS, I’d love to know: 1) Where are you BASED, what do you teach, and how much of it is IELTS now? 2) What...
Bloom’s Taxonomy

Bloom’s Taxonomy

Love it? Hate it? If the former, how do you use it in your everyday teaching?  #showmehow #skillsfirst #IELTSTeacherTrainer #TeachingIELTSafterCELTA #bespoke #BloomsTaxonomy
Dog Woman

Dog Woman

Another thing few people know about me is that I actually DON’T have a dog now. :(( (Which is partly why I’m OBSESSED with them, I think… 😀 <3) If you ARE a lucky dog owner,  AND would you like your doggies featured in some of my IELTS...
Wanted: IELTS Students Who Don’t Ghost

Wanted: IELTS Students Who Don’t Ghost

A friend of mine is teaching IELTS. And it’s not always smooth sailing… Working for a better IELTS band score (let alone if it’s in various skills and/or on short notice) is HARD WORK. It requires real commitment, and bravery…  …to...
Actionable Steps

Actionable Steps

You might have heard me talk about the importance of always ‘breaking things down into ACTIONABLE STEPS’ for our IELTS learners when we’re teaching them a new SUB-SKILL. Well, I’m still new to (=nervous about) making video (but I know...
Angles Matter

Angles Matter

Sometimes looking at the same thing, but from a different ANGLE can make all the difference. For example, teaching IELTS by  • focusing on teaching SKILLS, not just LANGUAGE (i.e. advanced grammar and academic vocabulary), as well as • helping learners...
The Dog Ate It?

The Dog Ate It?

I’m often asked this too: “What should I do if my IELTS student isn’t doing any homework?” To which my go to answer is this: Have a conversation with them about the PSYCHOLOGICAL impacts of not doing homework. This is because I find that...
This Is My Why

This Is My Why

Today I finally read Simon Sinek’s famous ‘Start with Why’.  In it he talks about how important it is not only to define and communicate about WHAT we do, but to attract the right ‘tribe’ around us, also to say WHY.  When a...
Before or After?

Before or After?

I keep hearing the same question from (IELTS) teachers: “How exactly is TEACHING different from TESTING?” Well, I think the difference between the two lies in  • how AWARE we (teachers) are of the ‘mini-steps’ involved in acquiring a...
Unsung IELTS Student Heroes

Unsung IELTS Student Heroes

We talk a lot about TEACHER HEROES here, who are trained, motivated, (….know the difference between testing and teaching… ;)), and just in general, would give ANYTHING for their students to succeed in the IELTS exam. And I feel that sometimes there’s...
Feedback All in CAPS LOCK

Feedback All in CAPS LOCK

About a year ago I did a course online, where I had a lovely, elderly teacher. All was well enough, until we got to the ‘practicum’ stage of the program, where I started practicing the new skill,  …and she started providing me with feedback on...
Pure Magic

Pure Magic

I shared some of the resources of my course, How to Teach IELTS -The Ultimate IELTS Teacher Training Bootcamp– ahead of time with the next (4 Nov-4 Dec) cohort’s participants, and woke up to this message today! :O <3 <3 #puremagic When was the last time...
A Small Win for Mankind…

A Small Win for Mankind…

…but a HUGELY encouraging surprise for a brand-new ELT edupreneur to see yet another positive review on Amazon on one of my IELTS books! 😀 Since I’ve been at the helm of this whole ‘Fatime Losonci enterprise thing’ (…), I’ve come to...
Life-Changing IELTS Stories

Life-Changing IELTS Stories

Teaching IELTS (well…) can make a huge IMPACT on our students’ lives. “Teaching IELTS skills one-to-one can make a difference. I recently helped a student struggling to get a score of 6.5 in mock tests despite having spent months preparing at a...
Picking an Exam

Picking an Exam

During the 20 years while I was actively teaching and preparing students for international language exams, people either approached me with a concrete language exam ALREADY in mind, or they wanted my help in picking one together. If they already knew that they...
A Gentle Reminder

A Gentle Reminder

The skill that is HARDEST for your IELTS students to master might, or might NOT coincide with the skill you know how to teach BEST. In other words, always focus on what THEY need, not what’s easiest for YOU to teach. — — Hi. I’m Fatime....
Valid and Meaningful

Valid and Meaningful

In my opinion, IELTS provides learners with a VALID and MEANINGFUL learning challenge on its own right. (#backwash) While sometimes IELTS is criticized for having a bit of a ‘hybrid’ focus, I think it IS (especially its Academic module) a useful...
Exam Date and Course Format

Exam Date and Course Format

In my experience, IELTS candidates who are closer (or already on) the band score level that they are targeting and just need a quicker, shorter course will want lessons ONE-TO-ONE,  while  the GROUP format is useful to help learners MOTIVATE each other for a...
Adrenalin!

Adrenalin!

I’m an introvert, but I KNOW I must keep working on leaving my ‘woman’s cave’ 😀 from time to time. It’s good for me personally, AND it’s good for my business in a million different ways.  For example, by interacting more I get...
Playing with Scope

Playing with Scope

A common challenge across ALL essay types for many IELTS learners is to get the SCOPE of the topic right.  Yet it matters a lot, because it will define the quality of their BRAINSTORMING, which in turn largely defines the TASK RESPONSE score they will be awarded....
I Have IELTS Students in…

I Have IELTS Students in…

I have former IELTS students currently living, working and/or studying in the UK, Australia, Canada, and the US –most of them originally from Hungary, China, South Korean and Mexico. Where have YOU had IELTS learners from already? (And where are they now?) #showmehow...
On Egos and Peers

On Egos and Peers

Another key advantage of teaching IELTS is that students tend to come REALLY READY for FEEDBACK. Warts and all. ‘Bring-it-on-teacher!’ style. Which I think is quite something, from a job satisfaction point of view…  If you’ve tried...
The Dreaded D-Word

The Dreaded D-Word

What are you in DENIAL about concerning your current IELTS teaching practice? 1) Is it any of the 4 skills that you feel less CONFIDENT about teaching than the others, for any reason? 2) Or is it that you feel that you sometimes accidentally ‘TEST and...
Are You an IELTS ‘Expert’?

Are You an IELTS ‘Expert’?

While thinking out loud about feedback on LinkedIn the other day with a friend we ended up discussing the idea of just how gentle our suggestions should be to our IELTS learners. My friend’s excellent point was that my overly cautious way of giving feedback...
Verb or Noun?

Verb or Noun?

Summary completion exercises in the reading part of the IELTS exam require that candidates know what WORD CLASS (or part of speech) is missing from the gaps. If your students struggle with this, give them a set of exercises to raise their awareness of this important...
I’d Sooner Chew on an Old Tennis Shoe

I’d Sooner Chew on an Old Tennis Shoe

I’d sooner chew on an old tennis shoe than to take on an IELTS student who 1) isn’t already on B1+ LEVEL (=band 5) at least 2) isn’t ready to invest at least the same amount of time to doing HOMEWORK as we spend together in class 3) wants a band...
Do You Place Your IELTS Students?

Do You Place Your IELTS Students?

In your IELTS teaching context do YOU place your own students? If so, are you in charge of also carrying out a NEEDS ANALYSIS with them to find out • what their current LEVEL is • which MODULE they need (i.e. Academic or General) • what OVERALL band...
When I First Taught IELTS…

When I First Taught IELTS…

…I didn’t quite know what I was doing. 😀 I had been working with candidates preparing for the Cambridge FCE, CAE, and CPE (today ‘B2 First’, ‘C1 Advanced’ and ‘C2 Proficiency’), but I hadn’t heard much of IELTS...
And THAT Is How You Give Feedback

And THAT Is How You Give Feedback

The other day I made a mistake.  I used a ‘non-PC’ image in one of my posts, accidentally depicting animal cruelty. And then I got this beautiful message from a friend of mine. “Hi Fatime,  Hope all is well with you. I love your dog images...

Snackable Free IELTS CPD!

Are you looking for some quick, snackable FREE IELTS CPD? Then here’s an idea for you. 🙂 Why don’t you check out ALL my past IELTS teacher training blog entries (130 and counting)! Any IELTS-related theme that you think is missing from the collection? Let...

Same Topic, Different Essay

Here’s a quick WRITING challenge for you if you teach IELTS writing! 🙂 Look at the following ESSAY task. Identify the TOPIC, and rewrite the task into the essay TYPE provided. ESSAY TASK: “What are the reasons why genetically modified food is so widespread...

Do do, Don’t Do

What are some common IELTS teaching tips that you’ve received that you DO agree with,  AND …some that you DON’T follow? Why? P.s. I talk about my IELTS teaching principles in my course, How to Teach IELTS –The Ultimate IELTS Teacher Training...

Scaffolding Exam Skills?

Much like we SCAFFOLD things in a lesson to make learning easier, we need to scaffold our IELTS students’ EXAM SKILLS. Candidates need to experience INCREASINGLY (cognitively and psychologically!) more demanding situations leading up to the exam, to do well on...

Three Layers of Pronunciation

Which of the three levels of pronunciation, i.e. SOUND, WORD STRESS, or INTONATION do your students most struggle with? Why?  1) What is the L1 of the majority of your students? How does their nationality influence the issues they have pronouncing the SOUNDS of...

Taking IELTS Is a ‘Joint Venture’

Do your IELTS learners realize that preparing for the exam is a ‘JOINT VENTURE’?  By that I mean are they deeply aware of the fact that while you’re there to help them prepare for it, THEY are the ones who’ll actually be taking it? 😀 😉 😉...

What’s a Smart Question?

What’s a ‘smart question’ for you?  Don’t you just love, love, LOVE being asked a smart question by your IELTS students? One that shows that they’re getting ‘it’. (The ‘it’ being any important IELTS sub-skill...

Are You Teaching 40+ Hours a Week?

Are you aware of the importance of investing in the RIGHT (=most impactful and transformative) CPD …in THEORY? …but are struggling to commit to a ‘more serious’ course because you’re teaching 40+ hours a week (…instead of the ideal...

Why Become an IELTS Teacher?

If you have the Cambridge CELTA or equivalent, and have been teaching general English for a while, maybe it’s time to consider specializing in teaching IELTS. Here’re just some of the reasons why this might be a smart move: 1) There are millions of test...

What’s the Point of Planning?

What’s the point of planning a lesson if we know that things won’t go according to it?  By planning we make sure that what we want to do in a lesson will be fresh in our minds. So, in essence, it isn’t HAVING a plan that’s useful, but...

Overcalibrate!

I don’t know about you, but what proved to be a useful strategy with my IELTS students over the years was to always ‘OVERCALIBRATE’. By this I mean that if a learner needed, say a band 6 in one particular skill or overall, I liked to aim for 6.5 or 7...

Bespoke Means…

Bespoke to ME mostly means • carrying out a NEEDS ANALYSIS when starting to work with a new IELTS student,  • planning MILESTONES in advance, and • MONITORING these consciously during the course, adjusting content and strategy where necessary. What does bespoke...

Send Me Your IELTS Lesson Plan!

If you  · have been following my IELTS teacher training posts for a while · watched my free IELTS Masterclass and loved it · speak English on a C1 level or above · have the Cambridge CELTA or equivalent · already teach, or plan to teach IELTS...

When Is It Best to Just… Surrender?

So, the other day we went to the beach for the first time since I got here. We were super excited, and packed everything for a perfect day: ice cold drinks, food, suntan lotion, towels, snacks and goggles… you name it. Oh, and a fancy new beach umbrella too,...

Avoidance or Overuse?

Are your IELTS learners avoiding or overusing any grammar area? Do they sometimes resort to AVOIDANCE when they’re not confident about a grammar area? What gives them away? Have any of your learners been OVERUSING a grammar (or vocab!) area to compensate for...

Time and Money?

Are you on the fence about signing up for my upcoming IELTS teacher training Bootcamp in November, How to Teach IELTS?  Let me guess. 1) Is it because you’re concerned you might not have the necessary TIME to dedicate to studying on the course? OR 2) Is it...

I’m Nuts…

Yes, I’m ‘nuts’ about Florida –how well they know me!  And nuts about nuts in general: almonds, pecans, even cashews… 😀 ;P I’m also ‘nuts’ about TRAINING teachers, and seeing them become better and more confident at teaching...

Move! Feel Alive!

Moving our body makes us stronger and more flexible. Moving to a new home, (town, country, continent, culture…) makes us more resilient, resourceful, and emotionally, mentally more agile. In other words, SOME change and disruption can often be good for us, as it...

Who Your IELTS Lessons Are NOT For

We spend a lot of time thinking about becoming better teachers for our learners –as we should. And we tend to think less about who our IELTS lessons are NOT for. Yet there are students who we should not strive to work with, for a variety of reasons, including...

One-Word Conversations

To help raise your IELTS learners’ awareness of the importance that INTONATION plays in creating meaning, you could have them do the following SPEAKING exercise. “Create one-word conversations with a ‘story’ behind each. Practice reading/acting...

Where Is Your Evidence?

Some students who are new to IELTS (…but have perhaps heard that it’s a challenging exam… with strict time limits too…) will treat it like a MEMORY TEST.  Short-term memory plays a role, yes, but often differently than how these learners...

What Makes Feedback Digestible

In my experience, a few things might help make feedback easier to take on board: 1) starting with the POSITIVES 🙂 2) using gentle, reaffirming LANGUAGE throughout 3) NOT DUMPING but choosing ‘staggered delivery’ as much as possible,...

Students with Dreams

Yesterday I got to talking with a lovely Bootcamper about the importance of managing our IELTS learners’ expectations carefully. Because our job is relatively easy when a student who is ALREADY on the (CEFR/band score) level that they are targeting, but may...

10 More Reasons to Sign Up –Part 4

If you teach IELTS and… 1) would like to learn how to use the public band descriptors as teaching tools 2) want to learn more about why an initial needs analysis can be useful when taking on a new student, how to conduct one and what to include in it  3)...

And Another 10 Reasons…

How to Teach IELTS –The Ultimate IELTS Teacher Training Bootcamp– might just be the right back-to-school CPD for you if you 1) want to be able to share lots of useful sample answers your learners to better model what is expected of them on the exam (e.g. on the...

10 More Reasons to Sign Up

Consider taking How to Teach IELTS –The Ultimate IELTS Teacher Training Bootcamp– if you 1) have already taught (or are teaching) TOEFL or TOEIC courses, now want to teach IELTS, and need to understand the differences between these 2) would like to feel more confident...

Repeatable Means Sub-Skill

Oh, hi there, have we met? 😀  Sorry to stop your scroll (–nah, not really ;P), but did you know that… …TESTING doesn’t equal TEACHING! :O (Except when learning to ‘teach’ skills on the CELTA, which is an ENTRY-LEVEL qualification for...

Sunday Stroll Day

I find that the best way to discover a new place is by …purposefully allowing yourself to get lost there! :O :O Between Bootcamp session writing burst I’m also taking some time these days to wander around my ‘new’ (=about a 100 years young :D)...

What Makes a Course a Good Investment?

If you are addicted to life-long learning like I am, chances are that you have signed up for things (courses, trainings, etc.) quite haphazardly in the past as well. And there’s nothing wrong with that, if the training (course, or ‘thing’)...

Skills Are the New Black

Living in a city where people normally holiday can be confusing: you don’t quite know if you’re ‘coming or going’… 😀 I’m slowly settling in to my new life in (another) ‘paradise city’, and restarting work as well,...

Happy International Dog Day!

This is Sophie and me, planning a lesson about 20 years ago… :O  Well, I was planning it, she was in charge of classroom management… 😀 😀 (Oh, the irony…) When was the last time dogs ‘featured’ in a lesson you taught? (Not necessarily...

I’m Reading You!

1) Do your learners confuse FALSE/NO questions with NOT GIVEN? How have you tried to help them? Did it work? 2) Do your students tend to identify the RIGHT SECTION in a text when looking for the answer? 3) How aware are they of the idea of SCATTERED EVIDENCE across a...

Here’s to Those IELTS Teachers Who…

…have developed some clever ways to gently burst their students’ bubbles who want to RETAKE the exam too soon after having ‘failed’ it. Now, IELTS isn’t a PASS-OR-FAIL exam of course, but candidates often sign up for it with very specific...

Moving to the US in TWO Days!

Still can’t quite believe this is happening.After 10 years in Mexico… ♥️🇲🇽 Any tips, advice for the new life? 🤔🥳🥳🥳♥️🙏🏻🇺🇸 (—not political 😆🥳🥳☝🏻👍👏👏🤔)#showmehow

Priorities Depending on Genre

What are the key PRIORITIES when teaching each IELTS writing genre? Connect the most important aspect of each genre that a teacher should pay special attention to. Aspects of writing: 1) the ability to write neutrally and precisely about facts presented by someone...

Author’s Purpose –Part 1

Students might struggle to recognize the AUTHOR’S PURPOSE in an IELTS reading text. This issue can cause difficulty when dealing with MATCHING HEADING QUESTIONS, because understanding the communicative aim of a paragraph, AS WELL AS the headings is necessary to...

What’s Inside?

I’m often asked about the format of my IELTS teacher training course, How to Teach IELTS –The Ultimate IELTS Teacher Training Bootcamp–. Well, FYI, it follows a ‘hybrid’ format, to include the best of a variety of learning ‘worlds’ (e.g....

I Have a Dream…

…that one day all IELTS students will use vocabulary of the right REGISTER in the exam… 😀 If you want to draw your IELTS learners’ attention to the importance of APPROPRIACY of lexis in the speaking test, you could try the following fun activity....

Overview of Listening Part 3

Part 3 is a conversation between up to four people set in an educational context, for example between a university tutor and a student or students, discussing an assignment. So, which of the following topics and speakers do you think candidates might hear in a Part 3...

The Anti-Language Language Teacher?!

I’m often asked why I ‘don’t believe in’ teaching grammar and vocabulary for IELTS.Or what’s up with me ‘constantly’ telling IELTS teachers to be ‘judicious’ about any (explicit) language teaching to IELTS...

How to Hesitate Well

Do your IELTS students associate being fluent in English with non-stop talking? Then you might want to draw their attention to the fact that one of the most noticeable differences between native and nonnative speakers of a language is their so-called...

An Outstanding IELTS Essay…

An outstanding IELTS essay or letter is full of relevant ideas, is creative and intelligent in its content, structurally complete, respects the word count, and is rich in accurate language (both grammar and vocabulary). What else would you add to the list? —...

10 Reasons to Sign up

Consider signing up for my course, How to Teach IELTS –The Ultimate IELTS Teacher Training Bootcamp– if you 1) are (or were) an IELTS examiner but feel that you do not know so much about teaching listening and reading as the productive skills 2) are (or were) an IELTS...

What’s It Like?

Why, and HOW did you become an IELTS teacher? Is it any different than what you thought it’d be like? #showmehow #ieltsteacher, #IELTSTeacherTrainer, #IELTSTeacherTraining, #ELTskillsteacher

Laptops down, Feet up, Find Your Beach!

Before ‘Corona’ became such a taboo word (…), the unfortunate (?) beer company used to have an ad that I would see all over town (in Cancun) on billboards.  It said something along the lines of ‘Pencils down, Limes up …FIND YOUR...

Students with Baggage

What do you do when you start working with IELTS students who were taught by a colleague or an institution, and have a lot of erroneous ideas either about what’s IN the exam, or HOW to prepare for it? Have you had this problem before? What were the issues?...

I’m Planning a Flash Sale!

I’m Planning a Flash Sale! I’m planning a back-to-school flash sale sometime in August/early September, just FYI. 😉 If you  -teach IELTS  -have been following me for a while  -like my content -and would love, love, LOVE a place on my...

Matching Notions to Examples

In the IELTS listening test candidates sometimes struggle because MATCHING QUESTIONS require that they notice certain more ABSTRACT ideas and NOTIONS in the recording, such as ‘rejecting an idea’. Being able to do this often requires a GLOBAL UNDERSTANDING...

Going the Extra Mile… or Kilometer!

We regularly GIVE our learners FEEDBACK, but do we ask THEM for theirs enough? Here’s the feedback I got from a client I recently worked with: “Fatime is passionate about sharing her ELT, Delta and IELTS expertise, extremely hard-working, patient, and...

Hoping for Conversation?

I’m moving house (and country) in two weeks, and am in the process of buying household items on Amazon for our new home. And although I hardly ever burst out laughing shopping for basic products like kitchenware, the description of a set of water glasses did...

Talent Is a Swear Word

For the last few days I’ve been thinking a lot about POLYGLOTS, thanks to a few thought-provoking conversations that I’ve had with a client and friend of mine. And because my grandmother was a German teacher back in her day, and is a life-long...

Your IELTS Students Don’t Need…

…YET another YouTube video about the structural, factual aspects of the exam, or generic posts about the features and timings of each test. What they DO need is to be guided by a teacher who TEACHES them the concrete SUB-SKILLS required to get the band scores...

Playing Cath up or Paving the Way?

I have a favorite cosmetics brand. I love their products and have been using them for decades, wherever I was living at the time (–yay globalization). I’m super loyal to them, AND… their Mexican website is a cluster f*^# of UX. :(( They don’t keep me...

Cart BEHIND the Horse!

IELTS is a skills only exam.  It’s short. (Well, shorter than other English language exams, for example of Cambridge’s main suite).  It’s ‘sweet ‘n’ practical’. 😀 And it is HARD and STRAIGHTFORWARD at the same time. IELTS...

What Movement Do YOU Want to Start?

The other day, my ELT business and mindset coach, Rachael Roberts asked me the question ‘What movement do you want to start …or have started already?’It really helped me crystallize my ‘ELT mission’, which is to • improve the quality of...

Keep Trying! Yeah, but HOW?

Picture this. You meet YET ANOTHER IELTS student who has taken the exam about 3 times already, and failed to get the required results. And deep down they still kind of believe (…hope…) that if they just ‘keep trying’ (as in keep signing up for...

Help! I’m a Gatekeeper!

Hi there!  I’ve got news for you. If you teach IELTS, you are a GATEKEEPER. You are teaching something VITALLY important that your learners’ futures hinge upon. So, make sure you’re really, REALLY up to the task, for example by signing up for my...

How, THEN the What

As a teenager I went to a very academically demanding high school, where we learned –among other deeply knowledge-based concepts– about solar prominences, and how to calculate orbital velocity. :O I remember tuning out a lot (…a LOT!) during these science lessons...

My Obsession with Skills

I love, love, LOVE knowledge.  AND … I also feel that it’s time we reversed the order in which we start any new learning or teaching endeavor, to allow us to keep up with an ever-faster, and increasingly more complex world.  I feel that today it’s best if we...
Going Deep

Going Deep

What Does Exploiting the Same Material to Go ‘Deep’ with Your Target Language Mean? Do you sometimes feel ‘guilty’ when using the same piece of material over and over again in a lesson? Don’t! Your learners will thank you for it. 😉 How do YOU like to...
Good Teaching Prohibited

Good Teaching Prohibited

The Difficulty of Doing the Cambridge Delta Module 2 in Some (Cultural or Professional) Contexts Is good teaching prohibited in any ways in your context? :O — — Hi. I’m Fatime. I’m an IELTS Teacher Trainer, helping CELTA-qualified English...
How Many Lexical Items to Teach

How Many Lexical Items to Teach

How Many Lexical Items Should I Include in a Cambridge Delta Module 2 Lesson Have you ever tried teaching much more? Much fewer? What happened? — — Hi. I’m Fatime. I’m an IELTS Teacher Trainer, helping CELTA-qualified English language teachers...