
Different cultures might have different ‘cultural scripts’ (schemas) for what ‘learning English’ entails.
Unfortunately, in practice this can also mean that the context in which you are teaching might expect that you use certain activities, pedagogies, etc. that you KNOW aren’t effective (i.e. confusing, boring, demotivating for the learners).
I’ve taught in various cultures and can now notice this effect more clearly. For example, in some schools spelling bees are still a huge fad, are overused, but kind of ‘expected’ by the stakeholders (parents, school directors), or even the learners themselves.
Sometimes it’s hard to push back against such ‘sacred local cows’, but we CAN (and should) try to embed them into more meaningful teaching, whenever possible.
What’s ONE game, task, or activity that’s very common in YOUR teaching context but you either avoid it when planning your IELTS lessons, or ‘tweak’ it somehow, to be less of a drag?
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