Posted in Proficiency, Vocabulary Classes

C2: Advanced Descriptive Language

Long time no post! Since I started a full-time materials writing job in the summer keeping up with the blog has been a bit of a struggle. I’ve still been creating new content for my C2 students just haven’t found the time to post it. Hopefully this will be the first of a little flurry of activity.

I was inspired by two recent episodes of Sean Hutchman’s wonderful podcast Ethos English on the topic of adverb use for higher level students. He quotes a bunch of great, colourful collocations in the episodes that I thought my C2 students would really benefit from, so I decided to make this lesson plan. Be prepared to offer your students a lot of support as mine found some bits a bit tricky, but very rewarding. Based on Sean’s recommendation, I used Sketch Engine for inspiration for some of the collocations. You can get a 30-day trial, but then you have to pay, it might be worth asking your director of studies to pay for an academic account as it’s a very useful tool.

Download the student handout and answer key below. Please post some of your students’ gapped sentences in the comments!

Posted in 2Ts in a Pod: Podcast, Advanced C1, Proficiency

No Word is an Island – Advanced English Podcast

Last week I had the pleasure of appearing on Sean Hutchman’s brilliant podcast No Word is an Island. The show is aimed at advanced English learners (and their teachers). We discussed James Clear’s brilliant book Atomic Habits and my experiences trying to put some of the techniques and strategies into practice. We also explored ways to apply some of Clear’s ideas to our classes and students to help them become more effective learners, as well as touching on many other interesting topics. Check out the episode and video below:

https://betterlanguagelearning.com/episode-15/