English Language & Literacy Education

Trolls Drool

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I have been working on a series of bilingual English-Chinese educational books based on characters created by my daughter when she was between 18 months and 3 years of age . These Magic People books are a little rough around the edges because they began life as drawing sessions for my daughter and child’s scribble … Read more

Critical thinking and the need for expert opinion

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That well known Brexiteer and bane of UK teachers, Michael Gove, famously declared that Britons “have had enough of experts”. This strikes me as an extremely irresponsible comment, opening the door to all manner of pseudo-scientific nonsense to confuse and mislead the public without constraint.  I will explain my concerns through two examples where the … Read more

Student Feedback on Pre-sessional @ University of Bristol

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I have spent most of July and August teaching on the University of Bristol’s pre-sessional English for Academic Purposes (EAP) programme. This was a very rewarding experience. It was a chance to get back into the field in which I am now a certified expert. I was especially pleased to discover that visualisations formed a very important component of the course … Read more

Academic Tutoring Success

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Upon returning to England I took on a tutoring assignment to support an undergraduate student in her writing with the aim of moving her from a 2:2 to a 2:1. We got off to a slightly shaky start when the first assignment with my input returned a 2:2. However, the strategy of using it as … Read more

Professional Observations: Teaching and Assessing English in China

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Having worked in English language education, teaching and assessment in China for over twelve years, I have noticed certain trends in the language difficulties Chinese learners of English experience. I share them here as a resource for other English teachers. I will no doubt update this post a few times as this is by no … Read more