Macmillan English Campus

I discussed in the last chapter how Skype and similar technologies are helping to broaden the possibilities of language learning. One of the key advantages of Skype is the ease with which people can now communicate over long distances. Obviously it was possible in the past using a telephone,

When I tell people we teach students English by Skype the reaction is usually the same ‘Oh that sounds interesting, how does it work’? In essence it works the same as any normal face to face English lesson.

The teacher calls the student by Skype at the beginning of the

This series hopes to explore a wider application of Online language teaching, how modern technology has come to play a big role in developing language training and what are its wider implications in the future.

Four years ago I embarked on creating and managing my own language school. I had been working

Over the last eight years I’ve looked at a lot of CVs and done a lot of interviews. Some people have bowled me over with their brilliance – Some – like the guy who sent me a CV saying it was his lifelong dream to work at our ‘internationally famous hotel’

Time is not always on the side of the English teacher. There’s a lot to be done – from planning lessons to marking homework; from reading blogs like this to actually having a life! However, sometimes we can be our own worst enemies…

But there really is no need to suffer –

For many teachers, what separates a ‘good’ from a ‘bad’ school is how much development is available. I once worked for a school that offered zero training. Ever the optimist, I often approached the director with the suggestion that the odd training session or two might not be a bad idea.

The great thing about being DoS is that you occasionally get to behave like Darth Vader – marching through the corridors, menacing footsteps echoing as you strike terror into the heart of the innocent hero of our story – the poor teacher. When? On observation day, of course.

Observations can have devastating

I started teaching 12 years ago in Manchester. Previously I had completed a degree in American History – an experience I really enjoyed, but not one that opened up many doors in Leicester where I was living at the time. My knowledge of the foreign policy of Harry Truman wasn’t very

Thank you to Rui and the team for their insightful views and thorough assessment of the Macmillan IELTS skills app over the past few weeks. As a final treat, they’ve prepared a video and shared it with us summarizing their experiences.

We hope you’ve enjoyed the series as much as

This week we take a look at the final skill area on the app, having previously focussed on reading, speaking and writing. Listening takes centre stage this time round as we find out what our students and teachers make of the app’s contribution to this often tough to teach aspect of

Our previous posts in this series have looked at the reading and speaking sections of the Macmillan IELTS Skills app, and it’s to the writing section that we now turn. Often cited by students as the most difficult skill to improve, we will look at

In last week’s post we looked at developing reading skills with the new Macmillan IELTS Skills app. This week we shift the focus to speaking and explore how the app might help students prepare themselves for their often daunting 11-14 minutes of fame in an IELTS examination room.

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In our introductory post in this series we discussed how we were excited about trying out the Macmillan IELTS skills app with our pre-university and first year undergraduate international students here at Bellerbys College in

As teachers of English we are continually being asked to respond to prevalent trends and methodologies that reshape our industry and daily practice. From new teaching methods such as Flipped Learning to the growth in mobile learning and social media usage, we are constantly kept on our toes and

Dear reader,

Due to unforeseen circumstances, this series of postings will be postponed until a later date. We thank you for your patience and hope you will find something equally as interesting to read here on the blog in the meantime.

Many thanks,

The blendedmec team

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Education is evolving every minute of every day; it