Marc Helgesen talks about his greatest and most embarrassing moments as an English teacher, reminisces about the halcyon days of Japan’s bubble economy, and offers advice to those hoping to…
Written by Paul Raine
Paul has taught English as a foreign language in Japan since 2006, and obtained a masters degree in Teaching English as a Foreign and Second Language in 2012. He has a wide range of experience in a variety of different teaching contexts, including conversation schools, junior and senior high schools, blue-chip companies, and colleges and universities. He is particularly interested in integrating technology with English language pedagogy.
Teaching English at Japanese Universities
There are over 700 universities in Japan, and most, if not all, offer some kind of English language instruction to their students. But how does one go about becoming a…
Interview with Marcos Benevides: Extensive Reading (Part 2)
In the first part of this interview, Marcos Benevides talked about what Extensive Reading actually is, and how it can be implemented and assessed by English language teachers. Here, the…
Interview with Marcos Benevides: Extensive Reading (Part 1)
The 5th Extensive Reading conference is taking place this weekend in Nagoya, but what exactly is ‘Extensive Reading’, and how can it be utilized by teachers and learners of English?…
ELT and Technology in Japan: The vision versus the reality
My earliest encounter with the wonder of Japanese technology was at the British Museum in 1991. I was 9 years old. The “Japan exhibition” showing at that time featured a…
Doing an MA in TEFL/TESL
If you’ve been teaching English as a foreign or second language for a few years, you might be considering the next steps in your English language teaching career. In this…
A TEFL box of tricks
Props and accessories can be very useful in the TEFL classroom. Today, I’d like to share with you my “TEFL box of tricks” – the essential items I take to…
Being a female English teacher in Japan
Today is Girl’s Day in Japan, but what’s it like to be a female teacher of English in this traditionally patriarchal society? I interviewed Beth Konomoto, an EFL teacher with…
English: The World Language (Infographic)
Why is English the dominant world language?
1.4 billion speakers of English English is spoken as a second or foreign language by an estimated 950 million people worldwide (Saville-Troike, 2006). This is in addition to the 427…