18 May 2017 / by Gracia Guzmán

Masterclass in ESL at Oxbridge to share and learn about expertise areas

The Oxbridge English Teaching System (OETS) is made out of a wide and wide community of teachers from different countries and backgrounds. Offering a masterclass in ESL for different areas of expertise was necessary and easy at the same time, having in mind the richness of profiles of our community members. This is why we are currently devoting our Friday meetings to masterclasses presented by our teachers. Each teacher has or will create a presentation about their area of expertise.

In order to teach a successful ESL class, the deeper the understanding of the matter, the better. Still, many trained and skillful English teachers are asked for help in subjects that are far from their own educational background. How can we minimize the risk of failing to teach a specific ESL class? Should we just say no to it? Maybe there is a way of accomplishing both tasks: teaching successful English classes and taking care of the learners' specific request for material.

Confidence comes with knowledge and experience and both passing on knowledge from one teacher to another and sharing experiences are our trademark. Our masterclasses are aimed at bringing closer English teachers with different educational profiles and that way we can be much more powerful when creating ESL material and teaching it.

Here are last Friday, 12th May, amazing masterclasses.

Raoni Farias - a masterclass in ESL about architecture. An overview of architecture´s history, from ancient, asian and islamic, middle ages, modernism, postmodernism to nowadays.

Find here Raoni's presentation: Masterclass in ESL in Architecture by Raoni Farias
Vincent Chieppa - a masterclass in ESL about social development. Engaging activities and games to discuss education in develop and underdeveloped countries.

Oxbridge teaching system - sharing areas of expertise

Perla Carvalho - a masterclass in ESL about nutrition. Differentiation between eating habits and nutrition. Quick overview of eating disorders and nutrition information.
Julie Labate - a masterclass in ESL about anthropology and archeology. Definition of anthropology and the different fields within it, with special mention of linguistic anthropology.

Find here Julie's presentation: Masterclass in ESL in Anthropology by Julie Labate

Oxbridge teaching system - sharing areas of expertise

 

The general feeling after the masterclasses was of better understanding and gratitude. Many thanks for all your brilliant presentations, your passion is our passion now!

15

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04

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English prepositions are easy with the in-on-at pyramid
by Marjan Van Rij
Are your students struggling to memorize the prepositions? Moreover isn’t it a bit confusing to explain all different examples? Why are my hands on the table, am I in the building and at the desk? Don’t worry. In, on and at is often confused among Spanish ESL students. Probably because these three prepositions can be translated to one Spanish...

01

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Are you capable of learning English?
by Marjan Van Rij
One of my students told me after his two-hour class by videoconference that he felt very comfortable because he was able to follow most of it. Still he didn’t feel comfortable enough to speak at any time. He is at a beginner’s level but far from a beginner. I am talking about a middle-aged man who has been studying English almost his entire l...

01

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Criteria for good activities
by Ana Garza
Here are some conclusions we, Madrid teachers, arrived to when discussing What do good activities include? These are internal working standards that we are now setting in order to unify criteria for what good activities should contain. Now we have more clues on what others mean...

29

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Why don’t we translate while we teach English?
by Marjan Van Rij
“... and all other things.” I saw the look in his eyes: panic. “Things? What is things?” Oops, I didn’t know this was a new word. Mentally slapping myself in the face for my own stupidity, I started explaining the word “thing”. I pointed at different objects in the room while using the word “thing” and referred to myself ...

03

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How to use cognates for beginners
by Max Zaman
When students make the decision to step into the classroom to learn English, they often nervous and feel intimidated. For them it is as if they are entering a new world where nothing looks familiar. Thus they can become withdrawn and shy. The situation can be difficult for the TEFL teacher as well as they struggle to connect with the students...

30

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The importance of teaching practice in TEFL training
by Rafael Olivares
Teaching English is a very complex process that involves knowledge about linguistics as well as about educational psychology. However, like everything else in life, there is the theory and then the reality. There is a Chinese proverb that says: I hear and I forget... I see and I remember... I do and I understand. This holds so very true...

02

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The power of dissatisfaction
by Ana Garza
Dissatisfaction tends to be associated with something negative, but it's actually quite powerful when one uses it wisely. One of the problems it brings is that its consequence tends to be criticising –and it ends up there. But the other day I read something that said that people who were satisfied with their ...