Task Based Language Teaching and Learning

One of the big problems with TEFL, especially in Japan, is getting students to talk! My colleague Johann has been working on a system which uses picture cards to encourage speaking. It’s called Go’n’Talk and the site has a couple of other things that may interest teachers who are looking for a textbook free lesson [...]

Webquests are a phenomenon that I’m becoming interested in recently in order to merge the exciting world of learning and researching through the internet and learning or using English for a meaningful purpose. I can see some similarities between a webquest and task based learning – but it seems that mainly webquests are developed for native speakers. [...]

I’ve found crosswords are an excellent way to engage students in thinking laterally and building links in language. However, it is sometimes difficult to find crosswords that are at the right level. I’ve made eight pages of 20 question crosswords in a format that I hope is interesting to younger students, and at a level [...]

Paper for publication taken from my MA research project. (zip file, PDF). Research into vocabulary learning has found that Semantic Category Effects (SCE) (HakkiErten and Tekin, 2008; Finkbeiner and Nicol, 2003) hinder retention when words are learnt in semantically related categories. Other variables such as a word’s concreteness and word class have also been found [...]

Here are  my MA Education term papers (PDF) for you use read and use freely in your teaching or research. To reference these please use the address of the website and include a link directly to each file. If you do use them please let me know! Proposal for course materials The role of interest [...]

Like many teachers I was faced with a wall of worry when delving into the mysterious world of phonics. Among the many questions I asked myself was what was this seemingly miraculous method, how could it be taught, what were lessons like and how could I teach this to second language learners when all the [...]

There are numerous theories and approaches to teaching a second language, some exotic some mundane but all have one thing in common – a desire to make the acquisition of a foreign or second language as efficient and effective as possible. Task Based Language Teaching (TBLT) is an approach which offers students material which they [...]

Hi, This site is a resource for all teachers interested in using Task Based Language Teaching as an approach to teaching whatever language you teach. I graduated from an  MA in TESOL at Oxford Brookes University in the UK, and have been teaching English in Japan for six years. I’m also learning Japanese to help [...]