how to teach checking and clarifying

7/30/2019 How to Teach Checking and Clarifying

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How to teach checking and clarifying

Phrases to check understanding and clarify meanings are probably the most important of all

kinds of functional language for second language learners, particularly for:

- Classroom communication

- Speaking exams (for checking the meaning of the question before answering it)

- Telephoning and teleconferencing

- Giving and receiving instructions (e.g. giving directions)

- Clearing up the inevitable misunderstandings of L2 communication

Suitable phrases can be broadly divided into ones which are to help the other person understandand ones which are to seek (more) help understanding. These can be further divided into:

- Asking for clarification of a particular point (e.g. What does mean?)

- Checking your understanding (e.g. If I understand you correctly,)

- Just showing a lack of understanding (e.g. Pardon?)

- Asking for changes in the delivery (e.g. Can you explain that again, but starting at the end and

working your way back?, Can you give me another word for?, Can you speak a little bit

more slowly, please? and Can you spell that for me, please?)

- Responding to language, body language, facial expressions etc that show that clarification isneeded (e.g. I can see from your face that I havent explained myself well)

- Giving more explanation before it is asked for (perhaps explaining why more explanation isgiven with phrases like Many people think that)

- Other mentioning of the other persons (probable) lack of understanding (e.g. I know youre

not really into computers, so sorry if that wasnt clear)

- Offering more explanation if needed (e.g. If any of that isnt clear,)

- Asking if a particular part is clear (e.g. Not many people know how to spell that, so)

- More general enquiries about ifyou are being understood (e.g. Is that clear so far?)

You could also indicate where a situation where additional clarification might be necessary with

phrases like The meaning is somewhat ambiguous but, and the person listening might need


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phrases forcorrecting their partner like Did you mean to say? Students will also probably

need phrases to interrupt the person who is speaking in order to ask for clarification and phrases

for getting back on track after they give more explanation.

There is a big list of useful language for all of these at the end of this article from which you can

choose suitable phrases for your students level and typical communication problems.

Common student problems with checking and clarifying language include:

- Using I beg your pardon when a shorter phrase would be more suitable

- Using What? when something more formal would be more suitable (often because of

translation from L1)

- Similar things with sounds like Eh?

- Other direct translations from L1 like One more(time)

- Using very vague expressions like I dont understand that dont give the person speaking anyinformation on which parts are not understood or why

- Using too direct checking understanding expressions like Do you understand?, which cansound like teachers disciplining children!

- Redundant words in expressions like Repeat again

Activities to teach checking and clarifying

Even more than other kinds of functional language, the best way of presenting checking and

clarifying phrases and tactics is to first put students into a situation where they need the language,

in order to see what they can already do and then help them expand on it. No attempt is thereforegiven to divide the activities below into presentation and practice ones, although the ones near

the top are generally more suitable for presenting a large amount of language.

Checking and clarifying gestures

You can elicit or practise phrases for showing general lack of understanding, asking for

repetition, showing you cant hear, asking the speaker to slow down, etc with gestures such as

cupping an ear and shrugging shoulders.

Checking your understanding or their understanding card game

Students listen to typical checking and clarifying phrases and race to hold up one of the two

cards that they have been given depending on whether it is for Checking the other persons

understanding (e.g. Are you following me? and Is that clear?) or Checking your ownunderstanding (e.g. Do you mean? and What does the last word mean?)


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Checking and clarifying tips and useful phrases

As there are many cultural differences and general communication tactics related to this point, itis worth tying together tips and language. One way of doing this is to give students a list of good

and bad tips like Try to be specific about what you dont understand and Use I do beg your

pardon as a more polite way of saying What. After crossing off the bad advice, students worktogether to brainstorm phrases for doing the things that they should.

Checking and clarifying politeness competition

As mentioned above, there are many potential politeness issues with checking/ clarifying. Oneway of practising getting past that is to give some short and obviously rude phrases like What?

and Understood? for students to improve on, perhaps as a game where they have to come up

with more and more polite versions and the politest wins.

Checking and clarifying longer phrases games

Another way of looking at the problems with rude clarifying and checking phrases is that theyare usually simply too short. You can therefore get them to play the politeness competition game

above, but with the challenge being instead to make a longer sentence than what is given and

than their partners do. If you collect some longer phrases which are versions of shorter ones, youcan also split these into two or three pieces of paper for students to try to fit together. After doing

so, those slips of paper can also be used in the games below.

Checking and clarifying with pieces of paper

There are several games in which students are dealt pieces of paper which they can dispose of

during the communicative activity, with the person with the fewest cards at the end winning thatround or the game. The simplest to set up is to give the students cards with names of functions

like Check what something specific means and Clarify something before you asked about itthat they must do the function of to be able to discard that card. They can also be given specific

words and/ or phrases that they should use while speaking in the same way. You will need to set

up the situation each time they speaksee roleplays below for some suggestions.

Checking and clarifying first lesson

This point can be brought up in the very first class by getting students to interview each other

and write what they learn down on an interview form, not allowing them to show the form to

each other or write their answers down to stimulate this kind of language. This can be furtherencouraged with questions that are difficult to understand (e.g. Educational career) and

questions that stimulate dictation (e.g. Present classes and Full name).

Dictation for checking and clarifying

Dictogloss for checking and clarifying


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Dictation is probably the most natural way of bringing up checking and clarifying language. This

can simply be done with the teacher dictating with something similar to a dictogloss. The teacher

reads out a text fairly quickly twice, with students taking notes the second time. Students try toreconstruct the whole text in pairs and small groups, in this variation without showing their notes

to each other in order to stimulate more clarifying and checking language. In this variation, each

group can then ask the teacher a certain fixed number of questions (e.g. six) before comparingtheir versions to the original, with the best version getting points or at least congratulations.

Pairwork dictation for checking and clarifying

An obvious thing to do to add even more checking and clarifying language is to get students

dictating to each other. This can be made more intensive practice still by giving them things todictate that commonly cause confusions (for speakers of their language or more generally) such

as particular letters of the alphabet, minimal pairs, and difficult to distinguish numbers (15 and

50 etc).

There are also dictation-based ideas which are less like a normal teacher-led dictation. Forexample, you could give them mixed up pairs of sentence halves, collocations, split idioms etc

on Student A and Student B worksheets to match and write down without showing their partnertheir sheet. You could also do a Running Dictation, or simply do a telephoning roleplay

involving dictation. There are numerous other ways of getting students to do this in the book

Dictation: New Methods New Possibilities by Mario Rinvolucri and Paul Davis.

You can also turn more common speaking activities like ranking tasks into dictation by giving

students half of the options each and ask both of them to write their finished list without showinganything to each other.

Use and explain activities

A more general tip can be made out of the last activity, which is to give students words andphrases that they should use during a communicative task plus explanations that they can add

only when their partner asks for confirmation (or takes them up on their offer to explain). For

example, one student could ask the other for advice using tricky words given on the worksheet

when explaining their problems. The person giving advice should ask checking understandingquestions before giving their advice.

Checking and clarifying roleplays

The best roleplays are usually realistic situations for this kind of language, such as explaininghow to do something, giving directions and other instructions, explaining problems, dictating(e.g. names, urls, email address, postal addresses), leaving messages, teleconferencing, talking

about something that isnt visible, talking about processes, explaining options, explaining the

reasons for something (e.g. why a recent news story happened), and something a student knowsmore about than their partner.


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You can also prompt more unnatural but fun practice by telling students to exaggerate, e.g. by

misunderstanding everything, talking too quickly and being vague.

Checking and clarifying classroom questions

Another way of looking at clarifying and checking questions is as a part of classroom language.As well as setting up activities where students need to ask the teacher questions and giving one

student they information they need to answer their partners queries as mentioned above, you can

get students to test each other on recent or useful vocabulary with typical classroom checkingquestions like Can you explain what means? and How do you spell // (in British

English)? (with the word given in phonemic symbols, as an abbreviation or in another variety of

English). Those sentences can also be presented in a similar way by giving students the writtenquestions to answer about some vocabulary, then getting them to use the same questions to test

each other.

222 checking and clarifying phrases (in alphabetical order)

(Are there) any questions before I go on?

(Do) go on.

(Excuse me but) did you say?

(I guess) I havent explained that very well, so

(I think) I missed the bit where you explained

(Im afraid/ Im sorry but/ Sorry but) I didnt catch (all of) that.

(Im afraid/ Im sorry but/ Sorry but) Im not (really) following (you/ what you are saying/ your

explanation/ your argument).

(Im afraid/ Sorry but) Im not keeping up with you.

(Im afraid/ Sorry but) that hasnt (really/ entirely) cleared it up for me.

(Is there) anything that needs clearing up before I continue?

(Just) to check if I (fully) understand you,

..., which is (commonly/ usually) defined as

could perhaps do with a bit more explanation.

explains/ explained this by


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But (earlier) didnt you say?

Can/ Could I confirm (whether)?

Can/ Could I take you back to the place where?

Can/ Could you be more explicit?

Can/ Could you clear up for me whether?

Can/ Could you confirm (whether)?

Can/ Could you draw it for me?

Can/ Could you elaborate (on that)?

Can/ Could you explain a little more about?

Can/ Could you explain it /that / just one more time?

Can/ Could you explain that another way?

Can/ Could you explain that in (a little) more detail?

Can/ Could you explain that in laypersons terms?

Can/ Could you explain what you mean by...?

Can/ Could you give me an example (of what you mean/ of the kind of thing you mean/ of whatyou are talking about)?

Can/ Could you put that in other words?

Can/ Could you repeat (what you just said)?

Can/ Could you say that (just) one more time?

Can/ Could you say that again (another way)?

Can/ Could you speak (a little more) slowly, please?

Can/ Could you spell that/ (for me)?

Can/ Could you start again right from the beginning?

Can/ Could you write it down for me?


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Did you (already) explain?

Did you mean to say?

Do you (perhaps) mean?

Do you understand (the meaning of) the word?

Does anything need explaining (before I move on)?

Does that mean?

E.g?

Eh?

For example,

For example?

For those unfamiliar with the word/ term, it means

Got it (so far)?

Have I explained myself properly?

Have you come across the word (before)?

Have you heard of?

Hopefully Ive made it obvious that

Hopefully its clear that I mean

Hopefully you can understand from my explanation that

How do you spell that/?

How would you (directly) translate that into (Japanese)?

How would you define?

How would you say that in (Japanese)?

I (still) dont (quite) get it.


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I (still) don't (quite) understand ()

I basically know what you mean, but

I can explain that another way if you like.

I can illustrate this point with an analogy,

I can see from your face/ expression that

I can tell from your voice/ body language that

I cant (really) picture it.

I cant hear you (very well).

I could (still) do with a little/ some (more) explanation (of)

I dont (quite) understand what you mean by

I dont know if youve come across that (word/ term/ concept) before.

I dont know much/ anything about this subject, so

I dont mean by that (but rather)

I don't quite see what you're getting at.

I get the general drift, but

I got (a bit) lost (about) halfway through.

I guess you mean

I have (absolutely) no idea what you are trying to say!

I have a question about

I have another explanation (up my sleeve) if that ones no good.

I havent come across that use of (before).

I imagine you mean

I might be starting to understand, but


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I mostly understand what youre saying, but

I think I understand (what you mean), but

I thought I was following you, but (then)

I understood that to be/ mean

I was following your argument (up) until you got to

I was with you up to (the point that)

Im afraid I dont understood what you mean when yousaid

Im guessing that means

Im having difficulty understanding you/ following you/ hearing you.

Im having problems understanding you/ hearing you/ following you.

Im not (entirely) sure what means.

Im not (quite) clear what you mean by

Im not (quite) sure (that) I see what youre getting at.

Im not (very) familiar with the word/ term/ meaning of

Im not (very) familiar with this topic, so

Im not sure I (fully) understand you.

Im using that term here with its (usual) sense of

Ive never (even) heard of

Ive never heard the word/ term before.

If a simpler explanation is needed/ would help,

If I understand you correctly, (youre saying)

If you need a simpler explanation,

I'm not (quite) sure (that) I follow you/ get your point/ know what you mean.


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In case that isnt clear,

In laypersons terms,

In other words,...

In simpler terms,

In words of one syllable,

In this is explained as

Is that (all) clear (so far)?

Is that a different meaning of.. (to)?

Is that the same as?

Is that?

Is there a more straightforward way of explaining?

Is there another way of saying that/?

It all sounds like gobbledegook.

Its all Greek to me.

Its going in one ear and out the other.

Its quite loud in here, so

Just guessing from context,

Let me explain that in more detail...

Let me put it in another way...

Like what?

Many people think that means, but in fact

Meaning?

Meaning, right?


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More explanation please.

My English isnt very good, so

Now Im (even) more confused.

Obviously I mean

Pardon?

Please let me know if that isnt clear.

Say again?

Say what now?

Say what?

Simply put,

So, basically

So, if I understand you correctly,

So, in your view

So, what you're saying is...

So, would I be right in saying?

So, would it be correct to say that?

So?

Some more explanation (of) might make it a bit clearer for me.

Sorry?

Such as?

Surely you mean...

That can't be right.

That doesnt make sense (to me).


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Thats (about) as clear as mud.

Thats probably not a good enough explanation, so

Thats, right?

The meaning is (somewhat) ambiguous but

The most common definition of that is

The term is (commonly/ usually) used to mean

There seems to be a contradiction between and

Theres one thing I dont (quite) understand.

This is a little tricky forme to understand, so

This is probably just me being thick, but

This word/ term is used to mean

To be more precise,

To clarify (what I mean),

To explain further,

To put it another way,

To show you what I mean,

To simplify (somewhat/ quite a lot),

Was that clearer?

What (exactly) are you getting at/ trying to say?

What do you mean by?

What does the last word/ bit/ sentence/ idea/ the word/ the expression mean (in this context)?

What I understand from that is

What I wanted to say was...


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What I'm trying to say is...

What on earth does mean?

What was that again?

What were you referring to when you mentioned?

What you want to say is, right?

What?

Whats that in Japanese/ normal English/ everyday English/ laymans terms?

Whats the difference between and?

Whats your point?

Would you define as?

You dont seem (entirely/ very) happy with my explanation, so

You dont seem to be using to mean

You look like you have no idea what Im talking about.

You lost me at

You may as well be speaking a foreign language.

You meant to say, right?

You might think that means, but in fact

You said, right?

You seem to be assuming that I know about/ understand

You seem to be using to mean

Youre going to have to explain it for me from first principles.

Youre speaking too quietly.

Youre staring at me with a blank face/ like Im speaking Greek/ like Ive totally lost you.


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Youve (totally) lost me.

30 ways to get ahead in ELT publishing

In no particular order:

1. Have lots of contacts. For example, keep in touch with your TEFL contacts such as peoplewho study on the same course as you, as some of them will be future authors and editors

2. Have an impressive and ELT publishing-specific LinkedIn page, with lots of relevant contacts

3. Be low maintenance in your contacts with publishers, e.g. not double checking everything and

absolutely always keeping to deadlines (even when the publishers stop contacting you or misstheir own deadlines)

4. Write in an accessible way, e.g. for people with limited English or without specific cultural orTEFL knowledge, even when contacting publishers

5. Do your own illustrations, or find someone who can do them (but making it clear that using

those illustrations is completely optional)

6. Need no editing (for example because you have lots of proofreading experience)

7. Specialise, but also have a wide range of experience

8. Get platforms by which you can publicise the thing you publish, e.g. get many Twitter

followers, start a TEFL blog and make it well known and popular, and be a well-trusted sourceof advice on TEFL forums

9. Have a name that will be familiar to publishers/ customerssee above, but also givingworkshops

10. Interact with publishers as much as you can and as many ways as you can, e.g. send them

copies of your published reviews of their books, volunteer for pre-publication reviewing, give

workshops at events that they are involved in and chat to them between workshops, and requestsample copies for your school

11. Have a great CVsee above and also teacher training experience, relevant qualifications,working for well-known and well-respected chains of schools, writing outside TEFL, positionsof responsibility such as on the board of your local chapter of TESOL, language level, and being

an examiner

12. Be persistent without getting annoying

13. Show your familiarity with materials which compete with yours


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14. Be someone the publishers want to impress and work with, e.g. an important contact in a

large chain of schools that can give them lots of orders or the editor of a publication they would

like good publicity from

15. Always have a few (extra) publishing proposals or ideas up your sleeve

16. Show your tech-savvy, e.g. by writing articles on ed-tech topics

17. Be visible in places where publishers notice, especially magazines and big conferences in

their country

18. Work for a publisher for a whileeven if it is a smaller publisher, just as a sales rep, or is in

non-ELT publishing

19. Be responsible for choosing/ buying books, e.g. for a chain of schools

20. Have a clear idea of both the ideal person to use your materials and the (many) other peopleit could be useful for

21. Think carefully about how your materials could be marketed, mentioning that in you contacts

with publishers

22. Mention ELT publishing as much as possible, e.g. on your LinkedIn profile and on your

business card

23. Sprinkle your business cards around

24. Get involved in publishers websites, e.g. submitting lesson plans to go on their sites

25. Send book proposals, but mainly so that they consider you for other projects (mentioning

your keenness for such things in the accompanying email)

26. Work in a school with contacts, e.g. where some of the teachers or managers are authors orwhich are involved in pre-publication testing

27. Have a qualification in ELT materials writing, e.g. an MA or the course fromELTTeacher2Writer

28. Have original ideas, but also be prepared to work on unoriginal projects

29. Have experience of editing and being edited

30. Have experience of writing to deadlines for a specific audience


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70 easy TEFL articles that anyone could

write at least one of

Every teacher has at least one article about teaching in them. This article gives 70 suggestions fortopics from which almost anyone could choose or adapt. Parts are given in bold so that you canadd your own ideas to make your own article title/ topic, but please feel free to use the examples

of complete titles below if you wish. Please note that not all the examples given reflect my own

views on teaching or ideas of what the best titles on those topics would be.

1. A bit of TEFL history

2. A change in textbooks/ the range of books published by the big four/ the UK TEFL market

(with why it has happened and its implications)

3. A comparison between two books/ two techniques for/ several explanations for one

grammar point/ two qualifications/ teacher development face to face and online/ two exams/ two

age groups/ two teaching situations

4. A critique ofPPP/ how pairwork is usually used/ recent ESP titles

5. A manifesto for long term TEFL teachers/ teachers of very young learners/ dissatisfiedparents of very young learners

6. A metaphor for teaching/ learning a language (with how far it can be taken and what we canlearn from it)

7. A survey ofTEFL forums/ TEFL job ads/ primary textbooks released in the last 12 months

8. A tribute to a writer/ an editor/ a publishing company/ a researcher

9. Activities based on the ideas in one book/ the ideas of one person/ a piece of research/ a

personal conclusion about teaching languages

10. Adapting the ESP approach for General English classes/ PPP to what we know about

learning languages/ Dogme for young learners

11. Advantages and disadvantages ofpeer correction/ correcting all written mistakes/ running

around games (and how to exploit the advantages and lessen the disadvantages)

12. Advice for unmotivated teachers/ teaching very specialist ESP

13. Alternative uses ofan OHP/ running dictations/ videos with the sound turned down


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14. Alternative ways ofstarting classes/ ending classes/ deciding on a syllabus

15. Alternatives to spoken error correction/ teacher-led classes/ gapfills

16. Arguments for and against textbooks/ reading for pleasure in class time

17. Better ways ofusing L1/ eliciting/ brainstorming

18. Career advice forpeople with experience but no qualifications/ people who havent taught

for a while/ people who want to get into teacher training/ people who want to change the industry

19. Changes needed inteacher education/ school inspections/ how we all teach

20. Choosing a job/ textbook/ career path/ kind of syllabus/ placement test

21. Circumstances in which you should/ shouldnt correct/ use peer correction/ have a teacher-

led class

22. Classifying different kinds ofteacher/ student/ interaction/ classroom question (and thepractical implications of that)

23. Combining listening and reading/ grammar and vocabulary/ speaking and learner training/

language and cultural training

24. Common misconceptions about very young learners/ vocabulary/ teaching pronunciation/

future tenses

25. Contesting the validity of/ Debunking IELTS scores/ CEFR levels/ multiple intelligences/the Cambridge Delta

26. Cultural differences in attitudes to asking questions in class/ being corrected (and the

implications)

27. Decreasing the time spent moving students around/ L1/ warming student up/ with textbooks

open/ planning lessons

28. Decreasing TTT/ L1

29. ESP materials/ teaching magazines/ the CPE exam/ private EFL schools in the UK/ theInternational House chain then and now

30. Finding a balance between learner autonomy and classroom discipline/ TTT and STT/grammar, vocabulary and functional language

31. Good and bad ways ofbringing new technology into a school/ implementing change in a

school


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32. How to adapttextbook listenings/ authentic texts/ advice in teachers books (for your classes)

33. How to improve prediction skills/ motivation/ classroom dynamics/ what percentage ofpeople do their homework

34. Ideas prompted by something you read/ a workshop you attended/ an experience in theclassroom/ some student comments

35. Implications of a change in an exam/ the English language/ student attitudes/ student needs/

the age profile of the population/ the English teaching market/ a recent news event

36. Implications ofcopyright/ data protection/ health and safety/ child protection/ consumer

protection law for TEFL teachers

37. Judging student progress/ the usefulness of the language that they have learnt/ a textbook/ a

placement test/ a teacher

38. Limits to an approach/ the teachability of something that would otherwise be useful

39. Low-prep lesson planning/ teacher training/ cover lessons

40. Making a textbook/ exercise type/ exam practice more fun/ useful/ connected to student

needs

41. Organisingyour time/ the teachers room/ CPD in your school/ a teaching association

42. Practical implications ofa theory/ idea from applied linguistics/ psychology/ general

education

43. Predictions for the future of the English language in university education/ language testing/

ELF

44. Preparing to take an initial teaching qualification/ teach teenagers for the first time

45. Prioritising language/ skills/ teaching skills to improve

46. Rearranging your classroom/ stages of a lesson/ a textbook

47. Reviving The Silent Way/ translation/ dictation/ techniques based on Behaviourism

48. Simpler ways to rearrange groups/ communicate with students outside class/ access the

internet in class

49. Something from general education/ psychology/ what children do in their free time that

could be adapted for TEFL


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50. Something that never worked for me until I saw someone else teach it/ read something/

experienced language learning from the other side

51. Stages ofdeveloping fluency/ developing as a teacher/ ensuring student satisfaction

52. Standing up forprimary school teachers who dont have specialised ELT training/ studentswho dont want to do pairwork

53. Teaching large groups/ Teaching ESP classes/ Teaching teenagers/ Teacher training with

minimal resources

54. Techniques forteachers who arent confident about using the phonemic script/ their own

texts/ running around games/ humanistic language teaching techniques

55. The characteristics of a good language learner/ Business English teacher/ teacher trainer/

DoS

56. The effects ofsub-skills training on IELTS skills/ warmers on student learning

57. The importance (or not) ofL1 interference/ training in skimming and scanning/ actual

teaching of collocations

58. The theory and reality ofneeds analysis/ learner autonomy/ learning styles/ lesson plans/

teacher development

59. Theoretical weaknesses ofPPP/ TBL/ Dogme/ written error correction

60. Using crayons/ digital voice recorders/ spellcheckers/ student writing/ anecdotes in class

61. Variations on a classic TEFL game/ a common teaching technique

62. Ways toteach/ present/ practise functional language/ collocations/ academic vocabulary/

pausing for thought techniques

63. Ways to use a new website/ piece of technology

64. What to do ifyou are being bullied at work/ you have one very disruptive student

65. What we could learn from speech therapists/ special needs teachers/ Silicon Valley start-ups

66. What we still dont know/ cannot know about the differences between learning L1 and L2/the characteristics of an effective teacher/ why exam scores fluctuate (and the implications)

67. Why reading for pleasure is better than reading with comprehension questions (apart from

when)


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68. Why you should start/ increase student autonomy in class/ learner training/

69. Why you should stop/ reduce the emphasis on tenses/ the percentage of pronunciation timespent on minimal pairs

70. Why doesn't work for a particular skill/ sub-skill/ language point or in a particularsituation

How to write and publish TEFL articles

Another article on this site list gives many easy topics with which to start writing TEFL articles.

This one concentrates on the process by which you can go about doing so. Article here mainly

means something somewhere between a simple list of games and a proper research-based

academic paper.

The possible stages of the process are:

- Choose where you want to publish your article and find out what it will need to be like to fit in

and be accepted

- Choose a title or topic to write about

- Brainstorm ideas

- Plan

- Write

- Edit

- Get some help

- Submit or publish yourself

If you for some reason dont feel ready to write an article yet, there are also things you can do to

get ready for that point, for example:

- Read a lot

- Write your own blog, or even start with tweets then working your way up to blog posts and

then articles, as many people have done

- Write teaching tips, and then lists of them

- Give workshops, one of which might lead to an article


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- Write reviews

- Write texts for students

- Do a qualification for which you have to write essays on TEFL-related topics

Choosing where to publish

Choosing where you want to publish could obviously be the last stage above rather than the first

one, by which I mean deciding on where is most suitable by the content and style of the article

and who you want to read it. This approach is obviously the best way of using something youhave already written such as workshop notes or a brainstormed list of ideas for your class to

make it into a publishable articlea good tip for those who find it difficult to get started.

If you do decide to aim for a particular publication as you write (knowing you can always change

your mind later, of course), reading that publication as much as possible could also help you

come up with a topic. You could even, as was the case for me, start by writing and sending anarticle directly in response to something you read in the publication.

Deciding on a topic/ title

As mentioned above, there is a big list of possible article topics on this site that you can use for

inspiration. Other general tips on coming up with article titles/ topics include:

- Take an existing title and change a few words (you can change the title further later if where

you have ripped it off from will be too obvious)

- Make it related to your recent classes

- Make it connected to a particular area of interest

- Make it connected to something you were weak at but are working on or have improved on

- Observe someones class (in person or by watching a video) and base your article on something

you noticemaking sure you fully hide the source of your ideas if that could be taken badly!

It is also possible to let the topic and title emerge from the writing process, for example starting

by writing 100 Random Great TEFL Games and narrowing that down whenever a useful

pattern seems to be emerging, e.g. games that are all connected to asking and answeringquestions (which is pretty much how I came up with my first book proposal).

Brainstorming and planning

I could easily write a whole article on how to brainstorm, but for most people a Mind Map works

best, and you can easily move from the categories on the Mind Map to the plan for the article bymaking the most useful major categories the paragraphs of the article. Nowadays I more


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commonly brainstorm straight into a Word document and cut and paste those ideas straight into

categories that then become paragraphs, but I wouldnt necessarily recommend this when you are

first starting to write TEFL articles.

Writing and editing

Its quite difficult to give advice about actually sitting down and writing. A general rule for both

brainstorming and writing is to try and come up with your own ideas first and then turn to other

sources to check and expand on what you came up with. The most obvious source of additionalideas nowadays is probably Google, not forgetting Google Books for some of the many classic

ideas that are nearly forgotten. Online ELT magazines and journals such as ELT Journal are also

searchable online for subscribers, or there are always the indexes at the back of teacher resourcebooks.

Things to bear in mind during the writing and editing stages include:

- Is it accessible to all the people who will read it, including people who dont share your age,teaching background, previous reading on the topic, nationality, English language level, etc?

- Does it grab peoples attention from the first line? Does it tell people who might not think they

are interested in the topic why they might want to read on (but without making people who reallydont need to read do so)?

- Have you mentioned the sources of your ideas (including vague statements of such like from

one of the Communication Games books when you arent sure)?

- Does each paragraph have a clear topic? Are those topics clearly linked to the topic and title of

the article?

- Are the grammar, punctuation etc not only correct but suitably conservative for the publication

and readers?

- Is the level of chattiness and personalisation right?

General editing tips include:

- Leave something untouched for at least a week and then come back to it.

- Edit for each other.

- Get work pre-publication reviewing or peer reviewing to improve your editing skills.

- Stick strictly to a word limit. If none is given, ask for one, copy other articles in the same place,or just set yourself an arbitrary one (700 words is a good one online, or 1500 words is a good

absolute maximum for most things).


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- Make a note of any editing changes included in your published pieces so that you dont make

the same mistake again.

Getting help

Help you can get includes:

- Give a workshop on the topic

- Post an early version, an outline or a key idea of an article on your blog for feedback

- Swap editing help with another teacher

- Send it to a Twitter contact (after asking if you may)

Publishing

Places to publish include, in approximate order of how easy it is to do so:

- Your own blog

- Article sharing sites

- Someone elses blog

- TEFL websites

- ELT magazines (including those of teaching associations and TEFL websites with a magazineformat such as Humanising Language Teaching)

- ELT journals (including those of teaching associations)

- Applied Linguistics journals

- The TEFL section of a national newspaper

I have also seen people start a forum thread with an article of theirs, although it seems like a bitof a waste given the amount of effort that goes into writing an article (unlike the effort that

usually goes into what is generally written there). This does at least guarantee a fairly largereadership, including people who might not generally read such a thing, but you have to be

prepared for some very direct instant feedback!

If its an article about TEFL for a non-TEFL audience, e.g. one telling people what they shoulddo if they want to get into English teaching, there are also other possibilities such as travel sites

and local newspapers.


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Getting published in TEFL Why, what,

where, and how

As its title suggests, this article is structured as a set of questions about getting published inTEFL with some of the many possible answers. The first of those questions is probably Why

bother?, and some of the reasons are:

- It helps you learn about the language and the writing process

- It more generally improves your teaching, e.g. by helping you brainstorm ideas for your classes

- It improves your CV/ helps you get better jobs

- It impresses students

- Its motivating

- It helps put you in touch with like-minded people and useful people for your future career

- It helps you organise and remember your own ideas

- You can use it to publicise things such as your school or upcoming workshop

- It helps (at least some of) the people who read it

- It can help change things in ELT

- It can provide a supplementary income (in a way that is a nice change from just doing moreteaching) or even an alternative career path

Perhaps even more important than all of those is the fact that there is no reason why not to getpublished in some way, because it is an incredibly easy thing to do. If you have doubts about that

statement, it might depend on your definition of getting published in TEFL. Im taking the

most general possible definition: Writing or recording something for language teachers orlearners which is read, listened to or watched by more than one person who you dont know.

Its quite difficult to divide genre and place when looking at examples of what you can publish

(Is a blog post a genre?), but we can avoid that for a bit by first looking at functions:

- Advice/ Tips/ Teaching ideas, e.g. on how to teach, where to teach, getting a job, taking

qualifications, language learning, using technology, time management (on blogs, travel forums,

TEFL forums, expat forums, EtP teaching tips page, Daves ESL Caf teaching tips page)

- Humour (on blogs, occasionally some paper publications such as The Teacher Trainer, forums,Twitter, some sites)


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Things which could be considered genres of TEFL writing include:

- Books, including e-books (with big publishers, smaller international publishers, local publishers,local parts of big publishers, on sites that distribute self-published books and e-books)

- Articles/ Essays/ Academic papers (in magazines and journalsincluding of local andinternational teaching associations, on websites, on blogs)

- Blog posts (on your own blog or as guest piece on other peoples)

- Brainstorms/ Mind maps (on blogs, mind map sites)

- Dialogues/ Debates (on blogs or polished up to be articles)

- Discussion questions (as a worksheet on worksheet sharing sites, on your own site or blog, as a

Wiki)

- Graded reading materials

- Interviews, with you or with someone else (on blogs, maybe other sites if you submit it as an

article)

- Lesson plans/ Worksheets/ Photocopiables (with Onestopenglish Lesson Share, Cambridge

ESOL site, PearsonELT teacher materials, ESLprintables.com and similar TEFL materials

sharing sites, general education sites, blogs)

- News/ Topical pieces (in EL Gazette, blogs, some forums)

- Newsletters (through LinkedIn or Facebook, to subscribers to your blog)

- Presentation slides (on slide sharing sites, blog)

- Questions and comments during a live webcast (on publishers sites, IATEFL conference sites)

- Research results/ Statistics

- Responses to other people's writing (letters in magazines, blog comments, tweets, Facebook

comments, forums)

- Reviews, e.g. of books, websites, apps, CD ROMs, teacher training, conferences (in magazines

and journals, on websitessuch as TEFL.net and TESL-EJ, on blogs, on Amazon, Twitter, on

TEFL course review sites)

- Running commentary, e.g. of conferences (on Twitter)


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- Selections from things by other people, e.g. quotes, links, lists of books (on Twitter, Facebook,

your own blog, link sharing sites, Amazon)

- Surveysfor people reading to answer or sharing results

- Rankings/ Lists

- Games/ Activities

- Online exercises/ Online activities

Most of the above can also be done as videos or podcasts, or as software such as smartphone or

tablet apps.

Where?

As mentioned above, many of the genres mentioned are also place-specific, e.g. Facebook postsand tweets. Other answers to Where? include:

- Publishers and their websitesMacmillan (including Onestopenglish and Macmillan Language

House), CUP, OUP, Pearson, McGraw-Hill, National Geographic Learning/ Cengage, Collins

ELT, Scholastic ELT, Wiley English as a Second Language, Kaplan Publishing, Its Magazines,Pavilion Publishing, Richmond, Express Publishing, Helbling Languages, Garnet Education,

theround (e-books only), ABAX, Delta Publishing, Multilingual Matters, TESOL Bookstore,

Michigan English Language Teaching, Routledge English Language Learning, Taylor and

Francis ESL and Applied Linguistics, Barrons, Apricot, Compass Publishing, RIC Publications

- Exam boards and their websitesCambridge ESOL teacher resources

- Peer reviewed ELT and Applied Linguistics journals (paper-based, online, or both) - ELT

Journal, TESOL Quarterly, TESOL Journal, TESL-EJ, The Reading Matrix, English Today,Language Learning and Technology, Language Testing, Applied Linguistics, Asian EFL Journal

- TEFL magazines - English Teaching Professional, Modern English Teacher, Its for Teachers,Business Spotlight, The Teacher Trainer, IATEFL Issues, IATEFL SIG newsletters, magazines

of local teaching associations

- Online TEFL magazines (meaning sites which have a monthly format)Humanising Language

Teaching

- (Independent) ELT websitesones which ask for articles (TEFL.net, Englishclub.com, ESL

Lounge, ESL Article.com, ESL Galaxy), ones which ask for worksheets, any others which give

contact details

- Trade papersEL Gazette


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- More general language learning and teaching magazines and websites

- ForumsTEFL forums (ESLteachersboard, Usingenglish.com, TEFL.net Daves ESL Caf,),local TEFL forums (Ajarnforum), expat forums (Gaijinpot, Ajarn forum), travel forums (Lonely

Planet thorntree)

- Link sharing sites

- Newspapers and their websites - Guardian Weekly, Independent, Telegraph, your local

newspaper back home

- Other peoples blogs too many to mention, but see Onestopblogs, TEFL.net blogregator,

random TEFL blog generator for examples

- Your own blogon TEFL sites (TeachingEnglish) or general platforms (Wordpress, Blogger)

- Sites that distribute books and e-bookstheround

- Sites that distribute podcasts - iTunes

- Sites that sell apps

- Sites which sell TEFL materials and allow comments/ reviewsAmazon

- Social networking sitesFacebook, LinkedIn, Twitter

- Wiki pages (your own or existing onesWikipedia, TEFL Wiki, Lets Japan wiki)

- Your own websiteWordpress.org, Moodle

- School magazines/ newslettersIH Journal or that of your own school

- School websites/ blogs

- Other peoples email newsletters

- TEFL course review sites

- Travel websites/ blogs

- General education sites

- (TEFL or general education) worksheet sharing sites

- (General) article sharing websites


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- Slide sharing sites

- Video sharing sitesYouTube, Daily Motion

The next question is which of all the above is best, and this brings us back to what your

motivation is.

Which

For your teaching career, e.g. to help get a university job

For university jobs, getting something published in peer review journals is the holy grail, and it is

best to concentrate on this and get started as soon as possible, because it can easily take well over

a year from sending something to getting it publishedeven when that is possible. What is evenmore common is having things sent to peer-reviewed journals rejected or even ignored, so it is

also worth working on other things that you can put into the Publications section of your CV

while you are waiting for feedback from sending research etc to journals.

One approach is to try and get other things in peer-reviewed journals, the two most obvious

being letters in response to other peoples articles (when the journal has a Letters to the Editorsection or similar) and book reviews, the latter being surprisingly easy to get published and

meaning you can still put ELTJ, TESL-EJ etc on your CV. Ive also seen journals such as TESL-

EJ calling for people to peer review other peoples articles, which must be a good way of gettingan idea of what they are looking for and just maybe meaning your own piece can jump the queue.

The other approach is to work your way down the list of things which rank below the most

desirable peer reviewed journals. Those would probably be, in approximate order:

- Well-known TEFL magazines like English Teaching Professional, Modern English Teacherand EL Gazette

- Websites of big publishers and exam boards like Macmillan, Cambridge and Pearson (evenwhen it is in a section of the website that is quite easy to write for like Onestopenglish Lesson

Share)

- Other well-known websites like Humanising Language Teaching

- Sites and newsletters of other large organisations, e.g. the British Councils TeachingEnglish or

the International House magazine

- Newspapers

If you could publish some kind of book (even self-published), that would also of course impress.

For people who want to eventually publish a book


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Although it very rarely leads to anyone commissioning the book, it is still worth working up a

formal book proposal with two sample units, a description of the rest of the book etc, as it could

be that which puts you in the frame for something similar that they are already planning.

Two more general tips are to get noticed by the publishers and to get stuff on your CV that will

impress them whenever they take a look at it. More specifically, I would recommend you tospecialise, get involved in pre-publication reviewing, publish reviews of ELT materials (perhaps

sending copies to the publishers), chat to publishers at conferences, and give workshops at such

conferences.

To impress students

The top thing has to be a book, for which see above. It can also impress them to see a copyright

message at the bottom of your worksheet along with your own name.

For motivation/ inspiration

Reviews is also good for this one, especially if you get a good book but even if the book isnothing special, because critiquing something can help lead to your own ideas or even just make

you feel better about your teaching.

For the money

For the vast majority of people, publishing is unlikely to ever pay more per hour than just doing

overtime or concentrating on getting a better job would lead to. This includes:

- Articles and reviews in journals and magazines

- Online content for publishers and other sites

- Writing work for books that is paid as a lump sum rather than as a percentage of sales

- Putting videos on YouTube with ads

- Publishing your own material online with ads (organised yourself or through Google Ads)

- Publishing your own stuff online and charging a subscription

- Publishing your own stuff online and having a donate button

- Publishing your own stuff online and having a freemium model or selling something else

through the site

Although these are by no means guaranteed either, the only two chances of hitting it big are

probably through a royalty-based writing job and self-publishing books, both of which nowadaysmean having to do a lot of the publicity tips below. It may also be possible to approach a


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teaching rate with the things mentioned above, and publishing provides both a nice change and

all the benefits mentioned at the beginning of this article, so Ive never regretted my own efforts

even when it has meant a slight financial hit to make time to write.

For the publicity

This is difficult to tell, because who knows how many people actually type in the names or urls

given at the end of articles or reviews in paper-based magazines and journals or click on links in

emails? Online it is also difficult to choose the most effective way of getting publicity, but thesehave all lead to a reasonable number of clicks for me:

- Forum posts in which you have given a link to something you wrote (an on-topic one,

obviously), in which signatures with a link are allowed, or very occasionally from sites in which

you are only allowed to give a link on your profile page

- Blog comments in which you have given a linkto something youve written, or in which

clicking on your name links to your blog or site (the latter is almost universal but much morerarely leads to clicks)

- Online articles and reviews where you are allowed to give a link to your blog or site at the

bottom

- Giving links in Yahoo groups and LinkedIn groups, or generally just taking part and so gettingyour name known

- Submitting a link to your blog to Onestopblogs, expat blog lists, etc

- Giving links to suitable materials on your site for your students, e.g. to students who missed thelesson

- Other people mentioning things you have published for them , e.g. guest pieces on your blog,

on their blogs, or on social media such as Twitter

- Guest pieces on other peoples blogs

Things which I have no experience of but would also help:

- Leaving Facebook comments

- Twitter, including taking part in ELT Chat

- Submitting blog posts to an ELT blog carnival

- Submitting your own blog to a list of education blogs of the year and then trying to drum up

votes


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- Sending your ideas to someone famous, e.g. Krashen, who might champion them or at least

give you a quote

- Offering your book, subscription website etc for review

To change the (TEFL) world

The self-publicity tips above are probably the most important thing when it comes to having areal impact, but it is also worth bearing in mind that online articles are rarely referenced in paper-

based publications.

To help you learn about the language and the writing process

The most important thing is to be edited, which rarely happens online.

To improve your teaching

Perhaps my greatest tip on this is to write about something related to your present classes. For

example, I often write articles about how to teach the next point in the book as a way ofbrainstorming and motivating myself to find new ideas for that point. You can also choose books

to review in the same way. It is also a good tip to also write about things you are weak on, if only

as a blog post and/ or after lots of research.

For people who need deadlines, someone nagging them etc to get something finished

I can say from experience of being on both sides of the interaction that the best for this is almost

certainly reviews, as once you have the book there is something concrete for the editor to nag

you about, as well as something on your desk looking up at your disapprovingly.

To put you in touch with useful and like-minded people

Try LinkedIn groups, blogging (often commenting on and linking to other peoples blogs) and

Twitter (especially ELT Chat)and almost certainly not forums.

For people just getting started

As it has lead to over 400 other published pieces of various kinds, I think that it is fair to start

with my own experience of this. The main ways I got started are:

- Writing teaching tips for EtP

- Writing something responding to an article in IATEFL Issues and then sending it to them

- Sending lesson plans, some with worksheets, to the Onestopenglish Lesson Share competition

- Googling submit TEFL article and sending short articles to virtually all the sites that came up


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- Signing up to review for MET and TESL-EJ

- Starting with something that I had already written, e.g. polished up Cambridge Delta essays toDevelopingteachers.com, expanding forum posts to make blog posts, publishing a polished up

job application essay on a TEFL site, turning teacher training workshop notes into articles

- Writing more essay-like forum posts, e.g. a guide to teaching in Spain

Similarly easy would be:

- Starting your own blog on a free platform like Wordpress or Blogger

- Reading and commenting on other TEFL blogs, perhaps by starting subscriptions to some RSS

feeds or regularly looking at a TEFL blog aggregator

- Subscribing to other peoples Twitter feeds and replying whenever you feel ready

- Joining TEFL groups on Facebook or LinkedIn and commenting

After a couple of years of that, I also sent my CV and book proposals round the publishers with

an offer to do anything they might have for me.

How

This has been dealt with a bit above and I will also be writing separate articles on how to go

about writing reviews, articles, worksheets etc, as each one is quite different. These, however,

are the general stages, in many possible orders:

- Read a lot (especially where and what you are thinking about publishing) and maybe analyse

what you read

- Decide what to write

- Get ideas/ Plan

- Try out/ Discuss any new ideas you come up with or come across

- Write

- Edit

- Get help

- Decide where to publish

- Contact the people who you want to publish with


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- Publish

The main differences in the order above are:

- Contacting the people who you want to publish with first, e.g. contacting the editor of a TEFL

magazine to ask what kinds of pieces are really needed

- Deciding what to write by where you want to publish it

It also changes somewhat if you start with something you have already written for another

purpose, e.g. a workshop plan or guide for teachers in your school.

how to teach checking and clarifying

Documents