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Category: Teaching ESL

ESL-Kids.com Featured in T.H.E. Journal

April 14th, 2008 by Nick Ramsay

I wasn’t planning to blow my own trumpet, but regular commentator, Keith, told me not to let pride stand in my way, so let me shout it out loud…
My site got featured in T.H.E. Journal! Whoo-hoo!
I launched ESL-Kids.com, a website offering free ESL materials, in 2006. Since then, it has had 2.3 million page views, [...]

Posted in Teaching ESL | 11 Comments »

Download Songs for ESL Children

April 5th, 2008 by Nick Ramsay

Once a week, I throw my Pooh bag over my shoulder and haul my collection of flash cards and toys to my local kindergarten. With a fresh bunch of children starting their English lessons in a couple of weeks, I’ve taken to revamping the curriculum I’ve been using, and injecting some energy into it [...]

Posted in Teaching ESL | 4 Comments »

Arnold Schwarzenegger Calls AEON English School

March 14th, 2008 by Nick Ramsay

While I’ve been (and still am) waiting for my websites to move to their new web host, I’ve had some time to catch up on my favorite podcasts. One of those podcasts is from Gaijin-in-Japan.com, and recently in Mike’s 82nd podcast, we got treated to this brilliant prank call to an AEON English school in [...]

Posted in Teaching ESL | 3 Comments »

Get ESL Tips from Chris’ English School

January 16th, 2008 by Nick Ramsay

One of the more recent blogs I’ve subscribed to is that of ESL teacher, Chris Ballard. Born in Hawaii, but now residing in Yanai city in Yamaguchi, Chris runs his own English school out of his own home.
Another disgruntled English teacher? NO!
What makes this blog so unique is that instead of criticising the ESL [...]

Posted in Teaching ESL | 2 Comments »

Elementary School Teacher Loves Dolch Words

November 17th, 2007 by Nick Ramsay

I got a very nice email today from an elementary school teacher who wrote to thank me for my Dolch Words website:
I love your dolch word website. I use the phrase activities all the time. It has helped with improving fluency and accuracy in a fun way. My students grades 1-5 enjoy the dice game and the rock-paper-scissors. We [...]

Posted in Teaching ESL | 2 Comments »

Don’t Forget Your Pencil!

October 25th, 2007 by Nick Ramsay

Time for a quick rant about my job as an English teacher in Japan. Before continuing, please read my disclaimer.
This post is about children who forget to bring a pencil to class. Do I even need to say more? Surely that’s like going swimming without you’re trunks! If you’re going to school, take a pencil. It really shouldn’t [...]

Posted in Teaching ESL | 2 Comments »

Teach English Online

October 20th, 2007 by Nick Ramsay

I’ve been teaching English in Japan for over ten years, but I haven’t ventured into online English teaching. However, the internet is now part of our everyday lives, and email is no longer the only common means of communication. People everywhere, young and old, are using webcams, headsets, and software such as Skype to communicate with friends and [...]

Posted in Teaching ESL | 5 Comments »

What will Rikuto Be?

September 20th, 2007 by Nick Ramsay

I was teaching the future tense using “will” to three Junior High school students today, and since we had some time left at the end of the lesson, I showed them a picture of Rikuto and asked them to write answers to four questions about his future.
Here they are for your own amusement!
1. What [...]

Posted in Teaching ESL | 3 Comments »

Business English for Professionals

September 20th, 2007 by Nick Ramsay

Since coming to Japan, I’ve worked in almost every English teaching situation you can imagine. I’ve worked in English Conversation chain schools, I’ve been an ALT in Junior high schools, taught at kindergartens and elementary schools. I’ve done “baby” classes, private lessons in coffee shops, English by email, and even dabbled in video conferencing. The [...]

Posted in Teaching ESL | 2 Comments »

Using computers to teach children

June 17th, 2007 by Nick Ramsay

The best move my dad ever made was buying me a computer when I was just nine years old. Back in those days, the idea of having a computer in your own home was just starting to catch on, and I was given this machine I had no idea what to do with.
My dad, on [...]

Posted in Teaching ESL | No Comments »

Disney English System for Japanese

June 11th, 2007 by Nick Ramsay

I just learned from my wife that she has sent off a request for a free Disney English System sample DVD. It’s widely accepted that if you want your child to be proficient in a foreign language, then you should start their learning from a young age.
The last decade has seen Japan’s “English conversation” schools [...]

Posted in Teaching ESL | 2 Comments »

Double without you

May 13th, 2007 by Nick Ramsay

One of the biggest difficulties in teaching English to adults in Japan is you are constantly battling against what they have previously learned. Most Japanese have studied English in some capacity for at least six years, most of which, if not all, were at the hands of a Japanese English teacher, and in some cases [...]

Posted in Teaching ESL | 10 Comments »

Politically correct ESL

March 17th, 2007 by Nick Ramsay

I used to use some old textbooks called Jack and Jill, in which the words ‘ugly’ and ‘pretty’ were represented by pictures of an ugly girl and a pretty girl. Jack and Jill was published back in the ’70s, but not much has changed in the book I’m using now, Hip Hip Hooray, in which [...]

Posted in Teaching ESL | 6 Comments »

Walk the dinosaur

February 26th, 2007 by Nick Ramsay

When I was a kid, thirteen to be exact, Was (Not Was) released a song called ‘Walk the Dinosaur’, which was a huge hit in 1988. It’s one of those songs you don’t forget, and I tend to sing it to myself every time one of my elementary school students chooses the ‘dinosaur’ from a [...]

Posted in Teaching ESL | 2 Comments »

Programming and English teaching

February 19th, 2007 by Nick Ramsay

When I was about nine, my parents bought me a Commodore 16 home computer, the little brother to the hugely successful Commodore 64. This was to be a turning point in my life as I started computer programming, which eventually led to me a degree in Computer Science.
While I was never really mathematical, I loved [...]

Posted in Teaching ESL | 1 Comment »

Think you can teach Japanese kindy?

January 19th, 2007 by Nick Ramsay

I’ve been teaching at Japanese kindergartens for years now, and I always have a lot of fun. The key to success in teaching these classes is to be fun and energetic. While some “proper” teachers complain that they came to Japan to “teach”, and not dance around like clowns, I believe that if your style [...]

Posted in Teaching ESL | No Comments »

Laughing at the guy who can’t speak English.

January 14th, 2007 by Nick Ramsay

I had intended to write about something completely different but I came across this video which I just had to post here. It’s a Japanese game show in which if you laugh, you get the cane. What do they laugh at? Well, although they try their best to keep quiet, it’s hard not to crack [...]

Posted in Teaching ESL | No Comments »

Back to School: Rule Reminders

January 4th, 2007 by Nick Ramsay

Since I’m back to school tomorrow, I’ve been thinking again about my ESL lessons, and remembered an interesting moment from last term. I was getting frustrated with one of my kindergarten classes so right at the start of the lesson I told the children that if they crawl under the tables they will lose all [...]

Posted in Teaching ESL | No Comments »

Christmas party weekend

December 14th, 2006 by Nick Ramsay

This last week has been pretty hectic. The weekend was dominated by Christmas parties with my school’s children’s party on Saturday, another school’s party on Sunday morning, and a party for my adult students on Sunday night.
The first party was a bit crazy. There were about 45 kids and we played all kinds of games [...]

Posted in Teaching ESL | No Comments »

Spare me my life!

November 27th, 2006 by Nick Ramsay

I was just looking around at the Japanese videos on youtube.com, and came across the following ‘English lesson’. I know we talk about using role-play to teach English, and how chants are a good way to remember phrases, but come on! This is just silly! I must confess that I’ve never seen anything quite like [...]

Posted in Teaching ESL | No Comments »

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