Anne Mundy
Rediscovering the pleasure of learning and eternally grateful to the OU.
Location Naples
Achievements
Activity
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Anne Mundy made a comment
This would be a good activity to use in the classroom.
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Anne Mundy made a comment
Hi, I teach English as a foreign language in Italy and am really interested in aspects of pronunciation. I do a class on stress, pitch and intonation and it is always very popular with my students so I'm seeking to expand my repertoire and also bring some new elements to my teaching.
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Great exercise!
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This is an area that I struggle with when it comes to my IELTS students who all need to know about clauses etc! Some good tips here, thanks.
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Anne Mundy made a comment
It has really clarified some gaps in my knowledge - made some things a lot clearer.
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I would introduce two or three modals at a time, preferably through story. This would be followed by plenty of practice and repetition.
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Anne Mundy made a comment
Use of does for emphasis is very helpful.
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Anne Mundy made a comment
That's a great activity! Will definitely be using this again - there are so many possibilities to take away from it.
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This may be a dumb observation but here goes ... I'm an ESL teacher and if I was teaching these verbs to young students, I would not expect them to know words like 'obvious', 'through' or 'before'. What Year would you use this activity with? I know it's perhaps not necessary, or even expected, that the students would have all of this vocabulary but they...
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Anne Mundy made a comment
It's been an instructional week and I have a few new ideas for some lesson plans. Thanks!
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A great activity for my classes!
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Anne Mundy made a comment
For prepositions of time, place etc I introduce the topics using flash cards. From there I progress to drama in the classroom. All my students have pencl cases etc on their desks and I move them around, put things in them etc to demonstrate place. It's also another way to revisit some vocabulary.
In esl teaching abstract prepositions are taught at a...
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A great exercise for young kids!
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Could I also add that if I was using the slides etc with my students - especially letting them do the exercises on their own - they would find it much more engaging if they could discover for themselves if they were correct or not.
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I find that demonstrating things in a dramatic form is quite effective with my students. But they also love games and this is a subject area that lends itself to quite a few. It gives them an opportunity to carry out their own actions and that in itself makes them more receptive. They also love to compete!
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It's interesting to see the flexibiliy and use of adverbs - much of this is stuff I know intuitively but don't pay enough attention to when I'm teaching! I will definitely have to be more careful, particularly with my more advanced students.
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Anne Mundy made a comment
It has been an interesting week and has renewed my enthusiasm for grammar now that it is more accessible.
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I think that as well as the drama and gesticulation I would probably include a lot of other materials such as flashcards, realia etc. But truthfully this is not a combined subject area that I have had to teach before.
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The more I learn, the more fascinating grammar is becoming!
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Anne Mundy made a comment
My younger students would have great fun with this exercise!
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This is something that I teach to young children and involves whole class participation. We look at things on our desks for example and talk about 'this' pencil or 'that' pencil. We might follow up with picture exercises that demonstrate the different concepts.
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Anne Mundy made a comment
This has caused me to realise that as an ESL teacher, I probably haven't taught any abstract nouns! In my defence this is largely because of the level of this vocabulary/students, and the likelihood is that they would know this vocab by the time I get to see them. However it makes me think that perhaps I should also be raising and reinforcing it in class...
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Thank you, that's a really useful explanation. I have struggled with IELTS students trying to explain complex, compound etc sentences and equally they struggle to grasp it. I might be borrowing your example and explanation in future ...
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An interesting first week. I look forward to getting stuck into the Englicious website.
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Anne Mundy made a comment
All done!
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Anne Mundy made a comment
Did reasonably well but like a previous student was confused because of some of the terminology used in the ESL world. It's a confusion that also occurs in some classrooms where my students have been introduced to multiple terms - and I have no idea what they are talking about! eg progressive vs continuous. Obviously this will have to be part of my learning...
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Anne Mundy made a comment
Certainly the more I learn the more I enjoy teaching grammar.
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Anne Mundy made a comment
OK, so one of my words was 'horror' because grammar terrifies me. It always makes me feel totally inadequate - which is why I am doing this course!
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Anne Mundy made a comment
Hi, I'm Annie, an ESL teacher in Napoli, Italy. I am constantly looking both at ways to improve my knowledge of English grammar, and ways of making it more interesting and accessible for my students.
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Anne Mundy replied to Anne Mundy
Inglese. Lavoro per una scuola a Pomigliano D'Arco. Ora tutte lezione sono online.
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Anne Mundy made a comment
Salve. Mi chiamo Anne. Sone inglese e sono insegnante madre lingue. Abito ad Acerra, vicino Napoli.
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Anne Mundy made a comment
Avvocato. Sono insegnante madre lingue.
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Anne Mundy made a comment
Io mi chiamo Annie, sone Inglese, di vicino Londra ma vivo ad Acerra, vicino Napoli
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Anne Mundy made a comment
Anne, British but currently living in Napoli. A life long reader. Books, art, music and wine ...
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Anne Mundy replied to Anne Mundy
@NatalieGordon exactly! I feel there is some serious re-evaluation ahead.
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Anne Mundy made a comment
I'm already wondering why I take certain positions on different issues. It's very disquieting because now I have to allow for the possibility that I'm wrong or that I'm biased in some way!
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Anne Mundy made a comment
Hi, I'm Annie, originally from the UK but currently living in Italy teaching English. No idea why I signed up for this course other than it looks really interesting and I want a break from my usual education courses. Open to new ideas, I love Futurelearn, and I know I'll get something out of the course.
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Anne Mundy made a comment
When I know I have a class coming up with a subject area that I may find tricky, I take the time to familiarise myself in advance, and probably take a bit more time in lesson planning so that I have something to fall back on.
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Anne Mundy replied to Josh Harris
When I think of students or classes which have been difficult to teach, if I have managed to turn them around it's because I made the effort to understand what was their motivation for taking the course and their difficulties - but this always happened after we had had a rocky start. Ideally I should have been open to these things from the very beginning.
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Anne Mundy made a comment
It was the teachers who engaged with us rather than talked down to us, and they were also the ones who brought their subjects to life.
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Anne Mundy made a comment
As an English teacher I would say that although I include stress and intonation in my classes, I have paid insufficient attention to phonetics. This was particularly brought home by the exercises on rhotic pronunciation. I would like my students to have their own voice but with better guidance from me on how to attain it.
This week has been incredibly...
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Anne Mundy made a comment
That was absolutely fascinating! Thank you for such a clear explanation. I shall listen to speech from a completely different perspective now.
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Anne Mundy made a comment
Hi, I'm British and an ESL teacher in Italy. My reason for doing this course is very simple, I want to help my students understand and be understood when they speak. But I do not expect them to speak like me, why should they? I love hearing all of the different accents.
And if it's any consolation ... I'm a southerner. There are certain accents within...
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Anne Mundy made a comment
Well following that I wish we had an LMAO emoji because that would be me - everything I thought or sometimes was told is true is a myth! I had even used the style of learning for example on my own learning when doing something like trying to learn a new language. This is fascinating and totally engaging stuff and I really look forward to the next few weeks...
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Anne Mundy made a comment
I'm a TEFL teacher in Italy and always looking to try and improve my practice. For me learning is absorbing new information which is added to what we already know to guide our practice.
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Anne Mundy made a comment
Thank you, I have a better idea how to proceed now when I move to my school's online platform - I'm quite excited about the whole process!
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Anne Mundy made a comment
To avoid disruptions and distractions I really understand the need now to set aside a time which will be totally dedicated to teaching/learning. Mobile phone will be off, door closed etc.
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Anne Mundy made a comment
I have been vaguely thinking about moving to online teaching full time over the past couple of years. I am beginning to see the use and value, and this is something I think I would like to explore in more depth now.
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@StephenBird May 3rd for us. But as you say, it could be worse. Happy Easter to all.
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Anne Mundy made a comment
It's a challenge to figure out the best activities for online teaching, both for the teacher and the student. We are looking at numerous possibilities. However our experience is that there can be considerable class disruption due to connectivity issues and the best planning can just disintegrate!
But there are certainly activities here that I will be...
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@StephenBird Hi Steve, how are things in Malaysia?
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I am constrained by the instructions from my school. The older students, especially those studying for exams, are pretty much on board with what we have to do. However the younger students ... my personal opinion is that it is a difficult enough time for them as it is - we have been on lockdown for a month now. Insisting that they do homework is not really...
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@AmonaMajor Nice to hear from Angola. That's too bad about the work drying up but persist with the private students. I was worried about it but it's really not as bad as I anticipated.
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@paulinesarahgalloway hi Pauline, where are you? I'm down in the Naples area. The state school that I did most of my work with is running its own classes unfortunately. Colleagues have been more fortunate. I'm struggling with the technology because I just don't have the band width to support the platforms.
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Here in Italy - and I'm sure in many countries around the world - the schools, especially the high schools, have continued their classes online. One of my students has complained about the quantity of homework they are getting now. She is very conscientious so I'm sure she has a genuine grievance!
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Anne Mundy made a comment
I'm and EFL teacher in Italy. Most of my work was in state schools but I am now limited to a handful of individual classes. Struggling a little with my two young learners! Have been thinking recently of either moving to part time work or private students, and I think online teaching is one of the ways forward. Anxious to learn as much as I can and interact...
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Hi Danila, I am teaching English in Italy and have a couple of primary students, both preparing for exams. Any help would be appreciated!
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Hi Chandima, currently teaching in Italy but taught for 2 years in Sri Lanka, in Ragama. Will be interested to hear your progress.
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Hi Chirag, I don't have any IELTS students at present but I do have a couple of students preparing for First Certificate, the same structure but some different tasks. It's challenging!
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Classes with my adult students have continued pretty much as normal. We know what to expect from each other. However I have two young learners that I had not met prior to our online classes - we were just about to start when the lockdown came into force. With one of them it has been quite difficult to establish a relationship while the other, who is a...
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Anne Mundy made a comment
At present I am only doing 6 English language 121 courses, but several of my students are preparing for exams (assuming our lockdown in Italy permits). One of my students is an adult who is also having to juggle his university degree with his English course - all online - and two others are children and without a physical presence I sometimes struggle to...
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Anne Mundy made a comment
Hi, I'm an EFL teacher in southern Italy working for a private language school but with a large number of classes in state schools. Our state schools closed on 3 March and a couple of days later we were in total lockdown. We are now doing online classes from home. I'm using Skype which is very limited and although my school has tried to set up a platform it...
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Anne Mundy made a comment
I want the flexibility of being able to live where I choose while still having an income.
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Anne Mundy made a comment
I've been teaching in schools for 7 years. Interested in teaching online as a new experience.
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Anne Mundy made a comment
Hi I'm Anne and I teach in Italy. I'm always looking to expand my skills, finding new ideas and sharing with fellow teachers.
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Anne Mundy made a comment
I'm concerned that I need to extend my job market really, although it might prove useful should I decide that I want to work part time, at home.
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Anne Mundy made a comment
I'm currently teaching all age groups but the number of adults is increasing, especially for IELTS.
This course is something of an exploratory trip for me - I'm not convinced that I want to lose that face to face contact, at least not yet. But I also don't know that much about online teaching so I need to find out more about it before I can make an...
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Anne Mundy made a comment
Hi, I'm currently teaching in Sri Lanka but will be leaving at the end of this year. I'm exploring my options, especially given the unknown circumstances for Brexit!
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Anne Mundy made a comment
But how do you get two different people to give the same results - it's subjective surely? And how do you get one examiner to consistently give the same results? How do you mitigate against the 'bad hair day'?
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Anne Mundy made a comment
2 and 5 seem to have caused the most problems
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Anne Mundy made a comment
No I haven't and I would not want to do so. Prior to this course I might have 'thrown together' a few bits and pieces. Now I realise how shortsighted that would be and would want preferably some training on assessment, but as a minimum some guidance and support. It's one thing for me to carry out informal testing with my students. There is no end of term...
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Anne Mundy made a comment
I think motivation affects my students in pretty much everything we do. When it comes to testing the older they are the more interested in their own progress they are, while the younger ones are more competitive with each other - who has finished first, last etc.
The authentic tasks clearly win out - they can see a purpose to the test and respond well. ...
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Anne Mundy made a comment
5-8 I never test my kids other than through flashcards which are part of their normal lessons. At this age they are encouraged to try and form simple sentences so they say "it's a ..." instead of just calling out names
9-12 I still don't have formal tests for them but they are now expected to speak in (short, repetitive) sentences and be able to spell. ...
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Anne Mundy made a comment
We test individual skills mainly - the majority of my students are young learners, low levels, but I shall be investigating other testing methods now.
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Anne Mundy made a comment
I am usually involved in Common Core Assessment and I find it works fine for my purposes, although the results are narrow. But I think I will try and make better use of the Integrated Skills Testing which seems more realistic.
I get very frustrated with the first testing method on behalf of my IELTS students. If they are looking for an overall band score...
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I've never tried portfolio assessment but it looks interesting. I shall have to investigate further but I have several classes where it could prove very useful.
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Anne Mundy made a comment
I carry out placement tests but they tend to be very informal. Happily I usually get the levels right.
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Anne Mundy made a comment
I will definitely be making better use of English Vocabulary and Grammar Profiles in future. I already used English Vocabulary but was not really aware of English Grammar. Thanks for that.
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Anne Mundy made a comment
There are several tasks I would like to try, inluding sentence correction and reordering sentences. These are exercises that I can write myself.
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Anne Mundy replied to Anne Mundy
Agreed. For classroom assessment it's not worth the worry. At the moment though I'm struggling to get my students to guess! They prefer to leave a blank, even those motivated students. I suspect though that it's more a cultural issue here (Sri Lanka). But yes, the random guessing does seem to occur more when students run out of time.
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Anne Mundy replied to Kerri Williams
I completely share your view, especially for testing reading. To my mind it would then be a more accurate test.
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Anne Mundy made a comment
I do use them but only as part of our text book work. I have never created one and I would not be confident doing so. If my students don't know an answer I would expect them to guess - they are actively encouraged to do so because it affects the test score which in some circumstances is very important. But of course if they have to guess then they obviously...
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Anne Mundy made a comment
I often test vocabulary and I have several strategies for doing this - spelling; using a word; identifying definitions etc. Over the last few months I've seen some great improvements. We also do similar with rammar points as they are introduced. But I'm lucky because my classes are small, in an informal setting and I have absolute flexibility.
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Anne Mundy made a comment
For me testing grammar directly works if I want to know that my students have learned a particular point. But if I want to know whether or not they can really use it then it has to be indirect testing. Apart from which I am more concerned about their overall abilities. So really it has to be a sensible combination of both.
As far as giving feedback is...
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Anne Mundy made a comment
I was not aware of the EGP but what a fantastic tool!
I have a class who are learning the Present Perfect at the moment and I am delighted to see that they are pretty much where they are supposed to be although we definitely need further revision. I can see this tool becoming one of my favourites!
It has also occurred to me now though that I have no...
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Anne Mundy made a comment
I rely on the Cambridge tests because my school just does not have the facilities or the finances to use Aptis.
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Anne Mundy made a comment
We constantly refer back to how eg a verb tense is formed, when it is used etc. I introduce a point which is relevant to our classwork, we practice it formally, maybe play a game (depending on the level) and then the following week go back to it for revision purposes.
I decide this according to our text book and the task that we are performing, perhaps...
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Anne Mundy made a comment
I don't recall being specifically taught grammar. The difficulty with that is that now as a teacher I have had to learn all the rules!
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Anne Mundy made a comment
I have always used English Profile as a tool for me, the teacher. If I want to do a lesson on Phrasal Verbs for example, I can go to EP, select a number that are level-appropriate and then devise a way of introducing them to the class. Saves a lot of legwork for me!
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Anne Mundy made a comment
What an interesting test!
Sadly very few of my students will actually read for pleasure - a rather depressing trend these days. But their vocabulary does indicate where their interests lie. For instance some of my students love the science subjects and they have an amazing vocabulary in that area. To be honest, they know more than me sometimes!
My...
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@OlenaRossi Hi Olena, I have a PET class and I find the end of unit revision exercises particularly useful. Sometimes I will ask my students to hand them in for me to look at. I have found this particularly useful in identifying problem areas. One of my students is especially bright but it seems that even he has some difficulties! So yes, I have found this...
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Anne Mundy made a comment
I'm happy if my beginners learn simple meanings and correct pronunciation. As their levels improve I want them to extend their knowledge and understand the relationship between different words.
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Anne Mundy made a comment
I use flashcards extensively with very young learners - and again we often turn it into a game. My biggest problem is producing enough flashcards to keep up with their speed of learning.
With older students I focus more on collocations, phrasal verbs etc. Again I opt for more informal testing wherever possible through things like matching exercises. I...
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Anne Mundy made a comment
I don't recall many 'grammar' tests - certainly in my day I think we learned intuitively. I have seen how in other countries grammar is taught as a skill and is a separate examination subject, and on balance I think it's a good idea. From personal experience, when trying to learn a new language I know that I cannot grasp it unless I understand why something...
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Anne Mundy made a comment
This was a difficult call. I opted for 'sometimes' because on reflection some of our class activities are less obviously a form of testing. For example with my young learners we often start the lesson with spelling - I look at the wordlist for their level and either spell out or ask them to spell given words. I might then ask them to use the word in a...
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Anne Mundy made a comment
At A2 I do not think it would be acceptable to allow anything but the correct spelling of school.
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Anne Mundy replied to Anne Mundy
@TonyGrinney Nice!
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Anne Mundy made a comment
Version 2 definitely - it seems fair to receive one point per word and the repetition will be of great help. I always tell my students to write numbers (part of the Cambridge instructions!) and it is an address after all, so I don't like seeing Four written out.
My students know how important I consider spelling to be, but I doubt they would have a problem...
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Anne Mundy made a comment
It seems a bit harsh to only allow 1 point for completing 4 words. I would hope they hear it twice - I suspect that many native speakers would struggle to write all that down in the time given. Other than that the level seems to be appropriate.
