Christopher Walker: EFL Teacher and Writer
I’ve been published again, this time with the second part of a short set of pieces on being a Director of Studies. In this one, I look at what you can do to build a good relationship with your Director of Studies, and how to avoid some of the consequences of a breakdown in communication.
Modern English Teacher is not a free magazine, but the subscription cost is negligible considering how many useful articles each issue contains!
Have you ever wondered why we place adjectives in a specific order? Why do we say “a big orange pumpkin” instead of “an orange big pumpkin”? In this article, I consider a new way of thinking about adjective order in English.
I have a new article available to read for free in Issue 51 of the IH Journal. This piece is an academic article on the nature of bilingual education, focussing on my own teaching context here in Poland, but looking too at the wider perspective of bilingual teaching in any territory where English is being introduced as a non-community language.
My latest piece for Modern English Teacher is now available to subscribers of the magazine. In this article I consider a novel approach to understanding the bulk of English grammar – that everything (besides the modals) can be understood by considering the operators do, be, and have.
It’s a bit left-field, to be honest – and might leave many confused. You could even argue that I don’t seem to understand the conception very well myself (though I hope I make a convincing case for it in the article!) – but my hope is that it will generate a fresh discussion about the rudiments of English grammar.
My latest article in Modern English Teacher is about a reconsideration of the skills division – how Listening tasks should precede Speaking tasks, and Reading tasks should precede Writing tasks. I also make the point that we should do more to take advantage of the materials we have, and not treat them so lightly.
You can read the article in its digital form on MET.
My latest book is available now from Amazon.
I firmly believe that English is a simple language – so much so that I have written a whole book about the fundaments of English grammar, exploring what lies at the heart of the language.
The book goes through the different parts of the English verb system, looking at the difference between simple and continuous forms, and explaining how the perfect form really works.
We then consider the idea of distance, which explains the reasons for verb form changes in English. Have you ever wondered why Would you like a drink? is more polite than Will you have a drink? This book explains the logic behind the grammar.
Once we have looked at the verb forms and the modals that English has available to it, we then consider how conditionals are structured – they are more regular and understandable than you have been led to believe!
So, who is the book for?
It’s for everyone – it doesn’t matter if you are teaching English as a foreign language, or if you are a student looking to master what you think are deeply irregular sets of rules. This book will help everyone with an interest in the English language.
It’s available now in both the paperback and Kindle edition, via Amazon.
I have a new article out – this one is about scaffolding, which is the idea of making tasks for your students more achievable. I took Duolingo as a case study and considered some of the approaches they implement so successfully.
Read the article here.
Take a look at my article, One Year With Duolingo, in the latest edition of the wonderful Modern English Teacher.
I’ve been a big fan of Duolingo for many, many years now, ever since my student and friend Pawel introduced me to the platform in roughly 2015. During the pandemic I finally extended my daily streak to cover a whole year, and this is what I learned about the art of learning languages through that experience.
English Teacher Professional has been merged with another EFL journal to create Modern English Teacher magazine – and issue one is available now.
One of the articles is my very own – on the search for the perfect metaphor in teaching. If you know me, you’ll know that I love my metaphors, and this two-page article explores some of my favourites over the years.
Subscribers can read the latest issue right here.
My latest book is now available on the Kindle – you can get it here.
I have worked as an EFL teacher for around fifteen years; but the last year and a half have been unlike any other period of my teaching career. This book explores what it has been like to be a teacher whose lessons all ended up online. What were the challenges that the switch introduced, and how were they dealt with? As well as being an account of the year of the plague, this book also contains reflections on the art and practice of teaching English as a Foreign Language, and represents the product of all my years of experience.