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Have you had the experience of attending professional conferences where you experienced death by PowerPoint—a presentation in which the person at the front of the room has too much text on too many slides. Often, the presenter then proceeds to read to the audience everything that...

I’m a candidate in the fall 2017 election for TESOL’s Board of Director’s. I’d love your support. Check out this catchy video, or read my remarks below. [Update: November, 2017. Thanks for your support everyone. I was elected and will serve on the TESOL Board from March...

English language teachers who work with students in the United States know only too well that teaching language by itself is not sufficient. Language learners also need to grasp the culture of the country they are living in, as well as learn how to overcome intercultural...

Are your students challenged by the media of today? Is it hard for them to make sense of what is happening in the world? If you’re free, I hope you’ll join me for a webinar on Empowering Your Students With Media Literacy on October 4th, 2017. The webinar is sponsored by the...

This January, my colleague Bruce Rindler and I will be speaking at the EnglishUSA Professional Development Conference in Monterey, CA. Our talk is on surviving and thriving in the IEP accreditation process. I put together a brief video to give a sense of what we’ll be...

As the leadership of TESOL and NAFSA have pointed out, In the face of challenging times it is important for us to remember why we do what we do and to live up to our ideals of a global professional community. Our society and our world desperately need people who can bridge...

I had the chance to contribute to a recent issue of Modern English Teacher magazine on the subject of reading. Here’s what I said: What is the most important skill for your EAP students? For most, the ability to read well may be the most important second language academic...

This spring marked the 50th anniversary of the TESOL International Association. The convention in Baltimore was sprinkled with various celebrations of the big event. One such celebration was a musical production, The Wizard of Oz: A TESOL Tale.  In this retelling of the Wizard of...

A number of years ago I was feeling very stressed. I had a lot of tension in my shoulders and neck. At my wife’s urging, I reluctantly agreed to try a yoga class. There was a beginning class just starting up in our town in Vermont. I went, and I was glad I did, partly because the...

I’ve been thinking lately about the role of the self in teaching. It’s hard to be true to yourself in the classroom when you feel like you’re performing. On top of everything, that critical voice in your head is always telling you that you can do better. In his book, The Inner...