I very much enjoyed Neil McMillan’s witty and creative plenary on the last day of the IATEFL Edinburgh Conference (McMillan, 2025), in which he lamented the lack of interest in methodology in recent IATEFL plenaries and made a convincing case for task-based language teaching (hereafter TBLT). I shared his shock that a key icon in…… Continue reading Methodological monocultures or ecosystems? A few reflections and cautions on an IATEFL plenary
Category: communicative language teaching
On the Origins, History and Understanding of Test-Teach-Test in English Language Teaching
Test-teach-test is one of a number of lesson planning frameworks that are taught widely on short certification courses for English language teaching (ELT), such as the Cambridge CELTA and the Trinity CertTESOL. There are numerous overviews of it on internet blogs (e.g., British Council, n.d.), YouTube videos (e.g., Bolen, 2022) and in guides for such…… Continue reading On the Origins, History and Understanding of Test-Teach-Test in English Language Teaching
The beliefs they had
“Wait. Let me just get this straight,” Barsha looked incredulous. “You’re saying that they believed that the materials that had been created specifically for the students weren’t authentic, but any text that wasn’t created with the students’ needs in mind was considered ‘authentic’, and better, as a result?” “Yes. At least some of the writers…… Continue reading The beliefs they had
On the origins of ‘jigsaw’ and ‘information gap’
This blog reports on research I conducted into two widely used terms in communicative language teaching; ‘information gap’ and ‘jigsaw’, as part of a wider research project for my book Activities for Cooperative Learning in the Delta Publishing Ideas in Action Series, and my work on a taxonomy for jigsaw activities, presented in this article…… Continue reading On the origins of ‘jigsaw’ and ‘information gap’
Jason Anderson 