In this talk, delivered at IATEFL Birmingham 2016 (slides available here) I investigate the origins, durability and validity of the PPP paradigm[1] in language teaching. Since the 1990s, when PPP was rejected by a large number of leading writers on (English) language teaching pedagogy (see, e.g., Willis & Willis 1996), a shared mythology about its…… Continue reading Why PPP won’t (and shouldn’t) go away

I have just heard that my fourth book, Teaching English in Africa, (East African Educational Publishers, 2015) has made the final shortlist for the Elton 2016 awards in the category of Local Innovation. Great news for the book, and for everyone who worked so hard to help produce it. Many thanks to the content editor Dr…… Continue reading British Council Eltons 2016 – Nomination for Teaching English in Africa

Given that the intended benefactors of all English language teaching are students, people who by definition are likely to have difficulty understanding such confusingly similar acronyms in English, it is ironic not only that we have so many of them in English language teaching (ELT), but that understandings of their meanings also vary significantly among…… Continue reading You say TESOL and I say TESL, or TEFL, or… Is the English language teaching world a community with identity issues?

It’s fairly well-known in the ELT world that Cambridge CELTA and Trinity CertTESOL courses were initially designed with the needs of native speaker trainee teachers in mind at a time when ideas of what makes a good English language teacher were very different to what they are today. Back then (1960s-1980s), native speakers were automatically considered the experts…… Continue reading How suitable are CELTA courses for non-native speaker teachers?

How well do you know your ELT planning paradigms, mnemonics and abbreviations? And why do they always come in 3s? Complete this 9-item multiple-choice quiz to find out. When you have finished, click on PPP monster at the bottom of the page to find out more. Click FINISH to check your answers, then click on PPP monster to…… Continue reading Three is the magic number: The TEFL paradigms quiz

Jason Anderson – Talk at IATEFL Manchester, April 2015 Here Is a summary of the content of my talk. It includes an overview of different activities that involve lying or secret information (some of which are ‘standards’, and others are my own ideas), reasons why lying might be a useful function/skill to practice in the language…… Continue reading Lying is the best policy… to get learners speaking!

Webinar for Delta Publishing, 1st October 2014 Click here to watch the webinar on the DELTA Publishing website. As well as being great fun, I believe speaking games offer some of the best opportunities for ‘authentic’ language use in both adult and teenage classrooms, promoting real communication in interaction between learners, interaction with the teacher and…… Continue reading Speaking Games – Learning to play: Webinar