:: TEFL Teaching Resources

Once you get going, you very quickly build up your own excellent TEFL resources that you tend to revert back to in time of need.

In the internet-for-all serenity [sic.] of the modern TEFL staff room, you'd think that the only cutting and pasting going on would be ctrl-x and ctrl-v. However a few well-worn paper copies of something from Communication Games can usually be spied in the schools we visit, and Pritt & scissors still seem to come in very handy.

ELT Library

The St Giles Educational Trust (a NPO) runs an open and free ELT Library in their London Central School.  It’s designed as an open and accessible resource centre for all ELT professionals, including existing teachers, trainees, and visiting teachers from overseas. 

The St Giles Education Trust was established in 1970 with the sole purpose of raising standards in the ELT profession.  It is a registered Charity. 

The ELT library includes a reference section, journals and periodicals, multi-media facilities and samples of the latest materials in English language teaching. It also houses an ELT bookshop which is run by St Giles College.  The ELT Library is a non-corporate resource, and was altruistically established in 2000 as a meeting place and resource for all EFL professionals, and a gesture of the Trusts’ commitment to ongoing development and support in this profession. 

More information can be found on www.centrallondoneltlibrary.org or you can contact the Librarian directly on [email protected].

Online TEFL resources are far more common than they ever used to be, and organisations seem to bend over backwards to thrust online grammar book after handy hint into your virtual hands - and who are we to argue? Here are some of our favourites:

Articles about TEFL

http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/tefl
We liked this lot so much that we now work in collaboration with the Guardian. The site is full of quirky and edgy articles on TEFL - from the cynical to the sycophantic.

ESL Podcasts

http://www.eslpod.com/website/index.php
These are recorded in California by Dr. Jeff McQuillan. You can use them for free, and they're very accessible. Great if you're a UK teacher needing some authentic US English accents too, although it's much more for students to use alone, as his chatty style is a bit of a "letter from America".

Grammar

The best place to learn about grammar from a teacher's point of view is the Cactus English Language Awareness course.

http://www.jobs.edufind.com/
We find that Edufind have a lot to offer - not only can they hook you up with TEFL Jobs but they also have online Grammar resources, and tons of useful ideas.

Warmers

www.developingteachers.com
We particularly like their "Warmers, Coolers & Fillers" which give you around 75 quick activities to roll out quickly when you're looking to manage your timing, wake students up, motivate, stimulate, etc.

Lesson Plans

www.developingteachers.com
There is also a good list of lesson plans if you're totally stuck and the whole site is full of developmental stuff too.

Quizzes

This is as much for your students as it is for you. There are plenty of interesting features that you can either paste into Word and print, as well as a huge list of Language Quizzes, from Question tags to Holiday English.

Cultural Materials

www.onestopenglish.com
This is Laura Harrison's TEFL life-saver - especially the Cultural Materials for English Teaching which turns GuardianWeekly articles into Worksheets for you. This site is run by Macmillan.

Vocabulary development

www.tefl.net
This site has very good topic-based worksheets as free downloadable pdf documents.