The Language Centre bookshop: now in North Perth!
There’s a sign ready to go up at Annie Folk’s new North Perth bookshop, “The Language Centre: Serving Perth since 1982.” That’s a lot of book-selling experience. I interviewed Annie back in 2013, but in 2014 she had to close down her Leederville bookshop (and go online only) with a month’s notice, when the premises were sold. She also had to … Continue reading
Carmelina and The Language People bookshop
Hooray for language bookshops! Last term I went to the QATESOL-QCAL ‘mini conference’, where I met Carmelina Lanza-Volpe for the first time (we’d spoken on the phone, but I’d never got to her Brisbane shop). She gave a great presentation on grammar, but also ran a scaled-down version of her bookshop, The Language People, in the foyer of the conference … Continue reading
Connecting with Community: The Garage Sale Trail
The Garage Sale Trail is happening on October 21/22 – an Australia-wide community event. So if you’re using the reading book The Garage Sale to practise the language of recounts, now could be a perfect time to link that reading with some community awareness. A confession – I actually hadn’t heard of the Garage Sale Trail before spotting the flyer at … Continue reading
ESL Extras and pre-employment English
How do ESL Extras support pre-employment English? This is a question I expect to have to answer, with the new AMEP contract coming soon – and of course it’s already an issue for anyone who teaches on the SEE program. (For anyone outside Australia reading this, these are national government programs providing language and literacy training. The Adult Migrant English … Continue reading
Reading ‘The Coat’: ideas for CSWE II and III learners
I had an illuminating session recently talking to some CSWE teachers – both those who’ve been using ESL Extras and those who’d just heard of them. One of the things we talked about was why students might be motivated to read, when there are so many competing demands on their time… So what would make reading of value? I know … Continue reading
