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Candidates often face a lot of difficulty in OET reading sub-test. This happens because they do not pay more attention to some essentials required to pass through it. It should be mentioned here that reading skills required to get through are needed to be developed. In this article, we have talked about what candidates can do to improve their skills to get their desired grade in their OET reading sub-test.
Get yourself acquainted with the basics of reading
Reading for pleasure and reading for profession are two different things. When you read for pleasure, for instance, a novel or a short story book then you may not pay more attention to all minor details. You may not pay more attention to difficult words which you may come across and may not care to look for their meaning. Generally, meaning would be deducted through given contexts. But when you read for profession then it is essential to pay details to all minor and major details. It would be required to understand what the text ...

Resist the Push to Follow the Crowd
The greatest obstacle to effective and successful teaching doesn’t lie outside the profession, but within the profession. Over my almost 30 years of teaching, half as an elementary teacher, and the other half as a university professor, I have been constantly bombarded by other teachers meaning to stifle my voice. I recall during my first elementary teaching job the principal telling me that he admired my resolve at not giving into peer pressure to “follow the crowd.” At the time, I was not exactly sure I knew what he meant. It wasn’t until years later, after many fellow teachers constantly trying to enforce on me THEIR brand of teaching, that I realized what he meant.
Colleagues have often said to me that I was doing “my thing,” however, since accepting God early in my teen years; I have made it a daily practice to ask Him what I should or should not be doing, so that I was being obedient to him (Ps. 37:5-7). God has never let me down, but instead, ...

Last year my son, in preparing for a science degree, realised that if he was to achieve his goal, he would need to be reasonably proficient at maths.  After a brief attempt to brush up on the recommended syllabus for the university course of his choice, he downed tools, lamenting loudly that he would never be able to do this because “I am just no good at maths”.  
Now, as a teenager, I remember struggling with maths throughout high school.  These days however, at the tender age of 50, I consider myself mathematically proficient.  So, what happened to me between high school and adulthood that resulted in my transformation from maths recalcitrant to someone who is not rendered paralysed and sweaty by anything more complicated than two plus two?  Has the passage of time increased my intelligence?
Sadly, I am no more intelligent now than I was in high school.  My attitude towards learning, however, has changed.  Somewhere along the line, as I worked through my bachelor degree, I realised ...

I have been considering the decision of Ofsted to stop grading individual lessons during inspections. The reason is understandable - they did not want to give the impression that the impact of teaching, learning and assessment can be condensed into a snapshot of one lesson. This has triggered many providers to evaluate their procedures for judging the quality of their provision with some implementing non graded observations. But is this 'throwing the baby out with the bath water'?
Many words have been written on the effectiveness as well as the detrimental effects on staff of carrying out graded observations. But what must not be forgotten is that, when the approach and focus is right, observations themselves are an integral part of a staff member's continuous professional development.
How to make sure observations really do contribute to improving teaching, learning and assessment? You must ensure the following apply:
1. All staff know the purpose of observing/being observed - a tool ...

Kids are naturally curious as they inquire about their surroundings and the rest of the world. Few children refuse to admire bugs, even going to the extent of picking them up, petting them, and often trying to sneak them into the mouth for a quick flavor check. Kids wonder at sparkling rainbows, gurgling streams, fluttering birds, and flashing stars. Their curiosity grows as older siblings, friends, family, and parents inspire study and discovery. This curiosity is snuffed when this same group is too quick with explanations, thus extinguishing exploration, or with discouragement when it comes to figuring out answers through experimentation and wonder. Some of this tamping down may be a necessity in a burgeoning classroom of students or with harried, exhausted parents racing to meet urgent needs, but it is sad to watch kids slink into "Just give me the answer" mode for the sake of speedy teaching and learning.
To retain and build curious, inquisitive minds we need curious inquisitive ...

Are young children well suited to the use of technology? Modern technologies are very powerful because they rely on one of the most powerful genetic biases we do have - the preference for visually presented information. The human brain has a tremendous bias for visually presented information. Television, movies, videos, and most computer programs are very visually oriented and therefore attract and maintain the attention of young children. When young children sit in front of television for hours, they fail to develop other perceptions. But the technologies that benefit young children the greatest are those that are interactive and allow the child to develop their curiosity, problem solving and independent thinking skills.
Technology plays a key role in all aspects of American life which will only increase in the future. As technology has become more easy to use, the usage of it by children has simultaneously increased. Early childhood educators have a responsibility to critically ...

Having retired from public education after about 35 years in the classroom, I encountered withdrawal and so returned as a volunteer, guest presenter, and college supervisor. There are few thrills greater in life than working with excited teachers and engaged students.
I have discovered that good teachers want to get better; great teachers wish to advance strategies and skills; fantastic teachers want to know and be and do terrific things every day in every way to reach and teach every child. Regardless of the above mentioned category, these teachers want to improve so that their lessons engage students and bring them academic success. Yes, there are a few educators who prefer the status quo, drifting along with the current while trying to avoid stress, strain, or cultivating talents. Fortunately, I know little of these folks as I am not invited into their private realms nor do I necessarily want to go.
Inspired teachers light up the room with motivation and creativity. Students here ...

Speaking Test in IELTS can be intimidating for many of the candidates. In fact, there are many candidates who speak and understand English well but still they do not manage to make good impression on their examiner. They just do not answer question as they should or they should have if it is not IELTS speaking test for them.
Prepare yourself for the Test
You should know what your examiner may ask you. Yes, you should know that. For instance, the examiner may ask you to give you personal introduction and you are expected to answer the question in an effective way, making use of as many words as possible. Given below are the examples of good and bad personal introduction.
Examiner: Can you introduce yourself?
Answer: I am Navid. I have two brothers and one sister. I completed my graduation this year. (bad answer)
Answer: I am Jaffery and I graduated from (name of the university). Science is my forte and this is what I would like to opt for in future too. I am a sports-person…. (good ...

Learning to Read Begins in Infancy
Reading fluency is a crucial ingredient of reading comprehension. Research has suggested that elementary students who are not reading within certain parameters of reading speed, accuracy, and expression, experience compromised understanding of what it is they are reading.
In order to fully understand how students learn reading fluency, we need to take a look at how infants began to acquire speech. When parents are talking to their infant, the child looks at their faces, and listens to their voices, and then, at a certain stage of development, begins to mimic what he is observing with his senses. At first, his attempts at speech are known as “baby talk;” however, he soon learns to form words accurately by listening to the speech he hears, and by watching the facial expressions that go along with the voices, that together, communicate meaning.
When an infant is being read to, the opportunity for him to acquire speech, and to make associations between ...

Teaching grammar is an imperative element of school education. Without proper grammar, written or spoken words usually lose their exact meaning and much of their value as well. It is a significant part of language to get right for which, teachers take special care on imparting the real importance of it to their students. However, the task becomes much tough to teach in an ESL setting.
One common way is to focus on the different forms and rules and helping students to learn the subject with help of rote memorization. But, for ESL teachers, the process is different as because the target audience treats English as their second language.
Going Out of One's Comfort Zone
For teaching a topic, one needs to understand the very same. Teachers must know about different parts of sentences, rules and tenses including basics of the subject as well. The process of just running into the classroom and going through a series of answers and exercises is not the ideal way. Mostly, ESL students do not ...