TEFL Commute

Given its holiday time we thought it was apt to give you all a gift - a new episode on the topic of gifts and gift giving. In this episode Ceri, Lindsay and Sandy discuss the ethics and their experiences of gift giving for educators, before discuss and rating various types of gift. Happy Holidays listeners!  

Despite 15 seasons talking of all things ELT, the podcast has never tackled the ELT staple of sport   so this episode rectifies that. Ceri, Lindsay and Shaun tackle (see what I did there😉)  the topic deciding how sporty they are, and what they love and hate about teaching sports.  They also talk about sports words and idioms before unbelievably letting shaun talk about cricket! 

It's time for season 16 and the 108th episode of the TEFL commute. We kick off the new season by revisiting our very first episode - commute.  Lindsay, Shaun and Ceri  talk about what has changed since then, and what the commute to work looks like now.  We examine some of the things we said in episode 1 and wonder why we aren't now commuting by jetpack! 

Greetings commuters, here’s an another episode in our eclectic look at things related to English teaching. In this episode Lindsay wants to discuss military language, which leads Shaun to go all woke and discuss something he found on violent language before the resident tefl commute nerd, Ceri, gives us a lesson on portmanteaus. 

Our latest episode is a bit like the old days - just Shaun and Lindsay both with something to get off their chests. Shaun gets all sweary by considering if certain words are still taboo or not, and  Lindsay's  turns part film reviewer with his overview of the film the whale. Listen to find out what he thought of the portrayal the English teacher within that. 

We'll call this one the lost episode, it was recorded in December last year but for various reasons it got forgotten about and never got uploaded. In it Sandy, Ceri and Lindsay talk continue our eclectic topic for this season bringing you chat about AI, wonky English and erm Taylor Swift. 

In episode 4,  Lindsay provokes memories of first resource books, and reintroduces us to a profound dictation about guns. Ceri, avoids world cup fever by talking about dominant grammar and teaching us some Welsh, and Shaun explores the different chosen words of the year. NB this episode was recorded before one dictionary announced their choice.

It’s episode 3 and in it you’ll find Lindsay talking about vegetables, in particular vegetable metaphors. We’ll also discover Ceri spends a lot of time on Tik Tok  allegedly researching quiet quitting, and Shaun has more than a small bone to pick about the prefix micro.  Enjoy our latest eclectic gathering.

In episode 2, Ceri, Lindsay, and Shaun once more bring an eclectic mix of topics to the table.  Ceri wants to talk Literacy, while Lindsay tells us about a simulation he has been running, and Shaun shares his refound love of interactive fiction. Add into all that a quiz and some algorithm and hat’s your episode 2 sorted.  Enjoy.

Episode 101 of TEFL commute opens season 15 of your favourite ELT podcast. Join Lindsay, Sandy and Shaun as they chat have a somewhat eclectic chat about things that interest them, and for them has some bearing on English language teaching. This episode finds Sandy talking about the Queen, Lindsay revisiting Elves, and Shaun learning training lessons from Cricket. Enjoy.

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In this episode the team show they have the finger on the pulse of politics by talking about parties. Lindsay decides he wants to dissect 10 Downing street’s party invite and this leads into a discussion about the party vocabulary, the language of the parties, and ELT and parties (both political and the fun kind) in ELT. Get ready for the TEFL commute does discourse analysis! 

We’re back after our mid-season break and we’re getting all dramatic. In this episode Ceri, Lindsay and Shaun discuss drama and ELT.  Are they ELT thesps? Do they use drama? What are the benefits? In addition Lindsay tells us about academic drama and Shaun finds out if they other two can recognise a Shakespeare quote. 

We reach the half way point of the current season just in time for the festive season. In this episode the TEFL commute gang foolishly leave Shaun alone in a zoom room so expect some terrible jokes at some point.   In a different type of episode each of the regular commuters has their own little section as the commute team get ready for their Xmas Breaks.   

In this episode the TEFL commute gang talk about volunteering and ELT. They start by talking about asking for volunteers in class before discussing their volunteering within the world of TEFL and how volunteering might be different to having a hobby. 

In this episode, Lindsay Ceri and Sandy talk about authors and English language teaching. Did you know there are many famous authors who taught English? Why do materials writers not always consider themselves authors? We also have an interview with an English teacher who went into materials writing and then wrote a novel. And Sandy leads a classic TEFL commute quiz about books and writers and teachers.

We're back, it's our 14th season and we get underway by discussing reasons to be cheerful. After nearly two years of the pandemic, lockdown, online teaching and very little commuting we begin this season by looking at some of the positives we've taken from this time. 

We bring our 13th season to a close with our round table episode. This season we talk words, words we like, words we don't like, words that have caught our attention and words that don't translate. The team are joined by @lexicojules to add a touch of gravitas to their discussions and get some insight into which of our chosen words might hang around. See you in the Autumn.

From old to young – in this episode the topic of teaching most certainly comes up as Lindsay Sandy, Shaun discuss teaching young learners. They discuss many aspects of the topic from looking at what ages are considered YL to if there is a point that is too young to learn a second language. The episode also features several YL trainers whose contributions give practical advice to those teaching this area