Sponge Chats – Teacher Training with Chris Roland

This blog post is part of the Sponge Chats video series.

When one thinks of ideas in ELT, one name that usually pops up is Chris Roland. Apart from being the ‘ideas man’, Chris is also a very well-established teacher trainer, author and, among other things, chilli-jam concoction expert. In the second Sponge Chat, Chris and I sat down to talk about how and why he decided to make the move into teacher training and some advice he has for teachers looking to make the move. We discussed some mistakes trainers often make, some differences between presenting and training, and the importance of actively seeking out and providing opportunities. We also had a surprise unboxing and sneak peak of Chris’ latest book, Understanding Teenage Language Learners Online.

Watch the video on YouTube or listen to us on Spotify, and make sure to let us know what you think!

Chris’ other titles

The following links are Amazon affiliate links, however you can also find all of the books directly (and often cheaper!) at Pavilion ELT.

Structuring Fun for Young Learners in the ELT Classroom

Understanding Teenagers in the ELT Classroom

Structuring Fun for Young Learners Online

Lara Bryfonski – What we know about the importance of corrective feedback / Focus-on-Form – SPONGE ELT – Bridge the Gap

If you're a true fan of Sponge ELT and Sponge Chats, you'll have seen Lara's name before! She recently co-authored a book with Alison Mackey called the Art and Science of Language Teaching, and she has been on before to talk about task-based language teaching from the teacher education side of things. In short, she was the right person to ask about what we know about corrective feedback and how we should be going about it in our classrooms. You can find more about Lara on her site here, and whole list of things she's been involved in here.