I am a DELTA qualified English as a foreign language teacher, teacher trainer and materials writer currently based in Brazil. I have taught English to adults and teenagers in Brazil, South Korea, Belgium and Costa Rica since 2007. I specialise in bespoke one-to-one lessons for business and exam students.
Along with Ilá Coimbra, I run the Raise Up! Project, arguing that ELT needs to stop excluding a wide range of social groups in coursebooks and materials. In this project, so far we have published two coursebooks and have more planned in the next few years.
In August 2018, I self-published my first ebook, entitled “How Was Your Weekend? 1001 Discussion Questions To Use With Your EFL/ESL Students” and my first coursebook series for FTD Education in Brazil, 'Our Languages', was published in 2021.
I am also a podcast consultant, including the ELTON nominated TEFL Commute podcast, IATEFL TDSIG’s Developod, and Seven Skills For The Future.
I am a former President and a co-founder of BELTA, the Belgian English Language Teachers Association, and I am Second-Vice President of BRAZ-TESOL and BRAZ-TESOL Brasília, and a committee member of IATEFL TDSIG.
In 2010, I started my blog, theteacherjames.com, on which I have continued to share lesson materials and opinion pieces. I am a very active member of the ELT community and regular present at conferences, both online and offline.
Thanks for this James…. I’ve seen videos used a lot as conversation starters as well – but I think for some reason watching videos numbs the students sense of participation whereas pictures keeps them more ‘ with you’ in the classroom… do you see that as well..?
You might be right. Of course it depends on the video or image used, but with the speed that a simple image gives you, it’s easier to maximise the impact of an image which is particularly important at that stage of the lesson.
I agree, I think the speed at which pictures are readily captured by the eye makes it a much more stimulating exercise. Thanks, I will use these in the classroom – great!
Thanks – I hope you enjoy them!
This kind of material is particularly useful as apart from working really well in class it also saves so much time looking for interesting images. Thanks very much!
Thanks Hilary, you’re welcome!