Making the most of distraction

Our last post of the year is by Nick Beare, who discusses the use of distractor activities to help with problem-solving in writing. Most of us feel that getting distracted when we work is not a good thing. A quick search on Google throws up dozens of articles on the problem of distraction. According to […]
Pronunciation in coursebooks
In this blog post, Jonathan Marks explores the writing of materials designed to teach pronunciation. Coursebooks are a powerful influence on teachers’ professional awareness and practice – even, perhaps, for a lot of teachers, the most powerful agent of teacher training. Faced with the day-to-day demands of their work, teachers understandably tend to rely on […]
And what about the research?

Our latest blog post is by Penny Ur, who discusses the need for materials writers to pay attention to research on language learning. I’ve just read Katherine Bilsborough’s blog entry ‘ELT materials writing: More on emerging principles’. I really enjoyed it and learned from it. If you haven’t read it yet, do so! I’d like […]
Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes

In this blog post, Jill Florent details her extensive experience of the evolution of ELT publishing – from process to product and working relationships.
If you want to write a gamebook … go to paragraph 400

When I was seven years old, I came across the most amazing thing. On the cover, it said, ‘A fighting fantasy gamebook in which YOU become the hero!’