Category Archives: vocabulary

“the Apprentice” as a business English resource

Posted on June 16, 2018 by Svetlana Urisman

On the lookout for some video material for your Business English students, but have run out of the coursebook resources? Want them to watch and discuss smth (and it better be authentic) but series or TED talks are not exactly … Continue reading →

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Jennifer Aniston, Emirates and an English lesson

Posted on June 10, 2018 by Svetlana Urisman

Tailoring your teaching to each and every student is fantastic, no doubt. And I am a big fan of course. But isn’t it nice to have something up your sleeve, something that would work for everyone? It’s not often the … Continue reading →

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Used to and other patterns – rethought and put into practice

Posted on April 14, 2015 by Svetlana Urisman

In the morning today I had a chance to see how my substitution table from the previous post worked. I knew my student would still be struggling with all the 4 patters (get used to, be used to, used to, … Continue reading →

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“8 secrets of success” TED-talk lesson plan

Posted on August 14, 2014 by Svetlana Urisman

here is the lesson plan based on the TED talk by Richard St John that I referred to in my previous post about my teaching in a field. Hope you’ll find it useful. The talk itself conveniently takes only 3 minutes, … Continue reading →

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May holidays and an emotional worksheet

Posted on May 11, 2014 by Svetlana Urisman

In my country the first 2 weeks of May are not really very busy: first there is the Labour day (1.05), then the is the Victory Day (09.05), and in between a lot of people take some days off. As … Continue reading →

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using Realtimeboard for teaching English online

Posted on February 27, 2014 by Svetlana Urisman

I want to share an absolutely fantastic tool for online use: Realtimeboard.com As I already told, now I teach online, using Skype. When I was preparing for my first online lesson, I was feeling very uneasy – first of all, … Continue reading →

Posted in authentic materials, Business English, materials writing, useful links, vocabulary | Tagged , , , , , , , | 5 Comments

my favourite ways of revisiting vocabulary

Posted on February 21, 2014 by Svetlana Urisman

I’ve recently come back to work! yes, for 9 month I was off work – at least I wasn’t teaching English to real people, that is. I was a blogger and materials writer. But now 2 times a week I … Continue reading →

Posted in Business English, grammar, intermediate, lesson plans, lesson starters, lists, materials writing, Professional development, teaching higher levels, teaching lower levels, vocabulary | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 5 Comments

an activity on happy/ unhappy metaphors

Posted on October 14, 2013 by Svetlana Urisman

here is a short pre-int activity on happy/ unhappy metaphors I wrote to accompany a unit (unit 6, part 1, to be precise) from Global pre-int. I used it to make my student recall all the metaphors from our previous … Continue reading →

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food issues month

Posted on October 1, 2013 by Svetlana Urisman

Today is a starting day of the Food Issues Month! #foodissuesmonth  No doubt, all the food topics listed on the SIG’s page matter very much. But somehow for me from what I see and hear, food labelling is the most … Continue reading →

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the summer is almost over – ELT-wise?

Posted on August 28, 2013 by Svetlana Urisman

Everybody around is talking and writing about “back to school” stuff…well, this year I’m not having this “back to school” feeling – but still, I’ve been thinking about a good material suitable for a talk about how the students spent … Continue reading →

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