Annie McDonald

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Annie McDonald

Annie McDonald: ELT writer, speaker and teacher

My teaching career began in Liverpool, way back in 1979, where I worked as a secondary school teacher of History. I taught all ages and levels, but found myself particularly intrigued by the challenges of pupils who seemed to lack motivation.

The Intelligence of Ants

Image from Authentic Listening Resource Pack

This is an authentic listening activity from a radio programme on the subject of ants. It is a sample lesson from our new book Authentic Listening Resource Pack (Delta Publishing).

Prepare! Level 5 (Teacher's Book) - overview

Prepare! Teacher's Book Annie McDonald
The Prepare! Level 5 Teacher's Book provides teaching notes for the Student's Book, a general English course with comprehensive Cambridge English exam preparation integrated throughout.

Authentic Listening Resource Pack

Authentic listening Resource Pack

Authentic Listening Resource Pack (Delta Publishing, Jan 2015) provides an invaluable bank of selected audio and video material offering authentic listening practice, essential in developing students’ listening skills in preparation for being exposed to “real” English.

Priming for Listening

Speaker: 
Event date: 
Wednesday, April 2, 2014 - 10:30
Venue: 
IATEFL Harrogate
Location: 
Harrogate UK
Extra info: 
Includes handouts
Background knowledge?

None of us throw our class into a listening unprepared, do we? It would be unfair - after all, in real life, we're normally listening with certain expectations. But often in ELT, our pre-listening activities are limited to a bit of discussion of the topic and maybe some pre-teaching of new vocabulary.

Priming for Listening

Speaker: 
Event date: 
Friday, March 7, 2014 - 10:45
Venue: 
TESOL-Spain National Convention
Location: 
Universidad de Complutense de Madrid
Extra info: 
Handouts and downloads
Talks - hancockmcdonald.com/talks

None of us throw our class into a listening unprepared, do we? It would be unfair - after all, in real life, we're normally listening with certain expectations. But often in ELT, our pre-listening activities are limited to a bit of discussion of the topic and maybe some pre-teaching of new vocabulary.

Teaching Listening with Authentic Texts

Speaker: 
Event date: 
Saturday, November 9, 2013 - 11:00
Venue: 
English UK
Location: 
London
Extra info: 
Plus downloads
Materials design - hancockmcdonald.com/taxonomy/term/149/feed

In this talk we'll take a look at a variety of activities which could be used with a 51 second text to help learners become better listeners. See powerpoint slides below.

Motivational Teaching: Value and Success-Expectation

Posted by: 
Publication: 
BRAZ-TESOL Newsletter
BRAZ-TESOL Vol 03.2013

Students in different educational settings, for example, private language institutes or mainstream education, present teachers with different motivational challenges. I’ve taught learners in both settings and found that Expectancy-Value theories, the most researched factors in the area of motivation, have helped me generate and maintain motivation in my classrooms.

Feedback on Classroom Speaking Tasks – What are the Options?

Speaker: 
Event date: 
Saturday, October 5, 2013 - 12:30
Venue: 
EnglishUK North
Location: 
Leeds
Extra info: 
Includes handouts
Talks - hancockmcdonald.com/talks

It’s notoriously difficult to give meaningful feedback to learners after they have ‘done’ a speaking activity – but is this the end of the story? In this session, we’ll consider an approach which will help us generate appropriate feedback for a variety of classroom speaking tasks and for learners at different levels.

Teaching Listening with Authentic Audio Texts at NATESOL

Speaker: 
Event date: 
Saturday, May 18, 2013 - 10:45
Venue: 
NATESOL Conference
Location: 
Salford City College
Extra info: 
Includes handouts
Talks - hancockmcdonald.com/talks

Learners of English living in an English speaking environment have rich exposure to the spoken language, yet, at the same time, they regularly experience frustration at not being able to understand what people say. In this workshop, we’ll look at and try out tasks which can be used with different texts to help boost confidence and develop a learner's listening skill.

The Learner Autonomy SIG: At a glance

Posted by: 
Event date: 
Monday, April 8, 2013 - 10:00
IATEFL-Liverpool - hancockmcdonald.com/taxonomy/term/159/feed

No-one would refute the often-heard general claim that new technologies offer much by way of independent or autonomous learning, and this year’s Learner Autonomy SIG Pre-conference event took this bull by its horns and addressed issues related to Language learner autonomy and today’s technologies: challenges and possibilities.

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