This is the second part of our interview with Alberto Bruzos about labour conditions in language teaching. Part 1 can be read here. Nobody seems satisfied with neoliberal structures of education (teachers, students, administrators, parents),…
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An Interview with … Alberto Bruzos Moro (Part 1)
When Alberto Bruzos Moro, the director of the Spanish Language Program at Princeton University, and his colleagues Yulia Komska and Roberto Rey Agudo wrote about the state of language teaching for the Boston Review they attracted quite…
Will Covid spell the end of ELT?
In April, with the first wave of Covid-19, we had our first #eltworkerchat. Many teachers had lost hours, student numbers were down – and there was a strong push to go online. Some teachers found…
Teachers in Malta Strike and Unionise
The COVID-19 pandemic has rocked the foundations of most economies around the world and the little island of Malta was not immune to the economic blow. With an economy which relies mostly on tourism, the…
Teacher Survey – Precarity and the Lockdown!
Accordian to a recent survey, replacing words with the names of musical instruments often goes undetected. OK. That’s a terrible joke. But not a bad introduction. Keith Copley, author of the excellent article Neoliberalism and…
Where is the teacher solidarity?
I’m tired. I’m seeing tweets from TEFL academics and organisations about how we adjust our teaching. How we do better online. Stop. Just, please, stop. The reality? Most of us don’t know if our schools…
An Open Letter to the English Teaching Community in Chile
A 30 PESO PRICE HIKE ON THE METRO was the straw that broke the camel’s back. We all understand the reasons behind the nationwide protests in Chile. We see them in memes…
10 Things I Learned About Precarity
In August 2018 Richard Smith of the Centre of Applied Linguistics at Warwick got in touch to see if I’d be interested in writing a key definition of ‘precarity’ for the ELT Journal. So,…
Monkeys and Rotten Peanuts
I’ve taught freelance Business English in Germany since 2009 for three language schools. In none of them was I paid enough to live on. Their contracts were similar. This is my experience of the worst…
I Am Literally a Bullied ELT Teacher
Prior to Donald Trump’s visit to the UK Ash Sarkar of Novara Media appeared on ‘Good Morning Britain’ and was bullied by host Piers Morgan. He criticized her for not demonstrating against Obama, presuming, incorrectly,…