Links
-
Recent Posts
Archives
Categories
Meta
Author Archives: Brian Cullen
Editing
Jim Smiley, an old friend and fellow musician, has just taken up the reins of the Material Writers Sig publication, Between the Keys. As part of an upcoming series of articles in BTK, he asked me to write a short … Continue reading
Posted in Writing and Editing
Leave a comment
Better learning through handwriting
There’s a report of some very interesting research on the advantages of writing by hand rather than by computer. When writing by hand, the body and mind can become more engaged because of the multi-sensory aspect of writing by hand. … Continue reading
Posted in L2 Creativity
Leave a comment
Why do so few Japanese students study abroad?
Tim Murphey put together this great video with his students to explain why so few Japanese students go abroad. In my own teaching, I see exactly
Posted in Reconnecting the disconnect
1 Comment
Student Songwriting: A Pilot Study
This article describes a pilot study into writing poems and song lyrics in the EFL classroom. The study had the dual aims of a) offering students the opportunity to engage in creative writing and b) facilitating language acquisition. The paper … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Leave a comment
Creative Writing: EFL Poetry Exercises
This post is a follow-up on an earlier post in which I described a poetry writing workshop by Alan Maley. While many people think of poetry as something that is difficult and would be hard for non-native speakers, Alan provided … Continue reading
Posted in L2 Creativity
2 Comments
Teachers who make a difference
Recently, when I was preparing for a talk, I was thinking about the teachers who really made a difference for me. Perhaps there are two who really stood out when I look at them from my present world. The first … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Leave a comment
Poetry Seminar
I went to a lovely seminar by Alan Maley a few months ago in Malaysia in which he talked about different ways of writing simple poetry in the EFL classroom. Then as I cleaned my office today, I came across … Continue reading
Posted in L2 Creativity
1 Comment
JALT Materials Writers SIG
Because of my work as an editor and author of EFL materials over the years, I always have a strong interest in talking to materials developers and textbook writers. By going through the process of writing materials, these people have … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Leave a comment
Who is teaching who here?
This year, I’ve learned a lot of things from my students and hope that they are learning as much from me. Classrooms are interesting places. Teachers teach something and students manage to learn something completely different. Students answer a question … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Leave a comment
Chapter in New Book on Materials Development
I just received my author’s copy of a lovely new book edited by Brian Tomlinson and Hitomi Masuhara titled Research for Materials Development in Language Learning. This was an enormous project for the editors as they worked to draw together … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Leave a comment