HALL HOUSTON'S HOME PAGE
This is the cover of my first book,
I come from the booming metropolis of Houston, Texas. A few years back I was teaching English at English Language Specialists, Inc. In 1996, I finished my Master's Degree in Foreign Language Education at the University of Texas at Austin. Previously, I have been a teacher at Fortune Institute of Technology and Southern Taiwan University of Technology and National Dong Hua University. I'm currently a full-time instructor at Kainan University.
This page is dedicated to some of my favorite things such as:
TEFL
If you have any interest in teaching English in a foreign country, these links might be of interest to you.
This is my OTHER page ------>
EFL in Asia - A Reference Guide to Teaching English in Asia.
If you're looking for some books on teaching ESL, you should visit EFL in Asia Bookstore.
And if you are incredibly bored, take a look at my Wish List.
My favorite websites:
drumzbest.vwh.net/Hartley
members.optusnet.com.au/~charles57/Creative/Techniques/index.html
www.advancedbrainstorming.com/tutorials/creativethinkingcontents.html
www.amazon.com
www.armchairdiplomat.com
www.bookcrossing.com
www.coolquotes.com
www.eslcafe.com
www.forumosa.com
www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newCT_00.htm
www.mycoted.com/creativity/techniques/index.php"
www.onestopenglish.com
www.remhq.com
www.salon.com
My newest creation is Hall Houston's Random ESL Idea Generator, perfect for those days when you can't think of anything interesting to teach.
And here are some activities I have created over the last few years.
Some of the best sources of information about the field of TEFL/TESL are:
WILD-E (Try it!)
The Internet TESL Journal
Dave's ESL Cafe
Humanising Language Teaching
ELT Spectrum
Adult Education ESL Teacher's Guide
ESL Start-Up Kit
Greater Pittsburgh Literary Council - ESL Tutor Manual
How to Be An Effective EFL Teacher
And here's the infamous "You Know You've Been In Taiwan Too Long When..." List .
Linguistics
Here are a few links about linguistics:
An Introduction to Linguistics
The Field of Linguistics
Lexicon of Linguistics
The Linguist List
The Human Languages Page - Linguistics Resources
Discourse Analysis
One area of linguistics I have been reading up on recently is discourse analysis.
What is discourse analysis?
"Discourse analysis examines how stretches of language, considered in their full textual, social, and psychological context, become meaningful and unified for their users." - G. Cook
"Discourse analysis has grown into a wide-ranging and heterogeneous discipline which finds its unity in the description of language above the sentence and an interest in the contexts and cultural influences which affect language in use." - M. McCarthy
For an easily digestible introduction, read Discourse Analysis by Deborah Tannen
You could also look at the Summer Institute of Linguistics'information about discourse.
And Paul McIlvenny's course has an impressive page. Great graphics!
Helen Dry has assembled this list of discourse analysis texts in a search for an alternative to Brown and Yule's classic yet overused tome.
Here are some notes on cohesion, pragmatics, and intonation from a class on Discourse.
Teaching Large Classes
Here are some resources for teaching large classes:
One Stop English - Methodology: Teaching Large Classes
English Teaching Forum - Student-Centered Teaching in Large Classes with Limited Resources
English Teaching Forum - No Book and 150 Students?
TEFL Tips - Teaching Large Classes
TEFL.net - Teaching Large Classes
BBC/British Council Teaching English - Teaching Large Classes
Helium.com - The Challenge of Teaching English as a Foreign Language in Large Classes
UNC Charlotte - Center for Teaching and Learning - A Survival Handbook for Teaching Large Classes
EDO and the University of Western Ontario - Large Class Teaching Best Practices
Center for Teaching Excellence - Large Classes: A Teaching Guide
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