This project is about fostering better English language teaching by creating a better pedagogical grammar of the English language, creating better teaching/learning materials, and training teachers. There are a number of sub-projects as part of the global English Ideas Project. You can scroll down to see the projects and ideas or use the page links above. Much of the material is free to use, with the proper acknowledgement.
The project is a personal project of Robert Buckmaster, a language teacher, trainer, tester and consultant, who has been working in language teaching since 1992. He has taught, trained and consulted throughout eastern and central Europe (in Sweden, Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Slovenia, Hungary, Serbia, Macedonia, Montenegro, Bulgaria, Romania, Belarus and Ukraine) and central Asia (in Georgia and Uzbekistan), as well as in North Africa (in Algeria and Libya) and in Namibia.
I now have a Substack where you can subscribe to the latest posts (for free), or become a paid subscriber and receive lesson materials!
The Projects: Books
I have published several monographs of research into language: The English Noun Phrase: A Handbook for Teachers, The Ideas of English Grammar and Understanding English: An Introduction to the Associative Model.
As well as a methodology book, Teaching English: Being the Best, for all teachers and a handbook for teachers of uniformed personnel: Teaching Uniformed Personnel.
And specialized coursebooks and materials for Military English: Military English Tactical and Peacekeeping Operations and Military English Army Key Words.
The Projects: Grammar
On this page you can access my Language Awareness Challenge Reading Maze, read about the Associative Model of Language, and learn about our books about grammar and language.
The Projects: Military English
I have worked with military teaching institutions in Belarus, Ukraine, Serbia, Macedonia and Montenegro and Namibia in order to improve their teaching and testing, and have published a 200 hour pre-deployment course Military English Tactical and Peacekeeping Operations for army personnel who are to be sent on multinational peace support operations, or on training courses in an English language speaking country, or are to be trained by English-speaking instructors.
I have also published Teaching Uniformed Personnel: A Handbook for English Teachers.
The Projects: Ideas
In this section of the Project I look at a number of areas of interest to teachers such as teaching materials for high school students, Testing, The Dual Text Approach to Reading, and Needs Analysis, and for academics, Linguistics and Chomsky: the Generative Grammar Dead End.
The Projects: Thoughts
This section of the Project is a number of thought pieces on different aspects of language teaching.
These are now being published on my Substack.
The Projects: ESP
I have a special focus on materials for military, police and border guard teachers, a typically undeserved niche of ESP teaching.