Welcome to the Big Talk Club.

Origin

Where this came from

There's no shortage of English materials out there. The catch is you usually have to pick one thing over another:

Good pedagogy without any real design.
Nice looking materials that turn out to be a list of discussion questions.
Interesting content with no clear language progression.

Our answer

Big Talk Club started from the belief that you shouldn't have to choose. You can give learners something worth talking about, and the language to talk about it. Two ways of thinking sit behind every lesson: one goes looking for interesting ideas, the other makes sure a good lesson can be built again, just as well. We don't take ourselves too seriously. We take the materials very seriously.

That's exactly how I want to teach this lesson.

The reaction we're aiming for in a teacher

Oh, that's actually interesting.

The reaction we're aiming for in a learner

We're not building a huge library of ESL materials, we're building a recognisable way of teaching.

The thought behind every decision

What we believe

Four principles we hold ourselves to

We start from an interesting idea

Not a broad textbook category, a question, a tension, or an observation worth talking about.

Speaking needs a purpose

Instead of ten discussion questions, learners get a real task: a ranking, a choice, a case to defend, or someone to convince.

Design is part of the material

When a student has to rank something, we show a ranking. When they have to make a choice, we build clear options. Design supports the task instead of decorating it.

Language should come back

A new word or phrase shows up again in examples, exercises and conversation, instead of disappearing after its first use.

Got a question

We're happy to answer it, about the materials, the licence, or something else entirely.

Get in touch