Learnfull

Guided Discovery

Sun, 03 Jun 2012 00:00:00 -0400

Guided Discovery:

A nice introduction to using guided discovery to teach forms by Vicky Saumell.

#ELTchat

Thu, 31 May 2012 00:00:00 -0400

#ELTchat:

Summaries of some interesting twitter chats about English language teaching

International Teacher Development Institute

Sun, 27 May 2012 00:00:00 -0400

International Teacher Development Institute:

Something to watch—an online teacher education site which seems to have roped in some interesting people as instructors / course writers / etc.

Demand High ELT

Thu, 24 May 2012 00:00:00 -0400

Recently two of the best-know names in our business, Adrian Underhill and Jim Scrivener, have started a new blog where they challenge what they see as the contemporary tendency for teachers to settle for good-enough. I haven’t watched enough classes lately to agree or disagree with Underhill and Scrivener’s observation that these days many teachers do

little more than a series of announcements to start up and close down exercises and activities. There is typically a lack of “up-close” teaching skills, no “hands-on” work with language and little or no engagement with the process or experience of learning. Much of traditional “teaching” is devolved to the coursebook. And coursebooks are now so good that they can take that strain.

…but I do welcome any blog that challenges us, as teachers, to do the best job we can.

I wonder if this good-enough teaching, if it is really a thing, relates to a shift in teacher identity from teacher as professional, where teachers are expected to be skilled and knowledgeable enough to teach in whatever way is required by the needs of their students, to teacher as technician, who is required to teach only what is set down by a strict curriculum or to the needs of a standardized test.

Thomas Farrell on Reflective Teaching

Sun, 20 May 2012 00:00:00 -0400

Thomas Farrell on Reflective Teaching:

Thomas Farrell here outlines the case for and some approaches to reflective practice for English teachers.

(of course Adrian Underhill takes a slightly…different approach)

Materials-Light (-Free) Teaching Resources

Thu, 17 May 2012 00:00:00 -0400

Chia Suan Chong’s blog includes a fine video explanation and detailed examples of how to do her version of materials-light teaching, walking into the classroom “with nothing but a pen” as she describes it, based on Scott Thornbury’s concept of Dogme EFL. Even if, like me, you feel that going completely materials free all the time is kind of drastic, Chia’s ideas are very useful for those times when you’re forced to do without your usual planning and resources—when you have to do a last minute substitution for a sick colleague for example.

I suspect that her methods are easier for an experienced and confident teacher than for one new to the profession, but I can’t help but be impressed by how well she incorporates truly learner-centred conversation with a great deal of lexis and grammar work. She seems to not to do very much writing with her students though, which seems a shame as the reduce preparation times her approach allows would let the teacher spend more time giving useful feedback on students writing.

More online learning

Tue, 21 Feb 2012 04:28:00 -0500

To add to my occasional attempts to get my math skills up to speed, I’ve just started taking two more online courses: an introduction to programming, and a course on using modelling techniques (that’s economic and social sciences models, not my normal mode of standing around looking beautiful…or something).

So far (the first week of both courses) the introduction to programming hasn’t taught me anything I didn’t know, but I’m pretty sure it will soon enough and will certainly serve to consolidate what little skill I already have.

The course on models looks like it will be very interesting and will give me new techniques for thinking about complex subjects—I’m looking forward to it.

(It is a bit ironic, however, that the website for the modelling course feels as if it’s better programmed than the one for the programming course, but these are early days and there is a lot more money I think behind the modelling course)

Teaching in China from Toronto

Thu, 12 Jan 2012 04:10:00 -0500

So I’ve been teaching students in China via Skype for a little while now and I have to say it is quite a learning experience for me.

Lesson planning is not that different from what I might do in a regular class: I find something interesting for them to read, compose some conversation questions, maybe a bit of vocabulary…nothing earth shattering, except that I do it all on PowerPoint slides instead of on photocopied paper. They see these slides through some screen-sharing / meeting software, which also allows me to draw on the screen and them to draw on my screen too, if I turn on that option.

One advantage over the classroom teaching I’m used to is that we have access to the entire internet: we play games online, I can instantly find pictures if they have vocabulary questions, this sort of thing. Of course this sort of thing can be done in a regular classroom with a laptop and projector, but few of the places I’ve worked have had the budget for that sort of technology.

I have to say though, that I really miss the physicality of a regular classroom. I’m a great believer in a connection between the body and the mind and numerous times I’ve found that the direction of a class can be dramatically improved just by inserting an activity that gets people standing up for a few minutes.

Story Soup Enterprises

Tue, 10 Jan 2012 04:17:00 -0500

Story Soup Enterprises:

For a few months now I’ve been collaborating with an actor and theatre teacher to think about ways of using theatre techniques, particularly storytelling and theatre games in language teaching. Eventually we’ll get a proper domain for it, but for now we’ve set up a little wordpress.com blog which you might be interested in.

Brushing up on my math skills

Sat, 12 Nov 2011 03:48:00 -0500

I have mixed feelings about the Khan Academy, or at least some of the reactions to it. It is being hyped by some as the answer to our failing school system (a premise I have doubts about to begin with).

It seems to me that it is more or less a simplified textbook in video form, made available for free. Now this is not a totally insignificant thing: free textbooks are nice, and some learners will surely learn better from watching videos than from reading a book. It does seem to leave out some pretty important aspects of learning such as motivation and teaching the reasons and ideas behind why we solve math (and other) problems the way we do. It also seems to be, other than its medium, pretty much the opposite of innovative, in terms of educational theory.

Nonetheless, for an adult independent learner who wants to brush up on some long-forgotten high-school math…someone a bit like me, for example…I can see it being pretty useful. So I’m giving some of its lessons a try.

Anki Example

Thu, 19 May 2011 12:19:33 -0400

Anki Example

Anki: another flashcard program

Thu, 19 May 2011 00:29:00 -0400

Anki: another flashcard program:

So Anki is a flashcard program that you can download, and, while it doesn’t include the little games that Quizlet has, it does let you include pictures and sounds, even video clips, in your cards and calculates how well you’ve been doing on a particular card and brings up for review more or less often on that basis. I’ve been using it to review my phonemic symbols (which have become scandalously rusty…or at least my memory of them has)

Say Hello Outside

Wed, 18 May 2011 23:19:11 -0400

Say Hello Outside:

90% of my classroom management takes place outside my classroom, seven minutes before class starts.

A small thing, perhaps, but it’s easy to forget, in the rush to craft that perfect grammar practice activity, or whatever, how important the first contact with your learners can be…every day.

Motivation (and lots of other stuff) by Zoltán Dörnyei

Tue, 17 May 2011 23:07:00 -0400

Motivation (and lots of other stuff) by Zoltán Dörnyei:

Zoltán Dörnyei is arguably the top researcher today on motivation in the language classroom and he’s made a whole lot of his papers and book chapters available for download, with nary an academic ‘firewall’ in sight.

Great Math Teaching Blog

Sun, 15 May 2011 23:10:00 -0400

Great Math Teaching Blog:

Stop! Wait, I know, it’s a math teacher’s blog and this is an English teacher’s blog and math is supposed to be scary and all that stuff, but try ignoring the math part for a minute. It’s a great teaching blog—the author has a really well thought out, and kind of challenging to other teachers, teaching philosophy and approach, and he teaches, both by explanation and by great examples, how to make excellent use of images and videos in our classrooms.

It’s an inspiring blog for any kind of teacher…and it might even get you interested in math.

TED Talks as a resource

Thu, 12 May 2011 23:10:00 -0400

TED Talks as a resource:

A collection of over 500 lectures which are usually informative, often inspiring, and sometimes, yes, a little wacky. Ranging from 3 to, more commonly, close to 20 minutes long.

What I really like about these lectures as self-study tools for students though are the subtitles. Many of the lectures have the option to turn on subtitles in multiple possible languages (one of which is almost always English). This means students can easily watch the video without subtitles, then, when the language gets confusing they can go back and turn on the subtitles for the hard to understand section. Admittedly, they can often do this on their TVs too, but these subtitles, at least the English ones, seem higher quality than the ones often available on television, and the range of subjects means there’s likely something there any student might find interesting, and the nature of the lectures, as lectures, makes them especially useful as academic English or test prep practice.

A lecture by Diana Laufenberg, a high school history teacher, on...

Thu, 12 May 2011 23:10:00 -0400

A lecture by Diana Laufenberg, a high school history teacher, on the importance of experiential learning, empowering student voice, and embracing failure. I wonder how these things can be better incorporated into English classes.

Online Flashcards

Tue, 10 May 2011 23:10:00 -0400

Online Flashcards:

This online flashcard site, quizlet, is the first one I used and still the one I use most often, but I know there are many different options out there. Do you have any suggestions for a better online flashcard site?

"The problem with defending the purity of the English language is that English is about as pure as a..."

Thu, 05 May 2011 23:10:00 -0400

“The problem with defending the purity of the English language is that English is about as pure as a cribhouse whore. We don’t just borrow words; on occasion, English has pursued other languages down alleyways to beat them unconscious and rifle their pockets for new vocabulary.”

- James Nicoll (via srsly) (via libraryland) (via booktumbling) (via iainbroome)

Phonemic Chart Excitement

Wed, 04 May 2011 20:29:00 -0400

Phonemic Chart Excitement:

I wonder what it says about me that I’m really excited to have found not one, but two American English versions of the phonemic chart which was available only in British English when I first trained as a teacher.