Where’s home?

Home is here. Home is now.

Home is Palma today, Hartwell tomorrow, Barcelona on Sunday.

Home is where I am. Home is where I’m not, where my family is, where my friends are. But where are they?

Home is Wolverhampton, the house I grew up in, the one my brother still lives in, except for when he doesn’t, when he’s driving his truck around the country five days a week. The city where my best friend lives, with her partner and their new baby. My things, in the attic. But not all of them.

Home is Hartwell, the place I stay when I go back to the UK now, my aunt, my uncle, my cousins. A village in the beautiful English countryside, a place I’ve got to know so much better this year.

Home is my official address, the one I share with my mum, my grandma, my uncle. Where all of my documents go. Where my grandy was and is and always will be in my memory.

Home is England, land of my birth, land of my family, land of the language which my life revolves around.

Home is where I am right now: Palma, Mallorca, finishing a CELTA course. An apartment just outside the ring road which replaced the city walls, within walking distance of the school which rents it for students studying Spanish. Next month it will be someone else’s home.

Home will be Barcelona and Bydgoszcz and who knows where else?

 

Home has been on four continents: Pfreimd, Borneo, Asunción, Metz, Ardingly, Brno, Newcastle, Leeds, San Diego, Vancouver, Chiang Mai. All home at one time or another. Many in multiple times and places.

Home is Sevastopol, caught between what has been and what will be. Where my things are. But not all of them.

Home is Durham, the place I return to again and again. A place I fell in love with on my uni open day, when I imagined myself there as a student two years in the future and twelve in the past. Where my favourite building is, a cathedral that I can’t get enough of, holding so many memories for me, and more every time I go back, but not to live, never to live, unless in the houses facing the cathedral across the river, homes I might one day retire to. How many other homes in between?

Home is my hammock in the jungle, my room for summer school, a canal boat or a cottage for a holiday.

Home is my hotel for a few nights, my flat for a month, my house for a year.

Home is my bedroom, the place I sleep at night. Home is my kitchen, where I cook what I can’t buy. Home is my suitcase, which comes with me everywhere.

Home is the internet, carried in my computer around the world. My friends online and off who I know are there for me, wherever I am. Other people’s homes waiting for me when I travel, welcoming me in with open arms, sharing their lives, their time, their kitchens.

Home is my photos, my memories, the space inside my head.

Home is tears, sickness, sadness. Home is distance. Home is a thought you hold in your head, a place to return to, ephemeral.

Home is laughter, happiness, health. Home is intimacy. Home is a thought you make real, a place you create, personal.

Home is a dream. A dream of a family, a husband, a home of our own. Where my things are. All of them. The things I buy for my future home to remind me of this time when home is everywhere. The cross stitch I do now to go on my wall then. A dream of stability, of health, of happiness. A dream of a future, who knows where, who knows when.

Come in and make yourself at home.

[inspired by Lemn Sissay’s Homecoming]

My review in the TEA journal

[2/9/2021 – Note that these links appear to no longer be active.]

ELT News is the journal of the Austrian teacher’s association, TEA (Teachers of English in Austria). The latest edition features my review of one of my favourite podcasts. You can find the full table of contents, complete with links to all of the articles. There’s something for everyone: business English, younger learners, activities, polemic, and entertainment. My favourite article is ‘Unhand me Sir, for my husband, who is an Australian, awaits without’, which I would heartily encourage you to read 🙂

Why not grab a cup of tea and read the journal? Photo by Dace Praulins from eltpics, used under a Creative Commons 3.0 licence

Why do I let my daughter travel abroad for her job

My mum has answered these questions in response to a challenge from the iTDi (International Teacher Development Institute) blog. You can read the original three posts by following this link: http://itdi.pro/blog/2015/05/10/from-the-teachers-family/
Thanks for writing it, mum, and for your constant support!

I know who I am, but who are you?

I’m totally stealing this idea from Joanna Malefaki. In fact, I’m going to steal her words too:

I would really appreciate it, if you took a minute to say hello, tell me where you are from/about yourself, and what you like reading in the ELT blogs you read.

I am doing this cause I want to get to know the people who actually read my posts. Reading your comments really puts a smile on my face!

I’ve often wondered who reads my blog, and while I’ve had the pleasure to meet many of you *waves!*

Not that kind of waves! (my image)

I know there are a lot more of you out there. So, don’t be afraid, say hello!

Blogging for professional development (British Council webinar)

On Thursday 21st May 2015 I was honoured to present as part of the British Council webinar series. Since blogging is such a central part of my teaching and my life, I’m often asked about it. In this webinar, I tell you:

• where to find blogs connected to teaching;
• what to do with the posts you read;
• how to keep up with the blogs;
• how to start your own blog.

Here is a recording of the webinar, including a list of many of the blogs which were shared by myself and the participants during the talk. Here are my slides:

All of the links in the presentation should be clickable. If any of them don’t work, please let me know. If you have a favourite blog to read, feel free to share it in the comments so that others can follow it too. And if you start a teaching blog, I’d love to hear about it. Good luck!

There’s a summary of the webinar on tekhnologic’s blog.

Conversation jumble with ELTpics

I’ve recently been sorting out some of the files on my computer and came across a worksheet I created for low-level students to help them practise punctuation within a basic conversation. I thought I’d share it with you as I’m sure there’s somebody who’ll find it useful.

The sheet uses ELTpics by Kevin Stein and Laura Phelps. Kevin, I just realised that I said you lived in South Korea – obviously I wasn’t quite so aware then, and was just keen to use one of my all-time favourite ELTpics! Sorry 🙂

There are no contractions in there, but you might want to encourage the students to add them, maybe as a second stage after they done the un-jumbling task. There are also no exclamation marks, as I originally designed it for beginner Arabic and Chinese speakers and I thought that would be a bit too much for them to deal with. I’ve included them in brackets in the answers below.

[I believe you need a free SlideShare account to be able to download the worksheet]

Here are the answers:

A: Good morning. (!)

B: Hello. What is your name? (!) (What’s)

A: My name is Kevin. And you? (name’s)

B: I am Laura. Where are you from? (I’m)

A: I am from America. I live in South Korea. What about you? (I’m)

B: I am from the UK. What do you do? (I’m)

A: I am a teacher. What do you do? (I’m)

B: I am a teacher too. I love my job. (I’m) (!)

A: Me too. (!)

If you’ve created materials using ELTpics, why not share them with us (I’m one of the curators)? If you need inspiration, take a look at the ELTpics blog and start exploring the collection, which now has over 25,000 images!

Delta conversations: Joanna

This is part of a series of posts showing you all the different ways you can approach the Cambridge Delta. They are designed to help you find out more about the course and what it involves, as well as helping you to choose the right way to do it for you, your lifestyle and the time you have available. If you’ve done the Delta (or any other similar higher-level teaching course, including a Masters), and you’d like to join in, let me know by leaving me a comment or contacting me via Twitter @sandymillin.

Joanna Malefaki has been teaching English for approximately 18 years. In the mornings, she is an online Business English tutor and in the afternoons, she teaches mostly exam classes as a freelance teacher. She has been teaching pre-sessional EAP for five summers now, and will be working at Sheffield University this summer. She holds a M.Ed in TESOL and the Cambridge Delta. She blogs regularly at www.myeltrambles.wordpress.com. You can also find her on Twitter: @joannacre

How did you do your Delta? How did you arrange the modules?

Well, I did the Delta slow and steady. I took lots of breaks. I did module one on my own. I didn’t do a course. I already had an M. Ed in TESOL, so when I looked at the reading list, I saw that a lot of the material overlapped. Also, some of my friends who had already done the Delta suggested I try to prepare for it by myself. That’s what I did. I read whatever I could get my hands on. I did lots of Module One past papers and read examiner reports very carefully. I then found a center willing to take me on as an external candidate (CELT Athens). I took the exam and passed. After that I took a little break. I then did a blended course at CELT Athens with Marisa Constantinides and George Vassilakis. I had weekend sessions (online) and I had to go to Athens for my observed lessons (I live on a Greek island, so I needed to travel quite a bit for Module 2). I passed Module 2 and then took another break. I then did Module 3 online with Bell. My tutor there was Chris Scriberras. I passed Module 3 last December.

Why did you choose to do it that way?

I work full time. I did not take any time off in order to do the Delta. I was working about 40 hours a week and then there was also the extra-curricular teaching related stuff. That means I was really busy. I couldn’t commit to an intensive Delta nor go somewhere and do the course. This was the only option. The breaks were a way to help me avoid burnout. I don’t think that I would have finished if I had done the Delta full time and have a full-time job at the same time. I probably would have dropped out.

How much time per week would you estimate you needed to spend working on the Delta in the format you chose?

I studied whenever I had time. I studied late at night and on Sundays. I cannot put it in numbers though. I feel I studied a lot, but not enough. I should have cut down on my working hours.

What do you think you gained from doing the Delta?

Where do I begin? On a personal level, I learnt that if you set your mind to something, you can probably do it! I learnt that I complain a lot when I feel overwhelmed and that I really like comfort food! ‘Have a break, have a Kit Kat’ was my motto those days!

I also met lots of lovely people who were doing the course with me. I met people from around the world and I now consider them my friends, my study buddies. I learnt that I love writing and particularly, blogging. I actually started blogging because of the Delta. My tutor, Marisa, said it will help me reflect. I wrote a post about what the Delta means to me for her Delta blog. After that, I started my own blog. Getting more connected and growing my PLN was another result of the Delta, and another recommendation of Marisa’s. I learnt so much while I was doing the course, and I am still learning as a result of the course.

On a professional level, I became more aware of some of my teaching ‘weaknesses’, moved away from bad habits and experimented a lot. I started paying more attention to the links between lessons and tasks. I looked more carefully at my students’ needs. I moved a bit further away from course books. I became better at lesson planning and learnt more about aims and objectives. I also tried out new tasks, approaches and techniques I had never tried before. I learnt a lot from the feedback I got regarding my teaching. I think I liked feedback sessions the most. They are really helpful and informative.

Finally, during the Delta I became once more, a learner. The assignment writing was an eye opener for me. You see, I had been teaching EAP, for a few months. I had been going on about academic writing, integrating sources, paraphrasing and plagiarism. I spoke to my learners a lot about supporting their arguments and so on. Only when I did the Delta, did I realise that all I had been preaching was actually very hard!! I walked in my learners’ shoes. Now, I know better. I also have more study tips to share with my students!

What were the downsides of the method you chose?

Doing the Delta slowly is like a knife with two blades. You have time to breathe but you may lose the momentum. Getting in and out of Delta mode is quite hard.

What were the benefits of the method you chose?

I did not have to take time off work and I did the Delta at my own pace. Doing the Delta online allows you to be at home and save money and time.

What tips would you give other people doing the Delta?

I would say that it’s a good idea to do the Delta when you have extra time. Don’t do it if you are too busy. The workload is very heavy and demanding, and if you really want to enjoy it, you need to have time. Take some time off. It is very hard to do the Delta if you are teaching 24/7.

I also think it is necessary to stay focused and be selective. When you are doing the Delta, you want to know/ learn everything. You have a plethora of information coming your way. This can be overwhelming, so you need to be able to identify what you need and what needs to go (information-wise). Trust me. If you do not ‘filter’ the information, you will end with loads of photocopies scattered around your study space.

Finally, allow yourself some time for everything to sink in, again because there is a lot of information. You teaching changes gradually and what you learn takes time to become part of your teaching.

My first ever sketch-notes

On Monday, I was lucky enough to cross paths with Katherine Bilsborough, one of my fellow TeachingEnglish Associates. She was in Palma (where I’m working this month) doing a seminar on behalf of OUP. The other presenter was Jessica Toro, who I know from going to IH Director of Studies conferences. It’s a small world!

Their sessions were very useful, and since I didn’t have wifi access, I decided to take my cue from Christina Rebuffet-Broadus and have a go at my first ever sketch-notes. Looking at Christina’s notes now, I probably tried to pack a bit too much into mine, but I’m quite pleased with them for a first attempt. You’ll notice the notes from Jessica’s talk are a lot more adventurous as I got more confident 🙂 Let me know if you want text explanations of anything I put on there.

Katherine’s talk was about how to make the most of your coursebook, particularly if you’re working with primary-age children.

Jessica told us how to help students get ready for young learner exams.

Both sessions had lots of activities in them which makes me a tiny bit more confident about offering advice to teachers about young learner classes next year!

Thanks for inviting me Katherine 🙂

Teaching English on Skype (guest post)

After meeting up with Sandy at IATEFL Manchester 2015 (having not seen each other face-to-face since finishing our university studies in 2008 – one of the reasons social media is great!) and chatting about the fact that I do most of my teaching on Skype, she asked me to write a guest post on her blog, and here it is!

I’ve been working as a freelance English teacher since the beginning of 2013, when I set up my business, Get Ahead in English. I’d just moved to Barcelona, and after teaching at SGI in London for a couple of years, was keen to see if I could strike out on my own! I built up to a full timetable of private students, almost all 1-1 with the exception of two students I taught together, and a group of three students in-company. I also started my first Skype lessons whilst in Barcelona. This was a 45-minute lesson with a student I’d taught face-to-face in London. We met once a week and mostly practised speaking, as well as email English. In this case, he didn’t have a webcam, which worked well as it gave him the chance to practise telephone English – in his job, he has to speak English to people without seeing their faces almost every day.
My husband and I moved back to the UK in December 2014 and I offered all my students in Barcelona the chance of continuing their lessons on Skype. Some were immediately keen, others said they’d prefer face-to-face (for example, those taking lessons in-company who felt they needed the motivation of a physical person appearing in their office every week) and some said they’d think about it (most of those have now started Skype lessons too!)

Activities

Most of the activities I do are not that different to those I did in face-to-face lessons. Instead of arriving at the lesson with printed handouts, I email them in advance, or send documents via Skype (there’s a paperclip symbol next to the chat box where you can attach files), and they arrive almost instantly. I also use this to send homework. To review students’ writing, I sometimes use the screen share function on Skype so we can look at their work together. I think some Skype teachers use Teamviewer, but I haven’t found it necessary.

It’s also very easy to look at websites together online – a student can send me something they’ve seen that they have questions about, I can send an article, or we can look at exercises together. Google images is also great when one of us is trying to describe something!

How different is teaching on Skype to teaching face-to-face?

As long as you both have a good internet connection and webcam, not that different at all! I have actually met the majority of my Skype students face-to-face as well, because I was teaching them in Barcelona, but I now have a few who I’ve never met in person. People ask if this is awkward, but I don’t think it is. One of the reasons I offer a free 30-minute consultation before students have to pay is to make sure the student feels comfortable with the format, as well as to check their internet is good enough and to conduct a needs analysis, of course!

One difference I have noticed is timing. When going to a student’s house or office, you arrive a couple of minutes early and by the time you’ve come in, sat down, they’ve offered you a drink and you’ve chatted about a new picture on the wall or something else you’ve seen, you’re at least 5 minutes into the lesson. With Skype, the lesson starts as soon as you press the “call” button! This also means that there are generally fewer distractions, which is nice.

Of course, there are sometimes technical problems. Touch wood, I’ve had fewer problems with my internet connection than I did with late trains/buses when teaching face-to-face! It’s important to have a strategy in place for these types of things though – do you still charge a student if their internet is broken? I ask students to give me 24 hours’ notice of any changes or cancellations, but treat those with less notice on a case-by-case basis. If my internet broke and we couldn’t do our lesson, I wouldn’t charge the student and we’d arrange another time to make up for it. This is yet to happen! We did have a power cut last week but luckily not while I had any lessons scheduled. Occasionally mine or my student’s internet connection will cut out for a minute or two during the lesson, but that’s rare and only for a short time.

How do I find students?

I’m lucky in that the majority of my students are ones I already knew. However, I’ve found a few new students through TutorFair and others through Blabmate. Be warned that with the latter, you’ll receive a lot more enquiries than paying students! There seem to be a lot of people looking for free lessons. However, for the £1.40/month fee, you don’t need many paying students to make it up. I would also say it’s important to have your own website so students can find out more about you.

Other advantages

I asked my Skype students to tell me what they most like about learning on Skype for a blogpost I wrote on my website, and the main thing they mentioned was convenience. They can take their lessons anywhere (even on a beach or in their pyjamas!) as long as they have an internet connection.

This is also an advantage for me, as my travelling time and cost is now zero. It also means that I have students all over the world, which is great to increase my client base, but also to learn about new cultures.

Last but by no means least, there’s the environmental factor. I print so much less now that I’m teaching online. A recent ELT chat highlighted the desire for teachers to reduce the amount of paper they use, and this is one way to do it!

Disadvantages

I used to enjoy teaching face-to-face in Barcelona as it gave me the chance to walk around the city a lot and get to know it. This is slightly less appealing in rainy Manchester, but I do miss the exercise and variety!

Sometimes you can’t beat being in the same room as a student – they may have a book they’d like you to look at, and it’s easier to pick up on body language etc.

I haven’t taught any small groups on Skype but imagine that would be more difficult. Having had three-way conversations with friends on Skype, we’ve tended to end up with lots of people starting to speak at the same time as it’s harder to see visual clues. However, I’m sure you’d get used to it and would be good practice for meetings etc.

Overall, I really enjoy teaching on Skype. It’s comfortable for me and the student, it’s more environmentally friendly and it means I can teach students all over the world!

Thanks a lot to Julia Phang for writing this post. It was great to catch up with her after so long, and the fact that she could write a guest post on a topic I often get asked about was an added bonus! If you’d like to find out more, you can follow Julia on Twitter and read her shiny new blog too.

Blogging for professional development (webinar announcement)

On Thursday 21st May 2015 I’ll be giving a webinar on behalf of Teaching English British Council, all about blogging for professional development. It’s 13:00-14:00 CET – find out what time that is in your time zone.

You can register for the webinar and find out more information.

See you there!

Reclaiming attention and exploiting smartphones (TeachingEnglish blog associates)

I’m very proud to be one of the TeachingEnglish associates, a group of wonderful English teachers from around the world. Each month a series of topics is posted on the ‘blogs‘ section of the British Council TeachingEnglish site, which everyone is invited to write about, including you! Here are the topics for May 2015, and anyone is welcome to join in. If you haven’t tried blogging before, why not give it a go? All you need to do is register on the Teaching English site and then you can start your blog through your profile there. To inspire you, the associates offer their takes on the topics.

My contribution for May is about reclaiming attention and exploiting smartphones.

If you do choose to join in, why not share the link here so that others can read your posts?

Exploring cultures (TeachingEnglish blog associates)

I’m very proud to be one of the TeachingEnglish associates, a group of wonderful English teachers from around the world. Each month a series of topics is posted on the ‘blogs‘ section of the British Council TeachingEnglish site, which everyone is invited to write about, including you! Here are the topics for April 2015, and anyone is welcome to join in. If you haven’t tried blogging before, why not give it a go? To inspire you, the associates offer their takes on the topics.

My contribution for April is about exploring cultures in the classroom, based on a particularly memorable class I taught in Newcastle.

If you do choose to join in, why not share the link here so that others can read your posts?

The IH whistle-stop tour (IH TOC 7)

One of the things which most annoys me when talking to people about International House (IH) is the assumption that it is a franchise. A franchise is an organisation where every branch is pretty much the same regardless of where you are in the world (think McDonald’s or Starbucks). IH is actually an affiliate network: schools have to fulfil certain criteria to be allowed to use the IH brand and to get the benefits of being part of the network, as well as paying an affiliation fee, but they are free to do this in any way they choose, resulting in an incredibly diverse group of schools.

Click on the map to find out all the places which have IH schools

I’ve worked for IH since 2008, and in that time I’ve been privileged to see many of the schools in the network, particularly over the last year. I decided to share a little of the diversity of the schools I’ve visited in my presentation for the May 2015 IH Teachers’ Online Conference (IH TOC 7).

You can see my slides below, and here’s a link to the recording.

If all goes to plan, I’ll be adding IH Barcelona to my list of schools in July 2015, and I hope that I’ll get the chance to visit or work at many more IH schools in my career.

IH Teachers’ Online Conference (TOC) 7

The dates: Friday 8th and Saturday 9th May 2015.

The place: the internet.

The event: the 7th IH Teachers’ Online Conference.

On Friday, a series of 10-minute presentations, including one by yours truly taking you on a tour of IH schools

On Saturday, sessions dedicated to teaching languages other than English, including French, Spanish, Russian and German.

Here’s the full programme, including information on how to join the sessions, and the timetable (with a tab at the bottom to change from Friday to Saturday’s session).

There will be recordings of all of the sessions available after the event.

And if you can’t wait, why not watch a few of the presentations from previous incarnations of the conference: IHTOC60 (for the 60th anniversary of IH) and IH TOC6.

A sudden quiver of understanding

Since that moment, I have known many times what I first experienced then. Until then, my forays into written French had been purely utilitarian, the completion of almost mathematical exercises. When I comprehended a new phrase it was merely a bridge to the next exercise. Never before had I known the sudden quiver of understanding that travels from word to brain to heart, the way a new language can move, coil, swim into life under the eyes, the almost savage leap of comprehension, the instantaneous, joyful release of meaning, the way the words shed their printed bodies in a flash of heat and light. Since then I have known this moment of truth with other companions: German, Russian, Latin, Greek, and – for a brief hour – Sanskrit.

Taken page 188 of The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova, the very well-written (in every sense of the phrase) book I am currently reading and which I would highly recommend [affiliate link!]

I’m sharing this quote here because it made me smile – a beautiful description of a feeling I’ve had many times, even if sometimes only for those brief hours.

IATEFL Manchester 2015: A summary

This has been my most enjoyable IATEFL conference so far.

Starting with the MaWSIG PCE (Materials Writing Special Interest Group Pre-Conference Event) and ending with Carol Ann Duffy’s plenary, I was privileged to see a range of quality talks covering all kinds of areas which I summarised in the posts below:

• Two plenaries
• Africa
• CELTA
• Materials Writing
• Professional Development and Management
• In the classroom

I gave a talk on using journals with students which went well, despite a couple of initial technical hitches – thanks for your help, David! I missed a few talks I wanted to see, but have managed to catch up with at least some of them through the power of the internet.

I was very happy to win two prizes, one of which was a book which was on my wishlist, and I also bought myself a couple of other books I wanted.

RT @sandymillin: Thanks to @CambridgeUPELT for the £100 iTunes voucher which I won in their Grammar in Use competition at #iatefl 🙂

— Cambridge ELT (@CambridgeUPELT) April 15, 2015

Thank you #mawsig raffle and @johnhugheselt – it’s been on my Amazon wishlist since it came out 🙂 Perfect for CELTA! pic.twitter.com/OhPh9lh8WI — Sandy Millin (@sandymillin) April 12, 2015

The conference centre, Manchester Central, was excellent: easy to get to, easy to navigate, clean, modern, and with excellent wifi – I never had to fight it once! I managed to tweet throughout: according to the downloader I’ve used to help me compile my posts, I sent about 1500 tweets during the conference! I appreciated the responses I got which justified me doing so. Those tweets have also enabled me to put together my blogposts after the conference.

Anyone wanting perhaps the most comprehensive series of tweets from a whole host of talks at #Iatefl should be following @sandymillin

— hugh dellar (@hughdellar) April 13, 2015

However, as always, the highlight of the conference was the people. I met a few members of my PLN (professional learning network) who I’ve been wanting to meet for a very long time.

Lots of the lovely followers of my blog came and said hello and thank you – it makes it all worth it! There were also lots of comments about how much tweeting I did and Jo Budden challenged Joe Dale and I to a tweet-off. Next year?

Our team came joint second in the quiz night:

There was a baby shower, with lots of PLN love.

I caught up with good friends, and missed a few who were absent (See you next year, Katy?).

I had dinner with CELTA and Delta trainers, and very much enjoyed listening to their stories, as well as lunch with my fellow curators from ELTpics (We missed you Julie!) I also had lunch with my CELTA tutors, being able to properly catch up for the first time since I finished my course in February 2008.

And that’s not to mention all the random encounters in passing throughout the conference:

Thank you IATEFL, and see you in Birmingham next year!

IATEFL Manchester 2015: The ones I missed

For various reasons, not least the sheer size of the conference, there were various talks I missed during IATEFL. Thanks to the power of the internet, I’ve managed to catch up with some of them through tweets, videos and/or blogposts. Here’s a selection of them:

The ear of the beholder: helping learners understand different accents – Laura Patsko

Laura’s talk was on at the same time as mine so I wasn’t able to watch it. I know it started with her ‘having a cold’ to demonstrate how we can make meaning evefn when the sounds we hear don’t correspond with our expectations, and I’m intrigued to hear more about her suggestions. She’s shared her presentation, and hopefully there will be a video of at least some of it soon!

Here’s one of her tweets from another point in the conference:

Language changes thru usage. If sth ‘non-standard’ is dominantly used (through #ELF for example), it’ll become acceptable. @davcr at #iatefl

— Laura Patsko (@lauraahaha) April 14, 2015

Fostering autonomy: harnassing the outside world from within the classroom – Lizzie Pinard

Lizzie‘s talk was also in the same slot as mine and Laura’s – so many possible times and they put us all on in the same one! Lizzie has written a lot about autonomy on her blog, and demonstrated it with her own Italian learning. The aspect of learner training is key when trying to encourage autonomy, and is one I’m sure Lizzie’s presentation would have helped me with. Thankfully, she’s blogged about it as has Olga Sergeeva, but it’s not quite the same as hearing it first-hand. I’m hoping the gods of IATEFL shine on all three of us next year and put us on at separate times!

Where are the women in ELT? – Russell Mayne and Nicola Prentis

As with last year, the talk which Russ was involved in is one of the ones which seems to have taken on a life of its own after the conference. Nicola and Russ picked a subject which is another very important discussion point, after Russ tackled the myths of EFL in 2014. [Original text (see comments for why I’ve kept this) As with last year, Russ’s talk is the one of the ones which seems to have taken on a life of its own after the conference. He has a way of picking subjects which are very good discussion points, and this year he was ably assisted by Nicola Prentis.] Their talk immediately followed my own and was in a tiny room, so I knew it was wishful thinking to believe I might get in, but I tried anyway. A whole group of us were waiting outside, disappointed. Last year Russ’s talk was officially recorded (content is currently being updated on the IATEFL 2014 site), and Russ and Nicola have recorded their own version this year – thank you! This area is one of particular interest to me, being a woman and in ELT as I am. 🙂 Through the Fair List, I’d become aware of the fact that plenary speakers at conferences are often men speaking to a room full of women, which seems odd. As I understand it, Russ and Nicola were questioning the fact that men feature dispropotionately at the ‘top’ of the ELT profession, despite it being a female-dominated one in general.

They did an interview about it which you can watch as a taster:

Here are two of the blog posts which were triggered by their talk, both of which have fascinating discussions in the comments which are well worth reading:

• He’s not the Messiah, he’s a very naughty boy! Steve Brown highlights the amount of time that the ‘big’ names highlighted in Russ and Nicola’s talk have been at the top (something which they mentioned in their interview too)
• P is for Power: Scott Thornbury questions the balance of power in the ELT profession, not just in terms of gender, but also covering native/non-native speakers and the socio-economic circumstances that teaching takes place in.

Russ and Nicola have also set up their own website to examine gender equality in ELT, with a lot more information about their research. At other points in the conference there were tweets about increasing the number of non-native speakers visible at conferences and in the global community.

Higor wants discussion about how to NNEST to feel confident contributing to global ELT community #tdsig #IATEFL2015 pic.twitter.com/rJJ6Ragz9Y

— Tyson Seburn (@seburnt) April 10, 2015

#Iatefl give @teacherhigor a plenary next year so a non-native can stand up and discuss the role of language development for Non-NESTS.

— hugh dellar (@hughdellar) April 12, 2015

Walk before you run: reading strategies for Arabic learners – Emina Tuzovic

I saw Emina speaking about helping Arabic students with spelling at IATEFL last year, and she subsequently very kindly wrote a guest post summarising her talk for this blog. I’m hoping to encourage her to do the same again this year, as her ideas are very practical and deal with areas which there isn’t much coverage of in the literature I’ve read.

People, pronunciation and play – Luke Meddings

Luke shared a couple of his ideas in an interview:

I really like Luke’s focus on playing with language, which is something I’ve become more and more interested in.

Olga Sergeeva went to Luke’s talk and wrote a summary of the whole thing, although she admitted it was difficult because they were laughing too much!

Tools, tips and tasks for developing materials writing skills – John Hughes

John has shared his slides, which gives me a taster of the tips he has for developing these skills. I think the most important idea is to ‘develop a materials radar’, which echoes what Ben Goldstein and Ceri Jones talked about in their presentation on using images at the MAWSIG PCE.

Technology

Mike Harrison talked about using Vine to make short videos, and Shaun Wilden and Nikki Fortova looked at apps on the iPad to do the same.
Here’s an idea from Nicky Hockley to use a mobile phone to practise past continuous:

Mobile for past continuous – set alarm for 4, 6, 8pm;SS take selfies at that time, then share online with descrip. @TheConsultantsE #IATEFL

— Tyson Seburn (@seburnt) April 13, 2015

If you’re considering whether to use technology in your class or not, this handout could be useful:

This is the activity sheet that David Pearce has just used for the activity #IATEFL pic.twitter.com/Fg0gZdEKiD

— Oxford ELT (@OUPELTGlobal) April 12, 2015

Random tweets

These are things which I retweeted because they made me think. I’m sharing them here to make sure I don’t forget those thoughts and to see what you think. They’re loosely grouped into topics where possible.

Student abilities

#IATEFL Pete Rutherford: you can be a B1 student but able to communicate more competently than those at say C1.

— hugh dellar (@hughdellar) April 11, 2015

Memory and engagement

These link back to Joy Egbert’s plenary.

Lulu: “Finally… Brains need to work out!” Giving students a purpose to learn helps them actively engage #IATEFL pic.twitter.com/A64mnL0Bix

— macmillanelt (@MacmillanELT) April 11, 2015

Slide to highlight how the memory process works #IATEFL pic.twitter.com/lTVKLoWfXT

— macmillanelt (@MacmillanELT) April 11, 2015

Finally – something to try when reflecting on your teaching about how memorable your lessons are #IATEFL pic.twitter.com/JE7fJ6dkP4

— macmillanelt (@MacmillanELT) April 11, 2015

“Why do children learn English through video games?” They’re actively engaged, language has a purpose, repetition, reward #IATEFL

— macmillanelt (@MacmillanELT) April 11, 2015

Materials design and the importance of editors

An opportunity for anyone wanting to get into materials design?

I’m interested in how @Pearson_ELT and other publishers can/will work on more relevant materials for the key pre A1 stage #IATEFL

— Diana Tremayne (@dianatremayne) April 11, 2015

This looks amazing!

#iatefl2015 Audience fully engaged by tricky napkin task in PBL workshop by Helen Jackson 😉 pic.twitter.com/MKZDeQ1iGY

— Laura Edwards (@EdLaur) April 11, 2015

#mawig #iatefl Free and Fair is a FB page where a group of ELT authors share links to free resources pic.twitter.com/mhqAN7bCEX

— MaWSIG (@MaWSIG) April 12, 2015

#mawig #iatefl Authors lose income through illegal downloads, but there is also a need for free resources.

— MaWSIG (@MaWSIG) April 12, 2015

#mawig #iatefl @FreeFairELT Many people don’t understand copyright laws, for example that Scribd downloads aren’t always legal

— MaWSIG (@MaWSIG) April 12, 2015

#mawig #iatefl @FreeFairELT would like their page to become a reference point for teachers around the world, a library where teachers can go

— MaWSIG (@MaWSIG) April 12, 2015

#mawig #iatefl @FreeFairELT if we don’t want students 2 use other people’s work wrongly, plagiarism, we need to set a good example ourselves

— MaWSIG (@MaWSIG) April 12, 2015

#mawig #iatefl @FreeFairELT @esolcourses also making the point that free to use is not always the same as free to copy.

— MaWSIG (@MaWSIG) April 12, 2015

#mawig #iatefl @FreeFairELT will be preparing a document on Creative Commons to help people.

— MaWSIG (@MaWSIG) April 12, 2015

Objections to use of editors -Author says: ‘I can do a better job myself’ (No you can’t.), ‘We don’t have time.’ (Make time) #MaWSIG #IATEFL

— MaWSIG (@MaWSIG) April 12, 2015

Other problems an editor spots – typeface, formatting, answers on page, illogical content, wrong grammar and definitions #MaWSIG #IATEFL

— MaWSIG (@MaWSIG) April 12, 2015

Plenty of editors in the room! @KarenWhiteInk @editorhayley @conciselyn @askelitetext #MaWSIG #IATEFL

— MaWSIG (@MaWSIG) April 12, 2015

…and on Twitter!

‘The editor is the great unsung hero of English Language Teaching in many ways’ Hugh Dellar #IATEFL2015 #ELT @KarenWhiteInk

— Diane Nicholls (@lexicoloco) April 13, 2015

And if you decide to self-publish:

More ideas: email campaigns, sending copies to libraries, writing articles, school libraries. Put yourself & book out there #iatefl #MaWSIG

— MaWSIG (@MaWSIG) April 12, 2015

Research

In writing 4 teachers researchers should aim for length, practicality, engagement. #patsylightbown #IATEFL #research pic.twitter.com/pLQNZZ5TQE

— Beyza Yılmaz (@Beyza) April 11, 2015

Patsy’s accompanying blogpost is available on the OUP blog.

#IATEFL2015 #IATEFL @Simon_Borg Issues with AR: maintaining community, written report: for teachers rather than formal paper, broader impact

— Jessica Mackay (@JessBCN) April 12, 2015

Action Research needs to be seen as something that enriches what teachers do. @Simon_Borg #IATEFL

— Ana Garcia Stone (@AMGS1958) April 12, 2015

Empowering teachers

Yes, yes, yes to all of these!

“The mouth teaches the ear” be comfortable teaching your own accent #IATEFL #IATEFL2015 #pronsig pic.twitter.com/3WRNN88hEP

— Vivien Gilles (@VuivViv) April 11, 2015

#IATEFL2015 #IATEFL @bcnpaul1 Global framework for CPD can help to empower teachers & allows contact with online support community

— Jessica Mackay (@JessBCN) April 12, 2015

MT: @FUNDAmentalSKIL Teachers should have working knowledge of learners’ L1 and what intereference can be expected. #langdebate #IATEFL

— Cambridge ELT (@CambridgeUPELT) April 12, 2015

Training and professional development

Helping beginner teachers understand who they are is hugely neglected in teacher training says @AnthonyGaughan #IATEFL — Diana Tremayne (@dianatremayne) April 11, 2015

#IATEFL “teaching is the profession that eats its young” – we have to be concerned about early drop out rates and understand what drive that — Sarah Caton (@sarahcaton66) April 11, 2015

Know thyself! Fundamental for learning in TT and know who you are in the classroom. @AnthonyGaughan #IATEFL — Ana Garcia Stone (@AMGS1958) April 11, 2015

Momber: Successful teachers continue to focus on their development after they have finished their training #IATEFL

— Cambridge ELT (@CambridgeUPELT) April 14, 2015

Momber: High performing institutions enable teacher innovation and provide effective development pathways #IATEFL

— Cambridge ELT (@CambridgeUPELT) April 14, 2015

Nye: To get buy-in from teachers, involve them in the planning of their professional development #IATEFL

— Cambridge ELT (@CambridgeUPELT) April 14, 2015

Nye: We want to see a culture of professional development in institutions, so teachers see it as a normal part of their job #IATEFL

— Cambridge ELT (@CambridgeUPELT) April 14, 2015

Management

#IATEFL rate of teacher sickness is a great measure of health of an institution — Sarah Caton (@sarahcaton66) April 11, 2015

(Hoping the rate of sickness at IH Bydgoszcz doesn’t go up when I take over as DoS!) 😉

As a leader you need to exhibit behaviours you want to see from your colleagues says @johntomsett Also need to avoid fear #IATEFL — Diana Tremayne (@dianatremayne) April 11, 2015

‘I don’t put Ss 1st, I put Ts & Ss =1st. Motivated Ts turning up 4 class everyday is best 4 Ss.’ John Tomsett @IATEFL_LAMSIG #iatefl — Jane Cohen (@JaneCohenEFL) April 11, 2015

Teachers need to develop skills of self reflection – in short courses focus is often on what they are doing not if/why it worked #IATEFL — Diana Tremayne (@dianatremayne) April 11, 2015

Six hats for meetings. Duncan Foord. @iatefl @iateflonline #IATEFL2015 pic.twitter.com/HKlQqXgZzS — Carla Arena (@carlaarena) April 12, 2015

About language

#Iatefl the things you learn: of the 10,000 most frequent words, 45% are French derived, 32% Old English and 17% Latinate. — hugh dellar (@hughdellar) April 12, 2015

#Iatefl Jonathan Marks: what we often perceive as unusual new random coinings may well be old usages that have lain dormant for years.

— hugh dellar (@hughdellar) April 12, 2015

In the Middle Ages, you’d call your beloved names of fish, like “prawn”. Ha! @davcr teaches us to be historically romantic at #iatefl — Laura Patsko (@lauraahaha) April 14, 2015

Pronunciation

Best sesh I’ve seen so far: Using Synthetic Phonics for Listening. Inspiring & thought provoking research from @teachAdam. #IATEFL

— Siâny (@KTownLass) April 12, 2015

@sandymillin I’ve asked @teachAdam to write up his session for Speak Out!… Hopefully he’ll say yes and you can read about it there. 😉

— Laura Patsko (@lauraahaha) April 12, 2015

@sandymillin @teachAdam I’m really hoping there’ll be a book at some point…looking forward to hear what next cycle brings.

— Siâny (@KTownLass) April 12, 2015

Dyslexia

Research on dyslexia tends to focus on monolingual contexts;research on EFL disregards learners w specific learning difficulties. #iatefl

— ETpro (@ETprofessional) April 13, 2015

During exams, give dyslexic kids 25% extra time, allow electronic dictionaries, ignore their spelling mistakes & computerize exams. #iatefl

— ETpro (@ETprofessional) April 13, 2015

Use yellow or blue background for slides or handouts, and comic sans font can help dyslexic students. #iatefl

— ETpro (@ETprofessional) April 13, 2015

Dyslexia issues: time-keeping, left-right coordination, fine motor coordination issues. It’s not only reading and writing issues. #iatefl

— ETpro (@ETprofessional) April 13, 2015

Dyslexic learners have: memory problems, confuse letters, visual stress (jumping letters), lack of meta cognitive awareness. #iatefl

— ETpro (@ETprofessional) April 13, 2015

Strengths of Dyslexic learners: ICT skills, creativity, artistic ability, mechanical aptitude. #iatefl

— ETpro (@ETprofessional) April 13, 2015

Miscellaneous

Great talk from Mark Hancock yesterday at #IATEFL on developing sts use of dictionaries. Track the all the updates: http://t.co/Oyl0rU4KD3

— Oxford ELT (@OUPELTGlobal) April 14, 2015

#iatefl key concerns of IELTS candidates: pic.twitter.com/8sSVGKvdBf

— Oxford ELT (@OUPELTGlobal) April 14, 2015

#Iatefl Karen Momber: it’s the quality of teaching that has the single biggest impact on a student’s learning

— hugh dellar (@hughdellar) April 14, 2015

Other people’s blogging

Lots of people were blogging throughout the conference. You can find a full list of all of the IATEFL Manchester registered bloggers on the ManchesterOnline site.

As always, Lizzie Pinard was very prolific, and has helpfully indexed all of her posts. Apart from the plenaries, I only went to one of the same talks, so there’s a lot to catch up on! Olya Sergeeva also has an index of the posts she wrote about the sessions she went to, including some which I’ve linked to above. Tyson Seburn wrote about his bite-sized takeaways from the conference. Jen McDonald summarised the talks she saw in short paragraphs. The British Council had a number of roving reporters at the conference, one of whom was David Dodgson.

IATEFL online

Apart from the many sources I’ve mentioned above, there is, of course, the wonderful resources that is IATEFL online, full of interviews and recorded sessions, at least some of which I hope to find the time to watch at some point in the future. Are there any you would particularly recommend?

IATEFL Manchester 2015: In the classroom

I’ve moved away from the classroom over the past year, so for the first time at IATEFL I didn’t go to many talks which fitted this category. I got some interesting ideas from all three talks, and can’t wait to try to put them into practice when I finally do get back into the classroom in September!

A new way to teach reading – Ken Lackman

Ken‘s title seemed like a pretty dramatic claim, but that’s exactly what he showed us, and I really want to try it out!

He started by telling us some of the problems with the traditional approach to reading, mostly the fact that many of the skills used in the classroom are not easily transferable to real life. Students don’t have tasks like a pre-set gist question or vocabulary that somebody else has pre-selected from the text for them when they read texts outside the classroom.

He decided that there must be a better way to prepare students for reading in real life, and this is what he came up with, working through a demo lesson based on a short story as an example for us. You can get the story Ken used with us (A Secret Lost in the Water) as well as more information about the whole process by going to his website, clicking on Activity books > A New Way To Teach Reading > IATEFL.

• What are the key characteristics of a short story? List them.
  e.g. Only two or three characters. One or two settings.
• Turn these characteristics into questions. e.g. Where is it set? What is the relationship between the characters?
• Show students the title. They add to the list of questions.
• (Optional: Collect questions on the board.)
• Choose one of the questions as a good gist question.
• Read for gist, answering the question selected. As a side note, one of my favourite moments of the whole conference was how Ken got us to read fast: everybody stood up, and had to sit down once they had the answer. Still standing after everyone else has sat down? Too slow!
• Choose other questions from the list as comprehension questions.
• Read again more slowly to answer them.
• Underline any words which you’re not sure of the meaning of.
• Choose one of the words and analyse it to try to decide the meaning: What part of speech is it? Are there any clues in the parts of the word (e.g. prefixes/suffixes)? Do the adjacent words help? Come up with a synonym or phrase which you could replace it with and try it in the space. Does it make sense? Repeat as necessary.
• Choose 10 collocations that you think are really useful for you.
• Compare your list with a partner.
• Divide the class into groups, each with a different coloured board marker.
• Groups come up with discussion questions related to the text. They can’t be yes/no questions and you shouldn’t be able to find the answer in the text. Write them on the board.
• Students choose some of the questions from the board and discuss them.

This strategy was very engaging as all of the questions were written and selected by us, and we managed to create the questions before we’d seen the text, in a way that is eminently transferable to any text type and can easily be used outside the classroom too. Repeated practice using the same lesson structure will make students more confident with their reading, and similar staging can also be applied to listening too. It encourages greater awareness of the conventions of different genres which should have a knock-on effect with writing too. If students are unfamiliar with a particular genre, you can analyse it with them the first time they see it. Vocabulary is chosen by the students rather than the materials writer, and they decide what is and isn’t useful for them. There is a lot of processing, which aids memorisation, and students are able to check it in a dictionary too if they want to. Coming up with their own discussion questions promotes critical thinking and a deeper reading of the text.

Academic reading circles: improving learner engagement and text comprehension – Tyson Seburn

Tyson’s EAP (English for Academic Purposes) students often have trouble understanding texts to a deep enough level to be able to discuss them intellectually or engage with them in their written work. When reading, they tended to treat texts very superficially and only deal with problems with lexis, with looking at the concepts at all. Academic Reading Circles were developed out of the idea of literature circles as a way to address this by dividing students into small groups and assigning them different roles to break down a text. Each group works on a single text and has time to prepare before the lesson. They then come together and share their knowledge to build up a deeper understanding of the text.

• Leader: gauges group comprehension and situates the text for the other students, dealing with the purpose for reading, source, target audience, etc. They create one or two questions about the text to gauge understanding.
• Contextualiser: picks out contextual references like times, dates, places and people and finds out more about them.
• Visualiser: finds anything from the text which can be visually represented, e.g. maps, photos, videos, etc.
• Connector: makes connections to outside sources, for example other events, other sources or their own experience.
• Highlighter: focuses on linguistic problems, e.g. unknown vocabulary, topic specific language, anything which shows the feeling/attitude of the author.

The students deal with up to five texts per term, and no more than one per week, rotating the roles through the term. Academic reading circles lead to deeper comprehension and their writing also improves as a result, including a greater use of topic-specific language.

Lizzie Pinard wrote a summary of the session. You can read more about Academic Reading Circles on Tyson’s blog, and he is working with The Round to produce a book about them. I’m sure there must be away to apply this approach to other kinds of reading group too.

Classic exercises and why they work in the 21st century – Hanna Kryszewska

Hanna is the editor of Humanising Language Teaching magazine (always looking for articles!), which has a section called ‘Old Exercises’. These act as useful reminders of things you might have forgotten. She is also a believer in ‘thinking routines’, the idea that we need to make thinking processes visible to students. This can be draining but is very useful, so should be done little and often. Here are examples of classic activities combined with thinking routines:

• Questions: Show students an artwork/poem. Give them post-it notes. Every time they have a question, they write it on the post-it and stick it to the board. The questions can be as deep or as trivial as they like. Students then go away and find the answers to their questions.
• Tug-of-war: Show an image/quote etc conncted to an issue which could be debated. Hanna’s example was images of the Aral Sea showing how it has dried up over the last few decades. Students put their opinions on post-it notes, then rearrange them according to where they would fit in a debate. It’s a good way of dealing with potentially controversial issues.
• Numbers: Students chose numbers which are important to them, then share why with other students. They aren’t forced to give information which they don’t want to, as would be the case if the teacher supplied questions for them to answer.
• Mingle: Find two things in common with each person in the class. You can’t repeat them. Once they’ve finished, each student draws around their hand. Other students write what they learnt about their classmates in the relevant hand.
• Thank you: Stick a piece of paper on each person’s back. Students write what they’d like to thank each person for – again, it can be as trivial or as deep as the students want.
• All correct: In an multiple choice exercise which should have only one correct answer, get the students to justify why any of the answers could be right. This works particularly well with answers where changing the tone of voice could make a big difference.
• Senses: Dictate the five senses. Then dictate random words, with students deciding which sense to allocate it to. They then share answers.
• Map: In a similar way, give students a blank map. Dictate words and students write them where they ‘should’ be, entirely based on their own opinions, before sharing answers.
• Playing cards 1: Hanna has a set of playing cards with pictures of artworks on them. She selects three at random and arranges them on a piece of paper. Students have to justify why they are arranged like that.
• Playing cards 2: Each group gets 6 cards. They choose 3 and arrrange them. Other groups then have to say why they were arranged like that. They can then compare their justifications.
• Exploiting the coursebook: After using a text, students are challenged to write questions to which there are no answers in the book/text. Another group then gets the questions and has to rewrite the text to include the answers.
• Vocabulary: Draw a picture of a bicycle, but you can only include the parts that you know the names for in English. Choose which six items you need to learn to be able to compelte your picture. This is particularly good for mixed-level groups.
• Shapes: Each group gets five slips of paper. On each they write one part of the body and arrange them into the approximate shape of a body. The teacher can offer/add more words. Students then group the words according to different categories, e.g. touching the bed/not touching the bed, important for work/not important for work.
• Points of view 1: Have three chairs. Each represents one role, e.g. mother, daughter, dead guinea pig. Students ask questions and decide who should answer them, e.g. Was she a good owner?
• Points of view 2: Set up a roleplay situation, e.g. breakfast time. Students start the rolleplay, but anyone watching can step in and take over at any point.

By encouraging visible thinking we encourage different points of view, build community and encourage critical thinking. You also move away from the ‘tyranny of the correct answer’. Start with simpler activities (like numbers/mingle) to introduce these ideas slowly and to build an atmosphere of sharing in the classroom.
You can find out more about thinking routines in the book Making Thinking Visible [affiliate link].