Teach lexically. 20 ideas by Hugh Dellar.

Hugh Dellar

And his 20 things in 20 years in 20 minutes

Very thought-provoking points.

(it is my script from the youtube conference clip here)

1. Falling into a me-shaped hole

So, are you still teaching? (the implication is that one yay you'll grow up and get a proper job) :)

Being ME is not a complete disadvantage. The positive advantage: freedom, space for creativity, opportunity to meet amazing people, the space which allows you to recreate the world in the classroom in the way you believe it ought to be.

 We (teachers) have all fallen into our own me-shaped holes.

2. Trouble trouble before trouble troubles you. Bring your conflict resolution mechanism into the classroom.

3. Kicking the grammar habit

Grammar anxiety - a contagious disease - don't infect your students with it. Don't spend many fruitless hours for recognizing the difference between:

The phone was ringing while I had a bath.

The phone was ringing while I was having a bath.

The phone rang while I had a bath.

The phone rang while I was having a bath.

Move on from pondering anxiously over bizarre grammatical sentences that none of us ever gonna use.

4. The way I was taught to teach grammar crippled my understanding of grammar. The big lie is that grammar is somehow at the heart what a language is.

5. There really is no need for needs analysis - most students don't know what they need and most students will tell you that they need more grammar.

What students really need is:

✔A repeated exposure to most frequent words in context;

✔A better understanding of how those most frequent words work with other words and how they work with grammar;

✔An advice on how the best to go about learning all this stuff;

✔To listen to and read a wide range of graded texts;

✔A chance to discuss their opinions and ideas, need to be listened to;

✔To be reformulated, to be scaffolded, to be shown better ways of how to do what they want to do.

6. Resistance is futile - but still widespread!

The stronger the resistance the less is learning. Our job is to smooth this lurching this uphill journey towards submission to a kind of unintelligible logic and submission to a different way of framing the world through language. Oil this waters with more noticing, more smiling and saying, Yes I know it's different, crazy English! - that's why I am here (it keeps me in the job)

7. Input is more important than output. The fear of teacher talking time - to be an output focused teacher.

Students don't actually learn by chatting with each other using the language they already came into the class with. We learn language from language! We need a huge amount of input! The input is far more crucial in the classroom than the output is. 

8. There is nothing as practical as good theory.

Insatiable thirst for recipes. The feeding which we get at any teaching conferences: I have to get something to come away with that I could do in my classroom. The method is wrongly overvalued over language knowledge and language awareness.  

Any innovation is ultimately pointless if we follow basic simple principles of what we do on a day-to-day basis:

➡Ensure Ss meet useful language,

➡Help them to grasp it;

➡Help them to notice aspect of it;

➡Get them to practice it;

➡Get them to revise it;

➡Repeat 🔃

9. The vast majority of mistakes really aren't to do with grammar. There is a wider range of linguistic problems:

Meanings have been semi-digested but the students don't have the sense of the context;

Meanings have been expressed but clumsily;

Ss are bringing over the ways of expressing their ideas from L1

10. The main point of focusing on pronunciation is focusing on the ability to hear and to understand spoken language.

Drilling chunks like: It was a bit of a nightmare!

"the jungle of spoken language" a book by Richard Coldwell "Phonology for listening".

11. We've been in thrall to the cults of Learning Styles, NLP & Multiple Intelligences for far too long.

12. A lesson is not a course.

A course needs to be tightly woven. It needs balance of input, balance of more social language, more academic, more professional language, a balance of light and shade, activity and task time balance, in-built recycling of language - none of these happens without a conscious thought, without planning in advance of delivery of a course. Create an umbrella or a thread which weaves through the lessons. There needs to be a theoretical and conceptual framework which facilitates this kind of interweaving.

13. The group is more important than the individual. Individual is ultimately secondary to the collective. The dynamic of the group is much more crucial than individuals in it. where all of the members value each other equally and they all realise that their own development and progress is tied into that of the other person. Our job is to emphasize the commonality over difference and our failure to do this results in a kind of catastrophic teacher failure on occasion.

14. Phrasal verbs continue to be incredibly badly taught!

15. Skills based lessons are a total waste of time! The skills do not exist outside the language and outside the context. They're nontransferable, they're non context independent. Use the text as a vehicle to the new language and as a prompt to further discussion.

16. We are not the world. 63% of the world does not yet have access to the internet.

17. Teaching technologically means ever more work in future! 

Retro futurists' idea that We were taught - that technology would liberate us in future into a life of massively increased leisure time. We vanish for days down online rabbit holes trying to work. Turned out to be a bit of a lie. We are bombarded usually by strange numbers: 17 apps that your learners must use! 39 ways to using youtube clip!

18. We need more Michaels. Make time to read properly, read books. These four authors are a good place to start. 

Strangely, the ones who have impacted upon me the most all just happened to have been called Michael.

The Names:

Michael Swan Practical English Usage

Michael McCarthy Spoken Grammar

Michael Lewis and his book: The Lexical approach. The book's main principles are that language consists of grammaticalised lexis not lexicalised grammar.

Michael Hoey and his theory: Lexical Priming (Collocation and Colligation)

19. Teaching is not art or science, it's a craft. It requires a level of artistry and a level of wisdom and a level of skill which is acquired by repeating the same tasks over and over again.

20. Times are getting tougher than tough.

Content and Language Integrated Learning

I am going to talk about CLIL, which is the abbreviation for Content and Language Integrated Learning. And very briefly, that's an approach to language teaching where content which is non-language related content-- so it might be history or geography-- is taught through a foreign language for the students. 

So why would people like to use CLIL? Well, one of the reasons is that it's a way of expanding meaning-based instruction. So we make use of the content of non-language classes. So you've got geography or business studies. And you can use their concepts and topics and meanings. And in that way, you really extend the objects of real communication.

It's also, in a way, an extension of task-based language teaching and communicative language teaching. You've got one huge communicative task, which is learning the content of a different subject. And that can be used through the L2 gain authentic communication.

 Another issue is that we've got a situation where there are learner groups who are often seen as people who are not interested in learning languages. Because they might not like what's typically taught in the foreign language classroom. And they might be more interested, for instance, in learning science through English. 

And politically, there's also been the reason to say, Europe is multilingual. European Union is multilingual. And language teaching approaches had to be diversified to increase the language competence of EU citizens.

I would like to add here some comments given by other people too:

A.M: My current school requires us to use CLIL in our classes. We have had very little introduction/training based around it and this has had quite a negative impact on my teaching confidence. I am a secondary trained teacher who has spent the last 8 years teaching the National Curriculum. I have no formal language teaching training or experience and this is something which I am finding extremely difficult. In addition, all 22 of my students have very little knowledge of English so I rely on my TA to interpret their comments, questions, ideas (as well as mine). All the research we have been presented with highlights that in order for CLIL to work best, the teacher and students should share a common language (L1) and the teacher should be bilingual. I agree with this and think that students would benefit the most in a classroom like this.

S.M.: I integrate CLIL in my English lessons by working along with my fellow teachers. For example, if the history teacher is doing the Industrial Revolution, what I'd do to support him whilst giving students the chance to enhance their English is to read some Dickens to them, watch a video about the London tube and they do a research on Queen Victoria and the Victorian era by playing a board game where students have to recall and explain what they've learnt in the history lesson - in English!. We then speak about the role of women in the Victorian era, and the role of women now etc etc... Of course it takes time and it requires that teachers co-operate. It's more difficult to put in practice for teachers who see their students once a week only and they're asked to focus on language functions only.

A.B.:

in Pakistan, we are using CLIL unconsciously, without knowing too much about it .according to my experience, it is neither helpful in language learning nor in explaining other subjects.

O.K.: Hello! I work in PLS so I only have English on my English lessons but I know that in our schools teachers do CLIL and it is really interesting. Two teachers cooperate and make a lesson for example of Biology in English. It is challenging but I am sure children like it. I think it is a very sensible method because students understand that they need English not only on their English lessons but in real life; such method widens the world perception and it can be a good motivation to study English and to use it in your life. I like it very much.

I.D.: I start feeling sick when I hear about teaching in schools using other languages but native language of certain country. In our country we have horrible experience forcing all students to to study in one particular language. You can't imagine how hard it is for students to understand science, history or other subjects not using their L1. They start loosing interest in a subject,,. There are many other ways to learn English. Learn from the mistakes of other countries.

P.M.: I often think of the positives about teaching other content to students (outside of grammar and syntax). The idea that I could teach history, or social sciences in English to ESL learners is appealing. In my classroom, I often incorporate mini lessons on these topics. I've even sat in social sciences classes in a school in Denmark with a Danish teacher teaching in English to Mexican students about the Danish social welfare system. The other class they attended was on philosophy, also taught in English by a Danish teacher to Mexican students. The experience was great and would be great if I could teach much more in the same way.

Thinking on the negatives though, I always wonder what happens when we reduce world languages to only a controlling, dominant few? What happens to diversity? What happens to culture? What happens to identity? I don't there are simple outcomes.

I'll keep teaching English and inevitably, through my actions, will push this conundrum forward because , despite the drawbacks, I that coalescing our communication around a dominant language is also inevitable as globalization accelerates.

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Task Based Learning

Is it the role of the classroom teacher to be an imparter of knowledge to their students? A carer and stand-in parent? A moral guide?

Should the aim of classroom pedagogy be to produce creative individuals, good citizens of the state, or young people with a toolkit of skills which fit them for the world of work? And is it the job of the teacher to offer individual students maximum choice and different learning paths, or to ensure that the whole group of students in their charge progress to common goals?

Cutting across this underlying set of local educational expectations and assumptions, language teaching in the 20th century saw the introduction of ‘modern’ methods, seen as universally applicable and acceptable, such as the ‘communicative approach’, or ‘task based learning’ (Richards & Rogers, 2001).

These methods have achieved considerable impact, again partly because of wider social change, rather than necessarily any intrinsic ‘scientific’ superiority over older methods. They are well adapted to a number of broad shifts in language education goals:

• The rise in economic prosperity and therefore in universal schooling during the 20th century, which has seen language teaching spread far beyond a small elite;

• A shift in views of the underlying purposes of education, away from the transmission of high culture (which for languages, meant giving priority in schools to grammar and to literature), toward more utilitarian goals;

• A ‘standards based’ philosophy of education, which views educational success as the achievement of measurable and pre-determined learning outcomes 

• Increased emphasis on the development of communication skills, and of oral fluency in particular.

TBL

This is an important and widely-used language teaching approach.

Now let's start with comparing it to PPP, which means present, practice, produce. In the PPP classroom the teacher leads and controls everything. So there is limited space for student activity and student agency. PPP also involves a linear syllabus. So there's one chance to master grammatical rules and other elements of language. And finally, in the PPP format, lessons can become a bit tedious and predictable. So not the best way of motivating learners. The alternative which has developed is task based language teaching.

In TBLT the focus is on meaning rather than form, on the things we do with language rather than the features of grammar and other rules. TBLT focuses on activities which engage students in using language in diverse and creative ways. TBLT involves the four language skills; listening, speaking, reading, and writing. TBLT has the potential to recycle language knowledge such as grammar and vocabulary. TBLT aligns in many ways with theoretical understandings of the processes of language learning. For example, current research into language learning emphasises the importance of meaning based language production. It emphasises 'noticing,' where learners using the language identify what it is they should be using, and also what it is they still have to learn.

And finally, it promotes the notion of 'languaging,' which emphasises the process of working out, actively working out, the language that's needed to complete a given language function. In defining tasks, there - a range of approaches have been developed. According to Willis 1996, tasks are activities where the target language is used by the learner for a communicative purpose in order to achieve an outcome. Another interesting area in recent research is the notion of how teachers use tasks. A study by Andon and Eckerth 2009 illustrates four functions for teachers. 

First of all, tasks are ways in which teachers get students to use their own words to communicate their own meanings.

Second, the tasks are contexts in the classroom where the language of the classroom is made more like the language of the real world outside the classroom. 

Third, task structure activities. There's an outcome and then the students have an awareness of the structure of the lesson that the teacher has planned. 

And then finally, they are reference points for language input. So teachers can introduce explicitly or focus on particular language forms which benefit the students. 

To say few words about the future of TBLT.

TBLT with all its variations has become the predominant approach to language teaching, in terms of what we find in course books and other learning materials, in the content of teacher education programmes, and in quality management schemes around the world. While there may be still some questions of effectiveness of TBLT, the promise of greater effectiveness is likely to come from further variations and adaptations of TBLT rather than another teaching method or approach.

Watch this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5OLySXzZY-4

When is an activity not a task?
Task-based teaching is about creating opportunities for meaning-focused language use.

In other words, learners doing tasks will not just be

• speaking to practise a new structure e.g. doing a drill or enacting a dialogue or asking and answering questions using the ‘new' patterns;

• or writing to display their control of certain language items,

These are primarily form-focused activities, designed to practise language items that have been presented earlier. There is a place for form-focused activities in task-based learning (TBL), but activities such as these are not tasks.

Learners doing tasks (i.e. focusing on meanings) will be making free use of whatever English they can recall to express the things that they really want to say or write in the process of achieving the task goal.

What kind of activity is a task?
Willis and Willis (2007:12-14) offer the following criteria in the form of questions.

‘The more confidently you can answer yes to each of these questions, the more task-like the activity.

1. Will the activity engage learners' interest?
2. Is there a primary focus on meaning?
3. Is there a goal or an outcome?
4. Is success judged in terms of outcome?
5. Is completion a priority?
6. Does the activity relate to real world activities?'

Let us consider the task ‘Planning a class night out' in the light of these criteria.

• I think the lesson would certainly engage my learners' interest, especially if they knew they would actually be going on the chosen night out, so a) is Yes.

• Learners have strong preferences about nights out and would definitely be meaning what they say, so Yes to b).

• The first outcome for each pair is their finished plan for the night out, (which must be complete before they tell the class about it so the class can vote on the best plan) and a second outcome might be the real-world night out, so a confident Yes to c), d), e) and f).

Work in pairs. Talk about your grandparents. Tell each other what you know about their past lives. Use the phrases and patterns from the box above.

 Adding a goal or outcome to make a task

For the ‘Grandparents' activity we need to add a goal to give the activity a purpose and make the outcome more specific so that learners know when they have completed the task. Some sample outcomes follow here and you could add one of these sets of instructions, depending on which outcome you think would best engage the learners in your class.

1. Try to find out three things that your grandparents' and your partner's grandparents' lives had in common. What was the biggest difference between them?
Or
2. Decide which one of your partner's grandparents was / is the most interesting person and give two reasons why you think so. Then tell the class about him/her and vote to decide on the three most interesting grandparents in the class.
Or
3. Describe two early memories you have of one particular grandparent. Tell your group. Take notes when listening to each other.
• Compare your memories - whose were the most interesting, most vivid, most amusing, saddest or strangest?
And/Or:
• Compare your groups' memories and try to find ways to classify them (e.g. to do with food or meal-times? games? outings? being ill? negative / positive things?) Then report your categories to the class, with examples. Did you all have similar ways of classifying?

If learners are clear what the outcome should be, and know the number of things to list or describe, they are more likely to engage with the task, speak with more confidence and know when they have completed it. Successful task achievement will greatly increase their satisfaction and motivation. When, after completing the task cycle, they look more closely at language forms used by others doing similar tasks, they will already be familiar with the contexts and have experienced the need for some of those forms.

Source  article: https://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/article/criteria-identifying-tasks-tbl?page=1

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Strategies for teaching Reading

It has never come to my mind that there is no successfull reading aloud for comprehension in the classroom, so never do it. You've got to have a purpose to do reading aloud activities wich is not comprehension or reading for gist. It just does not work.

I loved this article (which I've copied below)

https://www.wabisabilearning.com/blog/10-ways-improving-reading-comprehension

10 EFFECTIVE WAYS OF IMPROVING READING COMPREHENSION IN YOUR LEARNERS

If you were to ask, most teachers would agree improving reading comprehension is about teaching students how to think while reading.

The truth is your learners need practical guidance before they read. In that spirit, here is a step-by-step guide that can help your students improve their reading comprehension significantly.

1. DISCUSS READING COMPREHENSION

Writing a one-page handout detailing your ideas about reading comprehension and why it’s important can be helpful. You can include your ideas about subjects such as taking notes, setting goals, and asking questions. Additionally, connect the importance of improving reading comprehension to something practical and relevant to them like texting, emails, and blogs. Share these written thoughts with your learners and use the handout as a reminder throughout the school year.

2. DISCUSS EACH ASSIGNMENT

Prior to each reading assignment, you should tell students what you want them to learn from the text. Ask them a few questions and tell them you want to discuss the answers in the next class. They should also write down your questions and use them in group discussions of their own.

3. DISCUSS EACH ASSIGNMENT

Prior to each reading assignment, you should tell students what you want them to learn from the text. Ask them a few questions and tell them you want to discuss the answers in the next class. They should also write down your questions and use them in group discussions of their own.

4. URGE THINKING BEFORE READING

Students should read your questions and/or the book’s questions before they begin reading. This should help them know when to focus on text and when to skim it. In other words, thinking before reading can help them be selective instead of trying to comprehend every sentence. The questions can also help them formulate their own questions before they begin reading.

5. TEACH GOAL SETTING

Teaching students to set goals before they read is also a good idea. Initially, the goal might be to answer your questions. Eventually, they should be able to set their own goals such as “I want to understand why the Civil War started.” “Before reading, good readers tend to set goals for their reading,” reports the article “What Research Tells Us About Reading, Comprehension, and Comprehension Instruction.” “They are likely to focus more of their attention on the parts of the text that are most closely tied to their reading goals.”

6. URGE THINKING WHILE READING

Perhaps the most important tip you can give learners about how to read is that their reading comprehension is most likely to improve when they stop reading. Students should be thinking while they’re reading rather than reading continuously. Thus, they should be taught to stop when they are confused or have a question or thought about what they have just read. Teaching students to stop and think might lead them to reread what they have just read or seek the answers to their questions in the material that they haven’t read yet.

7. URGE NOTE TAKING

It's likely most of your high school classmates did not take notes while they did their schoolwork. In college, though, everyone took notes in their textbooks. Your students should know that college students regularly highlight important material via underlining, circles, and notes in margins. They can take notes too, in notebooks rather than textbooks. Students should be encouraged to stop reading after they have read something important and write down that fact, point, or argument. They should also be writing the answers to your pre-reading assignment questions.

8. TELL THEM TO PLAN AHEAD

Reading doesn’t accomplish much in and of itself. Reading assignments should be connected to future class discussions, oral presentations, tests, or reports. Thus, you should urge students to stop reading when they think of a point they want to make for a class discussion, oral presentation, test, or report. They should write down their points. Emphasize that they can prepare for a test while reading. There is nothing wrong with giving students an idea about questions on tests. You want them to practice improving their skills so they’re ready when they’re being graded.

9. RECOMMEND VISUALIZING

“Some good readers may also create mental images, or visualize a setting, event, or character to help them understand a passage in a text,” the Texas Education Agency wrote. Are students more apt to recall what happened at the Yalta Conference if they can visualize U.S. leader Franklin D. Roosevelt, United Kingdom leader Winston Churchill, and Soviet Union leader Joseph Stalin talking about what to do after World War II ended? Some will. It’s a good idea to mention to students, who could also learn better by studying the text’s photos and captions.

10. ASSIGN SUMMARIES

Asking students to write summaries of what they have read sounds like you're requiring them to do a lot of work , but you can emphasize that these summaries can reduce how much time they spend studying, or cramming, for a test. Essentially, these summaries can be homework. They can also help students prepare for class discussions and oral presentations.

Some more about teaching Reading (taken from the Workshop 'Developing Reading Sub-skills - by M.Meshcheryakova M.)

Global Reading Strategies

* settitg goals before reading and reading selectively to achieve those goals

* activating prior knowledge

* previewing the text

* forming predictions

* monitoring the accuracy of those predictions and modifying them where necessary

* making summaries

* connecting knowledge gained from the text tobackground knowledge

* identifying central arguments

* forming appropriate questions about the text

* using text structure to predict direction of the text

* inferring meaning fromcontext

Top-down Reading Sub-skills

1. Identifying and understanding the gist

2. Identifying the topic of the text and recognising the topic changes

3. Distinguishing key information from less important one

4. Inferring the writer's attitude

5. Following the development of an argument

6. Following the sequence of a narrative

7. Paraphrasing the text

Bottom-up Reading Sub-skills

1. Recognising the script

2. Recognising words and identifying their grammatical function

3. Understanding vocabulary

4. Recognising grammar features such as word endings, and being able to 'unpack' the syntax of the sentence

5. Recognising discourse markers and other cohesive devices

6. Identifying text type, text purpose and text organisation

Considerations about reading

There are good readers and poor readers in L1 as well as in L2,

so in my classes there going to be a differentiated system of reading tasks and different interactive strategies like pair or group work, information gap reading, mingle activity, etc.

The transfer of L1 reading skills to L2 reading skills is important.

I'd better relate to this overtly, namely...

It's essential to start with global understanding and move

towards detailed understanding, so first reading tasks could

be, for example, one of the following: reading for gist, summarizing, defining the style or genre, giving a title to the passage, picture drawing.

And the second can be, for example, telling the story from the point of view of a different character. Or answering special questions to practice some grammatical structures. Or creating a mind map to deduce inferred meaning and author's attitude.

I remember the huge variety of text types in real life, so in the classroom I try to give not only stories and articles, but blogue posts, menues, catalogues, adverticements, pictures and comments to them, etc. Learners would soon learn to tell the difference between the styles and register of the texts. 

I remember the wide variety of reasons for reading in real life, and I give realistic tasks. I like integrating skills. Reading is a social skill, so I encourage appropriate responses to reading, such as discussions, writing essays, making predictions or writing alternative endings. I appreciate learners for setting their own goals, let them focus their attention on the parts which are close to their reading goals.

Reading is a social skill, so I encourage appropriate responses to reading,

such as expressing learners' ideas, agreement/disagreement with the author, writing an alternative ending, acting out some scenes (for stories).

If we deal with non-fiction text, if it is a prospect, catalogue, some product description the tasks could be: making orders, choices, writing reports to a technical support or  refund requests, or giving a recommendation to a friend.

Use authentic texts wherever possible. By simplifying we often destroy the reference, the redundancy and discourse markers that actually help to make the text more accessible. What we can and must vary, simplify/make more difficult is the goals setting, but not the text.

I usually encourage learners to deduce the meaning of lexis from the text, rather than getting stuck on in dividual words, let the interest etc. of the text keep them at discourse level for as

long as possible. What I do for this purpose is...

Using symbols while reading

V – I agree with this

X – I disagree with this

? – I don’t understand fully

! – this is surprising/shocking

lol – this is funny

create some interactive tasks, games, word hunts, scaffolding and gesticulation.

I avoid always promoting linguistic reasons for reading. I encourage extensive reading, reading for pleasure. 

I keep askig questions:

“Did you enjoy that?"

Was the information new for you?

What ideas mentioned in the text were new for you? 

What would you do if you were one of the characters?

Would you like to read more of this author?

Have you expected a different ending?

How you assess yourself, was it too hard or too easy, rate it between one and ten points.

My students love alternative comprehension ways, such as

drawings, mental visualization, pantomime, mimicking sounds, summarizing with the help of emoji.

***

3 principles of designing you task:

Effective

Entertaining

Setting purposes

Open-ended tasks and activities are loved by Ss, not so boring, require more creativity, develop skills instead of testing.

Reflective journal

What's new in the methology:

I remember this classification of skills from my course in the Linguistic University: there are active skills (speaking and writing) and passive (listening and reading).

However today this idea is so much outdated.

Receptive skills are not passive skills, because our brain works hard while listening or reading it is a complicated process of interaction with the text.

Teachers do not point out the mistakes, they show the points of growth. One part of me likes these ideas whereas the other feels a trap to fall into. Aren't we brining up a generation of weak millenials,who are not able to work under pressure? 

How would you feel if you heard these words from your teacher:

Dear _____ (name), I can see your hard work and I like the way you can do this, and this...  I've noticed some progress you are making here and here... You are good at learning particular things... And if you want to know youi points of growth I can help you to work on this... I believe you can do better here, let's practice more here...

Wow, these words can be so inspiring and encouraging for any learner! Have you just noticed that the teacher actually was talking about the mistakes? Have you noticed any critics? No. It sounds absolutely positive. Great job! 

We want to bring up confident and successful generation, put this idea in all minds: 'you can succeed'. But how about the opposite thing, teaching to face difficulties? Facing some critics? Dealing with mistakes and self-correction? Isn't all these sweet-talking doing a bad favour? The learners who can't go on if they don't get praised and admired. The teachers who do not dare to point out the mist... misakes. The learners who can not stand the pressure of a hard task.

Am I exaggerating? Yes, a bit. I am just practicing writing a piece of text. Isn't it too emotional? Would be glad to share with anyone and get some feedback. No. The truth is: I want to be praised for my job :) kidding.

Watch this nice video about the job interview 

https://youtu.be/BIpREvWtl70

*****

CONNECTIVIST LEARNING

Connectivist learning is concerned with the connections we make with each other and how we learn from each other in informal and formal, online, connected spaces. It has been described by one researcher (Siemens) as ‘a learning theory for the digital age’.

One of the key ideas in a connected theory of learning is that we learn through the diverse, personal connections that we make via the internet. It is the maintenance and development of our personal network which enables us to learn in the 21st century environment.

Connectivism stresses that TWO IMPORTANT SKILLS that contribute to learning are the ability to seek out current information, and the ability to filter secondary and extraneous information.  Simply put, “The capacity to know is more critical than what is actually known” (Siemens, 2008, para. 6). 

Teacher's Tools

edmodo.com

schoology.com

My favourite free tool for screencasting is called Loom. 

Teacher's blog http://www.kathleenamorris.com/

Global Inglishes

Today, English is used as a world common language. And this status of the English is primarily the result of two main factors. The first is the expulsion of British empire, between the 17th and 19th century. The second is the emergence of the United States of America as the world economic power in the 20th century. 

English is also a common language of science. It is estimated that about 80% of scientific journals are now published in the English. 

Given this dominant role of English, it is understandable unpredictable that English is now taught as a second or foreign language in most countries across the world. And this fact might make you wonder, how many people in the world speak English today? This is actually, a very difficult question to answer. Because it is hard to define who should be counted as English speakers when there are so many people with different English proficiency levels. However, David Crystal roughly estimates that there are about 2 billion English speakers in the world. Of which, 400 million are native English speakers.And 1.6 billion are non-native English speakers. This means that now, non-native English speakers outnumber native English speakers by a ratio of four to one. This figure is only predicted to grow in the future, due to the enthusiastic adoption of English in educational policies in large population centres, such as China. 

Whereas English is seen positivity as a tool that enhances intercultural communication and mutual understanding, it is also seen as a killer language that grows at the expense of other languages and cultures.

Moreover, while English can be seen as an opportunity provider that gives us a chance to be active in the international arena, it can also be seen as a gatekeeper that gives disadvantages to some people who do not speak English. Or whose mother tongue is not English. 

Motivating The Unmotivated

This is my biggest insight of the year 2019 in theory of teaching that I am into now.
I found it on the Futurelearn and I am itching to share it! This is something that every teacher should watch! There is also a downloadable pdf report, but watching is more impressive, I promise. I hope the link would be always available.

* 'Motivating The Unmotivated-
Ten Ways To Get Your Students To DO Something’
By Ken Wilson
British Council: 17th January 2012

***
Something else to share. Hmmm.

Motivation
Carl Rogers - theories of motivation, webinar:

https://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/article/motivating-unmotivated

Carl Rogers, the American psychologist, talked about two types of motivation, intrinsic and extrinsic motivation, which affect learning and the desire to improve.

Intrinsic motivation — comes from the learner.

Extrinsic motivation — comes from an external source, where there is some kind of external reward for doing something, or consequence of notdoing something.

Rogers (1957) outlined 3 attitudinal qualities that a teacher, or in his words, a facilitator, should have to assist the learning process. They are empathy (seeing things from the students' viewpoint), authenticity (being yourself) and acceptance (of students' ideas and opinions).

Inspiring video, by Zoltan Dornyei
http://www.cambridge.org/elt/blog/2018/04/09/iatefl-safe-speaking-environments/

He looks at eight different factors that promote group cohesiveness, including cooperation, competition and teachers’ leadership styles.

Zoltán goes on to discuss group norms – the rules and regulations that govern classroom life, as well as unproductive norms.  Three critical classroom norms he presents are:

1. The norm of mediocrity

2. The norm of tolerance

3. The norm of effort and perseverance

Watch the full video below to learn more about group dynamics and to see Zoltán share the five principles of a safe speaking environment.

I think praise is extremely important. However, it has to be for real. Students know very quickly if you’re not telling the truth. And I think to give out praise on a regular basis for the sake of giving out praise is very much the wrong approach for a teacher. So if I do give praise, they know it’s been well earned, and they really respond to it.
Giving praise to learners: https://englishagenda.britishcouncil.org/news/elt-news/giving-praise-learners

Listen to the teacher trainer Lindsay Clandfield talking about three important things to consider when motivating learners.

He mentions:

Rapport - the relationship and understanding we have with our learners Teacher attitude - our enthusiasm and attitude towards our teaching and lessons Teacher presence - giving learners your full attention; your voice; the way you move

******

How to make it student-centered?

Student-centered class
There are many ways to incorporate student centered techniques into classroom resources and lessons:

1. Allow for student choice and autonomy. This might mean providing project, classroom and homework assignment options, as well as allowing students to design their own seating arrangements. Providing more types of question types in assessments also gives students the chance to make their own choices. Finally, encourage teachers to give the students a few minutes of downtime to use as they’d like (within reason of course).

2. Use open-ended questioning techniques. This practice encourages critical and creative thinking and enhances problem-solving skills. Open-ended questioning encourages clear communication and provides students with reassurance that their thoughts and ideas matter.

3. Engage in explicit instruction. Explicit instruction moves away from the skill and drill attitude of teaching. It is a much more direct and engaging method of instruction that pulls the students right into the heart of the lesson. Students are active participants in what is going on, rather than bystanders and onlookers.

4. Encourage student collaboration and group projects. When students work with each other they are learning a great deal more than just the lesson content. They are gaining an appreciation for the diversity that exists in our schools and communities. They are also learning to have respect for what may sometimes be very differing points of view. And finally, they are able to bounce their ideas back and forth with each other, creating a much greater opportunity to grow these ideas into something great.

5. Encourage student reflection. Student reflection allows students to slow things down a bit and take a step back to analyze things. It also allows time for their brains to process what they have been learning. Reflection creates space and time for individual and group growth.

6. Create individual self-paced assignments. All students don’t work at the same speed and assignments should reflect this. Allowing students to move through material at a rate that best fits their learning styles and needs makes it more likely that they will gain deeper understanding of the subject matter.

7. Get the students involved in community-based activities and service-learning projects. This helps students to see their important role in the larger world. They are given the chance to learn how valuable and fulfilling it can be to give back to others. Learning becomes more organic and less rigid. Students have the opportunity to see firsthand that learning opportunities surround us everywhere where we go.
(taken from this page: https://apasseducation.com/7-ways-to-create-a-student-centered-classroom/ )

Young Learners English

English in Early Childhood

Language development opportunities

Below is some advice for the adult on how to support a child’s language development while doing these and other types of activities.

Children will reap the future benefits of this language rich environment, so closely connected to the activities that they love doing.

* Playing with blocks

use language for counting and sorting: How many are there? Shall we put the blue ones here?
use positional language: in, on, under, below, behind, next to
explore language related to size: big, small, long, short
describe what a child is doing while playing: finding, stacking, pulling, pushing, building, pressing, dragging
describe shapes and objects the children are making: square, rectangle, tower, house, castle, garden

* Dress-ups (and drama)

describe the costumes (fairy, princess, pirate, king, clown) and actions for getting dressed: put on, pull up/down, zip up, do the buttons up, unbutton, unzip
highlight the relevant parts of the body: put your arms through here, tie this around your waist/wrist, put these on your feet - first your left foot, then your right foot, put this over your head
use nursery rhymes and stories to model language for imaginary play
develop listening comprehension by encouraging the children act out the rhyme or story in their costumes
extend vocabulary associated with role-play: hospital, airport, artist’s studio, garden centre, vet, doctor, routines (breakfast/lunch/dinner/bed time)

* Making and decorating (art and craft)

name the materials: paint, paintbrush, crayon, felt-tip, marker, card, paper, crepe paper, shiny paper, tissue paper, newspaper, glue, scissors, cotton wool, fabric, sequins, feathers
describe properties and textures of materials: runny, thick, smooth, hard, long, short, spiky, rough, shiny
experiment with and describe colour
use instructions: paint, draw, colour, smudge, blur, blow, copy, pour, make, cut, stick, decorate, hang (it) up
art appreciation and describing what the children have made, painted or drawn.

* Malleable materials (dough, plasticine, clay)

use language of manipulation: push, pull, drop, squeeze, press, bend, twist, roll, stretch, squash, squish, pinch, flatten, poke, scrape, break apart
describe length/thickness: longer than, shorter than, the same length as
use language related to colour and smells
describe texture: soft, hard, squishy, lumpy, grainy, shiny
talk about materials that can be added to dough: feathers, sticks, twigs, shells
explore language related to shapes

* Music and movement activities

use language related to actions, position and parts of the body: put your hands up in the air, draw circles in the air, touch your nose, wriggle your fingers, jump, hop, lie face down on the floor, lie on your back, move over there, come closer, curl up into a ball, stretch your arms out as wide as you can, take a nap
name musical instruments: shaker, drum, recorder, xylophone, block, triangle, bell, tambourine
use language to describe sounds: loud, quiet, soft, high, low, long, short, fast, slow, tap, shake, scrape, knock, tick, hum, howl
familiarise children with a range of sounds through onomatopoeia
use songs and rhymes to work on pronunciation, rhythm, stress and intonation

* Toys and small world play

extend vocabulary related to a particular topic: park, zoo, farm, hospital, transport
comment on the objects, toys or figurines the children are playing with
comment on the settings, scenes, themes or storylines children are developing as they play
describe the position of the things the children are playing with: behind, next to, in, on, under

* Puzzles

describe the pictures and colours on the puzzles
comment on the shape of the puzzle pieces: rectangle, square, triangle, circle
comment on the position of the puzzle pieces: up/down, here/there
encourage the social aspects of using puzzles: take turns, it’s your turn next, share

* Sand play and water play

use language related to equipment and resources: brush, spade, scoop, spoon, cup, jug, bucket, sieve, cutters, rake, comb, funnel, sponge, soap, bubbles, straw, ladle, tea pot, watering can
extend vocabulary related to imaginary play: boats, diggers, bulldozers, tractors, treasure, dinosaurs, pirates, gardens, tea party, firefighter, plumber, dolls
use descriptive language: wet, dry, damp, gritty, hard, lumpy, flat, smooth, wavy, sticky, cold, frozen, clean, dirty
use language related to size, shape and position
describe capacity and quantity: enough, more, less, too much/little, overflowing, how much/many? a pile/cup of…
describe actions or what is happening: it’s fallen down, it’s gone, flatten, pour, tip, fill, scoop, cover, stir, splash, leak, drip, float, sink, trickle, spray, wash, dry

#glossary

Restorative practice

I am taking short courses on Futurelearn.com which are very informative, inspirational, worthwile!

This is an extract from the course Behaviour management

The most important strategy if something happens that needs to be dealt with.

*** *** ***
Kevin:  Now I’m interested in the term, ‘Restorative,’ itself. Is that all about restoring something? What it
is actually trying to restore?

Paul Dix: I think it’s about restoring the trust between the adult and the young person. It’s about redrawing and
restoring the boundaries that are applied to every child. It’s about restoring sort of the crime sheet and cleaning it off so
that we start the next lesson the next day with a clean sheet.

Alongside the idea of punishing children into behaving better we’ve got this whole obsession with detentions where even experienced teachers are standing up and saying, “Well we’re gonna solve the world by putting children in detention.” Again, there’s no evidence for that either.

If detention worked to change behaviour I would not have a job, you wouldn’t be listening to this podcast, the police would be sitting and eating donuts and nobody would be talking about behaviour because it would be simple. Somebody does something wrong, you give them a detention, slap them in isolation and everything’s all right again.

Restorative practices

For maximum effectiveness, the following six questions should be used in all restorative meetings. They can be made highly visible, for example on teacher lanyards, in student planners and on posters around the school:

1. What has happened?

2. What were you thinking at the time? (teacher and student)

3. Who has been affected by the actions?

4. How have they been affected?

5. What needs to be done now to make things right?

6. How can we do things differently in the future?

* Using the framework of those six questions is at the heart of great restorative practice.

* So at the end of the meeting it’s expected that the child will apologise and I always say to teachers, “Don’t expect an apology.”

* Don’t predicate the meeting with the child on an apology because then the whole thing is false and the child just learns to give stock answers, apologise and nothing actually is furthered

* So for me, the apology may come at the end of the meeting. That’s lovely. Sometimes it might be the teacher, the adult who needs to apologise because these questions aren’t just for the children. Importantly, they’re for both sides.

* the school is going to modify behaviour, not simply just manage it.

* Get together all the people involved in the incident, take them all through the restorative questions (there would be lots of other teachers doing exactly the same thing). And in that way you suddenly feel like you’re supported, you don’t have to do it behind a closed door, you can call over an experienced teacher to sit alongside you if you need to.

* Sometimes they just want to have their voice heard, even though they’re not necessarily saying the right things or necessarily have the right opinion, the one that you’d agree with. That ability to have themselves heard is critical to the outcomes, even if the outcome is negative for the child at least they know they’ve been heard, they know the teacher is reasonable and they walk away from those meetings with a different opinion of the teacher and very often an improved opinion of the teacher.

YOU BELONG HERE speech

This is a copypaste from my friends' facebook. Susan is a teacher from the US. 

Today she wrote this:

I gave my students the 'You Belong Here' speech yesterday. In my night class, I had this big guy get teary and say he was just about to drop out because he didn't think he was college material. Remember to give the 'You Belong Here' speech. The February Gremlins are FIERCE.

I have many versions (of the speech).

The Long Version Includes a pre-amble about how College Is Important and it will change their path, their children's paths, and probably their parent's path. How they will get better health care, have better job choices, be able to articulate themselves to doctors, their kids' teachers, their teachers, their parent's care givers...how they will LIVE longer if they have a job they love, and how their kids will probably too.

And then I go into the List of Things Successful Students Do.

We look at the list, and I point out "Getting Comfortable With Failure" and I say "Why do you guys think THAT is on the list?". Usually someone will say something like "because we all fail". And I will say "YES. And the hard part about this culture is that we stigmatize it. You not only get to make a mistake, but then we pile on shame."
I say, "You know how you can tell when you are learning?"
"You are making a mistake?" someone says from somewhere. "YES" I say, "Because if you didn't make a mistake, that means YOU ALREADY KNEW IT, OR YOU SHOULD GO TO VEGAS, BECAUSE YOU ARE LUCKY."
(Here is where I pause for laughter).

 
Then I say, "So. Getting Comfortable With Failure". That sounds like a nice idea, but HOW do we ACTUALLY do it?"
Usually, they shrug.
I say, "So. usually, when you are about to fail, you know it, and a little voice whispers inside your head (or sometimes it yells) "Maybe You Don't Belong Here."
"That little voice? " I say, "That voice is trying to help you. It's trying to keep you from pain. But in This Case? That voice is WRONG. Because I have been teaching for 20 years, and I have only met maybe two people who I thought MAYBE couldn't benefit from college, and none of you are it. So you need to tell your little voice gently (because they're just trying to help) but FIRMLY to be quiet and that YES. YOU DO BELONG HERE. And then? If you do fail? When you are getting up, You say it again. When you are walking back in to class, you say it again. When you are taking the test, you say it again. Because you do. You do belong here.