What I Learned From IATEFL 2014...

At the beginning of April, I attended the 48th IATEFL conference in Harrogate in the north of England. As I did last year, I was there as a representative of BELTA but this year had the added excitement of knowing I would be speaking at the Pecha Kucha night on Friday, my first ever presentation at IATEFL.

Ready to represent

So what did I learn while I was there? Here's my quick guide...

From Rachael Roberts, I learnt that if you want to make effective materials based lessons for your students, you need to carefully consider exactly what you are asking the students to do.
From Russell Mayne, I learnt that there is an appetite for skeptical thinking in ELT, something I find very encouraging. (watch it here)
From Genevieve White, I learnt that writing for social media is a type of writing our adult students increasingly need.
From Nina Jerončič, I learnt that memes aren't just funny, but are also an effective way of providing our students with a stimulating language learning resource.
From Katy Simpson and Laura Patsko, I learnt that I need to have a serious think about the pronunciation needs of my students, and how I go about fulfilling those needs.
From Jamie Keddie, I learnt that one short, silly video can provide you with a wealth of teaching opportunities.

Just a fraction of the community present.

From Lizzie Pinard, I learnt that there is great value in taking students out of the comfort zone of the classroom (see Mark Andrews below for a similar conclusion).
From Ken Wilson, I learnt that global issues are not just an option for the classroom, but may be part of our responsibility as a teacher. (watch it here)
From Scott Thornbury and Jeremy Harmer, I learnt that the last 40 years of English teaching has witnessed a seismic shift in how we teach, and I'm glad to have been around at this part of it! (watch it here)

The auditorium, a stage I was unexpectedly later to stand on.

From Christina Rebuffet Broadus and Jennie Wright, I learnt how to organise experimental practice (and that I never want to have a teacher that uses the Psychodramaturgie Linguistique technique!)

From Sandy Millin, I learnt that when listened to in isolation, coursebook listening activities can actually sound pretty ridiculous.

From Cecilia Lemos, I learnt that classroom observation is an essential part of any teachers professional growth, but it has to be handled correctly.

It was difficult to get a photo of Mark Andrews, he was always moving about!

From Mark Andrews, I learnt that the wider world offers us a wealth of opportunities for our students to learn not just English, but also culture.

From Sugata Mitra, I learnt that if you're going to stand in front of a room full of teachers and tell them they will soon be obsolete, you should either have some hard data or redefine what you mean by a teacher (but more on that later). (watch it here)

From Hugh Dellar, I learnt that there are many things we can learn in 20 years, and it's great to watch someone who has been there report back for our benefit. (watch it here)

Hugh Dellar tackles some ELT pseudoscience myths. About time too!

And I also learnt that doing a Pecha Kucha presentation is one of the most thrilling things you can do. Thanks to Valeria, Burcu, and the rest of my fellow presenters, it was great to share that enormous stage with you!

Watch it here.

I also learnt that I have a lot to say about blogging and in this interview for the IATEFL online, I could have talked for hours! Thanks to Paul, Ann, Willy and Katherine.

Watch it here.

But most of all I was reminded that I am part of an incredible community of committed and selfless professionals. Thanks to every one of you.

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Google Should...

A quick idea, inspired by these adverts made by unwomen.org, designed to highlight how different societies view the role of women. After having taught the model verbs, I think this would be a very thought-provoking way of putting them into context for your students.

Start by asking them to complete sentences beginning with women or men followed by a conditional sentence. For example (and I stress, these are not my beliefs. In fact I disagree with all of them!):

Men should drive.

Women shouldn't be unmarried after 30.

Women can cook better than men.

Men can't multitask.

After they've written them, and you've checked to make sure they're okay, put them in groups to compare and discuss their sentences.

If you have Internet access in your classroom, you can follow this up by asking your students to google the sentence stems and see what they find. This could lead to an interesting discussion on how sexism is ingrained into society, and how men and women's roles are defined in different cultures.

It would also be interesting to ask them to do an equivalent search in their own language to compare the results. If you don't have access to the Internet, you could ask them to search at home and discuss the results in the next class.

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Songs In The Key Of ELT - Alphabetical Genre Song

This man is to jazz what I am to synchronised swimming

Music often turns up in course books, and you'll normally find a dry and somewhat out of date list of music genres listed in the book. Even though I think that you can know about something even if it's not your favourite subject, it seems from my experience that most students have little interest in knowing that rock 'n' roll is a type of music that was popularised by Chuck Berry, Little Richard and Elvis Presley ("Oh yes, of course! I've heard of him", cry the students).

So while I know that there isn't any reason why they should be interested, and that it's up to them what they take interest in, it still amazes me how often students know absolutely nothing about different types of music. I had this conversation with a class last week, and it went something like this:

Me: "Who can name any jazz musicians?"

...

...

(silence)

...

...

...

...

...

...

...

Student: "Kenny G?"

Me, thinking: "Kenny G!!!! Kenny G!!!! Jazz is one of the great American art forms of the 20th Century, one that changed the world, and all you know is Kenny G, a musician so bland that it barely qualifies as sound let alone music!!!! Kenny G!!!! Can you hear that noise? That's the sound of Charles Mingus spinning in his grave at 33 1/3 rpm!!!! Kenny G!!!! And I don't even like jazz!!!!"

Me, speaking: "Yes! Now who knows any country singers?"

(repeat as above, but replace Kenny G with Shania Twain)

So the next time I'm in this position, I'm going to do it a different way. First, I'm going to ask them to tell each other, and then the whole class, about which types of music they like. I'll collect as many genres as I can and put them on the board, discussing each one as we go along, talking about the different artists and discovering if anyone else in the class likes this genre too.

I'll then write an a to z on the board and add their favourite genres to the list. Then I'll ask them to add as many types of music as they can to the a-z.

Then I'm going to play them this video and ask them to write down as many types of music as they can, but I'm not going to let them see the bottom right corner of the screen where the genres are named.

Now obviously there are many they won't know, and there are probably plenty that you don't know too, but that's fine, this isn't a music lesson after all. After you've added the handful that they might recognise, you can talk about some of the ones that they've never heard of. If you want to give follow up homework, you could give out the new types of music, one per student, and ask them to do some research and report back next week with what they can find out about it. Or they could jump onto their smartphones and have a look there and then.

More engaging then just a boring list, I reckon.

But what is wonky?

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A Little More About Me - A Blog Challenge

I'm a bit late to this party, but since I was tagged by @vickyloras @JoshSRound @seburnt @ShellTerrell @_divyamadhavan @leoselivan @Marisa_C @cecielt @cioccas and @shetlandESOL, I really had to respond! The blog challenge is to provide 11 random facts about myself, answer the 11 questions posed by one of the challengers, nominate 11 bloggers to take part in the challenge, and think of 11 questions to ask my nominated bloggers.

I'm going to cheat a bit and skip the last two stages, as basically every ELT blogger in the world has been challenged to take part and there's no one left for me! That's what happens when you arrive late.

So here goes, 11 random facts about me...

And here are the answers to 11 questions posed by Genevieve White on her blog...


1 When and where are you happiest?

Either when I discover an album that I've never heard before and love, or walking through the forest.

2 What makes you want to cry?

I'm not a crier!

3 Do you think Scottish independence is a good idea?

Well, it's up to them, but I generally think that things are better when we work together rather than apart.

4 What is your unsung talent?

Errr, I don't really have any. Can't sing, can't dance, can't paint, can't make anything. I'm a pretty good cook, but that's about it,

5 What is your all time favourite ELT activity?

Asking the students to create their own comprehension questions before reading a text. It's never failed me yet.

6 Where do you write your blogs?

In the living room, on the dinner table.

7 With which literary character do you identify most?

Although it's hardly the greatest book ever written, I shared a lot of characteristics with the protagonist of Nick Hornby's High Fidelity. Hopefully I'll find one in a Kurt Vonnegut book at some point, that would make my day.

8 If you were an ELT teaching approach which would you be and why?

Dogme - I'm hands off, non-prescriptive but still like a challenge!

9 What would your last ever meal be?

My Mum's roast dinner.

10 Where do you think you’ll be ten years from now?

I've no idea, and that's how I like it!

11 Who would play you in a film about your life?

Ryan Gosling, obviously... Not really, I'd choose Cary Grant.


I hope you found that interesting!

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My Life In 20 Lines - a simple storytelling activity

Here's a simple idea for practicing the past simple with lower level students. I got it from Quora, a website that allows its users to ask and answer each other questions. Unlike other similar sites, you are required to sign up to get access, resulting in a higher calibre of contributions. If you're interested in the big questions, I recommend signing up.

Quora users were asked to share their life story in twenty lines, and I thought this would be a great practice for my pre-intermediate classes. Asking them to create a story to practice the past simple can be difficult for some learners as not everyone is a natural storyteller, but everyone has lived a life. It's also an opportunity for them to try out the tense in short sentences without having to worry about too much content.

Here's my suggestion for how the activity would run:

1) Ask students to think about the most important moments in their lives. Ask them to choose 5 and share them with their partner.

2) Show them an example “My Life in 20 Lines”. You could make your own life story if you feel comfortable sharing it with your students, or create an example. Here's one from the Quora page:

3) Ask them to note why number 20 is different (all the other use the past simple to talk about the past and 20 uses the present continuous to talk about how he feels now) 4) Ask students to write their own, possibly as homework. If you teach teenagers or young people, you could create some conditions, such as they are aged 19 or younger, they can write ten lines, between 20 to 30 years old, fifteen lines, and over 30's write twenty lines. 5) After you've given the students feedback on their writing, collect the students work and stick them up on the wall. Ask the students to go around and read them. Ask them to make a note of anything they didn't know about their colleagues. They can then discuss this in groups, asking follow questions as they talk about it. Check for their use of the past simple as they give more information about what happened.  

Quora users can find more examples of 20 line life stories here.

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