Monthly Archives: July 2021

1. This one’s nothing to do with English at all, as it works with the three most common modern foreign languages in the UK (French, German and Spanish), but it will I hope be of general language learning and teaching … Continue reading →

This is the inaugural Multilingual Thursday weekly message. (I may need some help remembering, Ann!) 1. The OUP EMI & CLIL Toolkit, full of lesson ideas to raise awareness of all the languages and dialects available in almost every classroom, … Continue reading →

1. Good old World Bank! The clue’s in the first three words of the title: LOUD AND CLEAR: Effective Language of Instruction Policies For Learning, which I take to mean “Let us say this loudly and clearly, so governments around … Continue reading →

1. A wealth of pieces from The Conversation today: bears in South Korea https://theconversation.com/south-korea-is-bringing-back-bears-in-a-country-of-52-million-people-i-went-to-find-out-how-164301 the influence of science fiction on real-world military strategy https://theconversation.com/militaries-plunder-science-fiction-for-technology-ideas-but-turn-a-blind-eye-to-the-genres-social-commentary-164978 is a ‘sugar rush’ a real thing? https://theconversation.com/curious-kids-are-sugar-rushes-real-161494 and the return to power of the Taliban … Continue reading →

Earlier than usual today, as I’m busy later on. 1. At 14:00 UK time tomorrow, Tuesday 27th July, Is Privatisation of Education Really a Solution? In the organisers’ own words: “Through short interventions, this roundtable will share cross-cutting lessons outlined … Continue reading →

1. Here’s some reading for the weekend, this year’s ELT Masters dissertations ‘honours board’ https://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/article/2020-2021-winners The outright winner was Zening Yang from the University of Bath for her dissertation entitled: Motivational Strategies in an Online Learning Environment: L2 Teacher Cognitions … Continue reading →

1. I should have included this one yesterday – sorry! The Hay Festival’s free Book of the Month event for July at 19:00 UK time today, 22nd July, is Suzanne O’Sullivan’s The Sleeping Beauties (and other stories of mystery illness) … Continue reading →

1. I’ve mentioned Oxford University Press ‘position papers’ before. Here’s one on The Role of the First Language in English Medium Instruction https://fdslive.oup.com/www.oup.com/elt/general_content/global/expert/oup-expert-english-medium-instruction.pdf?cc=us&selLanguage=en&mode=hub – PDF copy below – further below than I’d planned! When I started teaching, the ‘direct method’ … Continue reading →

1. The Climate Connection podcast is proving very popular. Episode 5, explaining why every child should bring their own plant to school and with a report from the Hands Up project in Palestine, is now available https://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/article/climate-connection-episode-5-greenhouse-classes PDFs of episode … Continue reading →

1. The Olympics start on Friday, almost spectator-free, and the sport karate will be included – to my surprise – for the first time ever. Here’s a good long (free) read from The Smithsonian magazine on the history and traditions … Continue reading →