If you’ve had chance to get a break since I last wrote, I hope it was as restorative as mine was!

1. Early notice (because next Thursday may be too late) of the first NATESOL Free Webinar of 2022, Multilingualism in the Classroom: Productive strategies for supporting teaching and learning, at 10:00 UK time on Saturday 15^th January with Eowyn Crisfield from Oxford Brookes University. PDF with more detail below; register here before 17:00 UK time next Friday, 14^th January https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSd0IsENkrKvAFeJzZKVyfcIfcnVKNvjx-Xs0VM06wes4yJSxg/viewform

Eowyn’s abstract begins “The term ‘translanguaging’ is the new academic buzz word, and everyone is wondering what exactly it means for our classrooms …” Tune in on the 15^th to find out exactly what it does mean.

2. Emma Dafouz’s presentation on Approaching English-medium Education in Multilingual University Settings through the ROAD-MAPPING framework in the UCL Centre for Applied Linguistics Research Seminar series, originally planned for December, has been rescheduled for 16:00 UK time on Tuesday, 11^th January 2022. PDF with more detail below; register here https://forms.gle/qYEGoiMznV2dUXCP7

Emma’s abstract begins “Two decades into the 21st century, the use of English as vehicular language for higher education for the sake of internationalisation is a growing reality …” Interesting use of ‘vehicular’ there, which I think I understand as Emma means me to.

3. A good blog post by Sulaiman Jenkins that I missed first time round, Is the ‘native speaker/ non-native speaker’ teacher dichotomy really necessary anymore? “The short answer”, says Sulaiman, “is no; the issue, however, is much more complex than a simple one-word response.” https://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/blogs/sulaiman-jenkins/%E2%80%98native-speaker-non-native-speaker%E2%80%99-teacher-dichotomy-really-necessary PDF copy below just in case that’s easier; I hope I don’t get into trouble with Paul Braddock.

4. And, finally, From apanthropy to zwodder, Susie Dent’s A-Z of Christmas (words) https://inews.co.uk/opinion/apanthropy-zwodder-susie-dents-a-z-christmas-1367064 Was anyone wearing hufflebuffs over the holiday period, I wonder?