‘Normal’ service resumes …

1. Well, I managed a few WhatsApp posts from the IATEFL conference in Belfast last week but not a single blog post, for which I can only apologise. (My excuse is that I was working on my phone, not my laptop.) Here’s a link to the IATEFL Facebook page where – with a little patience! – you’ll find recordings of all last week’s plenary talks https://www.facebook.com/IATEFL

Each day this week, I’ll signpost one of the plenaries more directly. Here’s Thursday’s plenary by Asmaa AbuMezied and Hansa AbuMezied from Palestine talking about Education, English and the question of future in conflict areas. It starts 31’30” in if you want to cut to the chase https://www.facebook.com/shaun.wilden/videos/1070459663828441

2. Short notice of two webinars: tomorrow, Tuesday 24^th May, at 16:00 UK time, Panos Athanasopoulos from Lancaster University will be talking about the ‘Representation of time in bilingual cognition: The case of duration’. Why do some languages, such as Swedish and English, use distance metaphors to talk about time (a long time) while others, such as Greek and Spanish, use quantity metaphors (much time)? Cross home-made PDF below; as usual, contact Rodney Jones for the Zoom link r.h.jones@reading.ac.uk

I guess we also talk in English about much time, don’t we, as in “much time was spent attempting to help the giraffe to its feet”?

3. The second webinar, with slightly more (or should that be longer?) notice, is being given by Peter Skehan at 12:00 UK time on Wednesday, 25^th May on “Linking Second Language Speaking Tasks and Language Testing”. This one looks likely to give most of us a good mental work-out: The presentation will try to relate two broad literatures: one concerned with research into second language task-based performance and the other focussing on the testing of speaking. Don’t be frit!

Registration here https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSezGCi6Rwsny5S-nrfMRq6QRaVqrHVIoeFJoV38frVzXi1Zdw/viewform and more info in the Cross home-made PDF below

https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/frit

4. A little way off the ELT beaten track this one, but good, I hope you’ll agree: Creative Scotland’s illustrated guide to being a freelancer – ‘a practical resource for the increasing number of artists, makers, writers and other creatives working freelance in Scotland today’ https://www.creativescotland.com/resources/professional-resources/guidance-and-toolkits/the-illustrated-freelancers-guide

We’ll all be freelancers soon, and teachers are indisputably ‘creatives’. PDF below.

5. And, finally, occasional novelist Roger McGough’s discussion with occasional poet Colm Tóibín in the Poetry Please series https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m0017k4r

One or two other episodes available here https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006qp7q/episodes/guide Frustrating that more episodes aren’t available for longer, as with many other BBC radio programme archives.