Blog version: https://roycross.blog/
1. The culmination of the European Centre for Modern Languages’ 6th ‘medium-term programme’ of projects, Inspiring innovation in language education: changing contexts, evolving competences, which ran from 2020 to 2023, is the conference tomorrow and Wednesday, 13th & 14th December, f2f in Graz and online.
Programme here (and PDF below) https://www.ecml.at/ECML-Programme/Programme2020-2023/Conference2023/tabid/5804/language/en-GB/Default.aspx
and live stream from 13:00 UK time tomorrow and 08:00 UK time on Thursday here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q6VeykCphsc
2. There was talk on the radio this morning of politicians ‘simply parroting empty platitudes’. The good news is that they now have real competition https://news.northeastern.edu/2023/04/21/parrots-talking-video-calls/
3. The December edition of HLT (Humanising Language Teaching) is just out https://www.hltmag.co.uk/dec22/ No immediately obvious geographical focus this time. Try the following:
Telegram as a Tool for Remote Teacher Training by Juana Sagaray, Maria Teresa Fernandez & Wendy Arnold https://www.hltmag.co.uk/dec22/page/?title=Telegram+as+a+Tool+for+Remote+Teacher+Training&pid=4125
What is ‘Zoom Fatigue’ and How Does It Affect Language Teachers? by Jill Hadfield and Lindsay Clandfield https://www.hltmag.co.uk/dec22/what-is-zoomfatigue
PDFs of both articles below.
4. If you don’t know what umuzigo w’inyongera means or even what language it is, ask Google Translate, as I did. Without batting an eyelid, it identified the language as Kinyarwanda and offered ‘additional burden’ as the translation – a more difficult challenge than my usual enquiries about the position of the accents on French words!
The authors of this newly published paper, Umuzigo w’inyongera: girls’ differential experiences of the double-burden of language and gender in Rwandan English medium secondary education,Lizzi O. Milligan, Aline Dorimana, Aloysie Uwizeyemariya, Alphonse Uworwabayeho, Terra Sprague, Laela Adamson and (Harry to his friends) Kuchah Kuchah, as you can see from the paper title, translate umuzigo w’inyongera as ‘double burden’, which I reckon just beats Google Translate to the draw.
“Decades of research have consistently demonstrated the negative role of an unfamiliar language of learning and teaching in children’s educational experiences and outcomes across sub-Saharan Africa. Concurrently, there has been substantial literature that has highlighted the role of contextualised gendered norms and practices in constraining girls’ educational access, experiences and outcomes. However, there has been extremely limited consideration of the impact of the language that girls learn in.”
Download here https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/09500782.2023.2288635
and PDF below.
5. One TeachingEnglish event that wasn’t explicitly mentioned in the programme that I posted the other day was Robin Skipsey’s Facebook Live talk this Thursday, 14th December, at 10:00 UK time, How do we support literary obstacles in the young teen classroom?
You can join the 349 people already interested at the time of writing here https://www.facebook.com/events/883446160162306/?acontext=%7B%22event_action_history%22%3A[]%7D&locale=en_GB
Ever so slightly mistitled, I suggest!
6. And, finally, gleaned from a footnote in Keiron Pim’s biography of Joseph Roth that I’m much enjoying reading, a tram-ride through Vienna in 1906 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pN6SrB6r3MA
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