Monthly Archives: February 2024

1. ‘Like the flip of a switch, it’s gone’: has the ecosystem of the UK’s largest lake collapsed? https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2024/feb/19/like-the-flip-of-a-switch-its-gone-has-the-ecosystem-of-the-uk-largest-lake-collapsed-aoe Hands up if you know where the UK’s largest lake is? 2. Here’s a TransformELT report by a team led by … Continue reading →

1. This one may puzzle those of you who aren’t language teachers, The transformative role of scaffolding in academic writing tutorials is the title of the next event in UCL (University College London)’s Academic Writing Seminar Series at 16:00 UK … Continue reading →

1. The problem with English by Mario Saraceni from Portsmouth University for the Aeon website discusses whether English, Earth’s most-spoken language, is a living ‘gift’ or a many-headed ‘monster’. https://aeon.co/essays/how-do-you-decolonise-the-english-language There’s a well-read audio version, too. Here’s the first paragraph: … Continue reading →

A bit of a language education policy riff today … 1. Short notice again of this one, sorry! At 13:00 UK time tomorrow, Wednesday 21st February, George Wilson will be talking about his experiences with multilingual learners and promoting regional … Continue reading →

1. Very short notice of this Green Action ELT event with Griselda Beacon from Argentina at 16:00 UK time tomorrow, Friday 16th February Capturing young imaginations: greening the curriculum for young learners More info here (scroll down!) https://green-action-elt.uk/events/ and registration … Continue reading →

1. First up today, Ethan Mollick’s ‘Tasting notes’ on Google’s new “long-awaited powerful AI” large language model, Gemini Advanced https://www.oneusefulthing.org/p/google-gemini-advanced-tasting-notes Don’t forget to click to enlarge the images – lots of interesting stuff hiding there! 2. From Daisy Christodoulou for … Continue reading →

1. What’s the point of school? (according to 600 kids) is a blog post by Ewan McIntosh, the founder of No Tosh https://medium.com/notosh/whats-the-point-of-school-according-to-600-kids-392f8f0bd981 Teachers and students agree what the point of school should be, by and large, but there’s quite … Continue reading →

1. Short notice of this short (45”) webinar, Dyslexia Awareness for Language Teachers with Boelo van der Pool tomorrow, Wednesday, February 7th at 12:00 UK time. Free registration here, “to understand how to help the 10 to 15% of your … Continue reading →

1. Just under 25 minutes into this episode of Matt Chorley’s Politics Without The Boring Bits podcast you’ll find an excellent and wide-ranging discussion of education in the UK since the 1944 Education Act which introduced free secondary education – … Continue reading →