1. James Thomas’s new book, Discovering English with VersaText, is launched online this coming Saturday, 15th March, at 15:00 UK time. More info and registration here https://bit.ly/vtbl2025 and PDF below. Everyone gets a free chapter!
‘Discovering English with VersaText’ helps teachers and learners explore discourse, grammar, and vocabulary—one text at a time. If you prepare text-based lessons, especially in CLIL, ESP, EMI, and if you are studying or preparing students for TKT, DELTA, or IELTS, this session is for you.
2. When your economy is as big as the US one is, policy changes on climate and development have huge implications globally. Here’s a recent post on the Carbon Brief blog https://www.carbonbrief.org/analysis-nearly-a-tenth-of-global-climate-finance-threatened-by-trump-aid-cuts/
And here’s Chatham House’s take on Trump’s first fifty days more generally https://www.chathamhouse.org/publications/the-world-today/2025-03/world-upended-trumps-first-50-days-power
3. The next NATESOL event is one week today, Thursday 20th March, at 16:00 UK time and should be an engaging one, to judge by the title of the talk: Enhancing Online Learner Engagement: Insights from a University Language Centre with Sal Consoli from Edinburgh University. More info and registration here https://www.natesol.org/event-details/enhancing-online-learner-engagement-insights-from-a-university-language-centre
How can we sustain psychological engagement in online English language learning? In his talk, Dr. Consoli will share key insights from a research study conducted at a university language centre, exploring how digital tools, task design, and emotional appeal impact learner engagement.
4. And one hour later next Thursday at 17:00 UK time, if you’re incredibly well organised, you could also pop into this Healthy Linguistic Diet (HLD) face-to-face event in London, Bali, Borneo and Britain: From linguistic ecology to neuroscience More info and registration here https://healthylinguisticdiet.com/bali-borneo-and-britain-from-linguistic-ecology-to-neuroscience/
Examining the tension between mono- and multilingualism in different places across the world highlights differences, but also common themes, which led us to identify that our HLD model has much to offer when extended to encompass linguistic ecology and sustainability as well as social justice in language education. Our new framework provides an alternative to currently dominating academic monolingualism, emphasising the value of epistemic diversity and aligning with the agenda of decolonisation.
5. And, finally, the Mezcal Maniac blog. The clue is in the name. Good photos! https://mezcalmaniac.substack.com/p/three-palenques-and-a-funeral-a-wild
Roy Cross's Blog 