Author Archives: roycross

1. The first of three on politics this evening, Trust hits new low: 45% of people think politicians put party before country by polling superstar Professor John Curtice https://theconversation.com/trust-hits-new-low-45-of-people-think-politicians-put-party-before-country-232187 I wonder what the comparable figure would be in countries around … Continue reading →

1. The claim that “children use five times more words when playing outdoors compared to indoors” caught my attention when I read it in the leaflet in our weekly vegetable box a few weeks back https://wickedleeks.riverford.co.uk/features/weathering-lifes-storms/ Which research, though? The … Continue reading →

1. My first car was a Triumph Herald. Although some of my friends might now be surprised to hear this, I re-built the entire car – engine, gearbox, suspension, the lot – with a little help from the garage across … Continue reading →

1. Clint Eastwood is an astonishing 94 – ninety-four! – years old today. Here’s The Guardian’s list of his twenty best films https://www.theguardian.com/film/article/2024/may/30/happy-94th-birthday-clint-eastwood-his-best-films-ranked Thirty-two years on, I need to get round to watching Unforgiven! 2. Free to download until 6th … Continue reading →

1. It’s too late to offer to present but it’s certainly not too late to attend the Trinity-Regent online conference, The Future of English Language Teaching, on Saturday 15th June. A wide range of speakers from all around the world: … Continue reading →

1. I’ve somehow contrived to miss this report, Great Teaching Toolkit: Evidence Review, over the last four years since it was published by Cambridge Assessment International Education and Evidence Based Education (EBE) in 2020 https://2366135.fs1.hubspotusercontent-na1.net/hubfs/2366135/Great%20Teaching%20Toolkit%20Evidence%20Review.pdf Here’s a short video introduction … Continue reading →

1. Two recordings from this year’s IATEFL conference in Brighton on the subject of AI: i) another excellent plenary, this one by Vicky Saumell The AI factor have we figured it out? https://www.youtube.com/live/2IkCub2jFXs Vicky’s abstract: The development of AI has … Continue reading →

1. First up this evening, two webinars next week: The first is an ECML event at 16:00 UK time on Tuesday, 21st May, Exploring the potential of action research in language education: Opportunities and challenges in local and global contexts. … Continue reading →

1. Thanks to Jaime Saavedra for this one from the OECD, Students, Digital Devices and Success,  https://www.oecd.org/ – scroll down the page a bit. Download here https://www.oecd.org/pisa/aboutpisa/English%20V3_WEB.pdf PDFs below of the whole report and the ‘Key Findings’ only. While we’re … Continue reading →

1. At 11:00 UK time next Tuesday 14th May, the latest in the Lancaster Talks on Linguistics series is on Corpus Linguistics. Three short lectures – a nice idea! – from Elena Semino on Corpus linguistics and healthcare, Vaclav Brezina … Continue reading →