Category Archives: Uncategorized

1. A wealth of pieces from The Conversation today: bears in South Korea https://theconversation.com/south-korea-is-bringing-back-bears-in-a-country-of-52-million-people-i-went-to-find-out-how-164301 the influence of science fiction on real-world military strategy https://theconversation.com/militaries-plunder-science-fiction-for-technology-ideas-but-turn-a-blind-eye-to-the-genres-social-commentary-164978 is a ‘sugar rush’ a real thing? https://theconversation.com/curious-kids-are-sugar-rushes-real-161494 and the return to power of the Taliban … Continue reading →

Earlier than usual today, as I’m busy later on. 1. At 14:00 UK time tomorrow, Tuesday 27th July, Is Privatisation of Education Really a Solution? In the organisers’ own words: “Through short interventions, this roundtable will share cross-cutting lessons outlined … Continue reading →

1. Here’s some reading for the weekend, this year’s ELT Masters dissertations ‘honours board’ https://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/article/2020-2021-winners The outright winner was Zening Yang from the University of Bath for her dissertation entitled: Motivational Strategies in an Online Learning Environment: L2 Teacher Cognitions … Continue reading →

1. I should have included this one yesterday – sorry! The Hay Festival’s free Book of the Month event for July at 19:00 UK time today, 22nd July, is Suzanne O’Sullivan’s The Sleeping Beauties (and other stories of mystery illness) … Continue reading →

1. I’ve mentioned Oxford University Press ‘position papers’ before. Here’s one on The Role of the First Language in English Medium Instruction https://fdslive.oup.com/www.oup.com/elt/general_content/global/expert/oup-expert-english-medium-instruction.pdf?cc=us&selLanguage=en&mode=hub – PDF copy below – further below than I’d planned! When I started teaching, the ‘direct method’ … Continue reading →

1. The Climate Connection podcast is proving very popular. Episode 5, explaining why every child should bring their own plant to school and with a report from the Hands Up project in Palestine, is now available https://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/article/climate-connection-episode-5-greenhouse-classes PDFs of episode … Continue reading →

1. The Olympics start on Friday, almost spectator-free, and the sport karate will be included – to my surprise – for the first time ever. Here’s a good long (free) read from The Smithsonian magazine on the history and traditions … Continue reading →

1. This one’s not light reading – thanks, Amy! – but will repay a half-hour’s quiet attention, Ofsted’s review of research into factors that can affect the quality of education in languages, “its purpose to identify factors that contribute to … Continue reading →

1. More on the interface between the hands and the brain, from my colleague Robin in Tokyo https://www.psychologytoday.com/intl/blog/the-athletes-way/202107/touch-typing-may-unclamp-the-brain-and-promote-flow-state Never having learnt to touch type remains one of the embarrassments of my life when working in an open-plan office; I can … Continue reading →

1. When I was in primary school, handwriting was a very big deal – we spent hours practising our letters. Years of keyboard work later, I can now hardly write a legible sentence. Just as well I learnt to read … Continue reading →