Roy Cross's Blog

This ‘Free Resources’ message has been sent out earlier than usual in the hope it gives you a little more time to sign up for #1 below.

1. Short notice of this one, for which I apologise: Dyslexia in Language Learning with Boelo Van der Pool is the fifth in the IH World series of talks celebrating diversity, Global voices on nurturing inclusive practice, and it’s at 13:00 UK time tomorrow, Friday 26^th April. More info and registration here https://ihworld.com/events/events/ih-celebration-of-diversity-webinar-5/

I’ll post links to the other talks in the series next week.

2. Bit of a shame about the less-than-welcoming title of this thought-provoking piece by Margit van Wessel from Wageningen University in the Netherlands, Reimagining Transcalar Civil Society Advocacy Collaborations: Starting from the Global South https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s12116-024-09426-2.pdf PDF below.

“Based on 29 interviews with staff of civil society organizations, the article shows that country-based actors see collective process, centered at country level, as the foundation for effective collaboration in advocacy, centering on facilitation and support. This turns collaborations with the international NGO that is involved upside down (my emphasis). It also highlights the limited scope for international advocacy from such understandings, while underlining the role of international NGOs in expanding this scope.”

3. Two diametrically-opposed accounts of the same session of Prime Minister’s Questions last week – for an advanced class to compare and contrast?

The first from The Guardian https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2024/apr/17/tory-mps-limp-into-pmqs-after-finally-accepting-their-fate

and the second from The Spectator https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/rishi-gets-witty-at-pmqs/ 

Hard to believe the two writers were at the same session!

4. Here’s a dissenting review from Tiffany Jenkins of Jonathan Haidt’s recent book, The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewriting of Childhood is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness, in which she says that The smart phone is not to blame for the ‘epidemic’ of anxiety in young people https://tiffanyjenkins.substack.com/p/the-smart-phone-is-not-to-blame-for “Haidt’s brilliant insight is that kids are over protected offline but under protected online.”

This report from Ofcom, the UK media regulator, has just popped up again a year after its first publication, almost certainly because of the discussion (all over the media here in UK recently) Tiffany refers to in her piece, Children and parents: media use and attitudes report 2023 https://www.ofcom.org.uk/research-and-data/media-literacy-research/childrens/children-and-parents-media-use-and-attitudes-report-2023 87% of children aged 3-4 went online in 2022, as did a whole lot of two-year-olds. PDF below.

5. And, finally, beer is a subject close to my heart stomach. Here’s an account from The Conversation of Trinity College Dublin’s research into medieval brewing, Five things our research uncovered when we recreated 16th century beer (and barrels) https://theconversation.com/five-things-our-research-uncovered-when-we-recreated-16th-century-beer-and-barrels-223599

It’s accompanied by a rather good virtual exhibition https://foodcult.eu/exhibition/brewing-historical-beer/

1. This coming Saturday, at 10:00 UK time, NATESOL welcomes you to Infusing enjoyment into reading novels with Rym Ghosn El-Bel Chelbi from the University of Ouargla in Algeria. More info and registration here https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSd8bV6eWlRrEeM2mrv37juqJnMv_KEBkE-5AGYMJ7TcrUKbRw/viewform PDF below.

NATESOL’S fortieth (!) annual conference is from 10:00 to 15:00 UK time on 11^th May, and they are again kindly offering free places to readers of this Free Resources message. More info here (and PDF of flyer below) https://www.natesol.org/event-details/natesol-annual-conference-2024 Send me a WhatApp, LinkedIn or e-mail message if you’d like a ticket!

2. Here’s Rose Aylett’s wonderful closing plenary from IATEFL last week, Disrupting the commonplace: embedding critical literacy within language education https://youtu.be/Hor2Iyx80is?feature=shared There’s a ‘show transcript’ button halfway down the page that you might find helpful.

“If language teaching is to foster criticality for active and reflective social involvement amongst learners, language teachers themselves should also be critically literate practitioners. But what does ‘critical literacy’ actually mean? And is it something we can learn and/or teach? Using Lewison et al.’s (2002) four dimensions framework of critical literacy, this talk will explore practical ideas to disrupt the status quo in language education, by embedding action for social justice within the many layers of our educational practice(s): from the individual to the institutional. The presentation will unpack the definition of critical literacy proposed by Lewison et al: (1) disrupting the commonplace, (2) interrogating multiple viewpoints, (3) focusing on socio-political issues, and (4) taking action to promote social justice.”

I’m all for disrupting the status quo!

3. Language Trends Wales: an AI-powered experiment to inspire students to learn languages https://youtu.be/O9yZGB4eGyU?feature=shared offers an imaginative use of AI in education, at a time when language learning in UK schools is at an all-time low. See what you think!

4. This one from The Guardian raises all the issues you need for a discussion of colonialism in class, Tory MP from slave-owning family set to gain £3m from sale of former plantation https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/apr/20/tory-mp-from-slave-owning-family-set-to-gain-3m-from-sale-of-former-plantation

5. And, finally and free for a few days only from The Paris Review, Vladimir Nabokov, The Art of Fiction: https://www.theparisreview.org/interviews/4310/the-art-of-fiction-no-40-vladimir-nabokov

Q. E. M. Forster speaks of his major characters sometimes taking over and dictating the course of his novels. Has this ever been a problem for you, or are you in complete command?

A. My knowledge of Mr. Forster’s works is limited to one novel, which I dislike; and anyway, it was not he who fathered that trite little whimsy about characters getting out of hand; it is as old as the quills, although of course one sympathizes with his people if they try to wriggle out of that trip to India or wherever he takes them. My characters are galley slaves.

1. Do I need to sound like a ‘native speaker’? is the latest episode of the TeachingEnglish podcast https://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/professional-development/podcast/teaching-english/teachingenglish-podcast-do-i-need-sound-native

PDFs of show transcript and notes below.

2. A trio of programmes from BBC Radio 4:

i) Prophet Song by Paul Lynch won last year’s Booker Prize. Set in Ireland in the near future, it depicts the struggles of Eilish Stack, a mother of four trying to save her family as the Republic of Ireland slips into totalitarianism https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m001y8d8

ii) An African History of Africa by Zeinab Badawi is the story of the oldest inhabited continent on the planet, told through the voices of Africans themselves https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m001y86b

iii) Three Million tells the history of the Bengal famine in British India during World War 2, in which at least three million people died, told for the first time by the eyewitnesses to it https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m001wr57

3. The A S Hornby Educational Trust is again this year offering a fully-funded MA scholarship for Teachers of English as a Second Language to Refugees. More information and application form at the top of this page https://www.hornby-trust.org.uk/scholarships#Scholarships Please note that to be eligible teachers must themselves be refugees or have had previous experience of holding refugee status.

4. This one’s been doing the rounds on Facebook and LinkedIn but may be just a little late for April Fool’s Day, I think Snippets and Sayings from History from the American Society of Professional Estimators website (heaven knows why!) https://www.aspenational.org/blogpost/1657539/321809/Snippets-and-Sayings-from-History

5. And, finally. Toby Litt on commas https://awritersdiary.substack.com/p/on-commas

1. You may need to register for a free account with The Spectator to read this breathless piece by Sean Thomas – please do! The person who edited this will soon be redundant: AI is now as good as a publishing professional https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/the-person-who-edited-this-will-soon-be-redundant/

 From The Spectator FAQs: Can I read articles without becoming a subscriber? Non-subscribers can read a selection of articles for free each month after registering a web account. We hope that this will tempt you to join us as a full subscriber.

2. Here’s the latest issue of HLT (Humanising Language Teaching), which this month celebrates its silver jubilee https://www.hltmag.co.uk/apr24/

Try Rod Bolitho’s piece on Humanism in Language Teaching: Roots and Practices https://www.hltmag.co.uk/apr24/roots-and-practices or Having AI as an Assistant in Oral Presentation Skills Practices by Duangjaichanok Pansa https://www.hltmag.co.uk/apr24/having-ai-as-an-assistant PDFs of both below.

Later this month, at 16:00 UK time on Thursday 25^th April, Rod’s leading an online workshop for teachers, Humanism in the Classroom: what it means in practice.  More info and registration here https://thebridge.sk/en/humanism-in-the-classroom-good-intentions-are-not-enough/

3. An invigorating preface by Adrienne Rich to Manifesto: Three Classic Essays on How to Change the World https://sevenstories.com/blogs/327-read-adrienne-rich-s-preface-to-manifesto-karl-marx-rosa-luxemburg-and-che-guevara I fear my political slip may be showing, despite my inclusion of a piece from The Spectator above …

4. Here’s the ICAI (the Independent Commission for Aid Impact) ‘follow up report’ on UK aid to refugees in the UK https://icai.independent.gov.uk/review/icai-follow-up-2022-23/review/ PDF below.

“Our follow-up of our report on refugee costs found the government’s response to ICAI’s recommendations to be inadequate. Spending by the Home Office hosting asylum seekers and refugees has continued to rise, driven by hotel costs, despite concerns about the value for money and effectiveness of this approach.”

5. And, finally, Jacques Futrelle went down with The Titanic 112 years ago yesterday and was last seen smoking a cigar on deck with the fabulously wealthy John Jacob Astor IV, both men’s wives having left the ship in the lifeboats. Both wives survived; both husbands went down with the ship.  The Problem of Cell 13 was the first of Futrelle’s stories to feature the detective Professor Augustus S.F.X. Van Dusen, a.k.a. ‘The Thinking Machine’, and a rival in his time to Sherlock Holmes https://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks06/0603601h.html

1. AI and English language teaching: Affordances and challenges by Helen Crompton, Adam Edmett, Neenaz Ichaporia & Diane Burke does exactly what it says on the tin https://tinyurl.com/bdh2u848 “Policymakers,  funders,  practitioners  and educational leaders can use the information provided in this study to gain a holistic understanding of the current trend in the use of AI in ELT/L, and practical implications are provided to guide future use of AI.” PDF below.

2. Here’s my NILE colleague Carole Anne Robinson’s piece for the Macmillan English blog, Feedback – are we sending our students hidden messages? You can read or listen here, as you choose https://www.macmillanenglish.com/blog-resources/article/advancing-learning-feedback-are-we-sending-our-students-hidden-messages

The problem with any unconscious feedback that we might be giving our learners is that it is unconscious and so we are usually not aware of it!

3. ‘Tu connais le answer?’: Multilingual children’s attempts to navigate monolingual English Medium classrooms in Cameroon by Harry Kuchah Kuchah & Lizzi O. Milligan https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0346251X23002385

Here’s the abstract: This paper explores the ways that multilingual children attempt to access the English medium curriculum in Cameroonian primary education. We focus on Francophone Yaound´e where there has been a sharp rise in the number of children from predominantly Francophone multilingual homes attending English medium schools. The paper draws from a child-centred case study and data generated through classroom observations, child-group and individual interviews and recordings of student interactions around unsupervised tasks to show how learners are drawing from their multilingual resources to attempt to transgress monolingual norms in the classroom. The data also shows that learners are doing what they can to ‘get by’ but they are doing this in ways that are not supported by policy, pedagogy, or teaching materials. The paper concludes with a discussion of the ways that monolingual policies epistemically exclude children in an immensely complex multilingual context and draws implications for more inclusive policy and classroom practice.

Love that “drawing from their multilingual resources to attempt to transgress monolingual norms in the classroom”!

4. Another good piece gleaned from Stephen Downes’s O(nline)L(earning)Daily https://www.downes.ca/news/OLDaily.htm, this time an interview from the Journal of Applied Learning & Teaching with Rose Luckin from the UCL Knowledge Lab which covers a huge amount of ground in a discussion of her career and her accidental early engagement with AI, Exploring the future of learning and the relationship between human intelligence and AI https://journals.sfu.ca/jalt/index.php/jalt/article/view/1659 PDF below.

5. And, finally, a PDF of a typically quirky and recondite piece originally written for the Dhaka Daily Star by John Drew, T S Eliot’s Cat, about how T S Eliot, author of Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats, named one of his own cats Mirza Murad Ali Beg. (Eliot’s other cat was named Cuscuscaraway, just in case you were wondering.)

1. This recent report from the UCL Policy Lab, The World in 2040: Renewing the UK’s approach to International Affairs, did not pull its punches: “The physical surroundings [of the Foreign Office headquarters] also hint at the Foreign Office’s identity: somewhat elitist and rooted in the past. Modernising premises – perhaps with fewer colonial-era pictures on the walls – might help create a more open working culture and send a clear signal about Britain’s future.” PDF to download here https://tinyurl.com/m8hawmjd and downloaded for your convenience below!

Here’s what The Guardian had to say about the report: https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2024/apr/08/foreign-office-elitist-rooted-in-the-past-new-report

2. Daniel Kahneman, best known for ‘Thinking, Fast and Slow’, died recently. Here’s a recent McKinsey interview with him and Olivier Sibony, Sounding the alarm on system noise, which explains how ‘noise’—or unwanted variability—clouds organizations’ judgments, and what can be done about it https://www.mckinsey.com/capabilities/strategy-and-corporate-finance/our-insights/sounding-the-alarm-on-system-noise You can read or watch the interview, and there’s a PDF below. There’s also PDFs below of two other classic Kahneman pieces from the McKinsey Quarterly, Strategic decisions: When can you trust your gut? and Beware the ‘inside view’

And here’s his New York Times obituary https://tinyurl.com/37b5t9e4

3. News of two grant schemes from TIRF, The International Research Foundation for English Language Education: TIRF Doctoral Dissertation Grants (for current doctoral candidates advanced to candidacy in language education-related fields) and TIRF Kathleen M. Bailey Teacher-Research Awards (for practising teachers worldwide of English as a second/foreign/additional language). Lots more info on the Dissertation Grants, worth up to US $5,000, closing date 15/05/2024, here https://www.tirfonline.org/doctoral-dissertation-grants/ and lots more info on the Bailey Awards, worth up to US $1,000, closing date 20/06/2024, here https://www.tirfonline.org/bailey-award/ PDFs of the call for proposals for both below.

4. Cambridge University Press have just published Loic Menzies’ Mapping the Way to Educational Equity. Loic defines educational equity in a very interesting way: “an equitable education system (is) one in which educational support is distributed in a way that individuals would agree to if they wanted education to provide them with the freedom to write their own life story, but did not know which family they would be born into, or how easy they would find learning.” There’s a great quote early on: “It is true to say that without data, you are just another person with an opinion, but without the expertise to make sense of the available information, you’re just another person with data.” PDFs of whole report and summary only below; download here https://tinyurl.com/4rsp6kux

5. And, finally, for anyone that’s ever seen ‘Fitzcarraldo’ by Werner Herzog (but not just for them), At the Teatro Amazonas by Harriet Rix on the LRB blog https://www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2024/april/at-the-teatro-amazonas

1. This one from the IH World site is a bit of an advert for CELTA – and curiously anonymous – but good reading nonetheless, Dealing with the everyday frustrations of teaching https://www.ihteachenglish.com/blog-post/dealing-everyday-frustrations-teaching

2. Here’s a very readable, comprehensive report on inclusion and diversity, Inclusive Language and Images, by Heather Cairns-Lee and Alexander Fleischmann https://imd.widen.net/s/ftjcmtkzcp/imd_inclusivelanguage_v15-spreads

We live in an increasingly diverse and polarized world. We know that diversity is the spark that fuels new ideas and that inclusion is needed to create organizational cultures where individuals from all walks of life can thrive, but many people are unclear about how to create an inclusive culture and are fearful of saying the wrong thing or choosing the wrong images to represent their organization. Unless we address this conundrum, progress in creating inclusive conversations and communities will remain slow.

PDF below. Thanks to Rob Gibson for this one!

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3. Changing Englishes is an online course for teachers from York St John University based on the fact that “referring to English in the singular—which has always misrepresented its diversity—is no longer adequate”  https://changingenglishes.online/

English, like all languages, is constantly changing. But in these globalising times, it is changing at a faster pace and in a greater number of contexts of use than ever before. Non-native users, including learners and teachers, are the agents of much of this dynamism, bringing to English the rich influences of their local languages and cultural contexts. They are also recrafting English to serve as a lingua franca between users of different first languages. The idea of English as a foreign language, belonging to native speakers only, is rapidly passing.

And thanks to Rachel Wicaksono for this one!

4. A piece for Engelsberg Ideas by Christopher Harding about how British engagement with Indian thought had a profound impact on European literature and philosophy, The British Empire’s Indian odyssey https://engelsbergideas.com/essays/the-british-empires-indian-odyssey/

5. And, finally and elegiacally, the story of one brave man’s struggle to preserve a vanishing world, itself once part of the British Empire, The Garden of Eden Dries Up: Iraqi Marshlands under Threat https://www.spiegel.de/international/world/the-garden-of-eden-dries-up-iraqi-marshlands-under-threat-a-ccedbf40-a2cd-4ffd-9384-161e66494b59

1. There’s a LanguageCert webinar with Harry Waters, Caring through Stories: A story for the climate crisis, at 09:00 UK time on Wednesday 10^th April. More info and registration here https://us06web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_FNpdwWCYRqatC_yjg8v2ew#/registration

Information on other LanguageCert teacher webinars in April here https://www.languagecert.org/en/preparation/webinars/webinars-for-teachers

2. Here’s a short video from Jason Arday of Cambridge University Faculty of Education celebrating Neurodiversity Week, discussing neurodiversity, how research can inform practice and make education more inclusive for everyone https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=74okc6ENMuY

3. Two from/with Geoff Mulgan:

i) an article for Medium, The case for a right to truth https://geoffmulgan.medium.com/the-case-for-a-right-to-truth-5c2a9dc2ee74

We live in a world full of lies, distortions and misinformation. Should we have rights to be told the truth? If a government issues a statistic, a report, or a warning to its citizens should any rights guarantee that it’s based on the best available information? Should there be penalties if a government, or a political party, knowingly lies?

ii) in discussion about his new book with Ravi Gurumurthy at NESTA, online and f2f, at 18:00 on Thursday 25^th April, When Science Meets Power https://www.nesta.org.uk/event/when-science-meets-power/

The complex relationship between science and politics is becoming increasingly apparent in our daily politics and everyday lives, from debates on climate change policy to decisions on artificial intelligence. How can they be reconciled so that crucial decisions are both well-informed and legitimate?

4. Three education pieces on a variety of topics from The Guardian:

i) ‘We don’t need air con’: how Burkina Faso builds schools that stay cool in 40C heat https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2024/feb/29/we-dont-need-air-con-how-burkina-faso-builds-schools-that-stay-cool-in-40c-heat

ii) Free lunches, brain breaks and happy teachers: why Estonia has the best schools in Europe https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2024/mar/27/free-lunches-brain-breaks-and-happy-teachers-why-estonia-has-the-best-schools-in-europe

iii) Tory immigration policies risk over-reliance on Chinese students, ex-universities minister warns https://www.theguardian.com/education/2024/mar/31/whitehall-policies-risk-china-reliance-warns-former-universities-minister

5. And, finally and poignantly, Mary Ellen Mark’s photographs of Erin Blackwell (aka Tiny) and her family over 32 years https://maryellenmark.com/books/tiny-streetwise-revisited And here’s a short video with Mary Ellen Mark talking about her work (which includes lots of her photos) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4w2aaO9WYh4

Blog version: https://roycross.blog/

The next ‘Free Resources’ message will be on Tuesday 3^rd April: I’m away for a week exploring family history in Banja Luka!

1. Stephen Downes asked ChatGPT to write an article with the following title, Eight Reasons People Dislike Learning Management Systems (LMS) https://chat.openai.com/share/0ee0026f-800d-4ebb-89c8-6fe67d415d2c At least a B+ mark, I reckon!

2. Cambridge University Press & Assessment recently convened a panel discussion on “ELT & AI: The Big Questions in Teaching, Learning & Assessment”. Here’s their report on LinkedIn (which I hope everyone can access)  https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/exploring-future-english-language-teaching-mhzde/ and here’s the recording of the event https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rVMdca0j6BA

Here’s a related post on the Cambridge blog from Sam Oliver, AI prompt writing for ELT Teachers: 7 ingredients of a successful prompt https://www.cambridge.org/elt/blog/2024/03/09/ai-prompt-writing-for-elt-teachers-7-ingredients-of-a-successful-prompt/

3. APAC is the Associació de Professorat d’Anglès de Catalunya (Association of English Teachers of Catalonia). The archive of their journal goes back to 1988 – with adverts for that long-forgotten beast, the hard copy Encyclopaedia Britannica, in the early issues – and provides an interesting glimpse into ELT fads and fashions over the years https://www.apac365.org/elt-journal Here’s the latest issue, Number 94 https://tinyurl.com/49zcxnst and here’s the first issue https://tinyurl.com/45k72aex PDFs of both below.

4. The UK Government has just given Brian Bell two months (and two months only!) to review the political hot potato that is the UK Graduate visa route. Here’s their letter making him an offer he can’t refuse https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/mac-commissioned-to-review-the-graduate-route/letter-from-the-home-secretary-to-professor-brian-bell-11-march-2024-accessible

5. And, finally, a whole host of marvellous photographs from this year’s Sony World Photography Awards https://www.worldphoto.org/2024-open-competition-winners-shortlist

Two of my own favourites:

1. If you’re a teacher educator (or aspire to be one), you’ll find this TeachingEnglish event at 12:00 UK time tomorrow, Wednesday 20^th March, interesting, I think: the Teacher educator webinar series review 2023-2024 will reflect on the main insights from the most recent teacher educator webinar series and take a look at possible future themes.

More info and registration here https://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/news-and-events/webinars/webinars-teacher-educator/teacher-educator-webinar-series-review-2023-2024

2. BOLD is an interdisciplinary initiative dedicated to spreading the word about how children and young people develop and learn which explores ‘Big Ideas for Growing Minds’ https://bold.expert/ Here’s a recent podcast of theirs, Nurturing entrepreneurial mindsets at school https://bold.expert/nurturing-entrepreneurial-mindsets-at-school/ 

BOLD is funded by the Jacobs Foundation in Switzerland https://jacobsfoundation.org/ Thanks to Larisa Akrofie for bringing this to my attention!

3. A Muslim & A Jew Go There is a new podcast with Sayeeda Warsi (the Muslim) and David Baddiel (the Jew) which does exactly what it says on the tin and discusses ‘some of the most radioactive issues’ in the news at present https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/a-muslim-a-jew-go-there/id1732552661

4. Here’s Alexandra Mihai’s latest blog post, Space to fail. And learn, about “how we can help students to own their mistakes and really learn from them” https://educationalist.substack.com/p/space-to-fail-and-learn

5. And, finally, The Last Gold Beater in Venice from The New York Times https://tinyurl.com/5n79b9ah