Roy Cross's Blog

1. The application process for A. S. Hornby Educational Trust scholarships for study in the UK has just opened for English language teachers from outside the UK to study on the one-year MEd TESOL at the University of Exeter from September 2024. The deadline for receipt of applications is 1 March 2024, and there are two (online) application forms to complete, the Exeter University one, which you need to do first, and the Hornby Trust one, both to be found here https://www.exeter.ac.uk/study/funding/award/?id=4676

More info about the scholarships and the Hornby Trust more generally here https://www.hornby-trust.org.uk/scholarships#Scholarships

A life-changing experience, say previous Hornby scholars!

2. I missed this balanced article by Ann Veitch in EL Gazette the first time round back in July, Is EME beneficial to students? https://www.elgazette.com/is-eme-beneficial-to-students/

“In basic education (BE), the perception of governments, parents and learners is often that learning subjects through English is advantageous for educational and career success, but there is little (if any) evidence to support this view.

“In higher education (HE), there are many perceived advantages to EME, including economic growth, university prestige, access to intercultural learning, increased student revenue and increased competency in English, However, again, evidence to support most of these benefits is limited or lacking, partly due to a lack of monitoring and evaluation of EME programmes.”

PDF below (which I hope doesn’t get me into trouble with the editor-in-chief).

[PDF x 1]

3. Here’s a peach (rhymes with Veitch) of a freebie from Peachey Publications, Cooperative Learning and the Sustainable Development Goals https://payhip.com/b/obOwr Big file so not attached to e-mail but on WhatsApp and the blog.

“With its practical approach and rich content, this book equips teachers with the tools they need to foster collaborative environments, enhance language proficiency, and cultivate global citizenship through engaging and impactful lessons.” (I still haven’t quite come to terms with ‘impactful’ but that’s my problem, not Nik’s!)

4. What should those of us who voted ‘remain’ in the Brexit referendum make of this article from PLOS One, I wonder? Cognitive ability and voting behaviour in the 2016 UK referendum on European Union membership https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0289312(PLOS stands for Public Library of Science.) PDF below.

Plus a recent Radio 4 Analysis programme on The Democratic Brain, which explores similar territory https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m001r1gn

“Our brain is a wonderful machine, but it can also short-circuit. What happens to us when emotions and politics intersect, when the democratic, listening brain is cut off, or when we succumb to ‘hate speech’? Research using the latest brain scanners shows that the older part of the brain called the amygdala is ‘triggered’ by emotional responses out of proportion to the impacting stimulus. So, perhaps are we after all wolves in human clothing? Not necessarily: we have also developed the frontal cortex which the scans show is stimulated by rational argument. What can scanning the brain reveal about our political affiliations? Can the field of neuro-politics improve political discourse or leave us open to manipulation?”

5. And, finally, some absurd trolley problems from Neal https://neal.fun/absurd-trolley-problems/ More good stuff from him here https://neal.fun/ Not quite sure who Neal is, mind you – he might be a bot!

Three online events to start with today:

1. Next Tuesday, 28^th November, at 15:00 UK time, the 2023 Mercator Multilingualism Lecture with Dr Sharon Unsworth from the Centre for Language Studies at Radboud Universiteit in Nijmegen, What (not) to expect when raising or working with bilingual children. More info & registration here https://us06web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_lIV4lLo_SvWhz8PRnP9jwg#/registration

“Children growing up bilingually acquire their two or more languages in much the same way as monolingual children. At the same time, there are clear differences. When raising or working with bilingual children, it’s important to know what these differences are so that you have realistic expectations about what children should or should not do.”

PDFs with Sharon’s full abstract and biography below, in both Frisian and English, so you can parallel text practise your Frisian!

2. The next free NATESOL online event, at 16:00 UK time next Wednesday, 29^th November, is How to provide an inclusive environment for autistic learners with, waiting for, or without an autism diagnosis with Carly Miller from Leeds University. Register here: www.natesol.org 

 “Autism is a lifelong neurodevelopmental condition, and it is estimated that more than one in one hundred people are autistic. However the process to get an autism diagnosis is not quick and learners arriving from other countries may not have been given a diagnosis. So how do we provide an inclusive environment when we do not know which members of our classroom might be experiencing barriers?”

PDF of flyer for Carly’s talk below.

3. This next one’s a workshop, not a talk, so be prepared to work – and talk! Next Thursday, 30^th November, at 15:00 UK time, sees the final CEFR (the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages, to give it its full title) online workshop in the 2023 series, Putting mediation into practice, with Enrica Piccardo & Brian North.

More info here https://www.ecml.at/News3/TabId/643/ArtMID/2666/ArticleID/2864/Putting-mediation-into-practice.aspx

and registration here https://coe-int.zoom.us/meeting/register/u5Ikf-2grzspHtf4kUouyf5DKUrf3Z31kr3s#/registration

PDF of blessedly short background reading below!

4. Dyslexia is another condition that’s often undiagnosed. Boelo van der Pool, originally from The Netherlands and now living in Spain, has put together a very useful free guide, Teaching English to Students with Dyslexia which you can download here https://boelovanderpool.com/ PDF below as well just in case that’s easier.

5. And, finally, more positive in nature than Tuesday’s last item, the winners of this year’s Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/gallery/2023/oct/11/2023-wildlife-photographer-of-the-year-winners-in-pictures

A bit of a climate theme today …

1. The next Green Action ELT online event, at 14:00 UK time this coming Friday, 24^th November, is Green activism: how far can we go? with Linda Ruas. It asks the question, “How far can we go in our language classes to encourage our learners to become environmental or climate activists?”

More info here https://green-action-elt.uk/events/

and registration here https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZYrdO-opjktGdFRFdrm-h3TvfAKLR0mwAuQ#/registration

There’ still time to enrol in the TeachingEnglish Climate Action course I mentioned a while back, if you missed it first time round https://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/training/climate-action-language-education

Interesting that they seem to have no misgivings on the activism score: the blurb states that this free course “aims to help you integrate environmental issues in English language teaching and develop the skills you need to take and sustain meaningful and impactful action to protect the environment in your local context”.

2. A long piece on Greta Thunberg and Palestine which raises lots of issues, some usefully annoyingly, by no fewer than six journalists from Der Spiegel, Has Greta Thunberg Betrayed the Climate Movement? https://www.spiegel.de/international/world/a-potential-rift-in-the-climate-movement-what-s-next-for-greta-thunberg-a-2491673f-2d42-4e2c-bbd7-bab53432b687

3. Here’s a TeachingEnglish lesson plan (for both face-to-face and online classes) intended for primary age learners from the ages of 8 to 12 with A2 English (but would also work, I think, with older pupils with less strong English) on The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) intended to introduce the SDGs and the thinking behind them to your learners https://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/teaching-resources/teaching-primary/lesson-plans/level-2/sustainable-development-goals Lots of downloads, of which two below, the f2f lesson plan and the f2f worksheet

4. Grazzia Maria Mendoza Chirinos and Leticia Araceli Salas Serrano co-edited the recently published book, Empowered Women in ELT: A collection of Worldwide Stories, “a collection of narratives from worldwide, empowered, and inspiring women who share their achievements, sources of inspiration, paths and how they overcame their challenges”. Neatly book-ended by two expatriate Argentinians, who wrote the foreword (Annie Altamirano) and the epilogue (Dario Banegas)! https://sites.google.com/view/empoweredwomenineltseries/volume-1-stories?authuser=1

Book download here (and PDF below) https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Sqs0jbtMJgc_aFfMp5mNC70jtdTK5P6x/view

5. And, finally and damagingly to one’s remaining faith in the essential goodness of human nature, from the comments on a New York Times recipe for Cheesy Hasselback Potato Gratin: comment from Person A: “I’d remove the butter, cheeses, and cream and use olive oil and a few other herbs (rosemary and the like). Would work better for my Mediterranean taste” [1 like]; reply from Person B: “It’s fine you don’t like this kind of recipe but it’s not necessary to tell us what you made instead. These notes are to help people with the recipe. We don’t need to know about you. Go ahead and have a peanut butter sandwich. Or a slice of pizza. Just don’t write us notes about it please” [473 likes]. Recipe here so you can make your own mind up whether it’s worth making – I think I agree with Person A! https://tinyurl.com/3j774m8c

1. The LanguageCert ‘Energise your Classroom‘ webinar series, which “aims to introduce you to new perspectives, tools, and useful ideas to empower your teaching and enhance your students’ learning experience”, continues at 15:00 UK time next Wednesday, 22^nd November with Chantelle Walsh on Mindfulness as a tool to manage exams. More info and registration here https://us06web.zoom.us/webinar/register/1516934794185/WN_-Al8OUFJQjKNO1OCgbPZ7w#/registration

2. It’s Word of the Year time again, for some publishers at least: the Cambridge word is hallucinate https://dictionary.cambridge.org/editorial/woty and the Collins ‘word’ is AI https://www.collinsdictionary.com/woty

3. Continuing that AI theme, here’s an account of its positive contribution to forecasting the weather, AI outperforms conventional weather forecasting for the first time: Google study https://arstechnica.com/science/2023/11/ai-outperforms-conventional-weather-forecasting-for-the-first-time-google-study/

4. Ploughing the AI furrow still more deeply, here’s a recording of a recent discussion between Sir Tim Berners-Lee and Sir Nigel Shadbolt, who jointly founded the Open Data Institute https://theodi.org/, State of the Data Nation https://vimeo.com/882144926 Much more accessible than one might fear!

5. And, finally, something completely different and wacky, Jeff Bezos Rowing Boat by Bobby Fingers https://youtu.be/VGhcSupkNs8?feature=shared

1. Here’s a new resource from Teachers Without Borders https://teacherswithoutborders.org/ on Design Thinking, which they explain is “a human-centered, iterative problem-solving methodology that places empathy, ideation, prototyping, and testing at its core. Originally pioneered in the realm of product design, this approach has rapidly gained traction in education due to its adaptability and effectiveness in cultivating a mindset of collaboration, resilience, and innovative thinking”. It includes a great list of resources on the topic, so give it the benefit of the doubt, even if your instinctive response to their description, like mine, is one of uncertainty!

2. Planning effective Continuing Professional Development programmes for teachers – ten key principles is a splendid summary by Simon Borg https://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/professional-development/teacher-educators/planning-learning/articles/planning-effective-continuing of the September 2023 British Council webinar for teacher educators of the same name, recorded here https://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/news-and-events/webinars/webinars-teacher-educator/planning-effective-continuing-professional

3. The T. S. Eliot Prize has been described by Andrew Motion as “the prize poets most want to win”, and this year’s competition is approaching its denouement. You’ll get a good sense of where modern poetry is at from this year’s shortlist https://tseliot.com/prize/the-t-s-eliot-prize-2023/shortlist/ and here’s a bit more general information on the prize, which was first won by Ciaran Carson in 1993 https://tseliot.com/prize/ In due course, you will find helpful readers’ notes on all ten of this year’s shortlisted poets on the shortlist page, and you’ll find PDFs of the notes for the first five poets below

4. The whole of Herman Melville’s Moby Dick is read aloud here by the likes of Tilda Swinton, Roger Allam, David Attenborough, A. L. Kennedy and – wait for it! – the new UK Foreign Secretary (and Brexit criminal-in chief), David Cameron https://www.mobydickbigread.com/ and you’ll find a very handy online annotated version to read as you listen here http://www.powermobydick.com/

5. And, finally, a short film from The New Yorker, “The Night Doctrine”, by Mauricio Rodríguez Pons and Almudena Toral,which offers two perspectives on one tragic raid in Afghanistan https://www.newyorker.com/culture/the-new-yorker-documentary/two-perspectives-on-one-tragic-raid-in-afghanistan

1. This post is late – and solitary and longer! – this week because I’ve been attending a colloquium on Regional and minority languages within a plurilingual context at the ECML (European Centre for Modern Languages) in Graz in Southern Austria https://www.ecml.at/ECML-Programme/ECML-ECCooperation/participants/tabid/5784/language/en-GB/Default.aspx

Here’s the recording of the first two sessions https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LE-4nu2BcLA

and here’s the programme, to guide your viewing https://www.ecml.at/Portals/1/documents/events/ECML-EC%20Colloquium_7Nov2023_RML_Final%20agenda_EN.pdf PDF below.

2. One language discussed in Graz was Romansh, and Lia Rumantscha is the umbrella organisation for all Romansh-speaking individuals and organisations. Take a peek at their website https://www.liarumantscha.ch/rm which I think you’ll find more intelligible than you might have been expecting.

3. Here’s the ECML’s Multilingual Joke Book https://edl.ecml.at/Portals/33/documents/jokebook-2023.pdf Groans guaranteed; PDF below!

4. Here’s the latest issue of the ECML’s European Language Gazette

https://www.ecml.at/News/Newsletter/Gazette66/tabid/5678/language/en-GB/Default.aspx

5. Lots of good advice from Nik Peachey in this talk for Oxford ELT, How to plan and present ELT workshops https://oxfordtefl.com/blog/how-to-plan-and-present-elt-workshops/ Not just for ELT-wallahs, I suggest!

6. A cautionary debate from The Economist with Mustafa Suleyman & Yuval Noah Harari, What does the AI revolution mean for our future?

Highlights https://youtu.be/b2uEAgLeOzA?feature=shared

Full debate https://youtu.be/7JkPWHr7sTY?feature=shared

7. And, finally, here’s one definitely positive use to which AI has been put recently, a library of restored and AI-enhanced films https://www.youtube.com/@livinghistoryaienhanced

Try Soho in London in 1956 (a very good year) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bExnm7MZ53M

or Edinburgh in 1934 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=98F2z8qh5Eo

1. I’ve quite often included UKFIET https://www.ukfiet.org/ blog posts. For a change, here are videos of the plenary talks from their recent joint conference in Oxford with BAICE https://baice.ac.uk/ (the British Association for International & Comparative Education) https://www.ukfiet.org/2023/plenary-videos-from-ukfiet-2023-conference/

This powerful performance by Basirat Razak-Shuaib of her own poem, ‘I ain’t no afterthought’ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0bxL0ZxMMsQ formed part of …

… the BAICE Presidential Address by  Nidhi Singal, Reimagining Inclusive Education: multiplicities of seeing, being and doing https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ceztT6nIdkk

and here’s brief summaries of many of the talks given at the conference https://www.ukfiet.org/cop/ukfiet-conferences/2023-ukifet-conference/

2. Here’s the Autumn 2023 issue of TTJ (Teacher Trainer Journal) https://edition.pilgrimsttj.com/html5/reader/production/default.aspx?pubname=&edid=71a6c067-3831-46b6-bba0-13c4c6296ad0

Try the piece by Simon Borg and Daniel Xerri on p15, Supporting Teacher Educators: insights from the British Council’s work, that suggests more needs to be done to support those who support teachers. PDF below in case that’s easier.

You access the TTJ archives by clicking on the ‘archive’ icon in the menu bar for the current issue – in between the ‘download’ and the ‘share’ icons at the top on the right!

3. Take a look over the fence into the English school system with the latest weekly Teacher Tapp blog post. The two key current issues are budgets and student behaviour – sound familiar? https://teachertapp.co.uk/articles/voting-behaviour-budgets-and-if-you-could-fix-one-problem/

4. I trust The Conversation. Here’s a selection of recent pieces on the Israel-Hamas war (and I’m aware that term is itself very problematic) that I’m going to read over the weekend, starting with a podcast discussion between an Israeli professor of historical and cultural studies and a Palestinian professor of geography and urban planning:

Why the Israel-Gaza conflict is so hard to talk about https://theconversation.com/why-the-israel-gaza-conflict-is-so-hard-to-talk-about-216149

Israel-Gaza conflict: an expert Q&A on how it could change the Middle East’s political landscape https://theconversation.com/israel-gaza-conflict-how-could-it-change-the-middle-easts-political-landscape-expert-qanda-215473

Israel-Hamas war: hard experience says a land war won’t go well – and faltering international support suggests the world knows it https://theconversation.com/israel-hamas-war-hard-experience-says-a-land-war-wont-go-well-and-faltering-international-support-suggests-the-world-knows-it-216582

Israel-Hamas war: Lebanese peace plan reflects country’s lack of appetite for more conflict https://theconversation.com/israel-hamas-war-lebanese-peace-plan-reflects-countrys-lack-of-appetite-for-more-conflict-216850

Iran’s ‘axis of resistance’: how Hamas and Tehran are attempting to galvanise their allies against Israel https://theconversation.com/irans-axis-of-resistance-how-hamas-and-tehran-are-attempting-to-galvanise-their-allies-against-israel-216670

What the Israel Defence Forces can expect when they enter the ‘Gaza Metro’ tunnel system https://theconversation.com/what-the-israel-defence-forces-can-expect-when-they-enter-the-gaza-metro-tunnel-system-216767

How Israel underestimated Hamas’s intelligence capabilities – an expert reviews the evidence https://theconversation.com/how-israel-underestimated-hamass-intelligence-capabilities-an-expert-reviews-the-evidence-215646

Benjamin Netanyahu’s leadership is questioned even as Israelis rally round the flag https://theconversation.com/benjamin-netanyahus-leadership-is-questioned-even-as-israelis-rally-round-the-flag-216844

5. And, finally, a list of ten books from Henry Tinker that I just stumbled across, 10 Books From My English Degree I Wish More People Knew About https://medium.com/@henrytinker/10-books-from-my-english-degree-i-wish-more-people-knew-about-e019f932a9f3 Henry’s English degree ranged much more widely than my own did!

1. I’m not quite sure why this Essex University research on accents has been all over the papers and the radio this week, on the face of it eight months after its publication: here’s Essex academic Amanda Cole’s occasional blog on the development of UK English accents over the years https://www.essex.ac.uk/blog/authors/amanda-cole

2. Food for thought from the EL Gazette: Translation in publishing suffers as markets prioritise English-language exports https://www.elgazette.com/translation-in-publishing-suffers-as-markets-prioritise-english-language-exports/

3. A piece from Der Spiegel on the impact in Germany of the war between Hamas and Israel, A New Wave of Anti-Semitism Sweeps Across Germany https://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/absolutely-appalling-a-new-wave-of-anti-semitism-sweeps-across-germany-a-50e18e6a-03ae-4ea5-99ec-6d0c8753558a

4. Tomorrow is Día de los Muertos, the Day of the Dead in Mexico. Here’s a piece from the Mexico News Daily, Curious about cempasúchil, the iconic Day of the Dead flower? https://mexiconewsdaily.com/culture/curious-about-cempasuchil-the-iconic-day-of-the-dead-flower/

5. And, finally and with a health warning, as this may drive you to distraction, a simple London Underground station game https://london.metro-memory.com/ I’ve stalled at 56.2% …

1. Climate action in language education is a free online course from TeachingEnglish which aims to help you “integrate environmental issues in English language teaching and develop the skills you need to take and sustain meaningful and impactful action to protect the environment in your local context”. It starts on 7^th November https://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/training/climate-action-language-education

Three three-hour modules over a month, with a mixture of live events, discussion fora and self-study.

You’ll need to create (it’s free and quick) a TeachingEnglish account if you haven’t already got one.

2. Here’s an exercise in point and counterpoint:

the point is a post from Philip Kerr’s blog, Perspectives on language teaching research https://adaptivelearninginelt.wordpress.com/2023/09/23/perspectives-on-language-teaching-research/

and the counterpoint is a post from Geoff Jordan’s blog, What do you think you’re doing? https://applingtesol.wordpress.com/2023/10/23/the-relevance-of-sla-research-for-language-teachers/

I read that title of Geoff’s with the stress on the ‘do’!

3. Stride is an online global citizenship magazine for schools from Scotland http://www.stridemagazine.org.uk/

Its home page currently has a link to “a curated Padlet of resources to support you with approaching the Israel- Palestine conflict with your learners” from HOW, the Highland One World Global Learning Centre. “The board includes background reading, guidance, first-hand stories from Israel and Palestine, and primary and secondary teaching packs.” https://padlet.com/Highland_One_World/approaching-the-palestine-israel-conflict-with-learners-47fw8lw0s67gwigx

4. A couple of weeks ago, I mentioned the event in memory of Dubravka Ugrešić at SSEES earlier this week. By far and away my sternest critic, my wife Boba, says it went well. If you’d like to know a bit more about Dubravka, here’s an informative obituary from the New York Times https://tinyurl.com/yc8j85sm

and below is a home-made PDF of the piece she published in The Independent and Die Zeit in late 1992, The Dirty Tyranny of Mr Clean, that first got her into political hot water.

I failed to teach Dubravka English for three months in 1981. No matter: she later taught herself excellent English!

5. And, finally, What can nuns reveal about the secrets of ageing? In the Radio 4 podcast Uncharted, mathematician Hannah Fry explains how a graph tracking nuns’ mental capacity over decades helped reveal vital insights into how our brains age https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m001r1p4

and here’s the matching article from the BBC website https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/3TXBkZtyNRPpCCknlVpTnV4/what-can-nuns-reveal-about-the-secrets-of-ageing

1. Lots to explore on the (still under development) AI in Education website https://www.ai-in-education.co.uk/ including AI in Performing Arts Education: Crafting an Immersive Taylor Swift Murder Mystery https://www.ai-in-education.co.uk/resources/ai-in-performing-arts-education-crafting-an-immersive-taylor-swift-murder-mystery Shame she had to be murdered, though!

2. Annie Rauwerda “makes a habit of getting lost among the seemingly endless digital archives of Wikipedia”, and here’s her TED talk about her adventures, The joy of learning random things on Wikipedia https://www.ted.com/talks/annie_rauwerda_the_joy_of_learning_random_things_on_wikipedia

3. Not the easiest website to navigate, the LanguageCert one, but I got there in the end! Here’s short notice of their webinar at 15:00 UK time tomorrow, Wednesday 25^th October, Energise your classroom: Getting creative with English, which aims “to empower you to help students to not just learn English but actively use it through communicative activities like dictation, art, media, imagery, drawing and film” https://www.languagecert.org/en/preparation/webinars/webinars-for-teachers

Direct registration link here !https://us06web.zoom.us/webinar/register/4816934791031/WN_0hJmPyV8Rt-AWVUACSgseg#/registration

4. Here’s something a bit different, from the Smithsonian magazine, courtesy of Maja Mandekić: Claude Monet’s Eyeball https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/this-new-hand-painted-video-game-takes-place-in-claude-monets-eyeball-180983016/

5. And, finally, here’s George Saunders reading his story, Sea Oak https://songwriterpodcast.com/George-Saunders-Craig-Finn Saunders reading his story forms the first part of each podcast, both of which also include an interview with him and a song based on his story. I tuned out a bit after the story ….