Roy Cross's Blog

1. Short notice – the deadline is 16:00 UK time tomorrow, Thursday 23^rd June – but that doesn’t always affect the quality of an application in my experience: IATEFL offer a host of scholarships – no fewer than 28 – for their annual conference, which next year is in God’s Own County, Yorkshire, in Harrogate https://www.iatefl.org/get-involved/scholarships

Give it a go, if you see this in time. You will need to create a free IATEFL account if you don’t already have one.

2. First of two pieces today from The Conversation, The School Cat Stevens built: how Conservative politicians opposed funding for Muslim schools in England by Helen Carr from Birmingham University https://theconversation.com/the-school-cat-stevens-built-how-conservative-politicians-opposed-funding-for-muslim-schools-in-england-161956

Includes the Yusuf Islam (the artist formerly known as Cat Stevens) song, A is for Allah, that he wrote for his young daughter https://youtu.be/-L-GOHa5-YQ

The Trojan Horse podcast I mentioned on Monday covers similar territory.

3. And here’s the second, Eye movements could be the missing link in our understanding of memory by Roger and Mikael Johansson from Lund University https://theconversation.com/eye-movements-could-be-the-missing-link-in-our-understanding-of-memory-185053 “Humans have a fascinating ability to recreate events in the mind’s eye, in exquisite detail”: that we all probably knew from our own experience, but the Johanssons suggest that the act of doing so activates (and accesses) our memory. Intriguing!

4. This week’s phobia, koumpounophobia, is “a relatively rare condition”, which is slightly surprising given the frequency of most people’s exposure to the object that provokes the phobia.

5. And, finally, I mentioned my forthcoming retirement to a friend earlier today and he replied, “Well jel” – which I had to look up, not being quite as streetwise and ‘with it’ as my friend – who will now reply, I’m sure, to say that no-one says ‘with it’ anymore! https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Well%20jel

1. Apologies for the short notice for this one: the next Eaquals webinar is tomorrow, Tuesday 21^st June, at 10:00 UK time. Arum Perwitasari and Joanna Wrzesinska will be talking about Resources to support writing for academic purposes More info and registration here https://www.eaquals.org/eaquals-events/event/resources-to-support-writing-for-academic-purposes/

2. The first of two webinars at 12:00 UK time on Thursday, 23rd June, this one from the TeachingEnglish team: Linguistic Landscapes as a pedagogical resource in English language classrooms with Osman Solmaz. More info & registration here https://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/article/linguistic-landscapes-pedagogical-resource-english-language-classrooms

3. The second webinar at 12:00 UK time this Thursday is a NESTA one, with Yinka Olusoga The practice of play: how playtime affects child development More info & registration here https://www.nesta.org.uk/event/nesta-talks-to-dr-yinka-olusoga/

4. And, finally, The Guardian’s take on the best podcasts so far this year https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2022/jun/10/the-best-podcasts-of-2022-so-far So far, I’ve only listened to The Trojan Horse, which was good – and depressing. This strikes me as quite a narrow podcast furrow that The Guardian’s ploughing?

1. The Times Education Commission (TEC) – who appointed themselves to the task – have just published their report on ‘Britain’s whole education system’, Bringing out the Best: How to transform education and unleash the potential of every child https://nuk-tnl-editorial-prod-staticassets.s3.amazonaws.com/2022/education-commission/Times%20Education%20Commission%20final%20report.pdf Lots of interesting ideas, interwoven with a fair bit of education politics, focussed largely on England despite the reference to Britain. PDF below.

2. Hope the adverts are not too annoying on this piece from Schools Week, which reviews one of the TEC’s proposals, ‘Revalidate’ teachers every 5 years, education commission says https://schoolsweek.co.uk/revalidate-teachers-every-5-years-education-commission-says/

3. A thoughtful piece by James Breiner about his twelve years of writing a blog and the added impact the newsletter he started writing less than two years ago has brought https://jamesbreiner.com/what-analytics-taught-me-about-my-community/

4. And, finally, the Times Literary Supplement podcast, which I often enjoy skim-listening to https://www.the-tls.co.uk/categories/regular-features/the-podcast/

The latest episode includes a close reading of the first first few words of Ulysses with Paul Muldoon (which starts 4 minutes in) in celebration of Bloomsday yesterday, 16th June https://www.the-tls.co.uk/articles/kidneys-plums-and-free-love/

Here, with Cross fingers tightly crossed that non-subscribers can access at least one article for free, is Paul Muldoon’s essay on Ulysses in this week’s TLS, Spinoza’s shillelagh: some thorny issues in the first words of Ulysses https://www.the-tls.co.uk/articles/ulysses-james-joyce-essay-paul-muldoon/

And here is a much more accessible reading of Ulysses than the book’s reputation suggests https://www.rte.ie/culture/2020/0610/1146705-listen-ulysses-james-joyce-podcast/ Do NOT fret every word.

1. Some interesting thinking (and a webinar) from NESTA, Could early years tech support child development? https://www.nesta.org.uk/project/mapping-parenting-technology/could-toddler-tech-help-to-get-more-children-school-ready/

Register for the webinar here https://www.eventsforce.net/nesta/frontend/reg/thome.csp

I think it’s fair to say that orthodox opinion hitherto has been that toddlers and tech don’t and shouldn’t match: this is a different take.

2. An honest post on the WONKHE blog of the ‘painful and bruising’ process of Creating an Anti-Racist University Experience by Jill Childs from Oxford Brookes University https://wonkhe.com/blogs/creating-an-anti-racist-university-experience/

“We learnt that it was far too easy to overestimate our understanding of issues of race and racism and to underestimate the associated complexities of our teaching and learning environment.”

3. Not quite sure why I find this one so worrying: https://theconversation.com/avian-flu-has-jumped-from-chickens-to-wild-birds-and-is-spreading-fast-185058

But if I suffered – which I don’t – from ornithophobia, I guess I’d be pleased!

4. And, finally, a brutal (realistic?) short story from Fernanda Melchor, again translated by Sophie Hughes, who I mentioned on Monday, Life’s Not Worth A Thing  https://wordswithoutborders.org/read/article/2022-06/lifes-not-worth-a-thing-fernanda-melchor-sophie-hughes/

1. There’s a number of TeachingEnglish webinars coming up in the next few weeks. They’re all listed here https://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/news-events/webinars

The first one in the list is this Saturday, 18^th June, at 14:00 UK time, English Connects Action Research: Learnings from the African classroom. More info and registration here https://africa.teachingenglish.org.uk/events/english-connects-action-research Looks likely to be fun – and a challenge to chair with nineteen speakers!

2. I somehow missed this one when it was first published last year: On language teachers as agents of cultural relations by Maria Grazia Imperiale from Glasgow University https://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/sites/teacheng/files/Language%20teachers%20as%20agents%20of%20cultural%20relations.pdf

Maria Grazia concludes with a question about learning for her readers, What have you learned from the international language teachers/teacher trainers/language practitioners you work with? What did they teach you? PDF below.

3. Maria Grazia refers several times to this earlier essay by Martin Rose, English in Cultural Relations https://www.britishcouncil.org/sites/default/files/crc-english-cultural-relations.pdf

Martin establishes a useful distinction between English-as-Vector – ‘a treasure and a handicap’ – and English-as-Commodity – (which has) ‘a superficial simplicity’. PDF below.

4. Incorporating Global Englishes into the ELT classroom by Nicola Galloway and Heath Rose explores some of the same territory from the classroom coalface https://eprints.gla.ac.uk/233330/1/233330.pdf “Increasing students’ awareness of the globalisation of English is a daunting task for teachers, especially considering the lack of globally-oriented ELT materials they have to work with.” PDF below.

5. And, finally, another paper co-authored by Heath Rose, this time with John Bosco Conama, Linguistic imperialism: still a valid construct in relation to language policy for Irish Sign Language https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10993-017-9446-2

No question mark in that title, then! Begins with a useful account of the background to the notion of linguistic imperialism. PDF below.

1. This Friday, 17^th June, is United Nations World Day to Combat Desertification and Drought and to mark this day the Language Centre, School of Languages, Linguistics and Film at Queen Mary University of London will be hosting a webinar at 13:00 UK time from an educator from the frontline of the urgent fight against desertification. Patrice Kané will be talking about 5 things that happened after environmental lessons in Mali.

More info and registration here https://hub.qmplus.qmul.ac.uk/view/view.php?t=FpO0btuxS3GYjsnDc5Ry

Do join if you can: Patrice was unable to get to IATEFL in Belfast to give this talk, as he’d hoped to.

2. Take a virtual tour of the Climate Connection exhibition here https://www.britishcouncil.org/climate-connection/virtual-exhibition

On your desktop or mobile, use the arrows on the floor to help you navigate, and click on the QR codes on the walls for more information. You also get to see the new British Council HQ building!

3. “The importance of ensuring that children who have the gift of a home language (lovely way of putting it! ed.) other than English have skilled teachers who know how to put that gift to work as they add English to their linguistic repertoire” is one of the key tenets of this piece in edpost https://www.edpost.com/stories/science-of-literacy-and-dual-language-advocates-can-work-together-but-its-harder-than-you-think Thanks to Robin for sharing it.

4. And, finally, the Chicas de la Habana version of ‘Manteca’ https://youtu.be/LPAf0EZRmHQ

1. The London School of Economics (LSE) are holding a festival this week: full details here https://festival.lse.ac.uk/

With a series of short videos https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLK4elntcUEy2OUUr6Mv2N-goydqGyqr7t that includes

How can we tackle digital inequalities? https://youtu.be/MVb3ehwsufc

and How can we support climate resilient farming in developing countries? https://youtu.be/QLKcUkJCJj8

2. From BBC Radio 3’s Essay series, Inua Ellams explores how African barber shops provide spaces where men can be vulnerable https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m001767v

All the other 1,776 (!) episodes here https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006x3hl/episodes/player

3. Four talks from this year’s Hay Festival for when you have a moment:

Bernardine Evaristo https://www.hayfestival.com/p-18626-bernardine-evaristo-talks-to-rosie-goldsmith.aspx?skinid=16

Monica Ali https://www.hayfestival.com/p-18929-monica-ali-talks-to-chris-power.aspx?skinid=16

David Olusoga https://www.hayfestival.com/p-18622-david-olusoga.aspx?skinid=16

Sophie Hughes talking about translating Fernanda Melchor https://www.hayfestival.com/p-18825-sophie-hughes-and-chris-power.aspx

4. And, finally, a miracle of compression: Dombey and Son in less than seventy-five minutes https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/brand/b03trsph

1. Paddling in a US context is not, as it would be in a UK context, something that many people are anticipating with pleasure this coming sunny weekend (23°C today here in Cambridge) https://hechingerreport.org/state-sanctioned-violence-inside-one-of-the-thousands-of-schools-that-still-paddles-students/

Here’s an article with a bit more detail, such as: “the Board of Education in Pickens County, Alabama, recommends that schools use a ‘wooden paddle approximately 24 inches in length, 3 inches wide and ½ inch thick’ that does not have holes, cracks, splinters, tape, or other foreign material”. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5766273/

2. Stacks of webinar recordings in the National Geographic Learning archive https://webinars.eltngl.com/

Try Tania Pattison on Four Things Reflective Readers Do https://webinars.eltngl.com/24-februaryfive-things-reflective-readers-do/ (Four things or five things? Make up your mind, NGL!)

or Chia Suan Chong on Helping our Students Develop Mediation Skills https://webinars.eltngl.com/elementor-6470/

3. This FutureLearn course is running again and was popular last time round, Exploring English: Food and Culture https://www.futurelearn.com/courses/exploring-english-food-and-culture

Fish and chips, yes, but chicken tikka masala as well. Tutors on the course for the next two weeks.

4. Here’s an accessible, short, and unsurprisingly downbeat video by the OECD Chief Economist on the global economic outlook: https://youtu.be/wQG1XnKyrxk

5. And, finally, here’s undoubtedly hyper but nonetheless entertaining Feli from Germany with her cross-cultural observations https://youtu.be/fJvBIGK8LzU

Please note, though, that you do not need to buy one of her beer mugs for sixty dollars: they’re on https://www.amazon.de for €5 apiece!

1. An event at 18:00 UK time next Wednesday, 15^th June, from Multilingual Matters and Goldsmiths College that sounds likely to be fun, the launch of the book, Liberating Language Education. Registration here https://www.gold.ac.uk/calendar/?id=13950 and more info in the flyer below.

As one reviewer has it, “The editors and contributors to this book liberate language and language education by placing them in a ‘caravan’ of unpredictable actions that are locally situated. This book masterfully centers the aesthetic ways in which people and learners liberate language by bringing art, digital storytelling, drama improvisation, poetry, song, and music into the center of meaning-making.”

2. An intriguing title for David Block’s UCL Applied Linguistics Research seminar at 17:00 UK time next Tuesday, 14^th June: The dark side of EMI? A telling case for questioning assumptions about EMI in HE More info in the flyer below and registration here https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSebQCK6TPztfMPIkix4kbOgI40HGay9WxLl17CubkbofpHyrQ/viewform

3. The programme for this year’s Edinburgh International Book Festival has just been published. There are over 200 online events this year on a ‘pay what you can’ basis, and I suggest we take that at face value: those of us that can afford to pay, do and those of us that can’t, don’t. (There’s no extra cost that I’m aware of for extra online participants.)

Here’s the programme https://www.edbookfest.co.uk/the-festival/events

and here’s an alphabetical list of authors attending https://www.edbookfest.co.uk/the-festival/whats-on/appearing-this-festival

4. And, finally, something you may not be expecting: two short films of cars being washed https://youtu.be/UyTrkAqnkFI and https://youtu.be/lezjhF9TZqw

1. An interesting sounding interactive event at 10:00 UK time this Saturday, June 11^th, organised by colleagues from Vietnam in partnership with Manchester Metropolitan University, K–12 Vietnamese learners’ oral peer feedback in classroom L2 task-based interaction https://www.britishcouncil.vn/en/about/press/newsletter-articles/next-partners-innovation-webinar

“During this webinar, you will have an opportunity to practise analysing instances of peer feedback and evaluating its effectiveness. You will also discuss and explore pedagogical techniques to promote peer feedback in your classroom English language speaking tasks.”

Here’s the research paper behind Saturday’s event https://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/article/k-12-vietnamese-learners-oral-peer-feedback-classroom-l2-task-based-interaction PDF below.

Oodles more research here https://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/publications-research/research-papers Oodles, that is, if you find reading research papers pleasant: https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/oodles

2. There’s an Eaquals webinar with Nadine Early from ATC Language Schools at 10:00 UK time next Tuesday, 14^th June, Speaking Beyond the Classroom: A case study in speaking portfolios. Nadine will be explaining how ATC enabled “their students to take their classroom learning beyond the confines of the four walls and (..) develop independently as lifelong language learners”.

More info and registration here https://www.eaquals.org/eaquals-events/event/speaking-beyond-the-classroom-a-case-study-in-speaking-portfolios/

3. I wonder whether the impact of the pandemic on our lives has reduced the incidence of this week’s phobia, agoraphobia? https://www.nhs.uk/mental-health/conditions/agoraphobia/overview/ I somehow doubt it has.

4. Whether or not you’re agoraphobic, here’s an early reminder to book for Oxford University Press’s English Language Teaching Online Conference, ELTOC, starting 24^th June https://elt.oup.com/feature/global/eltoc/?cc=global&selLanguage=en ELTOC, it is claimed, is “the biggest online event in the English language teaching calendar” – it may well be but how does one verify that claim, I wonder?

5. And, finally, two songs from the Playing for Change team https://www.playingforchange.com/ Oye Como Va https://youtu.be/NJZW8U9bbmM and Guantanamera https://youtu.be/blUSVALW_Z4