Roy Cross's Blog

1. This piece of research, reported on in The Guardian, puzzles me. England state school pupils as happy with life as private school peers is the headline https://www.theguardian.com/education/2022/apr/07/england-state-school-pupils-as-happy-with-life-as-private-school-peers-survey

But what do you make of this? “Those who attended fee-paying independent schools did report higher levels of life satisfaction in their 20s. But after responses were adjusted to exclude the effects of advantages such as higher income, house ownership and better exam results, the researchers again found no substantial differences in satisfaction levels.” Perverse, surely, to exclude the ways in which the alumni of fee-paying schools live a better life – higher income, house ownership, better exam results – and then conclude that state school pupils are just as satisfied with life?

Maybe I’m missing the point …

2. A new FutureLearn MOOC likely to be of wide interest, I think, begins on Monday 25^th April Dyslexia and language teaching MOOC https://www.futurelearn.com/courses/dyslexia/8

“Learn more about dyslexia, and gain practical teaching tools and insights to help dyslexic students learn foreign languages.”

3. We should all be eating more pepper, it seems https://theconversation.com/black-pepper-healthy-or-not-179815

My assumption is that many of these pieces from The Conversation lend themselves quite well to use in class with older students – let me know if that’s the wrong assumption, please!

4. And, finally, today’s poetry for Ukraine comes from episode 45 of the Books for Breakfast podcast, which features two Ukrainian poems: ‘Crow, Wheels’ by  Lyuba Yakimchuk, and ‘We Lived Happily During the War’  by Ilya Kaminsky https://www.buzzsprout.com/1162427/10281667-45-wendy-erskine-ukrainian-poetry

All the episodes of Books for Breakfast here https://www.buzzsprout.com/1162427

1. My British Council colleague in Lima, Ralph Grayson, is looking for a consultant to develop resource packs to accompany recordings of the plenary sessions from the recent BBELT conference. More details here https://pe.live.solas.britishcouncil.digital/sites/default/files/280322_tor_new_ways_of_teaching_academic_consultant.pdf

Nothing ventured, nothing gained?

2. Another colleague from The Americas, Graham Stanley, had an interesting conversation with Emma Rodgers of Little Bridge https://www.littlebridge.com/ about Educational Technology and Children on his Teachers Talk Radio show on Tuesday https://teacherstalkradio.podbean.com/e/the-morning-break-with-graham-stanley-05-04-22-educational-technology-and-children/

3. I can’t make the link to the PDF of this article, Mapping the emergence of a gender gap in English in Rwandan primary and secondary schools, by Alphonse Uworwabayeho, Lizzi O. Milligan and Harry Kuchah Kuchah work http://www.iier.org.au/iier31/uworwabayeho-abs.html Harry could, though – PDF below!

4. The April issue of HLT has just arrived, with its usual rich range of articles https://www.hltmag.co.uk/apr22/ including the first mention of suggestopedia for many a long year (that I’ve heard, at least) https://www.hltmag.co.uk/apr22/effect-of-suggestopedia-method

PDF of the contents of this issue below.

5. And, finally, a lively podcast from PoliticsHome, How damaged is Boris Johnson’s reputation? https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/the-rundown-how-damaged-is-boris-johnsons-reputation/id1205139782?i=1000556611957

Even Teflon wears out over time, doesn’t it?

1. How can I use different languages in my teaching? is the title of the latest episode in the TeachingEnglish podcast series by Chris Sowton and Kris Dyer https://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/article/british-council-teachingenglish-episode-8-how-can-i-use-different-languages-my-teaching

“Students’ home languages should be seen as assets in the English language classroom – but all too often they are viewed as problematic and detrimental.”

2. The next in Universitas Negeri Jakarta’s monthly Zoominar programme is next Thursday, 14^th April at 10:00 UK time: Obaid Hamid from the University of Queensland will be talking about Writing as Social Action and Learner Engagement in Online Classes.

“This presentation will illustrate ‘writing as social action’ in teaching a group of school students from Bangladesh in a weekly zoom class. Named ‘Unliving English’, the class was initiated during the pandemic and was conducted from Australia. It will be argued that the non-curricular teaching provided an ideal space for exploring writing for social and humanistic causes beyond typical linguistic and cognitive goals; it was also highly engaging for students.”

Zoom meeting ID 916 0784 2063 and password PASCAUNJ.

3. How racism manifests itself in NGO culture and structures is the first of two blog posts for BOND https://www.bond.org.uk/ by Lena Bheeroo and Andres Gomez de la Torre, looking at culture and structures inside of NGOs and the discrimination it exacerbates https://www.bond.org.uk/news/2022/04/how-racism-manifests-itself-in-ngo-culture-and-structures

Good iceberg analogy!

4. There’s a poetry reading, The Pity of War, in solidarity with Ukraine next Monday, 11^th April at 17:00 UK time with Alan Maley, Kimwei McCarthy, Charlie Hadfield, Jill Hadfield, Sharoon Sunny, Vishnu Rai Singh, Vahid Nimehchisalem, Sana Khan, Andrew Wright, John Liddy, Gerard Hocmard, and Michael Swan.

Registration here: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZ0qdOuhqTstG9GiOSTAUF1J0BwADYhzPHau?timezone_id=Europe%2FLondon

5. And, finally, here’s a tour by mini-drone (weight 250g!) of my hometown, Richmond, courtesy of my friend from Dundas Street infants school, Andrew https://youtu.be/Orc95lud0rU

1. Is education policymaking also being privatised? is the title of the latest Global Education Monitoring (GEM) blog post by Christopher Lubienski https://world-education-blog.org/2022/04/04/is-education-policymaking-also-being-privatised/ Illustrated with a very straightforward cartoon!

2. The next Eaquals webinar is at 10:00 UK time, next Tuesday, 12^th April: Quality Hybrid Language Teaching with Robert Hanley. More info and registration (on different tabs) here https://www.eaquals.org/eaquals-events/event/quality-hybrid-language-teaching/ I made something of a mess of a hybrid session about a month ago, so I’m especially keen to join this.

3. Time for another visit to the UKFIET blog? Why not! https://www.ukfiet.org/blog/ Includes Margo O’Sullivan on teacher absenteeism https://www.ukfiet.org/2022/teacher-absenteeism-and-childrens-learning-the-elephant-in-the-classroom/ and Abdirizak Haybe Ali on the impact of drought on education https://www.ukfiet.org/2022/how-looming-drought-is-devastating-education-in-the-somali-region-of-ethiopia/

4. Do monomaniacs suffer from this week’s phobia, monophobia, I wonder?

5. Scroll down on the left-hand side to the Robin Robertson poem, On Time https://poets.org/poem-a-day Alternative direct link here, if it works better https://dcs.megaphone.fm/POETS7760339994.mp3?key=2c1350aa9e54847480ceb31fcfde3dae Be sure to listen to Robin’s brief explanation of the poem after his reading.

1. ELTsustainable was founded in 2012 by Owain Llewellyn. Its aim is to “help teachers empower learners to engage in the international dialogue around sustainability in their language learning journey and beyond” https://eltsustainable.org/

Owain offers a Language Teaching for the Planet ‘mini course’ https://eltsustainable.thinkific.com/courses/language-teaching-for-the-planet-mini-course

and a host of attractive and engaging lesson plans, including this one produced for International Women’s Day https://eltsustainable.org/2019/03/08/international-womens-day-environment-language-lesson/

2. Christopher Graham gave a talk at Oxford University Press’s ELTOC last month on The global climate emergency, English teaching and me: recording here https://youtu.be/-inBskAJHyc

Chris begins by discussing the negative impacts of day-to-day ELT activities on the environment (energy, paper consumption, flights) and some ways of reducing this impact and making schools greener places to learn and continues with a look at how we can work with our students to integrate climate topics into our classes, as a way of equipping the students to engage with the crisis.

3. Cambridge won’t readily let Oxford steal a march on them (only in Saturday’s Boat Race), and they also offer a wide range of climate materials on their website. This blog post by Jade Blue, which signposts a wide range of climate materials and websites from Cambridge University Press and others, is a great place to start https://www.cambridge.org/elt/blog/2021/11/06/resources-for-teaching-climate-change/

and this post by Katie Back has links to all the material Cambridge produced for COP26 https://www.cambridge.org/elt/blog/2021/11/11/climate-change-week-an-article-round-up/

4. Here’s a nice clear piece on the Waste hierarchy from Genan, who recycle tyres https://www.genan.eu/sustainability/climate/ I confess to finding this completely by accident – did you know that ELT also stands for ‘end-life-tyres’?

5. And, finally, today’s poem for Ukraine is ‘Resistance’ by Simon Armitage Here’s the poem https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/mar/11/resistance-by-simon-armitage-ukraine-poem and here’s a piece about the poem https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/mar/11/poet-laureate-simon-armitage-writes-ukraine-war-poem-resistance

1. Starting on 18^th April, Migrants and Refugees in Education: A toolkit for teachers https://www.futurelearn.com/courses/migrants-and-refugees-in-education “Learn how to teach and support young people across the globe affected by violence, conflict, or displacement.”

Something that more of us may find ourselves doing than we’d have anticipated three months ago? Three hours a week for four weeks.

2. However, a related ‘but’ – and quite a big but – lies behind the argument of this piece from Chatham House Ukraine exposes Europe’s double standards for refugees https://www.chathamhouse.org/2022/03/ukraine-exposes-europes-double-standards-refugees

Also from Chatham House and written by its director, Robin Niblett, Global Britain in a divided world https://www.chathamhouse.org/2022/03/global-britain-divided-world PDF below.

“The government must now prioritize rebuilding its relationship with the EU; leverage the G7 to avoid being side-lined by closer US–EU cooperation; and give greater strategic purpose to its trade agenda. It also needs to follow through on its commitments to support the resilience of the international community, or it will fail to live up to its goal of launching a truly global Britain.”

3. 372 articles so far and counting – The Conversation’s archive of pieces on the invasion of Ukraine https://theconversation.com/uk/topics/ukraine-invasion-2022-117045

4. No fewer than six poems for Ukraine today, courtesy of The Calvert Journal https://www.calvertjournal.com/articles/show/12137/contemporary-ukrainian-poems

5. And, finally, for lovers of Cuban music but not just for them, a documentary on the roots of ‘Son Cubano’ https://youtu.be/8SP1qICCCnc

Some reading for the weekend, with something for everyone, I hope …

1. Another free book to download in the Cambridge University Press Elements in Language Teaching series edited by Heath Rose and Jim McKinley, Technology and Language Teaching by Ursula Stickler https://www.cambridge.org/core/elements/technology-and-language-teaching/31B1CC3D298097FA2BCE89A3F0EAC00A

“Step-by-step, teachers are shown how to make decisions about the choice and usage of online tools, how to adapt their pedagogy and teaching strategies to fit with online learning environments, and how to create a positive learning experience for their students.”

PDF below. No jokes about the author and the rules, please.

2. Today’s poem for Ukraine is February 23rd, 2022, by Danyil Zadorozhnyi https://www.wordswithoutborders.org/article/march-2022-ukraine-february-23rd-2022 written as a deliberate echo of the poem by W H Auden, September 1, 1939, with its famous line, “We must love one another or die”. Text of the Zadorozhnyi poem here, with PDFs of both poems below.

February 23rd, 2022

“trees—that’s what I lack most of all,” she says

“you have so few of them here in Lviv

Donetsk, though, was a green city

greenery all around”

but I didn’t know that

I was young, never spent much time there,

never valued people or the county until after it happened

“second time I’ve lost my home,” she utters with hatred

“officially, this time”

and I get her

and I don’t

hugging her

my mom’s concerned there’ll be tons of internally displaced persons

where will we put them all up, she asks

I don’t mind, but I don’t have any space

except in your room, if you want

containing my emotions, I elect empathy, saying

I get you

but it’s too early to talk about that

though I actually think it’s too late

if we’re only talking about this now

so, being kind constantly is very hard, tricky

but easy and at times the only thing someone can want

and if the war, not just any war, came to our home

and we had to flee to another city in another part of the country

I’d like to be helped there

not for the people there to make xenophobic comments on the internet

trying to catch my kids speaking the wrong language

twisting my wife’s tongue—she’s from Belarus, for heaven’s sake, seeking shelter here

if only I had the money to rent three of the four rooms in the apartment

with old landlords and Soviet furniture

Danyil Zadorozhnyi

(translated by Yuliya Charnyshova and Isaac Stackhouse Wheeler)

3. Barry Gifford was completely unknown to me till yesterday. Here’s a short, one-thousand-word story of his, Joy Fun, courtesy of Seven Stories Press https://sevenstories.com/blogs/257-joy-fun-an-excerpt-from-barry-gifford-s-new-book-the-boy-who-ran-away-to-sea

4. You might need to be a Philip Larkin fan to appreciate these memories of him from alumni of Hull University, where he served for thirty years as university librarian https://hullalumni.me/2022/03/25/memories-of-larkin-part-one-i-wish-to-apply-for-the-post-of-university-librarian/ See what you think.

5. And, finally, a good long read from The Guardian, How south London became a talent factory for Black British footballers https://www.theguardian.com/football/2022/mar/31/south-london-crucible-for-black-british-footballers

1. English Pronunciation For A Global World: An Introduction by Ee-Ling Low from Nanyang University in Singapore is the latest blog post on the OUP (Oxford University Press) website https://oupeltglobalblog.com/2022/03/09/english-pronunciation-introduction/#more-16326

Well worth registering on their site, I think – gives you access to lots of useful stuff, including their most recent ‘position paper’, on Using Technology to Motivate Learners, that I’ve presumed to download on your behalf, to encourage you to register in your own right – I hope that logic is good! PDF below. Other position papers here https://elt.oup.com/feature/global/expert/?cc=us&selLanguage=en

2. The first two of six episodes of Foreign Policy’s special podcast series in partnership with UNHCR on refugees and forcibly displaced people, Escaping Conflict and Healing the Body are now available https://foreignpolicy.com/podcasts/course-correction/ Less grey and male than some foreign policy podcasts (says a grey male).

3. Just in this afternoon, this one: The Center for Multilingualism in Society across the Lifespan (MultiLing) at Oslo University is hosting a public lecture by Maria Coady from the University of Florida on “Engaged Collaboration for Multilingual Student Learning” at 13:15 UK time next Wednesday, 6^th April. More info here if, like me, you’re not quite sure what to make of that title https://www.hf.uio.no/multiling/english/news-and-events/events/guest-lectures-seminars/2022/Maria_Coady.html and (mandatory) registration here  https://nettskjema.no/a/251664#/page/1

4. Why does it feel so good to use bad language? a CrowdScience show from BBC World Service https://youtu.be/q42-oUHUviM “We set out to explore the science of swearing, prompted by a question from CrowdScience listener Gadi. Psychological studies have shown bad language can relieve pain, or even make us stronger; we test out these theories for ourselves and try to figure out why certain words are charged with such physical power.”

I still remember the shock I felt back in 1979 when I first understood the literal meaning (which isn’t the whole story, of course) of what people were saying to each other on the tram in Zagreb, probably best translated as ‘Why don’t you go back where you came from?’

Here’s the CrowdScience home page, with lots of short videos on a wide range of topics that should go down well in class, I think https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p04d42rc

5. And, finally, today’s poem for Ukraine is Wilfred Owen’s famous (here in the UK) sonnet, Anthem for Doomed Youth (PDF below as well.)

Anthem for Doomed Youth

What passing-bells for these who die as cattle?

      — Only the monstrous anger of the guns.

      Only the stuttering rifles’ rapid rattle

Can patter out their hasty orisons.

No mockeries now for them; no prayers nor bells;

      Nor any voice of mourning save the choirs,—

The shrill, demented choirs of wailing shells;

      And bugles calling for them from sad shires.

What candles may be held to speed them all?

      Not in the hands of boys, but in their eyes

Shall shine the holy glimmers of goodbyes.

      The pallor of girls’ brows shall be their pall;

Their flowers the tenderness of patient minds,

And each slow dusk a drawing-down of blinds.

Wilfred Owen

1. Something I missed on first publication, good and thorough and well worth an initial skim before returning to the bits that pique your interest, the EU Communities of Practice Playbook https://op.europa.eu/en/publication-detail/-/publication/9d18431e-1a88-11ec-b4fe-01aa75ed71a1/language-en

If it does what it says on the tin, that’ll do for me: “Communities of practice can bring groups with different knowledge perspectives together and can strengthen their capacity to work and learn creatively together while harnessing the collective intelligence in the organisation to deliver integrated policy work and overcome silo mentalities.” PDF below.

2. The Good Country Index – the end of the selfish state seeks to measure an individual country’s nett contribution to the world – what it puts in, minus what it takes out – and then ranks countries according to their nett contribution https://issuu.com/medauras/docs/gci_1.5_edition

Their preface makes it clear that they’re aware that not all readers around the world will buy in to their methodology. See what you think! (No PDF for this one, alas.)

3. The latest newsletter from TeachingEnglish arrived in my inbox this morning. Scroll right down this page if you’d like to subscribe for yourself https://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/ and take a look at this one, Teaching pathways: Skills for remote teaching, in passing https://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/article/teaching-pathways-skills-remote-teaching

4. This week’s phobia, alektorophobia, may not be one that many of us suffer from, but if you do, I could imagine it’s not much fun at all.

5. Today’s poem for Ukraine is To Whom It May Concern by Adrian Mitchell. Here’s a video of the young Mitchell reading his poem https://youtu.be/U3bVJAe8xVY and here’s him reading the poem later in life https://youtu.be/L31cJ4xE_3g There’s also a PDF below.

If you’d like to buy The Pity of War, Alan Maley’s anthology of poetry for Ukraine, and support charities working with Ukrainian refugees, you can do so here https://payhip.com/b/uPZO4

Blog version:

Climate stuff later in the week – the cupboard is shamefully bare this evening!

1. Short notice of this one, sorry: Donald H Taylor is leading a session for eLearning Africa at 13:30 UK time tomorrow, Wednesday 30th March, on Challenge and change – the African view of L&D in 2022. More info and registration here https://zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_Rel2LfKMQu-62QVqeVii8A

“Last year, L&D globally was dominated by the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic. What has changed this year, as we emerge from its impact? The answer: everything has changed, and nothing has. Technology, expectations and much more has altered over the past two years, but organisational focus is still very much on delivering training, rather than helping people learn …”

2. If you missed Andy Hockley’s very well-received webinar for NATESOL last Saturday, From Teacher to Manager, you’ll find the recording here https://youtu.be/dh1s1vuGAWs

In his talk, Andy looked at some of the reasons why you might want to take on a management role, some of the skills that you will need, how you might acquire them, and some routes that you might take. He also looked at some of the challenges that you might expect to face in moving into management.

But please don’t all leave the classroom at once!

3. Universities are still the future of higher education says Tom Worthington in his blog post reviewing a report by Ernst & Young that suggests otherwise, Are universities of the past still the future?’ https://blog.highereducationwhisperer.com/2022/03/universities-are-still-future-of-higher.html EY report here https://www.ey.com/en_gl/education/are-universities-of-the-past-still-the-future and PDF below, so you can make up your own mind about the future value of universities.

4. My colleague Adam recognised last night’s poem for Ukraine, Refugees, instantly as one by Brian Bilston, ‘the poet laureate of Twitter’. Here’s another of Mr Bilston’s poems, on a much less serious topic

No, You Cannot Borrow My Phone Charger

Help yourself to whatever

you’d like from my larder;

my stilton, my sherry –

or my port, if you’d rather –

but, no, you cannot borrow

my mobile phone charger.

If you want I will read you

an ancient Norse saga,

or dance naked in public

to Radio Gaga,

but, no, you cannot borrow

my mobile phone charger.

Make me learn the speeches

of President Carter,

force-feed me quinoa

until I grow larger,

but, no, you cannot borrow

my mobile phone charger.

You can beg all you want

but I’m not going to barter

because, no, you cannot borrow

my mobile phone charger.

PDF below and here’s the piece about Mr Bilston in The Irish Times that Adam sent me where I found that poem https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/books/brian-bilston-the-poet-laureate-of-twitter-1.2600316

5. And, finally, here’s today’s poem for Ukraine, August 1968 by W H Auden, written in response to the Russian invasion of Czechoslovakia. (PDF below, too.)

August 1968

The Ogre does what ogres can,

Deeds quite impossible for Man,

But one prize is beyond his reach,

The Ogre cannot master Speech:

About a subjugated plain,

Among its desperate and slain,

The Ogre stalks with hands on hips,

While drivel gushes from his lips.

W H Auden