Roy Cross's Blog

1. Schools in the UK often exclude difficult pupils, usually for no better reason than they want to ensure their school’s performance stats are not damaged by poor exam results or frequent absence from school. Good piece here from The Guardian suggesting that this state of affairs needs to change https://www.theguardian.com/education/2022/jan/31/schools-should-be-ranked-on-exclusions-as-well-as-gcses-say-experts  

2.This piece by Jamie Medwell from Tribune is about a worryingly similarly dehumanising practice, explaining how you can now be sacked by an algorithm https://tribunemag.co.uk/2022/01/amazon-algorithm-human-resource-management-tech-worker-surveillance

We ourselves have an app called ‘MyHR’ at work that has a ‘terminate’ function …

3. First of two pieces today from Stephen Downes’s daily newsletter, OLDaily, a list of educational YouTube channels https://www.reddit.com/r/edtech/comments/sit1xq/i_made_a_list_of_educational_youtube_channels/

Lots of great stuff, including a site devoted to picking locks, but not a single site specifically devoted to languages or literacy, or not that I noticed.

You can sign up to OLDaily (Online Learning Daily) for yourself here https://downes.ca/

4. Improving Cognitive Presence in Online Discussions in Large Enrolment Courses is the title of the second piece (which means ‘how to help students pay more attention in class’.)

Summary here https://blog.ascilite.org/improving-cognitive-presence-in-online-discussions-in-large-enrolment-courses/

and original article by Janet Mannheimer Zydney et al., Enhancing online protocols through design-based research to improve cognitive presence in a large enrolment course, here https://ajet.org.au/index.php/AJET/article/view/5994/1799

PDF below. Don’t let the title put you off.

5. I’m pretty sure I’ve recommended the Oxford English Dictionary ‘word of the day’ before but I make no apology for doing so again https://www.oed.com/view/Entry/132823

You can sign up for yourself here https://www.oed.com/emailupdates

Wonderfully lo-tech – if the list server ain’t bust, don’t fix it!

6. And, finally and more light-heartedly than some items above, a review of James Joyce’s Ulysses on its first publication one hundred years ago https://www.theguardian.com/books/2022/feb/02/james-joyces-ulysses-reviewed-observer-1922

1. Great title for the next talk in the Reading University Applied Linguistics Research Circle series by Maria Sabaté-Dalmau from the University of Lleida, ‘I speak small’: Unequal Englishes and transnational identities among Ghanaian migrants in Catalonia Contact Rodney Jones if you’d like to attend r.h.jones@reading.ac.uk

Sometimes it suits Ghanaian migrants to disclaim any knowledge of English – ‘I speak small English’; on other occasions, however, they claim native speaker superiority over local Catalan people. PDF of abstract below.

2. ‘Haemorrhaging: why some words are so easy to mispronounce (and why that could be a good thing)’ is the title of a piece in The Conversation prompted by the Scottish MP Ian Blackford getting his tongue in a tangle in Parliament last week https://theconversation.com/haemorrhaging-why-some-words-are-so-easy-to-mispronounce-and-why-that-could-be-a-good-thing-175746

And while we’re at it, how are the following names pronounced – Featherstonhaugh, Cholmondeley, Mainwaring?

3. Iscriverti qui for the next talk in the Eaquals multilingual series at 16:30 on Wednesday 9th February, Applicare la metodologia Dogme all’italiano — idee pratiche con Giulia Brazzale https://www.eaquals.org/eaquals-events/event/applicare-la-metodologia-dogme-allitaliano-idee-pratiche/

“La metodologia Dogme, nata all’interno dell’insegnamento della lingua inglese a stranieri, si incentra sulla comunicazione e sulle strutture linguistiche “emergenti”. ma può essere applicata all’italiano, con la sua grammatica complessa? In questo webinar porterò la mia esperienza nell’utilizzare questa tecnica con studenti di italiano come lingua straniera, i suoi vantaggi e svantaggi, e quello che ho appreso dall’esperienza.”

4. And, finally, watch Boris Johnson get the Dame Edna treatment https://youtu.be/WTIOWecB1ao  Dame Edna Everage is one of Australian actor Barry Humphries’ two most famous comic creations, the other being (non-) cultural attaché Sir Les Patterson https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barry_Humphries  

1. I was worried this would be a monster file but it’s not too bad (5 Mb): the OECD report on How Learning Continued during the COVID-19 Pandemic with forty-five ‘education continuity stories’ from round the world https://www.oecd-ilibrary.org/education/how-learning-continued-during-the-covid-19-pandemic_bbeca162-en  PDF below.

2. This one is a bit of a monster file (11 Mb): Prioritizing Learning During COVID-19: The Most Effective Ways to Keep Children Learning is the title of the latest report by the Global Education Evidence Advisory Panel. Download and video of the launch of the report here https://live.worldbank.org/prioritizing-learning-during-covid-19

There’s a useful timetable of the webinar about 4:15 into the video and Jaime Saavedra from the World Bank (who seems to have grown a (much more) distinguished grey beard (than mine) since we last met) does a useful analysis of the ‘scale of the problem’ roughly five minutes in – one year of school closure equals pretty much one year’s loss of learning.

PDF below if that survives your e-mail system’s attachment size limit.

3. Why Wordle Works, According to Desmos Lesson Developers is the title of a blog post by Dan Meyer https://danmeyer.substack.com/p/why-wordle-works-according-to-desmos “Teachers should steal all of this”, says Dan.

4. “Adriatic Splendor (sic)” is a period piece from 1955 about Croatia & Yugoslavia https://youtu.be/H7eOSJhA2tA sent to me earlier today by the friend who met me on my arrival in Zagreb in 1979 (only a few years later).

5. And, finally and with some trepidation about exactly how PC this is, here’s Norm McDonald’s Professor of Logic joke https://youtu.be/Oseqh7SMIvo Look away now if you suffer from coulrophobia, this week’s phobia.

This edition is sponsored by the World Economic Forum – if only!

1. Here’s Bill Gates and John Kerry in conversation about climate change at the World Economic Forum, both of them guardedly enthusiastic about what COP26 in Glasgow achieved https://www.weforum.org/videos/climate-action-can-save-the-planet-if-plans-are-followed-through-says-john-kerry-and-bill-gates Good clear soundtrack that lends itself well to a variety of listening activities.

2. Also from the WEF, a thought-provoking short video on the cost of net-zero https://www.weforum.org/videos/the-cost-of-net-zero-is-in-the-trillions-according-to-new-mckinsey-report

3. According to the European Commission, cities cover just 3% of land on Earth, yet they produce around 72% of all global greenhouse gas emissions. Our electric future depends on cities. Here’s why https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2022/01/electric-future-cities-transport-net-zero/

4. I can’t imagine that climate will not be a big part of the conversation between Diane Coyle and Anthony Painter at the RSA this Thursday at 13:00 UK time, What is economics – and what should it be? More info and registration here https://www.thersa.org/events/2022/02/what-is-economics-and-what-should-it-be

5. And, finally and worryingly, both for drinkers and producers, a piece in The Conversation on the impact of climate change on coffee https://theconversation.com/coffee-may-become-more-scarce-and-expensive-thanks-to-climate-change-new-research-175766

Late home this evening from the inaugural meeting of the London TESOL Research Forum, ably spearheaded (his word) by Jim McKinley ...

1. More research: TIRF is The International Research Foundation (for English Language Education) https://www.tirfonline.org/ The winner of their Alatis Prize for ‘Research in Language Policy and Planning in Educational Contexts’ this year was Chris Chang-Bacon from the University of Virginia with his paper “Generation Interrupted: Rethinking ‘Students with Interrupted Formal Education’ (SIFE) in the Wake of a Pandemic” PDF below and more readable than that title might suggest.

2. David Nunan is a TIRF trustee. Here’s his slightly more than two-minute answer to the question, What’s the Point of Education? https://youtu.be/0xS6tcAwha0 David’s talk is the first in a new series of TIRF Talks, slightly curiously billed as ‘talks by some of the most prolific (my emphasis) speakers in the ELT community’.

3. You may need to register to download your own copy of this McKinsey paper, Bias busters: A better way to brainstorm https://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/strategy-and-corporate-finance/our-insights/bias-busters-a-better-way-to-brainstorm PDF below just in case you can’t be bothered …

4. Early notice of this Sheffield University course, A Corpus Course for Teachers, which starts on 21st February https://trainingfoundry.co.uk/corpus-course-for-teachers/ to give you time to apply for one of the scholarships they offer https://trainingfoundry.co.uk/a-corpus-course-for-teachers-scholarship-application/

5. And, finally, how about a little TEFL equity? https://teflequityadvocates.com/  Here’s an interview with the founder of TEFL Equity Advocates, Marek Kiczkowiak https://youtu.be/LncjzSThBGY

Some reading, watching and listening for the weekend …

1. A blog post by Barnaby Lenon from the University of Buckingham on the use of textbooks – or not – in the UK https://educationblog.buckingham.ac.uk/2021/05/16/why-are-english-schools-not-using-textbooks-by-professor-barnaby-lenon/

“In England 10% of 10-year olds are issued textbooks; in South Korea – 99%. In secondary science 8% of pupils in England are issued with textbooks compared to 88% in South Korea, 92% in Taiwan. Why are English schools not using textbooks?”

Other posts here https://educationblog.buckingham.ac.uk/

2. Another Australian TV programme on education, this time from the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC), on Why Finland’s schools outperform most others across the developed world  https://youtu.be/7xCe2m0kiSg

3. Another ABC film, about Eddie Woo, the maths teacher you wish you’d had in high school https://youtu.be/SjIHB8WzJek

and here’s Eddie’s TEDxSidney talk, Mathematics is the sense you never knew you had, in which he suggests that “I love mathematics!” is a great conversational gambit for the next party you go to https://youtu.be/PXwStduNw14

4. Two pieces with Irina Dumitrescu from Cologne University:

the first one an LRB podcast where Irina talks about the book ‘Memory Speaks: On losing and reclaiming language and self’ by Julie Sedivy (31:35 into the podcast, if you’re not interested in Antonio Tabucchi) https://play.acast.com/s/tlsvoices/aconstantstateofforeignness

and the second a ‘long read’ of hers about daughters and fathers and students and professors and fathers who are professors https://longreads.com/2021/11/17/the-professor/

5. And, finally and thanks to Amy Lightfoot, a new one to add to our list of wacky acronyms: EAGLE countries. Is your country an EAGLE? Find out here https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emerging_and_growth-leading_economies

1. Language Log is the blog of the University of Pennsylvania’s Institute for Research in Cognitive Science. Here’s a recent post on the story of Creation and the subsequent Great Flood from south-west China, as told in Naxi ‘pictographic writing’ https://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=53387

More posts here, including one on the ‘magical floor shaker’, which is increasingly popular in China. Not yet available here in the UK, alas, where Amazon asks politely if you’ve misspelled ‘flour shaker’.

2. Thanks to Melanie Butler for this one: Is your dog bilingual? A new study suggests their brains can tell languages apart https://www.npr.org/2022/01/06/1070710852/is-your-dog-bilingual-a-new-study-suggests-their-brains-can-tell-languages-apart?t=1643044317208 Great photo of Kun Kun the dog calmly waiting for an MRI scan wearing headphones!

3. I’m not completely sure how multilingual (or not) the education system in Singapore is in practice. There’s certainly a lot of English medium education in this watchable video about education in Singapore from Australia’s Special Broadcasting Service (SBS) https://youtu.be/_aB9Tg6SRA0

SBS was founded in 1978, in response to large-scale immigration into Australia, “to provide multilingual and multicultural radio and television services that inform, educate and entertain all Australians and, in doing so, reflect Australia’s multicultural society”.

4. I’ve mentioned the Abidjan Principles, which address ‘the human rights obligations of States to provide public education and to regulate private involvement in education’ before https://www.abidjanprinciples.org/ and private education is an area where English as the language of learning and teaching is often – not always – a willing accomplice. Here’s a new short video about the Principles which doesn’t pull its punches https://youtu.be/Kzqandgh1k0

5. And, finally and possibly related, here’s some food for thought on philanthropy https://youtu.be/7SXV05834Mw

1. First of two today from Lancaster University: next Friday, 4^th February, at 13:00 UK time, Jennifer Rowsell from Bristol University will be giving the first of this term’s Lancaster Literacy Research Centre talks, on ‘Research creation during a pandemic’.

In Jennifer’s own words, “During the 2020 pandemic I struggled as a researcher at heart because the whole notion of ‘going into the field’ became challenging if not impossible. Of course, the urgency and uncertainty of the pandemic disrupted familiar research practices because the world was in crisis. But I had the good fortune to engage in a digital/analogue research creation project by sheer serendipity with Harriet Hand and Mark Shillitoe that led to one of the most fascinating research journeys I have experienced to date”.

More info and registration here https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/research-creation-during-a-pandemic-tickets-228954167077

2. Number two from Lancaster, from their Language, Ideology and Power Research Group: at 12:00 UK time tomorrow, Thursday 27^th January, Caroline Staquet from The University of Ghent will be talking about ‘Research as a Policy Instrument? Critically Deconstructing the Outset of CLIL Research in European Language Policy’. If you’d like to join, contact Johnny Unger at j.unger@lancaster.ac.uk. (I’m not quite sure what ‘outset’ means in Caroline’s title: once deconstructed that may be clearer.)

PDF of full programme for this term below – Tamsin Parnell’s talk on 3^rd February looks interesting.

3. One of the speakers at today’s Embedding Resilience webinar was Jonathan Dando from Oak National Academy. Stacks of free stuff on their website here https://www.thenational.academy/

Interestingly, Oak managed to do a deal with all the big UK internet providers for data-free access to their site, so downloading lesson materials didn’t hit family data budgets.

I must confess to being distracted this afternoon by the perfect  Dando eyebrows – was anyone else?

4. I was talking yesterday to colleagues at the Open University about their ReMaLiC project, which seeks to explore and understand marginalisation in education and the roles that English and technology play in intensifying or alleviating that marginalisation. Good, concise description here http://www.open.ac.uk/blogs/REMALIC/index.php/about/

5. Some claim that this week’s phobia, arachnophobia, is the most common of all worldwide. I find that a little hard to believe – and my own spheksophobia is much more debilitating!

6. And, finally, a reminder: ¡Mañana comienza el Hay Festival Cartagena de Indias 2022! https://www.hayfestival.com/cartagena/home

1. Climate Questions is a weekly BBC podcast. Here’s all the full episodes https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/w13xtvb6/episodes/player and here’s a page of short clips, two- to three-minutes long, that might work quite well in the classroom https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/w13xtvb6/clips

Here’s an audio clip from Behavioural changes that helped stop Cape Town running out of water https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/p098g3xh

and here’s a video clip from Why are we still buying the world’s most polluting car? which ends with the question, Would you give up your car to save the planet? https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p09gd2hl 

2. Here’s the food episode of the TILclimate (Today I Learned: Climate) podcast from MIT, Today I Learned About What I Eat https://climate.mit.edu/til-about-what-eat-educator%20guide Each episode of the podcast is about fifteen minutes long and is accompanied by an ‘educator guide’ https://climate.mit.edu/sites/default/files/2022-01/TILclimate%20What%20I%20Eat%20Educator%20Guide%20FULL.pdf (You can also download teacher notes and student activities separately.)

Two key take-aways? 30% of all food in the USA gets wasted and over 40% (!) of the land is used for raising livestock for food.

In addition, there’s a general guide to using TILclimate materials https://climate.mit.edu/sites/default/files/2021-08/How%20to%20Use%20TILclimate%20Educator%20Guides.pdf PDFs of both ‘What I Eat’ educator guide and general guide below.

3. Here’s an accessible fifteen-minute talk by Ros Rickaby from Oxford University, Can we remove carbon from the atmosphere? https://youtu.be/xnKweoDkoJ0 (The video starts three minutes in.)

4. Here’s a longer read from the new issue of International Affairs on Researching climate justice: a decolonial approach to global climate governance by Jan Wilkens and Alvine R. C. Datchoua-Tirvaudey https://academic.oup.com/ia/article/98/1/125/6484828 PDF below as well.

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5. And, finally, if you tasted – survived? – some of those obsessive coffee videos last Tuesday, here’s a similarly detailed (written) account of fashionable ‘bean-to-bar’ chocolate from the Vittles food blog. Spoiler alert: much of it is far from bean-to-bar https://vittles.substack.com/p/the-perils-and-promise-of-bean-to

1. ‘Embedding resilience’ is the title of the next British Council Education Exchange event, with speakers from Nigeria, Moldova, India, the USA and the UK. More info – worth following up the links embedded – and registration here https://www.britishcouncil.org/education/schools/education-exchange-digital-events/embedding-resilience See if you can spot which speaker wrote their own blurb!

2. Here’s Alexandra Mihai’s latest blog post, Time to reboot and start the new semester https://educationalist.substack.com/p/time-to-reboot-and-start-the-new

In Alexandra’s own words: “At this point, it’s really difficult to talk about innovation and personal development. Most of us are simply hanging on and trying to plough through what feels like endless tasks, day after day. So, this week I’m not aiming to cover a new, exciting topic and lure you into adding something else on your list. Instead, I put together a list of 10 teaching-related things you could do at the start of the new semester. They range from very specific activities related to your course to broader pedagogical endeavours that you can of course continue throughout the semester. You can read this newsletter as a reminder, a “note to self”, a checklist and most of all a gentle nudge to reflect.”

As ever, a good list of resources at the end of her post, including this ‘Reflection Toolkit’ from Edinburgh University https://www.ed.ac.uk/reflection  

3. If words are what turn you (or a colleague on), you might like to take a look at the A S Hornby Educational Trust’s ASHDRA dictionary research awards “for research that leads to clear practical benefits for learners of English” https://www.hornby-trust.org.uk/projects#ASHDRADictionaryResearchAwards

4. And, finally, some ‘visualisations’ of Which Values Children Should Be Encouraged to Learn, By Country from Anders Sundell https://www.visualcapitalist.com/cp/which-values-children-should-learn-by-country/

Some big differences between countries, not all of them ones you might have expected: who’d have thought that obedience would be least valued in children in Japan? Not me!