Roy Cross's Blog

1. Learnit has a number of good podcasts https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-learnit-podcast/id1518322612

Try Byju Raveendran on his eponymous EdTech company, Byju’s https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/12-byju-raveendran-byjus-one-most-valuable-edtech-companies/id1518322612?i=1000497453349

or Laura McInerney on the Teacher Tapp app she co-founded https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/30-laura-mcinerney-co-founder-teacher-tapp-what-we/id1518322612?i=1000528295330

What, if anything, should we make of the fact that the Indian cricket team are sponsored by an EdTech company, Byju’s, whereas the England team are sponsored by a ‘used car marketplace’, Cinch, I wonder?

2. The next lecture in the Leiden University Centre for Linguistics Language Policy and Practices in the Global North and South series is To speak or not to speak: Issues of language revitalization in Mexico by José Antonio Flores Farfán from Mexico’s National Centre for Social Anthropology Studies & Research (CIESAS) at 15:00 UK time on Wednesday, 20^th October.

More info and abstract here (also below) https://www.universiteitleiden.nl/en/events/2021/10/to-speak-or-not-to-speak-issues-of-language-revitalization-in-mexico and registration here https://universiteitleiden.zoom.us/meeting/register/u5Atf-CrrDIpHtTalMQ7CV6Kbm9DRFJtOmPh

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3. Language Cert are offering an online event for teachers (not to be confused with a webinar, please), Empowering teachers in the brave new digital world of ELT, with Nicky Hockly and John Hughes at 14:30 UK time this Wednesday, 20^th October.

More info here https://www.languagecert.org/en/about-us/events/2021/languagecert-teachers-online-event and registration here https://us06web.zoom.us/webinar/register/1816343063052/WN_dnSAjoH8Q4eJFXebsbzTpA

4. And, finally, in five daily episodes, starting today (but all available on BBC Sounds already), Bernardine Evaristo’s new book, Manifesto (read by Bernie herself) https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0010nfd/episodes/player

Piece about the book in The Guardian here https://www.theguardian.com/books/2021/oct/13/manifesto-by-bernardine-evaristo-review-a-rallying-cry which ends with a great quote!

1. I’ve mentioned the OASIS database from York University before https://oasis-database.org/?locale=en OASIS stands for Open Accessible Summaries in Language Studies (so, no, not quite a true acronym) and its mission is to make “research on language learning, use, and education available and accessible to a wide audience”.

Stacks of stuff on every linguistic subject under the sun in OASIS. Try a search for ‘effectiveness of teaching’: https://oasis-database.org/catalog?utf8=%E2%9C%93&locale=en&search_field=all_fields&q=effectiveness+of+teaching

2. I think I played with Lego as a child. (I’ve just checked that it wasn’t invented only fifty years ago.) The LEGO Foundation – funded from the profits on plastic bricks – promotes the development of all children everywhere through ‘playful learning’ https://www.legofoundation.com/en/

They’ve just published a report https://www.legofoundation.com/en/learn-how/knowledge-base/learning-through-play-increasing-impact-reducing-inequality/ on reducing inequality through play, of which they claim “this review expands both the geographic breadth and the scale of this evidence and explores the use of play in early childhood classroom and home-based educational interventions that have demonstrated causal impact on learning and the closing of achievement gaps.”

Their CEO, Anne-Birgitte Albrectsen, was interviewed recently by ECW https://ecw.exposure.co/qa-lego-foundation I like the phrase ‘playful learning’! PDF of both summary and full reports below.

 3. A reminder, neither polite nor impolite, that if you’d like to attend BBELT for free next year, you need to submit your paper proposal by 7^th November: https://www.britishcouncil.org.mx/en/events/bbelt-2022-connecting-teachers-empowering-learners

‘Polite reminders’, especially faux-polite reminders drive me mad …

4.And, finally, two bits of longer reading for the weekend.

The first, an accessibly technical piece on algorithms and the Facebook whistle-blower, Frances Haugen from the Technology Review https://www.technologyreview.com/2021/10/05/1036519/facebook-whistleblower-frances-haugen-algorithms/

Second, an Alun Francis piece on social mobility for the Policy Exchange thinktank that concludes that the solution is NOT just about getting disadvantaged pupils into elite educational establishments – well, not here in the UK at least! “There are evidently many examples of unfairness and inequality, but if social mobility is going to improve, policymakers are going to achieve little if they remain locked into a discussion about elites, and policy focusses only on who becomes part of it. They have to ask harder questions about the supply of opportunities and how they can be extended to a wider variety of people.” https://wonkhe.com/wp-content/wonkhe-uploads/2021/10/Alun-Francis-paper-for-media.pdf PDF below.

1. Multilingualism and Speech and Language Therapy is the title of Mirjam Blumenthal’s talk for the European Speech and Language Therapy Association next Thursday, 21^st October at 17:00 UK time. More info and registration here https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/multilingualism-and-speech-and-language-therapy-tickets-178912140027

“After a short introduction about bilingualism in child language acquisition, this webinar focuses on diagnostic work with multilingual children. Multilingual children need assessment in all the languages they speak/understand, ideally in all language aspects. Diagnostic instruments in many immigrant languages are rare, though.”

2. Also next Thursday, 21^st October, but at 15:00 UK time is the next ECML webinar, on a Roadmap for supporting the language(s) of schooling. More info and registration here https://www.ecml.at/Resources/Webinars/tabid/5456/language/en-GB/Default.aspx

“If you would like to find out about the benefits of a whole-school approach when it comes to the language of schooling, as well as tips on how to engage all stakeholders in your school community, then this webinar is for you.”

3. Mike Mena’s The social life of language website is a bit different: see what you make of it! https://www.sociallifeoflanguage.com/

Mike’s latest video investigates whether bilingualism/multilingualism gives people an economic advantage, and do bilinguals get better jobs and paid more?  https://youtu.be/ee9HoQS97_k

You can find all his videos on his YouTube channel here https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC7H1rLtG-2UOOVk_sD6uBUA

4. Here’s a piece from Monday’s HLT magazine on English as a Medium of Instruction (EMI): Developing Online and F2F Support Strategies at Verona University by Sharon Hartle and colleagues https://www.hltmag.co.uk/oct21/english-as-a-medium-of-instruction

“What emerged was a shifting of focus from lecturer linguistic competence to a concern for learner needs and what was innovative was the interest in combining traditional classroom practices with digital ones.”

5. And, finally, explore some of Canada’s indigenous languages here https://www.rcaanc-cirnac.gc.ca/eng/1621448126309/1621448142223

And here’s an article on Truth and Reconciliation: Preserving and revitalizing Indigenous languages by Jacquelyn LeBel which gives a bit of the background https://globalnews.ca/news/8231012/truth-and-reconciliation-indigenous-languages/

1. Here’s an article by Simon Borg on Video–based observation in impact evaluation https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0149718921001026?via%3Dihub Free of access, with a really useful bibliography containing links to a large number of related open-access articles. PDF below.

2. Full disclosure: I admit to being wholly non-objective about the IATEFL, English UK and British Council PRELIM project: it’s the best thing since sliced bread. I thought this webinar for Eaquals by Rose Aylett and Martyn Clarke on their report on PRELIM 1 was tremendous, and a highly recommended watch, especially if you’re thinking of applying for a PRELIM 2 grant https://www.eaquals.org/eaquals-events/event/rose-aylett-martyn-clarke-learning-partnerships-lessons-from-prelim/resources/

Thanks to Lou McLaughlin for making the recording available to non-members!

3. A technical but accessible piece from Emma Walland of Cambridge University Press and Assessment on Understanding grading, standards and grade inflation in England https://www.cambridge.org/news-and-insights/insights/grading-standards-blog2 Grade inflation is (perceived to be) a problem in many countries around the world, I think?

4. This week’s phobia is ergophobia, from which very few people reading these messages of mine suffer!

5. And, finally, this month’s Hay Festival book of the month is Bewilderment by Richard Powers, described as “an arresting tale about the need to keep those we love safe. Theo Byrne is a promising young astrobiologist who has found a way to search for life on other planets dozens of light years away. He is also the widowed father of a most unusual nine-year-old, whose fears he soothes with inner voyages to fantastical worlds”.

There’s a free online reading and Q&A with Powers at 19:00 UK time on Thursday 21^st October. More info and registration here https://www.hayfestival.com/book-of-the-month-october-2021

1. Both sides of the globe involved, exactly twelve hours apart, in this UK-Australia Higher Education Roundtable at 09:00 UK time on Thursday, 14^th October, The importance of global expertise and local action in the fight against Climate Change More info and registration here https://ukaustraliaseason.com/event/the-importance-of-global-expertise-and-local-action-in-the-fight-against-climate-change-a-higher-education-roundtable/

2. Heather Michael is giving a webinar for National Geographic Learning on the ‘three pillars of an International Baccalaureate (IB) education’ Combining International Mindedness, Interdisciplinary Instruction, and Service Learning in the English Classroom at 14:00 UK time on Wednesday 20^th October (repeated at 02:00 UK time on Thursday 21^st October, if that’s more convenient).

More info and registration link here https://webinars.eltngl.com/20-october-combining-international-mindedness-interdisciplinary-instruction-and-service-learning-in-the-english-classroom/ I don’t think I’d worry overly much about that IB focus, if you’re not teaching IB – the IB travels quite well!

3. Ceri Jones and Katherine Bilsborough gave a very-well-received talk on Eco-literacy: What? Why? And How? https://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/article/eco-literacy-what-why-how as part of the series of talks TeachingEnglish put on for World Teachers’ (good apostrophe!) Day, and …

… you can find the recordings of all the talks here https://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/news-events/world-teachers-day/2021

4. And, finally and more seriously than usual, Education Cannot Wait is the global fund for education in emergencies and protracted crisis. Here’s their annual report for 2020 https://www.educationcannotwait.org/annual-report-2020/ and here’s the executive summary if you’re in a hurry https://www.educationcannotwait.org/annual-report-2020/executive-summary/ PDFs of whole report and of executive summary only below.

1. Something I didn’t know before today is that today’s the International Day of the Girl Child – more info and stacks of interesting links here https://www.un.org/en/observances/girl-child-day “Did you know that the global internet user gender gap is growing, from 11 per cent in 2013 to 17 per cent in 2019, and is widest in the world’s least developed countries at 43 per cent?” That first stat is perhaps (just) the more surprising of the two.

The site includes a Thomas the Tank Engine video on Gender Equality https://youtu.be/WWkrQMVqB3s. I’m not quite sure about Thomas’s new accent …

2. Just in case you’ve not yet heard about PRELIM 2, here on the IATEFL website is all the info you need to apply on behalf of your teachers’ association: https://www.iatefl.org/prelim-2 and, if you’re an accredited UK language centre, here on the English UK website is what you will need https://www.englishuk.com/prelim-project

PDF copies below of the application form for teachers’ associations and the report that Rose Aylett and Martyn Clarke from NILE wrote on PRELIM 1; the UK application form is an online one, available from the page above and direct here https://englishuk.wufoo.com/forms/prelim-project-ii/

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3. My favourite ex-prime minister and Allan Goodman, the President of the Institute of International Education, have written a powerful piece on Education in an Age of Displacement for the Project Syndicate website https://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/graduate-education-fellowships-for-refugees-and-displaced-people-by-gordon-brown-and-allan-goodman-2021-10

In Brown and Goodman’s own words, “With the number of displaced people on course to double by mid-century, if not sooner, developing their potential is crucial. Extending hope and opportunity to young people at risk of being left behind is a powerful way to advance human rights, promote equality, and foster peace and stability.”

4. This month’s issue of HLT has just been published https://www.hltmag.co.uk/oct21/ For starters, try either

Alan Maley on Wisdom Stories https://www.hltmag.co.uk/oct21/wisdom-stories-for-teacher-education

or Surati on Using Quizizz https://www.hltmag.co.uk/oct21/using-quizizz-as-a-formative-assessment

You can check out Quizizz – which started life in Bangalore – for yourself here https://quizizz.com/

5. And, finally, some unreconstructed Thomas the Tank Engine for comparison purposes https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCo5AoxvDzhX1Gua_aU2Rr6w

1. Two blog posts from Pearson to start us off today:

first, one that does exactly what it says on the tin from Joanna Wiseman, 6 practical online teaching tips to kickstart the new school year https://www.english.com/blog/6-%EF%BF%BConline-teaching-tips-new-school-year/

and second, one about family life and routine from Donatella Fitzgerald, 4 steps to make sure the transition back to school goes well https://www.english.com/blog/4-steps-transition-back-to-school/

2. The second pair of webinars from my East Asia colleagues in their Teacher Takeaways series take place next week:

Robin Skipsey from British Council Japan on Teaching Listening at 09:00 UK time on Tuesday, 7^th October

and Davide Gilmartin from British Council Vietnam on Teaching Writing at 09:00 UK time on Thursday, 9^th October

More info here https://www.britishcouncil.cn/en/teach/2021webinar and flyers for both events and a PDF of the whole programme below – you’ll also find recordings and handouts from the two earlier events in the series on the site.

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3. If you missed William Dalrymple’s historical perspective on what’s happening in Afghanistan at present for the Asia Scotland Institute, Afghanistan – Doomed to repeat the mistakes of past wars, you can find the recording here https://youtu.be/h9mpotnFTSc I thought it was good.

4. A number of interesting observations on the ELT and education businesses from Alexander Broich, one of the top people at Cengage, in this interview with Rupert Barclay from the Cairneagle education consultancy.

The page is nicely laid out, with both the whole interview and a series of interview extracts on specific themes https://www.cairneagle.com/cairneagle-in-conversation-with-alexander-broich/

On the impact of Covid, for example, Alexander observes, “If you think about a rock concert or cruise ship experience, the replacement in COVID was not great. So I expect people to go back on cruise ships and back to rock concerts. But if you are a professional nurse and you want to take a course which has to fit around your schedule, to sit in a classroom at a given time with a commute of an hour back and forth was not the greatest setting pre-COVID.”

5. An ‘enhanced index’ is not a term I’m familiar with, but the Contemporary African Poets enhanced index is a marvel, searchable by poet, country and region https://africanpoetics.unl.edu/contemporarypoets

It’s now part of a bigger project, the African Poetry Digital Portal; here’s more info on that https://www.lib.cam.ac.uk/stories/AfricanPoetryPortal

6. And, finally, Fajer from the Syrian London Ensemble, eight musicians and graduates from Syria’s renowned Damascus Conservatoire https://youtu.be/mjbdxYLaBjk I think fajer might mean dawn in English?

1. I’m not a very big fan of software like Flip Builder, but I am a fan of EL Gazette. Here’s a thought-provoking piece by Alice Rogers, Can we decolonialise TEFL? Ask flipping Flip Builder to take you straight to page 30! https://elgazette.com/elg_archive/ELG2109/mobile/index.html

2. “Who could have forecasted that internationalisation would transform from what has been traditionally considered a process based on values of cooperation, partnership, exchange, mutual benefits and capacity building to one that is increasingly characterised by competition, commercialisation, self-interest and status building?”, ask Jane Knight and Hans de Wit, the authors of this piece for University World News, What contribution has internationalisation made to HE? https://www.universityworldnews.com/post.php?story=20181010093946721

3. Thanks to Ann for that last one, and thanks to Ian for this one from Times Higher Education (THE) by Anna McKie, How many international students is too many? https://www.timeshighereducation.com/features/how-many-international-students-too-many

“International students are too easily framed, both inside and outside the sector, as a problem or a burden. They’re not. They’re just an absolute gift”, says one interviewee. (You’ll need to register to read; doesn’t take long.)

4. And thanks to Ann for this piece as well, by John Claughton for the Independent Education Today website on The Teaching of Languages – https://ie-today.co.uk/comment/the-teaching-of-languages/

“The intelligent teaching of languages can address a number of key issues within the curriculum”, he says – if only more people here in the UK were listening.

5. And, finally, punctuation matters – a lot, says the UK Office for Students (OFS), who’ve written quite a serious report about commers and. Full. Stops; Assessment practices in English higher education providers: spelling, punctuation and grammar. PDF below. https://www.officeforstudents.org.uk/publications/assessment-practices-in-english-higher-education-providers/

1. It’s taken them a while, but the UK government is now legislating against ‘essay mills’ https://www.gov.uk/government/news/essay-mills-to-be-banned-under-plans-to-reform-post-16-education  I’ve no idea how easy they’ll be to get rid of, as they can operate from wherever round the world they want to, and they seem to have no shortage of customers!

2. The next run of the British Council Language Assessment in the Classroom course on FutureLearn starts on Monday, 18^th October https://www.futurelearn.com/courses/language-assessment Aimed at language teachers in secondary or high schools around the world, and anyone interested in understanding how language assessment works. Free – unless you want a certificate – and has previously been very popular.

3. University College London’s autumn series of applied linguistics ‘research events’ starts a week today, Wednesday 13^th October at 10:00 UK time with Gregory Hadley from Niigata University in Japan talking on Using Grounded Theory in Applied Linguistics Research.

More info, talk abstracts and registration all on this page https://uclappliedlinguistics.wordpress.com/research-events-2/

I need to find out what (a) ‘grounded theory’ is – help, Jim!

4. We all suffered from this week’s phobia, ablutophobia, when we were little, didn’t we?

5. And, finally, this one chimed with me, or rather the ten-year-old, still ablutophobic scholarship boy from the North of England version of me who went to a posh school in Kent. It took me a while to make all my fellow pupils see sense! https://www.the74million.org/article/analysis-clash-of-cultures-clash-of-privilege-what-happened-when-30-low-income-students-of-color-were-admitted-to-elite-prep-schools/

1. A treasure trove from NILE: Education for Sustainable Development – curated resources and teaching materials https://learning.nile-elt.com/d2l/le/lessons/6733/units/71909

You’ll need to register if you haven’t already done so, which also now gets you access to all the Ready to Run videos!

2. Climate change and teacher professional development is the title of the British Council Education Exchange webinar at 16:00 UK time on Wednesday, 13^th October with Matt Larsen-Daw https://www.britishcouncil.org/education/schools/education-exchange-digital-events/climate-change-professional-development

Matt’s the Education Manager for WWF-UK and has lots of good stuff on his own website https://www.wwf.org.uk/get-involved/schools/cop26 Two examples of materials below (intended for students whose first language is English rather than a foreign language, I think, so don’t pay too much attention to the age of pupil suggested)

3.  An accessible piece on the role pancakes play in nuclear fusion from The New Yorker https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2021/10/11/can-nuclear-fusion-put-the-brakes-on-climate-change

4. And, finally, The Cactus That Came Back from the Dead, from the Canadian magazine The Walrus https://thewalrus.ca/the-cactus-that-came-back-from-the-dead/ “If a cactus can want anything, Mammillaria tezontle likely wants to be left alone …”