Roy Cross's Blog

1. Colleagues in Egypt are holding their 2nd Back to School Online Conference this Friday and Saturday, 1^st and 2^nd October starting at 09:00 UK time each day. More info here https://www.facebook.com/events/384327823230334/

registration here https://bit.ly/Back2School_2021

and programme here https://www.britishcouncil.org.eg/sites/default/files/back_to_school_online_conference_2021_flyer.pdf

Speakers from around the world: Mexico, Georgia, India, Egypt, Algeria and Spain! PDF of programme below, too.

2. From a possibly surprising source, the Chartered Insurance Institute here in the UK, some good clear guidelines for Inclusive Language, which has become complicated and hazardous territory, https://www.cii.co.uk/media/10120292/inclusive-language-guidelines.pdf to help you avoid unintentionally reinforcing stereotypes, excluding or patronising people, or causing discomfort or offence. PDF below.

3. Don’t even think of reading the next item if you suffer from this week’s phobia, ranidaphobia!

4. The Bell Foundation produce some excellent free resources. Here’s a recent set on the life cycle of a frog with activities to support learning and understanding of the topic and develop vocabulary associated with it https://www.bell-foundation.org.uk/resources/detail/the-life-cycle-of-a-frog/

More resources here, including Chicken Coop Maths, Types of Angles and Minibeasts https://www.bell-foundation.org.uk/resources/

You’ll need to register, but it’s well worth doing so. Frog lesson material PDFs below.

5. And, finally, proof that this is how we should all start the day, it seems https://theconversation.com/cold-showers-are-said-to-be-good-for-you-heres-what-the-evidence-shows-167822

I’ll give the thirty-second variation a go tomorrow morning!

1. There’s now a YouTube version of all The Climate Connection podcasts with subtitles, which will make them accessible to an even larger audience, I hope https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLvCfA99qTst_6OFwglDJmJmKZ4My_jCQ7

2. The next ELT Footprint UK https://eltfootprint.uk/ event is at 14:00 UK time this coming Friday, 1^st October: Attracting environmentally conscious students  More info here (scroll down a bit) https://eltfootprint.uk/events/ and register here https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZ0tdOupqj0oE9Z8-QC06omPuG4Oi0da7cqQ

I think participants from outside the UK may have an interesting perspective to contribute on what exactly an ‘environmentally conscious’ student looks like in different countries around the world.

3. Twelve new Climate Action in Language Education (CALE) lesson plans here on a range of topics for all ages (and proficiency levels) from Young Learner to Adult: https://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/article/climate-action-language-education-lesson-plans

Try this one on plastic waste https://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/article/buy-use-toss PDFs of lesson plans and worksheets below.

4. Good notice of the next online CALE course, looking at integrating climate action in the English language classroom, which starts on 19^th October https://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/article/climate-action-language-education Nine hours in total and includes live tutorials.

5. And, finally and non-climatically, a webinar this Thursday, 30^th September at 21:00 UK time from my colleagues in Latin America on The benefits of teacher development for your daily work and career plans – just in case you were in any doubt about said benefits! More info and registration (for the whole series) here https://americas.britishcouncil.org/new-ways-of-teaching/events/the-benefits-of-teacher-development-for-your-daily-work-and-career-plans

1. The first of no fewer than three sneak previews today of new publications on English Medium Instruction/Education in Higher Education, all with a gentle admonitory tone, my colleague Ann Veitch’s British Council  ‘perspective paper’ on English in higher education – English medium.

Ann’s introduction is admirably clear: “English, driven by geo-political forces (…) plays a central role in HE, particularly internationalised HE, around the world. EMI has rightly been labelled a phenomenon which is ‘unstoppable’, and it is this reality which must be addressed. British Council work in English is based on the beliefs that English provides young people with skills for employability, better access to networks and personal and professional opportunities. It follows that we do not protest or resist the existence of EMI in HE; nor, equally, do we promote ‘more’ EMI. This would often mean endorsing the poor policy and implementation which lead to many of the negative impacts outlined above. British Council work in the area of EMI is intended to promote better quality EMI which improves or, at the very least, maintains outcomes for students, content lecturers, language specialists, institutions and educational systems.”

PDF below.

2. The second sneak preview is of Global mapping of English as a medium of instruction in higher education: 2020 and beyond. A team led by Heath Rose from Oxford University surveyed the introduction and expansion of English as a medium of instruction (EMI) in higher education (HE) in 52 countries eligible for Official Development Assistance, in order to shed light on the whys and wherefores of EMI provision in many countries which are relatively less resourced and have been under-researched over the past decade with regards to EMI in HE.

As EMI develops (unstoppably?) in ODA recipient contexts, the survey recommends more research in a number of areas, including into “whether EMI is able to (combat) a potential Matthew Effect, such as by raising university reputation, or whether it contributes to new, local inequalities. There is a need for critical research examining the effects of EMI with respect to local socio-cultural factors and local student needs, including whether EMI is being implemented in the most appropriate way in terms of maintaining educational standards and ensuring quality of education”.

PDF below and more on the Matthew Effect here https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matthew_effect

3. Third, and yet more tightly focussed, written by a team led by Andrew Linn from the University of Westminster, is Current practice in English-medium education in higher education: Case studies from Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, Bangladesh and Nepal, which takes a more detailed look at EME practice in four countries.

One of the report’s more sombre (and tentative and elegantly expressed) findings is the suggestion that those involved in EME in HE should be aware of “the possibility that EME serves to perpetuate existing global and societal divides. English, in other words, may act as a propeller of existing geopolitical and societal stratifications, accumulating privilege where privilege already exists and exacerbating challenges where challenges already exist”.

PDF below.

4. And, finally, some clicks and whistles! First, the whistles:

the ECML poster I shared two weeks ago made mention of the Silbo whistling language from La Gomera in The Canary Islands, and here’s a piece from The Guardian last year about how Silbo has been re-imagined as the language of the Bucharest Mafia in Romanian film director Corneliu Porumboiu’s new film https://www.theguardian.com/film/2020/may/07/sing-like-a-canary-the-whistling-consultant-who-taught-romanian-noir-gangsters-a-tune

Second, a short video on Silbo which gives you a chance to hear it ‘spoken’ https://youtu.be/C0CIRCjoICA

Third, an interesting long read from last weekend’s Observer on the possibility that all speech began as whistles, which ironically makes no mention of Silbo https://www.theguardian.com/science/2021/sep/25/could-whistling-shed-light-on-the-origins-of-speech-aas-shepherds-language

Nor does it mention Kuş dili, the Turkish ‘bird language’ https://youtu.be/l117wfB0g3o

I’d better keep the clicks till next time, I think!

1. Ample notice, I hope, for you to make your choice from the wide range of TeachingEnglish events on 5th October in celebration of World Teachers’ Day 2021; more information and registration here https://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/article/world-teachers-day-2021

2. Free for only one more week, pretty much the whole of this year’s Edinburgh International Book Festival https://www.edbookfest.co.uk/the-festival/events?event_date=on-demand

I’ve got my eye on Ian Rankin’s account of his completion of the novel William McIlvanney left unfinished when he died https://www.edbookfest.co.uk/the-festival/whats-on/ian-rankin-william-mcilvanney-the-last-word

3. William Dalrymple is always good value. At 14:00 UK time next Thursday, 30^th September he’ll be in conversation with Roddy Gow of the Asia Scotland Institute on Afghanistan – Doomed to repeat the mistakes of past wars Note, please, the absence of a question mark in that title. https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/afghanistan-doomed-to-repeat-the-mistakes-of-past-wars-tickets-177104774147?aff=odeimcmailchimp&mc_cid=4ee11458e4&mc_eid=f8a3764e5b

4. UK National Poetry Day is only two weeks away now. Here’s a selection of ‘permissions-cleared’ poems for use in the classroom (or on the bus home) https://nationalpoetryday.co.uk/poems/

Try The Lady’s Yes by Elizabeth Barrett Browning? https://nationalpoetryday.co.uk/poem/the-ladys-yes/

5. And, finally, with the warning that these are not meaningful questions: Who speaks English best in Latin America? Who speaks English best in Africa? Who speaks English best in Asia? Who speaks English best in Europe? Sweden, apparently! https://www.elgazette.com/who-speaks-english-best/

Here’s the original piece from the Bulgarian news service Novinite that caught the EL Gazette eye, which contains a number of interesting hyperlinks (Do we still say hyperlinks or am I showing my age again?) https://www.novinite.com/articles/211006/7+Best+English+Speaking+Countries+in+Europe

We’ll have a Multilingual Monday instead!

1. It’s been quite a while since I had a look at the UKFIET website. A good piece by Maiya Hershey, Harry Haynes and Ben Webster has gone up just today, Learning Ecosystems: Reimagining Higher Education Access for Refugees https://www.ukfiet.org/2021/learning-ecosystems-reimagining-higher-education-access-for-refugees/ about how we improve access to higher education for people who have been forced to leave their home countries.

Here’s the recording of the launch of the report referred to in the blog post https://youtu.be/2dtDosmrS1E

and here’s the report itself https://syria.britishcouncil.org/sites/default/files/refugee_learning_ecosystems_reimagining_higher_education_access_for_refugees.pdf PDF below.

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2. Three items from Stephen Downes’s e-learning newsletter, OLDaily, which is where I often find interesting stuff:

a whole free book on speaking in public https://demystifying-public-speaking.com/index.html#table-of-contents

and a matching pair of blog posts on the future of education and whether or not we need radical change by Seth Godin https://seths.blog/2021/09/the-modern-curriculum/ and Chris Kennedy https://cultureofyes.ca/2021/09/20/bc-education-new-curriculum-inside-comfortable-boxes/

You can sign up for OLDaily yourself here https://downes.ca/

3. The winners of the annual BBC Short Story Competition are being read each afternoon this week. https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0079gw3/episodes/player

Catch them on iPlayer at your convenience: I enjoyed this one about a train journey to Kyiv by Georgina Harding https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000zw5v

4. And, finally, the Hay Festival’s September book of the month is Elif Shafak’s The Island of Missing Trees, and there’s a free reading and discussion with her next Thursday, 30^th September. More info and registration here https://www.hayfestival.com/book-of-the-month-september-2021.

While you’re waiting, here’s an event from The Conduit https://www.theconduit.com/ with Elif last week https://youtu.be/u73V7SBWPpQ. (New to me, The Conduit.)

1. First up tonight, an invitation from my colleague Paul Braddock to give a webinar for the TeachingEnglish community. Come on now, don’t be shy! Full details in the PDF below.

2. Second, an invitation from my colleague Graham Stanley to present at next year’s online BBELT 2021: https://www.britishcouncil.org.mx/en/events/bbelt-2022-connecting-teachers-empowering-learners

NB! If your proposal is selected, you’ll be able to attend BBELT for free …

3. A  forthright blog post from Lisa Lane, Why Essay Assignments Suck https://lisahistory.medium.com/why-essay-assignments-suck-f4632a5fe588

I’ve not yet met very many teachers who claim to enjoy marking essays, but you may disagree …

4. And, finally and thanks to my colleague Fraser, a short cartoon from the East Asia and Pacific Regional Office of UNICEF (EAPRO) about the impact of the pandemic upon children and schools that might provoke a thoughtful classroom discussion https://youtu.be/GYesy3mBtJE

1. Scotland’s Climate Assembly https://www.climateassembly.scot/ sent out 20,000 invitations to randomly selected households across Scotland. Of those who responded, 105 people were invited to take part in the Assembly. Assembly members were selected to be broadly representative of Scotland’s population in terms of age, gender, disability, household income, geography, ethnicity, rurality and attitudes towards climate change. It presented its report to the Scottish Parliament earlier this year https://www.climateassembly.scot/full-report PDF below, but, on this occasion, I’d recommend using the online version if you’re able to.

2. Scotland’s Children’s Parliament (SCP) https://www.childrensparliament.org.uk/ made their own full contribution to the report https://www.climateassembly.scot/childrens-parliament. Their own report, especially the films they produced https://www.climateassembly.scot/childrens-parliament/films, will chime with your own students, their peers, I’m sure. PDF of the SCP report below.

3. I wasn’t quite sure what to make of this RSA event last week, Our biggest experiment: A history of the climate crisis, but I think that’s because I got annoyed with the interviewer’s ‘mutton dressed as lamb’ (thank you, Granny!) haircut https://youtu.be/ACuCWvPrHOs

His interviewee, Alice Bell, has a much more sensible haircut and co-runs the charity Possible https://www.wearepossible.org/

4. And, finally, here’s the Radio 4 adaptation of ‘the greatest travel writer in the world’, Colin Thubron’s latest book, The Amur River: Between Russia and China https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000zsg9 As usual, a masterpiece of BBC compression: 275 pages reduced to five quarter-hour episodes.

Sorry about the hiccup on Friday! Earlier than usual today, as I’m off down to London to celebrate Vietnamese National Day.

1. There’s scope for a good class discussion based on these two very short videos from the Royal National Institute for the Blind’s ‘How I See’ campaign here in the UK: https://www.rnib.org.uk/rnibconnect/how-i-see

https://youtu.be/f2x870PM0Hs

and https://youtu.be/2IB7eqyc4-o

2. There’s also a good class discussion about group think and social media bubbles in this new RSA Short on The Power of Diverse Thinking by Matthew Syed https://youtu.be/E5UHfcwal0M

3. I wonder whether an obsession with sleep and insomnia is a luxury that most people who crawl into their beds at the end of the day dog tired around the world have no time for? Here’s a Guardian piece on the topic by Kate Mikhail https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2021/sep/18/self-and-wellbeing-seven-simple-steps-to-sounder-sleep-kate-mikhail

4. I mentioned last week the launch at 15:00 UK time tomorrow, Tuesday 21^st September, of the OECD publication, Education at a Glance 2021. Just in case you’re attending (or just in case you’re not!) here’s a link to the online executive summary of findings https://www.oecd-ilibrary.org/sites/b35a14e5-en/index.html?itemId=%2Fcontent%2Fpublication%2Fb35a14e5-en which I’ve also copied into the PDF below, if that’s easier.

Webinar registration link once more here https://meetoecd1.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_D1NZSBQDR4mG86GJ_4rs-g Some people said last week’s link didn’t work for them, but this one – which did work for me just now – looks identical!

5. And, finally and sadly, the poet Jean ‘Binta’ Breeze died before her time last month. Here’s a typically engaged and engaging performance, including the poem ‘Aid Travels with a Bomb’ https://youtu.be/UBT-2n05eD4

and here’s her obituary https://www.theguardian.com/books/2021/aug/11/jean-binta-breeze-obituary

1. This year’s Einar Haugen Lecture at Oslo University will be given by Aneta Pavlenko at 14:15 UK time next Friday, 24^th September. Described as “a tour in a time machine, starting out in Ptolemaic Alexandria in 323 BC and then making short stops in imperial Rome, Norman Palermo, medieval Toledo and London, the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, imperial St Petersburg, colonial Philadelphia, and the capital of Habsburg Hungary, Pressburg-Poszony to answer the question: “Does multilingualism need a history?”

More info here: https://www.hf.uio.no/multiling/english/news-and-events/events/guest-lectures-seminars/einar-haugen-lecture/2021/aneta-pavlenko-does-multilingualism-need-a-history.html

2. A useful survey article from Bridge Universe, What Is CLIL? The Global Trend in Bilingual Education Explained https://bridge.edu/tefl/blog/what-is-clil/

It includes a good video from Peeter Mehisto on What Is CLIL and What Is Not? https://youtu.be/MaUmlwczKJA

Here’s a video of a longer talk Dr Mehisto gave back in 2013 on ‘The Cognitive Benefits of Bilingualism’ https://youtu.be/drhLAJ1qDzQ

3. Eaquals’ new series of webinars starts next Tuesday, 21^st September. Full details of the series here https://www.eaquals.org/eaquals-events/type/webinars-online/ Free of charge for everyone!

4. And, finally, an article about online education during the pandemic in Japan that you’ll need to register to read, but I suggest that’s well worth the effort https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2021/09/15/national/schools-digitalization-lag-covid19/

Perhaps not quite the story of success you’d have expected from high tech Japan.

1. A blog post by Nick Michelioudakis for Oxford University Press, to start with, How To Turn Reading Into A Habit https://oupeltglobalblog.com/2021/09/10/reading-habit/

I’m feeling a little mischievous, so will point out that Nick’s writing about a world of dental floss, piano practice and a bedroom for each child in the family. Put that to one side and much of what he says makes good sense.

2. Three OECD events next week:

on 21^st September  at 15:00 UK time, The state of education around the world: Findings from Education at a Glance 2021 https://meetoecd1.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_D1NZSBQDR4mG86GJ_4rs-g;

on  23^rd September at 11:00 UK time, What Generation Z thinks about school, the curriculum and their future https://meetoecd1.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_10PY77BjRvCLJIlLLjgTBg;

and at 11:45 UK time, also on 23^rd September, Getting a job: How schools can help students develop recruitment skills https://meetoecd1.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_agPL3F-rROqjFwiaQwsAJQ

My expectation is that a global organisation like OECD thinks globally – let’s see! I’m keen on the Generation Z one.

3. Still plenty of time to register for the definitely global-minded mEducation Alliance symposium I mentioned last week https://meducationalliance.org/2021-symposium/ and there’s now a full (provisional) programme available https://meducationalliance.org/wp-content/uploads/Schedule_Symposium-2021_9.14.21.pdf  PDF below for ease of reference.

4. This week’s global phobia? Mycophobia – develops overnight after rain!

5. And, finally, courtesy of my father (and The Times letters section), a (not very global) poem by John Moore:

I lately lost a preposition,

It fell, I thought, beneath my chair.

Angrily I cried, “Perdition,

Up from out of in under there!”

Now correctness is my vade mecum,

And straggling phrases I abhor,

And yet I wondered, what should it come

Up from out of in under for?”