Roy Cross's Blog

1. The first of two attractive online events chronologically this Thursday, 24^th June is an Eaquals webinar with David Coniam from LanguageCert at 14:00 UK time on The fit between English language exams and ‘real’ English: How have things changed over the years – presumably towards more real than less! More info and registration here https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_tHXBfXI1RAulWRhg7TICsQ

2. The second is New Ways of Teaching: Skills and CPD for Teachers, at 18:00 UK time on Thursday, a little later in the UK day than usual, which brings together Wendy Arnold, Harry Kuchah Kuchah, Shelagh Rixon, Alicia Artusi and Graham Stanley to discuss the findings of recent British Council research into the different skills needed by English teachers to support student learning remotely or via a combination of face-to-face and online. More info and registration here https://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/article/new-ways-teaching-skills-cpd-teachers

3. Here’s the latest sparkly podcast from my colleagues in Portugal, a special International Children’s Day themed episode of The Sunshiny Day which includes news of a real-life courtroom drama starring six courageous Portuguese children and teens who are taking on the might of the European Union, Greta Thunberg-style, in a potentially history-making case on climate change policies – and “lots of funny stories, moving music and side-splitting jokes” as well! Scroll down the page to Episode 5. https://spark.adobe.com/page/8xM4IHdgPtfZa/ (It seems that there are two International Children’s Days, just in case you were wondering – one on 1^st June and one on 20^th November.)

4. And, finally, a real treasure trove of a site that brings together all the Poems on the (London) Underground since 1986: https://poemsontheunderground.org/this-months-poems I have especially clear memories of the first six poems from 1986 because we received scores of copies of each in Munich where I was working at the time, and we covered schools all over Bavaria with them. Those were the (better-funded and less-focussed) days!

1. The Much Language Such Talk (MLST) language podcast from the Bilingualism Matters team in Edinburgh https://www.bilingualism-matters.org/ aims to answer your questions about language, learning, and culture. They talk about bi- and multi-lingualism, what it means to speak more than one language, and the benefits, advantages and struggles of bilingualism. Here’s a special episode of MLST for World Refugee Day on Sunday https://mlstpodcast.com/ (Thanks to Ann for spotting this one!)

2. World Refugee Day https://www.unhcr.org/uk/world-refugee-day.html is marked all over the world this Sunday. Refugee Festival Scotland lasts a whole week: most events are still available and nearly all are free. I’ve used today’s date, Friday 18^th June, for this selection https://www.refugeefestivalscotland.co.uk/programme-2021/?select-type=&select-area=&select-date=2021-06-18 Here’s one example from Sewing2gether All Nations, a weekly group for English language learners, based in the north of Paisley, who learn to sew and practise conversational English in a supportive environment. Here’s how to make a traditional abaya https://youtu.be/s4KC2pxB4gU

3. This year’s Shubbak Festival starts on Sunday, 20th June, and runs until 17^th July https://www.shubbak.co.uk/festival-2021/ Not everything is free, but this one’s in my diary https://www.shubbak.co.uk/cairo-kitkat-club/

4. And, finally, I’ll not say too much about this six-pack of short videos, other than to ask you to let me know which is your favourite, please! https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLvCfA99qTst9nR-1lXMPdVjXtR3fh_Zy6

1. First up today (and a bit earlier than usual) because it’s this evening at 20:00 UK time, the free British Museum ‘curators’ tour’ of their new exhibition, Thomas Becket: murder and the making of a saint https://youtu.be/pAN9MqPsGcA

2. Next, just in case you’ve not yet had chance to explore the Climate Action for Language Education lessons, here’s one for 9-11 year-olds, considering the importance of safeguarding all kinds of animals: https://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/article/a-new-logo-world-wildlife-fund

PDFs of all the lesson downloads below, including both online and f2f lesson plans.

3. Here’s the raw material for a lesson on climate with your older students that you’ll have to cook yourself: https://theconversation.com/how-world-leaders-high-carbon-travel-choices-could-delay-climate-action-162784

4. And, not quite finally as it’s turned out, here’s the winner of the International Booker Prize, French-Senegalese author David Diop, & his translator Anna Moschovakis in conversation with Philippe Sands in an Edinburgh International Book Festival event which includes a dramatized reading by Ken Nwosu from the Royal Shakespeare Company https://www.edbookfest.co.uk/media-gallery/item/david-diop-anna-moschovakis

5. Finally, definitely, here’s some audio clips of Ken Nwosu reading voiceovers for a range of adverts that I chanced upon while following my nose for the previous item on David Diop https://fullervoices.co.uk/artist/ken-nwosu-2/ There’s a listening skills lesson in there somewhere, isn’t there?

1. Great video report from The Hands Up Project on their Palestine-Vietnam project: https://www.handsupproject.org/blog-impact-1/discussing-gender-equality-in-vietnam-through-performing-palestinian-plays

And here’s a bit more on all three British Council funded ‘digital innovation’ projects in Vietnam: Coventry University with Hanoi University of Science & Technology; International House London and Hanoi Pedagogical University 2; The Hands Up Project, International House Belfast and Can Tho University https://www.britishcouncil.vn/en/teach/three-uk-vn-digital-innovation-projects-launched

2. I first mentioned INEE, the Inter-agency Network for Education in Emergencies https://inee.org/ back in March, in the context of the launch of their EiE-GenKit: A Core Resource Package on Gender in Education in Emergencies https://inee.org/resources/eie-genkit (PDF below this time round!)

At 13:00 UK time on 22^nd June, INEE are launching two new publications on girls’ education in crisis-affected contexts: Mind the Gap and Closing the Gap. Webinar info and registration herehttps://rescue.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_Ia5ZtlZSSDSkTafYNh6C_g Download links here https://inee.org/system/files/resources/INEE%20Mind%20the%20Gap%20Report%20v1.0%20LowRes.pdf and here https://inee.org/system/files/resources/INEE%20Closing%20the%20Gap%20Brief%20v1.0%20LowRes.pdf and PDFs of both below.

INEE have also just started a podcast on Women and Girls on Learning in Humanitarian Crises https://inee.org/gender/educate-us-podcast

Lots to explore and digest, including the origin of the phrase ‘mind the gap’!

3. Nik Peachey is always good value: he’s offering a free webinar on Exploiting Short Video Clips for English Language Learning on Saturday 19^th June at 17:00 UK time https://gobrunch.com/events/land/206944/

4. And, finally, my wife has never admitted to suffering from pogonophobia – and it’s probably too late to admit to it now!

1. Boris Johnson gets plenty of media coverage. How about a lesson on Keir Starmer, the leader of the UK opposition Labour party? Here’s a video of Starmer’s regular weekly radio show on LBC Radio https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=17gVP-_-cFM (LBC means Leading Britain’s Conversation, apparently – news to me, I thought it was the London Broadcasting Company!)

and here’s one of those rare appearances of The Daily Mail in this message, itself a rare piece approving of Starmer and his intervention in the Rhodes statue Oxford College row https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9686499/Keir-Starmer-demands-Rhodes-row-Oxford-dons-jobs-amid-refusal-teach-students.html

A different Oxford issue is covered in the radio interview: scope for a jigsaw reading and listening activity?

2. Sign up here for the ECML webinar on “Fostering digital citizenship through language education” at 16:00 UK time on 22nd June https://www.ecml.at/Resources/Webinars/tabid/5456/Default.aspx

The webinar will aim to answer three questions: What is a digital citizen? How does digital citizenship education link up with language education? What type of digital language tasks can support learners to become digital citizens?

3. I realise that attendance of this year’s online IATEFL conference is not something that many will be able to afford, but here, with apologies for any frustration caused, is the conference programme, to give a sense of what’s being talked about this year https://issuu.com/iatefl/docs/2021_conference_programme_for_website PDF below as well – careful, it’s a big file.

If you are attending, look out for Harry Kuchah and me (making a mess of) cooking Jollof rice on Saturday evening! When Harry and I rehearsed the other day, I learned that who cooks the best Jollof rice provokes major competition between West African countries – any views out there? Harry says Cameroon, but I think he’s biased …

4. And, finally and less light-hearted than usual, Drowntown Lockdown, ‘gritty dance theatre’ from Rhiannon Faith about six strangers, weighed down by individual darkness … https://youtu.be/zRjbJHAqduI

1. The latest event in the Leiden University Virtual Research Seminar Series on Language Policy and Practices in the Global North and South will be at 12:15 UK time on Wednesday, 16^th June with Dr Elisabeth Barakos from Hamburg University:  Language policy in times of social and political transformation: Discourse, ideology and practice.

More info here https://www.universiteitleiden.nl/en/events/2021/06/language-policy-in-times-of-social-and-political-transformation-discourse-ideology-and-practice and registration here https://universiteitleiden.zoom.us/meeting/register/u5UqcOGrqT0uGdS01iSiu3Xo7Bj5J5NUXxU5 PDF of abstract below.

Perhaps more accessible than the title  might suggest: Dr Barakos will be looking (in part) at the case of bilingual Wales in the UK, historically characterised by language decline and marginalisation vis-à-vis the dominant majority language, English.

2. Here’s a piece from the New York Times (spotted by the EL Gazette, thank you!) on the TV series ‘Friends’: How ‘Friends’ Helps People Around the World Learn English (https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/29/arts/television/friends-reunion-english.html If it hasn’t helped some people quite enough, then there’s a helpful Leer en español link at the beginning of the piece!

3. UKFIET are holding a webinar debate, Global Education ‘Smart Buys’:  Debating the Evidence, at 14:30 UK time on 21st June, looking at how money is most effectively spent on tackling real-world educational challenges at scale https://www.tickettailor.com/events/ukfiet/536512

4. And, finally, I’ve mentioned Daniel Kahneman before. Here’s an podcast interview from The Knowledge Project with him, Putting Your Intuition on Ice: https://fs.blog/knowledge-project/daniel-kahneman/ Make yourself the drink of your choice and settle down to listen!

1. Still plenty of time to register for the Sheffield University Institute of Education conference, CLIL 2021 The ADiBE Project: Addressing Diversity in Bilingual Education, next Saturday, 19^th June.

More info and registration link here https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/clil-2021-the-adibe-project-addressing-diversity-in-bilingual-education-registration-144662903639

and programme, including some big names in CLIL, here, https://drive.google.com/file/d/1mqRjpgP5Vpdj4pW7DBLHHLH6aRG0RKWM/view (PDF of programme below as well.)

Here’s more on the ADIBE (Attention to Diversity in Bilingual Education) project https://adibeproject.com/

2. If you speak both French and English, read this article on bilingualism in your weaker language first: https://theconversation.com/a-partir-de-quand-devient-on-bilingue-161305 https://theconversation.com/what-makes-someone-bilingual-theres-no-easy-answer-162450 And, yes, that is sort of a trick question for those of you who are bilingual in French and English ….

3. National Poetry Day in the UK is not until 7^th October this year, but their site is up and running and has some great poems to share https://nationalpoetryday.co.uk/poems/ – try the Mary Jean Chan and Charlotte Mew ones

and also includes these Counting Songs from BBC Teach https://www.bbc.co.uk/teach/school-radio/nursery-rhymes-counting-songs/zn67kmn How about Five Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed? https://www.bbc.co.uk/teach/school-radio/nursery-rhymes-five-little-monkeys-jumping-on-the-bed/zm7rf4j

4. And, finally, some thought-provoking DV8 Physical Theatre ‘taster’ videos https://www.dv8.co.uk/media-portal/explore-our-videos

Here’s their ‘manifesto’ https://www.dv8.co.uk/about-dv8/artistic-policy

1. Lots of action on the climate front at present: no fewer than twelve new lesson plans here https://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/article/climate-action-language-education-lesson-plans and the PDF below is this month’s newsletter on the Climate Action in Language Education programme, including news of Episode 3 of the Climate Connections podcast series, Language recycling. You’ll find notes on the show and a transcript here https://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/article/climate-connection-episode-3-language-recycling

2. Here’s an article on Academic English Collocations from Ana Frankenberg Garcia of the University of Surrey http://www.collocaid.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/Voices280pp1213_compressed.pdf Be sure to do the gap-fill exercise at the beginning, as instructed! PDF below.

3. Collaboration between the universities of Ljubljana, Warsaw and Alcalá (the birthplace of Don Quixote and his creator!) has produced this new MOOC on Literacy for CLIL. More info and registration here https://literacyforclil.edunext.io/courses/course-v1:literacyforclil+UAH+0/about and a (very) short introductory video here https://youtu.be/RMkI1wmAcyk

4. And, finally, I think this qualifies as ‘showing off’ https://stanfordmag.org/contents/the-zoom-where-it-happens

This second article, a bit less so https://stanfordmag.org/contents/11-tips-for-more-effective-zoom-remote-meetings

1. Spotted by my colleague Ann: the publication Grading Goal Four, edited by Antonia Wulff from Education International (who I mentioned a few weeks ago), reviews the progress we’ve made to date towards Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 4: Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education for all and promote lifelong learning https://brill.com/view/title/57471

PDF of the introductory chapter below, to give you chance to decide if you want to spend your data on downloading the whole book, which you’ll also find a PDF of below.

2. The next OECD webinar, How can education recover from the pandemic effectively and equitably? is at 11:30 UK time on Friday, 11th June. More info and registration here https://meetoecd1.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_nueLX1bdS_K8IocKXROc5w The speakers include Anna Ekström, the Swedish Minister of Education, and Susan Hopgood, the President of the organisation that’s now behaving a bit like a London bus, Education International. (You wait ages for a London bus and then three come along one after the other!)

3. Also on 11^th June, at 12:00 UK time, the next Language and Sustainable Development Webinar, with Leketi Makalela & Clarah Dhokotera talking about To know and to be of ubuntu translanguaging: Towards multilingual multilingualism for decoloniality and sustainable development in Africa More info and registration here https://essex-university.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJcsceutrTMvG9bXBWy__xJy1t2Q8VmG_hya

I hesitate to translate ‘ubuntu’, so here’s a short video from Mpho Tutu instead https://youtu.be/SMSqZckROfA

4. 10 Reflections from Online Teaching from Tyler Tennant on the HASTAC blog https://www.hastac.org/blogs/tylertennant09/2021/04/19/10-reflections-online-teaching  Tyler’s sixth reflection is one I think I’ve touched on before: Providing video feedback is a handy – and faster – method than providing hand-written or typed feedback.

Here’s more about HASTAC itself https://www.hastac.org/about-hastac

5. And, finally, this week’s phobia is one that must make life difficult if you’re a teacher, glossophobia. But I don’t believe the stat that says 75 % of us suffer from it to a significant degree – a little preparatory nervousness, fine and necessary, but not a phobia!

1. I’d have loved one of these when I was teaching, the Pearson Text Analyser (PTA) https://www.english.com/blog/gse-text-analyzer/ Here’s a blog post about it https://www.english.com/gse/teacher-toolkit/user/textanalyzer

I tried the PTA out on the first six paragraphs of this article from today’s Guardian, ‘Massive internet outage hits websites including Amazon, gov.uk and Guardian’ https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2021/jun/08/massive-internet-outage-hits-websites-including-amazon-govuk-and-guardian-fastly and it told me it was B2+ in CEFR terms and 66-70 in terms of Pearson’s own Global Scale of English.

Interestingly, it also told me that the following words from the passage I chose were above the level of my text: terse, affected, twitter, inaccessible, twitch, broke, geographically, streaming. Not quite sure what’s going on there. (I’d love to try it out on some of those old textbooks that always seemed much too difficult for the students they claimed to be written for – maybe I will!)

2. While Pearson are analysing your classroom texts for you, Oxford University Press (OUP) are throwing down the gauntlet, a 10-minute reading challenge gauntlet, to be precise https://elt.oup.com/feature/global/10-minute-reading-challenge/?cc=gb&selLanguage=en You can download the challenge pack for parents in English or Spanish, to help them help their kids read for ten minutes each day.

3. If you’ve no idea what a kaitenzushi is, you need to read the article by Janeth Elizabeth Diggs-White Hori in the June issue of Humanising Language Teaching (HLT) https://www.hltmag.co.uk/jun21/ PDF of the Contents below, and here’s a direct link to the kaitenzushi piece https://www.hltmag.co.uk/jun21/kaitenzushi

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4. And, finally, Shipwreck: originally planned as a stage theatre production, it’s been re-worked specifically for an audience listening from home or on headphones. It’s described as a “harrowing and hilarious masterpiece about race, religion, family and the nightmarish fallout of the American experiment”. There’s a short trailer on this page, as well as all three half-hour episodes, with and without subtitles https://publictheater.org/media-center/series/shipwreck/shipwreck/ I’ve not listened to it all yet, but it starts well!