Roy Cross's Blog

Four different free online courses and websites from seven different universities today exploring multilingualism

1. First up, Glasgow University with Multilingual Learning for a Globalised World, a MOOC that explores “multilingual education and how it can impact and improve education and even wider society” https://www.futurelearn.com/courses/multilingual Four hours a week for three weeks, this one.

2. South to The Netherlands next, for the University of Groningen’s Multilingual Practices: Tackling Challenges and Creating Opportunities, which covers the “central aspects of multilingualism in today’s globalised societies, such as cognition, policies and education” https://www.futurelearn.com/courses/multilingual-practices This one’s three hours a week for four weeks!

3. The motto of this ‘e-course’ on Multilingual education, put together by a team from universities in Tartu (Estonia), Freiburg (Germany), Bolzano (Italy) and Primorska (Slovenia), is the Bulgarian proverb, “The more languages you speak, the more human you are” https://sisu.ut.ee/multilingual/avaleht Let me know if you know of a similar proverb in another language, please! This one’s a seven-week course.

Here’s the introductory video https://sisu.ut.ee/?jwsource=cl (You might need to turn up the volume on your device; it was a bit quiet on my laptop.)

4. The Lost Wor(l)ds website from Sheffield University, which aims “to normalise multilingualism and embed it in formal education systems, through a focus on nature and sustainability”, is (in its own accurate description) “a website full of activities and ideas to help encourage and facilitate multilingualism” https://www.multilingualism-in-schools.net/

Here’s a description of the project https://www.sheffield.ac.uk/education/research/early-childhood/lost-worlds-language-heritage-and-forgetting

5. And, finally, while you’re in the Lost Wor(l)ds website, take a look at the Schools for Sanctuary website with which it is closely associated https://schools.cityofsanctuary.org/

Yesterday was planned to be the inaugural ‘Climate Tuesday’, but my broadband problems put paid to that, so here’s a one-off ‘Climate Wednesday’ instead.

1. Here’s a good, accessible summary piece on the recent 3,900-page-long (!) Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report https://theconversation.com/this-is-the-most-sobering-report-card-yet-on-climate-change-and-earths-future-heres-what-you-need-to-know-165395

“Sadly,” says the article, “there is hardly any good news in the 3,900 pages of text released today. But there is still time to avert the worst damage if humanity chooses to.”

2. And here’s some suggestions for reducing plastic pollution https://somewang.com/15-ways-to-reduce-plastic-pollution/ Are they maybe too focussed on more developed economies, I wonder? Draw up a more appropriate list for your own context with your students?

3. Here’s ELT Footprint’s ideas for Practical ways of including sustainability in your language classroom https://youtu.be/ispWGr_VfFQ Their focus is on the UK, but their ideas travel quite well, I think https://eltfootprint.uk/

4. This week’s related phobia? Heliophobia!

5. And, finally, maybe not quite the greatest rally ever in the history of table tennis – but close! https://youtu.be/1dyQGoVLI8k Not convinced? How about this one? https://youtu.be/HO8HGx4So_E

1. A good blog post from Tim Oates of (what is now called) Cambridge University Publishing and Assessment, drawing together a number of current issues in education: Here’s how to solve the ‘hyper problem’ of interrupted learning  https://www.cambridge.org/news-and-insights/blogs/outline-principles-for-the-future-of-education

Several good links in Tim’s piece, including this one Are the best teachers the ones with fewest gimmicks? from Lauran Hampshire-Dell https://www.tes.com/news/are-best-teachers-ones-fewest-gimmicks-teaching-learning-schools

2. Tim makes no reference to the learning of Latin, however, about which there’s been something of a storm in a teacup here in UK recently. Here’s two pieces on the topic, one neutral, sort of https://www.independent.co.uk/news/education/education-news/latin-state-schools-england-williamson-b1894202.html 

and the other strongly against https://ie-today.co.uk/news/plan-to-teach-latin-in-state-schools-utterly-misconceived-says-former-head/

Is Latin still learnt in schools anywhere else apart from the UK, I wonder? Italy, I guess!

3. Last year’s was cancelled because of Covid, but this year’s Edinburgh Fringe Festival has just begun. It’s a blend of ‘real’ and virtual audiences and events, and there’s a fair bit that’s free to watch online. Have a rummage around on their site! https://tickets.edfringe.com/

4. And, finally, a video of Cryptic’s sound installation last month on the beach at Irvine on the west coast of Scotland https://vimeo.com/581232471

1. This month’s Humanising Language Teaching (HLT) has a clear geographical focus on Germany https://www.hltmag.co.uk/aug21/ Betsy Hollweck’s piece on Teaching English through Food appealed to non-mageirocophobic me! https://www.hltmag.co.uk/aug21/teaching-english-through-food

2.  I mentioned Teacher Tapp a while ago. Here’s this month’s data and analysis https://teachertapp.co.uk/how-supported-do-teachers-feel/

They were looking at two issues: i) How supported do you (teachers) feel by your school senior leadership team? ii) Teacher Introspection. I thought the second more interesting.

3. “Time for a home-grown English language test, Indian agents say” https://www.timeshighereducation.com/news/time-home-grown-english-language-test-indian-agents-say China next? You may need to register to access this piece.

4. And, finally, how do you establish yourself as an online authority in coffee machines like James Hoffmann and make lots of money from that authority? I clearly missed a trick! https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2021/jul/31/oslo-pram-guy-teenage-vacuum-expert-niche-online-reviewers

1. I hope this one doesn’t get swamped by adverts. It’s an interesting piece exploring just how multilingual the Mexican government and Mexican citizens would wish to be https://mexiconewsdaily.com/opinion/the-fight-to-save-mexicos-native-languages/ A good basis for a class discussion?

2. Yet another benefit of being non-monolingual: “research has shown that a music-related hobby boosts language skills and affects the processing of speech in the brain. According to a new study, the reverse also happens — learning foreign languages can affect the processing of music in the brain”. https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2021/08/210803105546.htm (Thanks, Melanie!)

3. Digby Jones, Baron Jones of Birmingham – to use his full title – got himself into a right mess this week after his criticism of (what he called) BBC presenter Alex Scott’s ‘elocution’. There’s a good piece here, including the original Jones tweet, by Claire Hardaker, a forensic linguist from Lancaster University http://wp.lancs.ac.uk/drclaireh/2021/08/02/digby-lord-jones-the-man-who-took-on-linguistics-and-lost/ (Thanks, Ann!) and here’s Scott’s own splendid ‘final-g-free’ riposte https://www.independent.co.uk/sport/olympics/alex-scott-accent-opener-video-b1894626.html

4. And, finally and also thanks to Ann, a treasure trove of accents and dialects from the British Library https://sounds.bl.uk/accents-and-dialects

Try this one from the Survey of English Dialects (the bottom left-hand corner tile on the main page): Mr Cloughton from Askrigg in Wensleydale, not far from where I was born, talking about building dry-stone walls https://sounds.bl.uk/Accents-and-dialects/Survey-of-English-dialects/021M-C0908X0006XX-0500V1 and chuckle at the difference between his accent and the interviewer’s.

1. Ample notice of this event at 14:00 UK time on Thursday 12^th August as you may wish to do some prep for it with your students: the Global LEAD #WatchOurImpact Dialogue, a partnership between UNICEF’s Generation Unlimited and USAID’s Global Lead programme. More info and registration here https://www.eventbrite.com/e/watchourimpact-dialogue-registration-164041599841

More on Generation Unlimited here https://www.generationunlimited.org/

and on Global Lead here https://www.edu-links.org/about/global-engagement/global-leadership-and-education-advancing-development-global-lead

Might be hard to keep track of the abbreviations and acronyms!

2. The Coding Mindset is the most recent edition of the Pearson English Podcast. A new term to me, ‘coding mindset’. Podcast and explanation here https://www.english.com/blog/the-coding-mindset-podcast/

Direct link to podcast here https://soundcloud.com/pearson-english-podcast/the-coding-mindset (so you don’t keep clicking in vain on the forward arrow, as I did, but maybe that was a practical illustration of the coding mindset?).

3. I’d not come across this UNESCO list of the 1,154 World Heritage Sites before https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/ Lots of fun to be had exploring!

Used to be 1,155 until Liverpool lost its World Heritage status recently, alas. https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2021/jul/21/unesco-strips-liverpool-waterfront-world-heritage-status

4. Here’s a grim but well-written piece from Gerry Hassan for The Scottish Review on Scotland’s struggle with drugs-related deaths, which “has earned Scotland the unwanted moniker of ‘the drug death capital of Europe’”. https://www.scottishreview.net/GerryHassan579a.html

(https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/moniker)

5. And, finally, this week’s phobia, suggested by my colleague Steve, is igniterroremophobia. Steve says, “It’s hard to tell if some of these are just made-up nonsense…”

1. “There is a very long way to go for us all to fight against racial discrimination and hatred”, says Professor Li Wei, appointed earlier this year as Dean of the University College London Institute of Education. At one level, Li Wei has clearly been successful in his own fight against racial discrimination; as he explains in this piece for tesol journal, he now wants to help others win their fights https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/tesj.618 PDF below.

2. “Those in charge often have no experience of the problems they’re trying to solve and so are slow to find effective solutions.” This episode of the BBC Radio 4 series Equitable Leadership is an interview with Baljeet Sandhu, a pioneer of the Lived Experience Movement and founder and Chief Executive Officer of the Centre for Knowledge Equity here in the UK, who believes ‘knowledge equity’ can make policy-making more progressive https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m000ycvl

3. Last Monday, I mentioned the debate, Is Privatisation of Education Really a Solution? Here’s one contribution to that debate, Public Education Works: Five Lessons From Low and Middle-Income Countries https://doc-04-4o-prod-03-apps-viewer.googleusercontent.com/viewer2/prod-03/pdf/qa4lnn48r53comugedgq39e7h3fqfsb4/puidolbajf8d4a6lhc9ng7krih7bt9t6/1628012475000/3/102819316364724173377/APznzaZh_1Yw0MnveT8cXsl2ywtuLJdeZkYeOvzQJQuExHvhk8itI5NFupsUnzzSCaEwAsfghH0XLvYD5Y7PsMeFE_778m91rVS12OXDIW3DXxw5schde5CFiadIUd6hN8HZO6GAsaJw6TAQkAHbkftNS0BhdCC2SMe9uBQL6qgSi2ZqlO055Fn5t–sYuyzixgzDgVSuiE220EIMueZGkqsHayu5UEHTWSNWxed1lZx2TiNY2FhOCoZdKWpHexLX5cH4UegDlXve-pVulb5dmqJ2TNwNLqAElRZE5qi2P-JuVRj0x8_R6ynHPeq5LbzZ0YWxwAcFg3n_CMFJHIDgcnp7nH_8cEwtS6CNAuUP4JXEbMQUazrq8I=?nonce=9oishsc949o4u&user=102819316364724173377&hash=u3juvv0v0gtmpiu0mptp1r3q1kj4gh4k

That’s a horrendously long link which probably contains information on what I ate for lunch as well as the length of my inside leg, so there’s a PDF as well, below.

4. And, finally, here’s a simple recipe which – wonderful typo – makes ‘four sandwishes’ https://ralphschelling.com/download/ralph-schelling-monocle-rezept-tamago-sandwiches.jpg

1. And, firstly, just for a change this evening, an extraordinary exercise in patience and skill https://youtu.be/_vllyHBHsRM Deeply depressingly, one of the comments on the tweet where I first saw this said, ‘Why bother?’ ….

2. I mentioned Richard Smith’s ELTJ article, A brief history of ELT Journal back in March. I’ve just discovered Richard’s short introductory talk on his article https://youtu.be/ZztOsYUWBSM

Slightly strangely, it’s the first item in this Oxford University Press YouTube playlist on Grammar and Vocabulary https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL68E0B1D3B75EC9EE

3. The sixth podcast in The Climate Connection series is out, on Global Schooling https://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/article/climate-connection-episode-6-global-schooling

Here’s the direct link to the podcast itself https://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/sites/teacheng/files/CC%20Ep%206_low.mp3

PDFs below of show notes and transcript.

4. And while we’re on the subject of climate, here’s The Guardian’s compilation of one month’s worth of extreme weatherhttps://www.theguardian.com/environment/video/2021/jul/29/climate-crisis-what-one-month-of-extreme-weather-looks-like-video This link works for nearly everyone, it seems, but not for me – my YouTube profile is in a tizzy over ‘restricted mode’.

1. This one’s nothing to do with English at all, as it works with the three most common modern foreign languages in the UK (French, German and Spanish), but it will I hope be of general language learning and teaching interest (and in the meantime I’ll look for one for English) – the MultiLingProfiler from the UK National Centre for Excellence for Language Pedagogy (NCELP) https://www.multilingprofiler.net/

2. I’ve included a couple of pieces on the uses of AI (Artificial Intelligence) in education recently. Here’s a blog post on the same topic from Nick Saville of Cambridge Assessment https://www.cambridgeassessment.org.uk/blogs/education-artificial-intelligence/

Nick claims that “there is a huge opportunity to improve learning outcomes with the appropriate use of digital technology, such as the use of artificial intelligence (AI) that is specifically designed for educational purposes.”

3. The next in the Queen’s University Belfast Centre for Language Education research seminar series, at 13:00 UK time next Friday, 6th August, is A primer on second language English pronunciation assessment with Dr Talia Isaacs from the University College London Institute of Education. More info and registration here https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/a-primer-on-second-language-english-pronunciation-assessment-tickets-162302664639

4. Something a little different from the Finborough Theatre – an online performance of Masks and Faces https://youtu.be/9aTlHSECRcE which includes a cameo performance from a well-known theatre critic that suggests they made the right choice of career!

A little more info on play and production here https://finboroughtheatre.co.uk/production/masks-and-faces-or-before-and-behind-the-curtain/

5. And, finally, two video tours of the city of Edinburgh. Subtitles instead of a commentary, which works quite well, on this first one https://youtu.be/ODmoTtNedvc

and here’s another starring two men in kilts and accents https://youtu.be/BQuNDitswRc Subtitles available!

This is the inaugural Multilingual Thursday weekly message. (I may need some help remembering, Ann!)

1. The OUP EMI & CLIL Toolkit, full of lesson ideas to raise awareness of all the languages and dialects available in almost every classroom, just arrived in my inbox. Link here and PDF below for convenience https://i.emlfiles4.com/cmpdoc/4/1/3/6/7/files/571249_emi-toolkit.pdf

2. And here’s the TeachingEnglish publication, Using multilingual approaches: moving from theory to practice – A resource book of strategies, activities and projects for the classroom. Three sections: first, some light-touch theoretical background; second, practical classroom activities; third, further resources. Link here and PDF below https://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/sites/teacheng/files/Using_multilingual_approaches.pdf

3. The Arctic Council has just launched its Revitalising Arctic Indigenous Languages campaign https://arctic-council.org/en/news/revitalizing-arctic-indigenous-languages/ How many indigenous languages are spoken in the Arctic? 20? 50? 100? Read the piece and find out! The United Nations Decade of Action for Indigenous Languages begins next year.

4. The Welsh Government measures national well-being using a sophisticated set of 46 indicators, two of which – numbers 36 and 37 – relate to knowledge of and use of the Welsh language https://gov.wales/wellbeing-wales-national-indicators

Ask your students what a similar set of indicators to measure national well-being – happiness! – in your country might be?

5. And, finally, a survey that I’m not entirely convinced by on the best city in the world to study https://www.theguardian.com/education/2021/jul/28/london-remains-best-city-in-the-world-to-study-in-new-rankings

Here’s a note on methodology https://www.topuniversities.com/best-student-cities/methodology

and here’s the full list https://www.topuniversities.com/city-rankings/2022