Roy Cross's Blog

1. The LearnEnglish sites have some good stuff for next Monday – or indeed any other day!

https://learnenglish.britishcouncil.org/general-english/video-zone/international-womens-day-we-are-generationequality

https://learnenglishteens.britishcouncil.org/study-break/video-zone/how-can-more-women-get-into-politics

https://learnenglishkids.britishcouncil.org/video-zone/kamala-harris-why-her-new-job-so-important

2. TIRF is The International Research Foundation for English Language Education, and they’ve just published a new paper on ESP in their Language Education in Review series: https://www.tirfonline.org/2021/02/tirf-language-education-in-review-series-english-for-specific-purposes/ You’ll find previous papers in the series here, including one on the Common European Framework of Reference and one on English as a Medium of Instruction: https://www.tirfonline.org/publications/

Plus, TIRF’s announcement of this year’s Doctoral Dissertation Grants, which may be well timed for some of you: https://www.tirfonline.org/grants-prizes/doctoral-dissertation-grants/

3. The March book of the month at the Hay Festival is What We Owe Each Other by Minouche Shafik. Her book seeks to answer the salient question of our time, “At a time when government seems broken, where can we find a framework for social, economic, and political renewal?” https://www.hayfestival.com/p-17441-minouche-shafik-talks-to-matina-stevis-gridneff.aspx

There’s a Q&A with Baroness Shafik on Tuesday, 9^th March at 19:00 UK time. You may need to explore the page for the registration link: on my computer, it was small and in the centre at the top of the screen! If you have a moment, read her CV – the very definition of stellar, as in the phrase ‘stellar CV’ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minouche_Shafik,_Baroness_Shafik

4. And, finally, a good piece in the latest issue of The New Yorker, Last Exit from Afghanistan, from Dexter Filkins, who wrote the excellent The Forever War about the ill-fated (ill-conceived, ill-planned, ill-conducted, just plain ill) USA interventions in Iraq and Afghanistan https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2021/03/08/last-exit-from-afghanistan He’s clearly pretty brave himself but not as brave as some of the people he describes, such as Fawzia Koofi.

1. In the lead up to International Women’s Day, the Inter-agency Network for Education in Emergencies (INEE), Education Cannot Wait (ECW) and the UN Girls’ Education Initiative (UNGEI) are launching a new core resource package for gender in education in emergencies: the ‘EiE-GenKit’. Register here to join the launch event on Wednesday 3 March at 12:00 UK time https://unicef.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_PugoM3glSyCgK2EZbVZm9w

More info on UNGEI here https://www.ungei.org/what-we-do/gender-education-emergencies

on INEE here https://inee.org/

and on ECW – who I think I’ve mentioned before – here https://www.educationcannotwait.org/

2. Two pieces from just down the road here in Cambridge: scroll down the page a little for a time lapse video of the Cambridge University Botanical Garden’s Moonflower eventually opening: https://www.botanic.cam.ac.uk/the-suspense-is-over/

and click here for the programme for Cambridge University’s free festival starting 26^th March https://www.festival.cam.ac.uk/ Early notice so you can book early – a number of the events have limited capacity.

3. A great set of animated films from the Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage,  Animating the Mother Tongue: An Indigenous Language Playlist https://folklife.si.edu/magazine/mother-tongue-indigenous-language-animation Try the Mapudungun one!

4. More – yet more! – on accents, from the British Library: https://sounds.bl.uk/Accents-and-dialects For a blast from the past, try this collection https://sounds.bl.uk/Accents-and-dialects/Survey-of-English-dialects

The one in the Yorkshire section from Askrigg https://goo.gl/maps/koe6AuCgcq2KpEny9 comes from just up the dale from my family hometown, Richmond – give it a go! https://sounds.bl.uk/Accents-and-dialects/Survey-of-English-dialects/021M-C0908X0006XX-0500V1

5. And, finally, another – yet another! – podcast: https://www.nosuchthingasafish.com/ 362 weekly episodes on strange facts and counting …

1. More on accents, including Glaswegian, courtesy of my colleague Christine, Sadie Ryan’s wonderful podcast all about accents and perceptions of accents and language and identity, Accentricity  https://www.accentricity-podcast.com/

2. More sounds to explore over the weekend, the latest New York Times list of recommended podcasts https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/25/arts/podcast-recommendations.html All human life is there!

‘All human life is there’ used to be the claim made by the News of the World – the newspaper, not the film: https://www.theguardian.com/media/2011/jul/10/news-of-the-world-history)

3. Something more sombre, the Annual International Migration and Forced Displacement Trends and Policies Report for the G20, which notes the impact of the pandemic on migration and displacement. The numbers may look better but they aren’t really. Link here  http://www.oecd.org/migration/mig/FINAL-2020-OECD-ILO-UNHCR-IOM-G20-report.pdf and I’ve attached a copy of both the whole document AND the executive summary only below.

4. From the ever-surprising World Economic Forum website, https://www.weforum.org/focus Black historical figures who shook the world, from a warrior queen to a Mexican president https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2021/02/black-historical-figures-musa-mbande-medici-samurai/

5. And, finally, a great piece of writing by the Japanese writer Kenzaburō Ōe https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1998/07/13/dream-pictures

He’s led an interesting and principled life: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kenzabur%C5%8D_%C5%8Ce

1. Two ELTons opportunities to start with.

One, an invitation to be a judge next time round – details here and please note that “there are no fixed qualifications needed to be a judge (…) judges typically have a wide range of experience in the EFL world”: https://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/article/become-eltons-judge-0

The second, an invitation to submit your project or product for an award if you’ve produced an innovative English language teaching or learning product, publication or service in the last two years – which must be pretty nearly all of you, mustn’t it? Details here, and please note that entries for the Local Innovation category need not be in partnership with Cambridge Assessment – they’re the sponsors (thank you!) of the award: https://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/article/eltons-innovation-awards-2021-applications

2. Here’s the latest update from a previous winner of an ELTons award, Digital Learning Associates (DLA): a new article by Philip Kerr, Extraordinary Disabilities, about the representation of people with disabilities in ELT materials: https://digitallearningassociates.com/whats-new/2021/2/24/extraordinary-disabilities-philip-kerr-writes-about-the-representation-of-disability-in-elt  Philip says that “better representation of people with disabilities would be a relatively small step in the direction of a more inclusive approach to education”.

To accompany Philip’s article, DLA have curated a selection of existing Ready to Run authentic videos that tell stories of people dealing with a variety of life challenges, including physical disability, from around the world: https://vimeo.com/showcase/lifechallenges Check out Paralympic champion Ade Adepitan’s story!

3. Reimagining Education Through Technology is the title of a wide-ranging report from Central Square Foundation https://www.centralsquarefoundation.org/ who work to transform the school education system in India to improve the learning outcomes of all children, especially from low-income communities. Report here https://centralsquarefoundation.org/re-imagining-education/ and PDF attached.

4. And, finally, at 18:30 UK time tomorrow, Friday 26^th February, Monique Roffey will be live in conversation at the Bradford Literature Festival talking about her new book, The Mermaid of Black Conch: https://www.facebook.com/events/342168247062760

Monique’s book is shortlisted for the Rathbones Folio prize this year: https://www.rathbonesfolioprize.com/the-2021-shortlist-2-3-2-2/

1. Young people don’t feel they can make a difference is the sad message from this article by Andreas Schleicher of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) on what schools can do to support the climate: https://oecdedutoday.com/green-at-fifteen-schools-support-climate/ However, he suggests, schools can help students develop a stronger sense of agency.

2. Bags of good stuff on the new UK National Poetry Day website  https://nationalpoetryday.co.uk/ including free posters and lesson plans to download https://nationalpoetryday.co.uk/education/free-education-resource-downloads/  and some BBC counting songs https://www.bbc.co.uk/teach/school-radio/nursery-rhymes-counting-songs/zn67kmn You might find you have to right click on some of the resources and select ‘open in new tab’ – on the other hand, you might not! I’ve attached a John Hegley poem example below.

3. I was once (perceived to be; I wasn’t really) the first Sassenach to lead the British Council Scotland team. Early in my time in Scotland, I made the journey by train across from Edinburgh to Glasgow, to visit Glasgow University. On arrival in Glasgow I took a taxi whose driver confirmed my suspicion that a certain kind of Scot was not prepared to make any linguistic allowances at all for visiting Sassenachs. The Glaswegian rapper Loki’s accent in this short video, however, is clarity itself in comparison! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6jd7kHjsYNU&feature=youtu.be

Once you’ve tuned in, try this interview of Loki’s with Channel 4’s Krishnan Guru-Murthy https://youtu.be/9sxENe4cvGU

4. This week’s phobia is trypanophobia, from which I’m glad to say I did not suffer yesterday when I joined the very privileged minority of the world’s population to have been vaccinated against Covid.

5. And, finally, and available only until Sunday, a tribute to the World War One jazzman James Reese Europe and his band, The Harlem Hellfighters: https://youtu.be/5UCwuV2tFNk

Here’s the Wikipedia entry on the 369th Infantry Regiment, which was one of the first African American regiments to serve with the American Expeditionary Forces during World War I, and their extraordinary regimental band: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/369th_Infantry_Regiment_(United_States)#369th_Regiment_Military_Band

1. On International Women’s Day on March 8^th, as part of its commitment to Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI), the British Council is offering a set of three free online courses for teachers on Gender in Language Education. Here’s a link to a page with more information on the three modules and how to sign up: https://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/article/gender-language-education-gender-representation-teaching-materials and I’ve attached a PDF of the flyer below.

There are three introductory FB events next week, one on each module:

March 1^st: Gender representation in teaching materials

https://www.facebook.com/events/191596546085907

March 3^rd: Gender equality in teaching practice

https://www.facebook.com/events/895750234570062

March 5^th: Gender equality in education

https://www.facebook.com/events/514245716220019

2. The London School of Economics (LSE) runs a very rich programme of online events, not all by any means about economics: http://www.lse.ac.uk/Events/Search-Events

This one tomorrow on Making Your Voice Heard by Connson Locke looks good: http://www.lse.ac.uk/Events/2021/02/202102241400/voice

3. Two surveys next. The first is from the European Centre for Modern Languages, who’ve asked me to say that it’s NOT just for teachers from Europe! The purposes of the survey are to gather information and encourage reflection about ways language education has altered during the pandemic and to learn about respondents’ experiences, lessons learned and good practice. https://languageeducationandcovid.questionpro.com/a/TakeSurvey?tt=L/GSxVK/hYy5RCNGxsIbHA%3D%3D&lcfpn=false

4. The second survey is actually a reminder of Gary Motteram’s one that I mentioned last week, on how teachers and teacher educators use communication tools and social media for professional development. Gary’s had LOTS of responses from South Asia, for which he’s very grateful, but he’d love a few more from other parts of the world: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdtiaABY4tKqFTlmpCEGVhXCPxNa7n3LmVDnQsTKEwqZN3eMQ/viewform

5. And, finally, a podcast by two self-styled renegades, two of my heroes. Here’s a short introductory video https://youtu.be/BAeIskxCnSc and here’s a link to the podcast https://open.spotify.com/episode/0NtR6A0rgFiwpFZs2aZBun?si=u5OPbVs0S5CYYjmrdtsYDA&nd=1 I’m halfway through the first episode as I write and loving it!

0. Oh dearie me! My colleague Mark has ever so gently pointed out that I got in a right muddle with my days of the week and dates for the webinars I mentioned on Friday.

The Eaquals https://www.eaquals.org/eaquals-events/event/nazan-gelbal-more-interactive-and-effective-lessons-with-less-tools-apps-how-to-coach-and-mentor-effectively-in-a-crisis/ and PIE https://www.crowdcast.io/e/the-pie-webinar–futureproofed/register events I got right – though ‘less tools’ has occasioned a little excitement among more traditional readers –

but the Bilingual English project silver jubilee event is on Friday 26^th February https://www.britishcouncil.es/en/events/25-years-mefp-british-council-bilingual-education-programme registration link here https://register.gotowebinar.com/register/8252118853419621900?source=EES+UK and the National Geographic Learning webinar is on Saturday 27^th February https://cengage.zoom.us/webinar/register/8016133931986/WN_5bSDhFnZQZyLrRE2tXRh6g. Sorry!

1. Also absolutely, totally, irrevocably definitely on Saturday 27^th February, at 10:00 UK time, is the next NATESOL webinar, on Comics & the Serious Art of Learning a Language: Using Comics & Graphic Novels for Multi-Layered Learning with Jess Poole of Leeds University. More details in the flyer attached below; register here: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSekN3wrai99R9a2yuvpv-0MJNe4Q64BdKq0Ucml5kReD3JvAg/viewform

2. Does everyone know what a ‘twofer’ is, I wonder? The term usually applies to bottles of shampoo and the like https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/twofer but today it refers to Dina Mehmedbegovic-Smith and Thomas H Bak’s dual blog post on a) International Mother Tongue Day and b) the Healthy Linguistic Diet (HLD) website’s fifth birthday: http://healthylinguisticdiet.com/international-mother-tongue-day-and-hld-5th-birthday/

You’ll find the HLD website, which has a wide range of different material, here http://healthylinguisticdiet.com/

3. The Race to Fix Virtual Meetings is the title of this New York Times piece which asks the rhetorical question, “Sick of boring grids of heads?” https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/17/magazine/video-conference.html and describes life beyond – well beyond – Zoom.

Hands up if you’ve heard of Kumospace, Pluto, Gather.town,  Hopin and Run the World? I can think of one colleague who might have done …

4. Also sent me by my colleague Mark, to soften the day-date blow to my self-esteem: Paisley Book Festival https://paisleybookfest.com/events/

I fancy this one at 10:00 UK time on Saturday – that’s Saturday! – 27^th February: https://paisleybookfest.com/events/1173606787/ and hope to persuade my granddaughter to watch ‘with’ me.

5. And, finally, a bit of light relief: https://youtu.be/sDsn-RRmDXU

1. Several webinars today, in date order. First up is the next Eaquals one at 14:00 UK time next Tuesday, 23^rd February, with Nazan Gelbal from Sabanci University in Istanbul and a nice, no-nonsense title, More Interactive and Effective Lessons with Less Tools/ Apps: https://www.eaquals.org/eaquals-events/event/nazan-gelbal-more-interactive-and-effective-lessons-with-less-tools-apps-how-to-coach-and-mentor-effectively-in-a-crisis/

2. Next Wednesday, 24^th February at 09:00 UK time is the next PIE webinar, on What does genuine education disruption look like?, with three speakers from young and successfully disruptive education organisations: Arden University, Nexford University and Minerva https://www.crowdcast.io/e/the-pie-webinar–futureproofed/register

3. At 10:00 UK time next Thursday, 26^th February, the Spanish Ministry of Education & Vocational Training and the British Council are celebrating the silver jubilee of the Bilingual Education Programme with a webinar devoted to Empowering transformational change. It’ll nearly all be in English (with a little Spanish along the way); Lucy Crehan (about whom I’ve enthused before) and Zahir Irani (about whom my colleagues in Spain enthuse) are both talking. More info here https://www.britishcouncil.es/en/events/25-years-mefp-british-council-bilingual-education-programme  and registration link here https://register.gotowebinar.com/register/8252118853419621900?source=EES+UK

4. Just a little later on Thursday, 26^th February, at 12:00 UK time is Promoting Creativity in Digital Learning with Nik Peachey, discussing why it’s currently all the more important to remember to maintain the human aspect of language learning https://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/article/promoting-creativity-digital-learning

5. Last,  but absolutely not least, is the National Geographic Learning webinar at 09:30 UK time next Friday, 27^th February, Cultivate a positive student mindset and learn how to become a plastic detective with your students https://cengage.zoom.us/webinar/register/8016133931986/WN_5bSDhFnZQZyLrRE2tXRh6g So, what exactly is a plastic detective, I wonder, and what’s the connection with a positive mindset? We will find out next Friday!

6. And, finally, and a bit more seriously than usual, the recently published Dasgupta Report, The Economics of Bio-Diversity, which argues that Nature’s (finite) value must be at the heart of economics https://www.cam.ac.uk/stories/dasguptareview  PDF of full report below.

1. Techfugees mission is “empowering displaced people with technology” https://techfugees.com/ They’ve just issued their first ever annual report, which you can read here https://techfugees.app.box.com/s/v3j96k8bhs6sm0vuhle6gtkcl4jrnaru I’ve also attached a PDF below but please be warned it’s a bit of a monster file – perhaps surprising, given the people with whom Techfugees does such good work – and you might not want to use up most of your data allowance downloading it.

[FILE]

2. Duolingo, the language learning site, https://www.duolingo.com/  have also just published their first annual Language Report on global language learning trends https://blog.duolingo.com/global-language-report-2020/ Lots of interesting observations, including: the ten most popular languages, where #1 might not surprise you but the lowly position of #10 might; the second most popular language learnt through Duolingo in each country worldwide; the fastest growing languages being learnt; the country that works hardest at learning languages. One small proviso is that the data derives from Duolingo’s customer database, which is clearly not quite a random sample of population in each country.

3. You’ll need to book quickly for the Oxford English Language Teachers’ Online Conference (ELTOC), as some sessions are already full: https://elt.oup.com/events/global/eltoc-2021?cc=gb&selLanguage=en It runs from 25^th to 27^th February, and here’s the programme: https://view.pagetiger.com/ELTOC-2021-global-schedule

4. And, finally, the first episode of the first book, Tess of the d’Urbervilles, in a series of BBC Radio dramatisations over the next few months of Thomas Hardy’s novels told from the heroine’s point of view: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b078zcrr Listened to it last night and thought one of my favourite novels survived well!

Here’s the episode of ‘In Our Time’ that discussed Tess: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b078zcrr

Curiously – or lazily? – both dramatisation and discussion use the same image of Tess – see if you can find it here! http://www.victorianweb.org/art/illustration/tess/tess.html

1. Tomorrow, Thursday 18^th February, at 14:00 UK time: David Heathfield on Engaging, Personal and Creative Online Storytelling https://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/article/online-storytelling-engaging-personal-creative “The webinar will focus on telling tales from the world’s oral cultures and refer to how these folk tales can inspire students to share personal stories.”

Here’s David’s own website: https://davidheathfieldblog.wordpress.com/

2. While I was checking out the details of David’s talk, I chanced upon this webinar by Ágnes (Ági) Enyedi on How to Avoid Teacher Burnout. She gave the talk long before we’d heard of Covid, but it’s aged very well and is even more relevant today: https://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/article/agnes-enyedi-how-avoid-teacher-burnout  (I don’t suppose you’ll get to see this message, Ági, but hi there if you do!)

Ági recommends TED talks by two Dans: Dan Pink’s on ‘The Puzzle of Motivation’ https://www.ted.com/talks/dan_pink_the_puzzle_of_motivation?utm_campaign=tedspread&utm_medium=referral&utm_source=tedcomshare and Dan Ariely’s on ‘What Makes Us Feel Good about Our Work?’ https://www.ted.com/talks/dan_ariely_what_makes_us_feel_good_about_our_work?utm_campaign=tedspread&utm_medium=referral&utm_source=tedcomshare

3. A friend of mine with a very large brain, Norman, recommended this article, Martin Luther Rewired Your Brain: https://thisviewoflife.com/martin-luther-rewired-your-brain/ See what you think of it – the central thesis is that the advent of mass literacy changed the way our brain works and is ‘wired’.

4. A short film from the British Museum about the painstaking creation of a mandala in the Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan – and its ritual destruction almost immediately after its completion, to emphasise one of the central concepts of Buddhism, that everything is impermanent: https://youtu.be/khs0f4zTPbg

Lots more material from the Museum’s recent online exhibition Tantra: enlightenment to revolution here: https://youtu.be/vj2mJGLst9I?list=PLHcErFdjbqlx83D7QRooF8Kls9rFtmD2_ including a spell-binding performance of Tantric mystic songs by Parvathy Baul, who is – a little confusingly – a virtuoso Baul musician. Bit like being named Bruce Guitar instead of Bruce Springsteen, I suppose!

5. The weekly phobia is one that’s shared by my stepson and Alfred Hitchcock – ovophobia!