Roy Cross's Blog

1. This recent piece of research by Strathclyde University into what they call composite classes – classes made up of children from more than one year group, as is still reasonably common in a number of countries round the world but far from the norm – in Scotland came to the interesting conclusion that “exposure to older peers is highly beneficial (my emphasis) to primary school pupils in terms of attainment. Composite classes, which are widespread internationally and very common in Scotland, explicitly create these peer effects while simultaneously allowing administrators to save classrooms and thus costs. Class size reductions, by contrast, offer no statistically significant benefits.” Link here https://strathcloud.sharefile.eu/share/view/s8afbaaf453134a51ba2651945940e76d and PDF below.

2. The EQUIP project https://ec.europa.eu/trustfundforafrica/region/horn-africa/sudan/education-quality-improvement-programme-sudan-equip-sudan_en works with one country, Sudan, in one continent, Africa, but the lessons learnt from it will resonate in many other countries where delivering innovative – or even non-innovative! – teacher training in remote contexts is a major challenge. The project team are sharing their research and the lessons they’ve learnt at a webinar at 10:00 UK time on 20^th April. More info in the PDF below and a registration link here https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScwrFE9U-4siDJTLhokMtzgaVFurMx2pgt0eDB0Fu2G7Q-P5A/viewform

3. Here’s another EU-funded project with resonance elsewhere in the world, European Language Equality: https://european-language-equality.eu/ Here’s a blunt summary: “… technology support for Europe’s languages is still characterised by a stark imbalance. While many resources and technologies exist for English, the majority of other languages suffer from a lack of technology support. (…) more than 21 European languages are in danger of digital extinction.”

4. And, finally, a warning from Jenny Joseph, courtesy of the Scottish Poetry Library website https://www.scottishpoetrylibrary.org.uk/poem/warning/ Lots of other good stuff on their site: have a rummage around! https://www.scottishpoetrylibrary.org.uk/

1. Oxford University Press (OUP) are currently running a ‘feature’ on learner agency https://elt.oup.com/feature/global/expert/?cc=gb&selLanguage=en&mode=hub which I don’t think is quite the same thing as learner autonomy. PDF of their Learner Agency: Maximizing Learner Potential position paper attached below, in case that’s easier for you, and do explore the rest of the stuff on that page.

Diane Larsen Freeman is giving a webinar on Learner Agency at 01:00 UK time on 15^th April https://www.bigmarker.com/oxford-university-press/An-Introduction-to-Learner-Agency-Session-2 There’s also a webinar at 15:00 UK time on 14^th April, but that seemed to be full as soon as it was advertised, so best be quick signing up for the 01:00 one if that time suits you.

2. Video on or video off, that is the question. Whether ‘tis nobler to suffer visibility …. Here’s a blog post by Donald Clark discussing a Carnegie Mellon University paper by Maria Tomprou and colleagues that found that “Visual cues have no effect on collaborative work. In fact, teams without visual presence were more successful, not only in synchronising their vocal cues but also speaking in turns and solving problems.” http://donaldclarkplanb.blogspot.com/2021/03/disabling-video-may-be-better-for.html

PDF of the Tomprou paper, Speaking out of turn: How video conferencing reduces vocal synchrony and collective intelligence, attached below if you fancy a go at it yourself.

3. There has to be a lesson in here somewhere, doesn’t there? https://www.calvertjournal.com/features/show/12648/kazakhstan-train-travel-photography-mario-heller

4. This week’s phobia is one that I wish I suffered from, obesophobia …..

5. And, finally, here’s the trailer for a wonderful North Macedonian film, Honeyland, that we watched last weekend: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dj9mT91fe64 Worth watching in its own right but do catch the film if you can!

1. First today, another excellent blog post from Alexandra Mihai, this one on Problem Based Learning https://educationalist.substack.com/p/problem-based-learning-pbl-let-students with the usual high-quality reading list at the end of the post.

2. Here’s this year’s longlist for the International Booker Prize, with writers from twelve different countries : https://thebookerprizes.com/international-booker/2021 Booker have for some years now given equal billing to the translator, which is only proper.

By way of provocation, here’s a piece by Tim Parks, himself both translator and novelist, on the new notion of “resistant”, “visible” translation which requires the translator a) to leave their mark on – correct, even – the text they translate rather than hide behind it, self-effacingly, and b) share gender, age and ethnicity with the writer they’re translating (to overstate the case just a little): https://www.nybooks.com/daily/2021/03/31/the-visible-translator/ Not all of the Booker translators would qualify according to the rules of ‘visible translation’, it would seem.

Home-made PDF crib sheet with a little more info on the longlisted authors attached below.

3. I’m a big fan of the novelist and poet Owen Sheers – as I think I may have said before! Here’s an online landscape writing lesson from Owen that you might like to either try yourself or with your more advanced students https://www.hayfestival.com/wales/beacons-project/owen-sheers (You can safely dismiss the school student registration screen that appears when you first access the page.) PDF of both Owen’s article, Poetry and place: some personal reflections and his lesson plan attached below.

4. Here’s five of the very simplest of words – pretty, tall, silly, naughty and sad – that have travelled a long way from their original meaning in Old English over the years: https://theconversation.com/five-words-that-dont-mean-what-you-think-they-do-158102

5. And, finally, a little Bach from the Cambridge Music Festival, performed by the Dunedin Consort: https://youtu.be/29exxgiX2Sk It starts with a good introduction from the conductor, John Butt, but you can skip to 15’ 27” in if you’re in a hurry. Possibly available for only one more day ….

1. Nice blog post from Claire Dembry of Cambridge English on using ‘Saylists’ in class here https://www.cambridge.org/elt/blog/2021/03/29/saylists-elt-classroom/ Saylist playlists are an Apple thing and they focus on songs which emphasise a single sound for practice purposes; here’s the <ch> one https://music.apple.com/gb/playlist/ch-saylists/pl.0b532ab630eb4e4689bfbb47bf4062d3 I’m not quite sure whether you need to subscribe to Apple Music to access them – my phone and laptop won’t let me pretend I’m not subscribed! Scroll down after you’ve read Claire’s Saylists piece for other Cambridge English blog posts at the bottom of the page.

2. The students in my own classes (a very long time ago) were never ever sleepy, nor was their teacher very often. I’m sure that’s true of your classes, too! Just in case, though, here’s a lesson from this week’s TeachingEnglish newsletter designed to wake up a sleepy class https://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/article/arm-exercises-speaking-activity-wake-a-sleepy-class

If you’d like to get your own copy of the fortnightly TeachingEnglish newsletter, you can subscribe here: https://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/subscribe-our-newsletter

3. If evaluation is your bag, you’ll find this report on Outcome Mapping interesting https://www.outcomemapping.ca/download/en_20%20years%20of%20OM.pdf And even if evaluation is definitely NOT your bag, read the summary on page 2 of the three principles, four concepts and five practices that underpin the outcome mapping philosophy. PDF below.

4. And, finally, Coventry is UK City of Culture for 2021-22, starting from mid-May https://coventry2021.co.uk/ A new city every four years, and last time round it was Hull. Coventry and Hull are linked by Philip Larkin: he was born in the former, worked for many years in the latter, and was often rude about both. On first arrival in Hull, he declared it “a ghastly place, as bad as Coventry” but later warmed to the city and described it as a place that people “are slow to leave and quick to return to”  https://coventry2021.co.uk/blogs/world-poetry-day-philip-larkin-in-coventry/

We have a long weekend off for Easter here in the UK – hurrah! – so my next message will be on Tuesday 6^th April. Stay well and safe everyone.

1. Here’s a Think Like a Plastic Detective project and competition from National Geographic Learning, plus a video-recording of the related webinar that escaped my attention (but not that of 1,500 other people) last week: https://www.ngl-emea.com/projectexploration PDFs of both info sheet and teacher letter attached below for ease of reference.

2. A piece of provocation from a governor at a Bristol primary school https://capx.co/time-for-britains-outdated-school-system-to-embrace-the-digital-revolution/ which rang true for me, as a recent convert to WhatsApp voice messages, when the author talked of witnessing “first-hand the utility of voice feedback to pupils on work which can be replayed to parents at home instead of having to decode a litany of scribblings in a child’s exercise book”.

3. At 13:30 UK time tomorrow, Thursday 1^st April, you might like to join Andreas Schleicher, OECD Director for Education and Skills, as he presents “the findings of a survey of around 30 different education systems and their responses to the pandemic, looking at how strategies varied across countries, whether or not certain strategies were favoured, and what the impact of these strategies was”. More info and registration here: https://meetoecd1.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_mVlDgRubT0GfZLH9RTaBMQ

4. Two from the Gastro Obscura website https://www.atlasobscura.com/gastro: storing grapes in Afghanistan https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/how-did-people-store-fruit-before-fridges and baking cakes in Bangkok https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/siamese-portuguese-cupcake-recipe

5. And, finally, this week’s phobia, esperidoeidiphobia, is possibly one shared by fans of Jeanette Winterson’s (wonderful) first novel ….

1. I thought this blog post by Maha Bali, Students Talk to Me About Webcams, was an exemplary, really interesting piece of co-authorship by a teacher and her students: https://blog.mahabali.me/educational-technology-2/students-talk-to-me-about-webcams/

2. Malgorithm is a good neologism, I reckon. It’s the title of a report by the Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH) https://www.counterhate.com/ on how social media does not only not do a very good job limiting the spread of misinformation, its algorithms actually recommend posts they’ve labelled as misinformation. There are several good short introductory news videos on CCDH’s home page which would work well with older students. Link to report here https://252f2edd-1c8b-49f5-9bb2-cb57bb47e4ba.filesusr.com/ugd/f4d9b9_89ed644926aa4477a442b55afbeac00e.pdf and PDF below.

3. Plenty of notice for this free Lancaster University MOOC on FutureLearn: Dyslexia and Foreign Language Teaching https://www.futurelearn.com/courses/dyslexia/7 Next ‘edition’ starts on 19th April and comes very highly recommended.

4. Two quick reminders of approaching conference deadlines: first, the NATESOL annual conference https://natesol.wordpress.com/annual-conference-2021/ for which the deadline for submissions is 2^nd April; second, Trinity’s Future of ELT conference for which the deadline for submissions is 6^th April https://learn.trinitycollege.co.uk/foelt/events/2020

5. And, finally, I mentioned Richard Smith’s ELTJ article, A brief history of ELT Journal, yesterday. In response to popular demand, here’s a PDF!

1. Many of the readers of these messages of mine are indebted in one way or another to A S Hornby. Some of you have benefited from MA scholarships and some have attended summer schools and workshops funded by the A S Hornby Educational Trust – and pretty much everybody has used one edition or another of the Hornby dictionary, the Oxford Advanced Learners Dictionary, in their learning and teaching! The English Language Teaching Journal (ELTJ) have just made available a range of resources, many of which, including a facsimile of A S Hornby’s very first issue back in October 1946 and an interview with Hornby himself, are gathered together here https://academic.oup.com/eltj/pages/anniversary

And on this page https://academic.oup.com/eltj/pages/editors_choice_videos you can find a number of ‘Editor’s Choice’ videos where authors talk about their ELTJ articles, including one with Richard Smith talking about his article, ‘A brief history of ELT Journal‘. Thanks to Richard for bringing these resources to my attention!

I couldn’t find a download of the whole issue, but I’ve attached a PDF of Hornby’s editorial from Issue 1 on Foreign Language Studies: Their Place in the National Life.

2. The BAAL Language in African Special Interest Group will be holding their conference online this year, between the 1st and 14th of June 2021, on the theme of African languages and social change: Politics, activism, and justice. The conference will be free, and registration will open in early May; the main reason for my mentioning it now, though, is because the abstract submission deadline is the 16th of April 2021. BAAL are offering Internet Scholarships to assist participants who may be otherwise unable to attend due to high internet costs. If you would like to apply for an Internet Scholarship, please note this when submitting your abstract. PDF with full information attached below. (I wonder whether the English language is the elephant in this conference’s living room?)

3. UNESCO is conducting a short survey to collect data from parents of K-12 students on screen time, and its impact on children during the COVID-19 disruption, to help them provide informed recommendations on regulating home-based digital learning, better provision of digital learning materials, and protecting children from potential negative impacts. Survey link and more information here https://survey.alchemer.com/s3/6256737/Survey-on-Home-based-screen-time-digital-learning-and-digital-reading It takes around 15 minutes to complete and closes on Friday, 9^th April. One of the areas the survey aims to collect data and feedback on is the costs and affordability of home-based digital learning. (I don’t see why teachers shouldn’t also respond.)

4. On a related matter, on Wednesday 31^st July at 15:00 UK time OECD are organising a webinar on Understanding digital risks for 21st century children. More info and a registration link here https://meetoecd1.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_n2aq76prR7SLlMKxJVniGg

5. And, finally, I strongly recommend a visit to https://storyhaven.digitalfiction.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/Episode-1.html

1. David Malpass is the President of the World Bank Group, which makes him an important person in all our futures, I guess. He’s giving a talk for the LSE at 17:30 UK time on Monday, 29th March on Tackling the COVID-19 Pandemic of Inequality to Build a Green, Inclusive, & Resilient Recovery https://www.lse.ac.uk/Events/2021/03/202103291730/recovery I know nothing of Mr Malpass, but I’d love to think he’s a man of vision, passion and humanity – we can find out on Monday!

2. Pauline Rose of the Research for Equitable Access and Learning (REAL) Centre here in Cambridge has just published a report on Exploring the School to Work Transition for Adolescent Girls, which begins “If countries are to grow and prosper in a way that improves the lives of everyone, they need to make a special commitment to supporting one of the most vulnerable sections of the population: marginalised adolescent girls”.

Here’s a handy summary https://www.educ.cam.ac.uk/facultyweb_content/news/left-behind-adolescent-women-must-be-prioritised Download link here https://www.educ.cam.ac.uk/centres/real/publications/School%20to%20Work%20Transition%20for%20Adolescent%20Girls%20Full%20Report.pdf and PDF attached below.

3. Is the lecture dead? This article’s answer to that question would seem to be yes, more or less! https://www.aare.edu.au/blog/?p=8377

4. I thought this was rather good: https://www.artexchange.org.uk/artworks/hetain-patel-dont-look-at-the-finger/

5. And, finally, the latest Marsm playlist, this time of Sudanese music, curated by the London-resident Sudanese creative artist Basma Khalifa https://soundcloud.com/marsm-info/marsm-mixtape-3-by-basma and here’s a link to the most recent of Basma’s own monthly shows on NTS Radio (which I’ve just discovered) https://www.nts.live/shows/basma/episodes/khartoum-arrivals-w-basma-7th-march-2021

1. Time to catch up with the Pearson ELT podcast: https://www.pearson.com/english/about/podcast.html Since I last paid a visit, David Crystal and Jennifer Jenkins have both been interviewed, about English Conversation and English as a Lingua Franca, respectively. Lots of other good stuff with less well-known people, too!

2. One for your advanced students, possibly: two diametrically-opposed accounts of the same session of Prime Minister’s Questions (PMQs) in the House of Commons yesterday, one from The Spectator [“Sir Keir Starmer (ed. the leader of the opposition Labour Party) will want to forget today’s PMQs. And fast.”] https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/keir-starmer-morphed-into-ed-miliband-at-pmqs and the other from The Guardian [“No lie off limits for Boris Johnson.”] https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2021/mar/24/no-lie-off-limits-for-boris-johnson Spot the difference!

And here’s the recording, if you’d like to form your own view: https://youtu.be/CgRdLIBUs8g Where is the man’s comb?

3. This is a fun TED talk by Lýdia Machová on The secrets of learning a new language https://www.ted.com/talks/lydia_machova_the_secrets_of_learning_a_new_language/transcript Listen out 1’40” in for the ingenious method Lucas from Brazil uses to learn Russian! There’s a rolling transcript available with blue highlighting. (I just made up that term ‘rolling transcript’.)

And here’s the twenty most popular TED talks of 2020: https://www.ted.com/playlists/780/the_most_popular_talks_of_2020 Ever so slightly US-centric but we can forgive them that, can’t we?

4. And, finally, PEN Transmissions, English PEN’s online magazine, is well worth a visit every now and then. Here’s Kikuko Tsumura’s piece on making masks work, translated by Polly Barton: https://pentransmissions.com/2021/03/02/working-masks/ and here’s Bangladeshi refugee Spicy’s Story, as told by Omid Tofighian and Behrouz Boochani https://pentransmissions.com/2021/03/12/spicys-story/