Roy Cross's Blog

1. The next TeachingEnglish webinar, on Thursday 28^th January at 12:00 UK time, is a partnership with National Geographic Learning. John Hughes’s title is Two sides of the same coin: Critical and Creative Thinking in the ELT classroom  https://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/article/two-sides-same-coin-critical-creative-thinking-elt-classroom He’ll be exploring the relationship between those two types of thinking – often presented as opposites – in the ELT classroom and illustrating how you can apply them with practical activities for use in your teaching tomorrow. One for those of us who need instant gratification!

2. The latest ECML microsite is focussed on Inspiring language learning in the early years: Why it matters and what it looks like for children age 3-12

https://www.ecml.at/ECML-Programme/Programme2016-2019/Inspiringlanguagelearningintheearlyyears/tabid/3015/Default.aspx

There’s a short introductory film; alternatively, you can just take an exploratory sniff-cum-click at the petals of the project flower.

And in a similar vein from the ECML, here’s the recording of their very well-attended webinar on How to ensure that languages flourish in your school from late last year: https://youtu.be/5QW_RT2W2fc

3. I think you know by now that I’m a fan of the non-fake-news site, The Conversation. Here’s two pieces currently featured:

First, a piece that says we all need a mix of male and female in our brain: https://theconversation.com/male-vs-female-brains-having-a-mix-of-both-is-common-and-offers-big-advantages-new-research-153242

Second, a piece that seeks to explain why Agatha Christie’s Hercule Poirot remains so popular around the world: https://theconversation.com/poirot-at-100-the-refugee-detective-who-stole-britains-heart-153665

You can subscribe to their newsletter here: https://theconversation.com/uk It’s usually a rich mix with at least one item that tickles my fancy.

4. And, finally, here’s another taste of Amanda Gorman: https://youtu.be/qHhut5nhI8g She’s on everybody’s show at present but I don’t think her head will be turned.

Friday 22^nd January

1. How do small rich cold countries manage their education? Join this OECD webinar, Let schools decide: The Norwegian approach to school improvement, at 10:00 UK time on Wednesday 27^th January  to find out: https://meetoecd1.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_hAPnEo–Tpa0b5kWVrP7AQ

And if I’d written ‘cold small rich countries’ would that have meant something different, I wonder?

2. NATESOL is the Northern Association of Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages here in the UK. Several you have attended one of their previous webinars – the ‘Two Steves’ one on Reflective tools & talk for teacher development back in early November was an especially popular one. NATESOL are hosting their annual conference on Zoom this year, on Saturday 15^th May, under the theme Challenge and Change in TESOL, and the deadline for proposals is 28^th February. PDF with more information attached below. If your paper is accepted, we can arrange to pay your conference fee if that would be helpful.

[And here’s the link again to the resource pack for the ‘Two Steves’ session, in case you missed it first time round: https://warwick.padlet.org/stevemann/jcucxu3cmtqbjt5m The password is <reflective>.]

3. Lots of food for thought in this BBC Radio series, Disability: A New History  https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b02140ny

4. And, finally, more great stuff from the National Theatre of Scotland: Janey Godley’s play, Alone – free to watch and very good: https://www.nationaltheatrescotland.com/events/alone

Also this year’s Christmas show, Singalong Rapunzel: https://www.nationaltheatrescotland.com/events/singalong-rapunzel/ Here’s a taste: https://youtu.be/xIgtQoL4NBs

1. Exploiting infographics for language practice and critical thinking is the title of Nik Peachey’s next free webinar at 14:30 UK time on Saturday 23^rd January. Link and more info here: https://gobrunch.com/events/land/174341/ No brunch, though – you have to bring your own.

2. ’Global outlook set to bleak’ was the title of a talk that Robin Bew from The Economist Intelligence Unit gave at a British Council conference yesterday. Here’s a good (but depressing) summary:

Yesterday at the British Council’s International Education Virtual Festival Robin Bew, managing director of the Economist Intelligence Unit, painted a bleak picture of the global economic outlook. Noting the variability in access to whole-population Covid-19 vaccination programmes with some poorer countries unlikely to have vaccinated the bulk of their population before 2024 he warned that even most wealthy G20 countries would not see economic activity at 2019 levels until 2022 or 2023, with the UK predicted to return to 2019 levels in the third quarter of 2023.

China has been the exception, being the only major economy to see growth in 2020. As such, the appetite of Chinese students for study abroad is likely to remain strong, though demand may be affected by the perceived quality of the diplomatic relationship between China and prospective study abroad destination countries.

Bew predicted that “austerity is done in Britain”, suggesting that tax increases would be a more likely measure to rebalance the government’s budget. He also said that Scottish independence is increasingly likely and warned that the Brexit settlement could see an increase in support for a united Ireland as well. On a global scale, he forecast an acceleration of geopolitical tensions, with military clashes between the US and China a clear risk.

Lots of ways of turning that into a good lesson, I reckon!

3. I’m not quite sure how long this Oxford English Dictionary ‘word of the day’ link lasts: https://oed.com/view/Entry/181988  It may turn into a pumpkin after midnight UK time …

You can sign up to get the daily word here: https://oed.com/  Bottom left-hand corner if you can’t see it for looking!

4. And, finally, here’s a role model for us all: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/jan/20/amanda-gorman-poem-biden-inauguration-transcript

1. However excited I got yesterday about the American English ‘ization’ variant, lots of good publications use it, including Language Magazine: https://www.languagemagazine.com/

Here’s three recent articles: the first one, which could be – but isn’t – entitled ‘From the ridiculous to the sublime’. Betsy DeVos’s successor as USA Education Secretary is Miguel Cardona. If he can’t make a decent fist of the job with the CV he has, we might as well all go home: https://www.languagemagazine.com/2020/12/22/english-learner-slated-to-lead-u-s-education/

The second is a forthrightly political piece from Deborah Short, the President of TESOL, which will land markedly better with Secretary Cardona than his predecessor: https://www.languagemagazine.com/2021/01/08/stop-overlooking-english-learners/

The third, A Voice for English Teachers in Africa, is by the founder of Africa TESOL, Okon Effiong: https://www.languagemagazine.com/2021/01/19/a-voice-for-english-teachers-in-africa/

2. The next Eaquals webinar, at 14:00 UK time on Tuesday 26^th January, will be led by a man with a big job, Dr David Bish, Director of Academic Management at EF Education First: Making your materials work for you in the online classroom. Hope this URL is NOT only a test one: https://www.eaquals.org/eaquals-events/event/test-v3/

3. After my embolism scare, I’m taking much more, more regular exercise. Here’s a piece from The Conversation with which I agree wholeheartedly: https://theconversation.com/joggers-and-cyclists-should-wear-masks-heres-why-153110 I used to get upset at having to move out of the way of an oncoming jogger, but now I’m just used to it.

4. And, finally, here’s the story of the man who threw away £230 million pounds’ worth of bitcoin seven years ago but still entertains hopes of finding it: https://www.theguardian.com/news/audio/2021/jan/19/is-bitcoin-a-scam Especially useful if, like me, you don’t quite get what bitcoin is!

I remembered! What I can’t now remember is how you subscribe, so you get notified of a new posting – can anyone help?

I’m discovering that even a relatively short absence completely disrupts a well-practised daily routine – give me a few days to get back up to speed, please!

If anyone can remind me how to attach files to a WordPress post, that would be very helpful – as you can see below, I’ve failed to remember on my own!

1. EMI, ICLHE and Englishization: Reflecting on the changing university is the possibly less than immediately accessible acronymic title of the Integrating Content and Language in Higher Education (ICLHE) association’s seventh annual conference, in Maastricht this coming autumn. The call for papers closes on 28^th February 2021; PDF copy of flyer attached, and website here https://iclhe-um.nl/ (That American English ‘z’ in ‘Englishization’ annoys me more than I can explain, even to myself.)

2. Also on the EMI front, here’s the website of the newly established UK Research and Innovation funded English as Medium of Instruction in European Higher Education project https://www.emieurope.org/ The project will adopt ‘an innovative, interdisciplinary and participatory approach’ to its subject, and I’d expect its findings to be of interest and value outwith Europe.

3. EMI is English Medium Instruction; you’ll have noticed, however, that many people are now using EME, which stands for English Medium Education. Emma Dafouz and Ute Smit wrote an influential paper back in 2016 arguing in favour of the use of EME: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/Towards-a-Dynamic-Conceptual-Framework-for-in-Dafouz-Smit/49d3aac40b6ad3e8b83d46ba8833b10b55938628 PDF attached.

4. I’ve started with EMI/EME, so I’ll finish with it (as the man on the Mastermind TV quiz show says). https://www.globalenglishes-emi.education.ed.ac.uk/ is the home page of the international network on the topics of English Medium Instruction (EMI) and Global Englishes that Nicola Galloway of Glasgow University leads which “explores the linguistic and educational implications of the global spread of the English language.” The network is open to all to join.  And I may have mentioned this before; please forgive me if I have. Nicola recently edited a literature review of English in Higher Education for the British Council: https://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/article/english-higher-education-%E2%80%93-english-medium-part-1-literature-review PDF attached.

Neither EMI nor EME tomorrow, promise!

I’m gradually getting up to speed, reminding myself how WordPress works and exploring alternative ways in which my daily messages, which I expect to resume tomorrow, might be delivered.

One way would be to make the daily message a post on this blog and send round the link each day – as either an alternative or an addition to the e-mail and WhatsApp versions.

Leave a comment please on this post, to tell me what you’d prefer:

1. Only a link to a blog post
2. E-mail or WhatsApp as before
3. E-mail or WhatsApp as before, plus a link to the blog post