Roy Cross's Blog

1. Most – but not quite all – of our countries have been at one end or another of a colonial relationship with another country. This event next Tuesday, 30^th March, at 18:30 UK time, Empires Past and Present: empire around 1900, is the third in a series of four being given by Odd Arne Westad (his sister is called Even), the Elihu Professor of History and Global Affairs at Yale University. Register here https://www.lse.ac.uk/Events/2021/03/202103301830/Empires-Past-and-Present-empire-around-1900

You can find recordings of the first, Empires Past & Present: the idea of empire, here https://youtu.be/P6jG9zMKB4w and the second, Empires Past and Present: empire around 1800, here https://youtu.be/mwTOai7hX0o

2. I had occasion recently to re-visit David Graddol’s two influential publications, The Future of English (1997) https://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/article/future-english and English Next (2006) https://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/article/english-next, as the British Council is currently reviewing how many of David’s predictions have come true.

One of David’s questions back in 1997 was “Will the spread of English lead to half of the world’s languages becoming extinct?” and in 2006, David observed that “Native-speaker norms are becoming less relevant as English becomes a component of basic education in many countries”. Right on both counts, perhaps?  PDF of both (or should that be ‘each’?) below.

3. The Education Endowment Foundation (EEF) have recently published Five recommendations on special education needs in mainstream schoolshttps://educationendowmentfoundation.org.uk/tools/guidance-reports/special-educational-needs-disabilities/ PDF of the recommendations summary in poster form below.

4. Have you ever wondered what Shakespeare looked like? We now think we know (but I think the author is a vegetarian) https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2021/mar/19/shakespeare-grave-effigy-believed-to-be-definitive-likeness

5. And, finally, two closely related phobias for this week, for all those perfectionists out there: atelophobia and atychiphobia

1. While I was exploring the LSE website the other day, I came across the very clear, three-minute-long video on (the right-hand side of) this page explaining How the US Government Works: https://www.lse.ac.uk/lse-player and I’d been hoping to find a twin video on how the UK government works to go with it – but I haven’t found one yet. I’ll keep looking. Let me know if you know of one, please! How about asking your students to produce a similar video on how government works in your country?

2. This one’s a little technical, and you may like to skim the summary and conclusions sections. The latest Bell Foundation https://www.bell-foundation.org.uk/ research report, English as an Additional Language, Proficiency in English and rate of progression: Pupil, school and LA (local authority) variation, is the last in a series of four investigating the relationships between English as an Additional Language (EAL), Proficiency in English (PIE) and educational achievement at school. https://www.bell-foundation.org.uk/eal-programme/research/english-as-an-additional-language-proficiency-in-english-and-rate-of-progression-pupil-school-and-la-variation/ PDF attached below. One of the report’s findings is that funding is typically available – in the UK, at least – for half as long as is necessary.

It’s well worth exploring the resources available on the Bell Foundation site, which include Macbeth for beginner EAL students – there’s quite a lot to unpack in that choice of text for that group of learners, I think. You’ll need to register.

3. Jamie Duncan is presenting the next seminar in the Lancaster Literary Research Centre series, Researching Protest Literacies, at 13:00 UK time on Friday 26^th March, on his research in the favelas of Rio de Janeiro and what happens when protest ‘gets in the way’ of one’s fieldwork. More details and registration here: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/researching-protest-literacies-tickets-142844518801

4. And, finally, an experimental film mentioned by a colleague this morning, Koyaanisqatsi https://youtu.be/v6-K-arVl-U It’s all about balance – or the lack of it – between our own way of life and the rest of the natural world. Sound track by Philip Glass.

1. TERN https://www.wearetern.org/ and Techfugees https://techfugees.com/ are organising an event on 25^th and 26^th March on Tech & Digital by and with Refugees. More info and registration here https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/tech-digital-with-and-by-refugees-an-event-by-tern-techfugees-tickets-142240991635 and you should feel free to pop in and out over the course of the event as the mood takes you.

2. A Day in the Life of Abed Salama is an engrossing ‘long read’ on life in Palestine from the New York Review of Books that I came across just after – typical! – I’d posted Friday’s message mentioning the event with teachers from Gaza this Wednesday. The article’s available without subscription for two weeks: https://www.nybooks.com/daily/2021/03/19/a-day-in-the-life-of-abed-salama/ And a quick reminder of the event on Wednesday: https://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/article/being-english-teachers-gaza

3. On Thursday 25^th March at 18:00 UK time, Paul Dolan, the Professor of Behavioural Science at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), will be in conversation with his colleague Grace Lordan about her new book, Think Big: Take Small Steps and Build the Future You Want, which draws ‘on cutting-edge research from behavioural science [and] offers immediate actionable solutions and tips that will help you get closer to your dream future’. Almost too good to be true? Let’s see! More info here https://www.lse.ac.uk/Events/2021/03/202103251800/Think-Big and a registration link here https://lse.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_czRtfXzPRZS9cwPXXxInKg (And just why is the abbreviation ‘LSE’ and not ‘LSEPS’, I wonder?)

4. And, finally, In Our Time, chaired by Melvyn Bragg, is one of the very longest-running BBC Radio 4 shows, with a huge archive available on BBC Sounds to download or stream. To pick only three episodes from the nine hundred (!) currently available, try

photosynthesis

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0435jyv

the Rosetta Stone

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000s2qd

or Chairman Mao’s Cultural Revolution

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000q9b6 for starters.

As a bonus, here’s the episode of Neil McGregor’s series, A History of the World in 100 Objects, on the Rosetta Stone https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00sbrz3 – there’s a transcript, if you’re tempted to turn it into a lesson.

1. ‘Being English Teachers in Gaza’: next Wednesday, 24^th March, at 12:00 UK time, four teachers from Palestine – Diana Abu Zayed, Tasnim AlAsttal, Somia Rajab and Laila Saleh – will be reflecting on and discussing their professional identity as teachers in a panel discussion chaired by my colleague, Damian Ross. No teaching context is easy, but I guess some might be easier than Gaza. More info and a registration link here https://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/article/being-english-teachers-gaza

2. Also next Wednesday, 24^th March, at 03:30 UK time – I’ve asked if there’ll be a recording! – the first in a series of six Thai Association of Applied Linguistics (TAAL) events which together make up ‘The Ultimate Guide to Publishing Research in Top Journals’ – Richard Watson Todd (plus one of his two amazingly large dogs in the photo attached below) on Choosing a Publishable Topic. Zoom link here  https://bit.ly/3qSTxbu and more info in the photo attachment below.

3. Third up today, a matching pair: a set of self-access guides to help teachers plan and shape their own professional development https://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/article/teaching-success-self-study-guides plus a booklet for teacher associations designed to help them help their members get the most out of the self-access guides https://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/article/teaching-success-self-study-booklets-a-guide-teacher-associations I’ve attached a PDF of the guide for teacher associations below.

4. McKinsey, the management consultants, usually charge governments round the world a very hefty sum for their services. Here’s an article from them for free, though, about a teacher survey they conducted recently which shows that learning loss due to Covid is global – and significant https://www.mckinsey.com/industries/public-and-social-sector/our-insights/teacher-survey-learning-loss-is-global-and-significant “Although teachers around the world have different styles and standards for learning, there is one thing on which they seem to agree: a computer is no match for a classroom as a place for kids to learn.” PDF attached below in case you have trouble with the download.

5. And, finally, Don Winslow is a favourite author of mine. I’ve just read the new one, Broken, and here’s Winslow talking about it https://youtu.be/uAwU3hpLrXE One thing that puzzled me in Broken, though, was his use of ‘ILYM’ at the end of the Acknowledgements. I know the very large majority of the readership of these messages is much younger and much funkier than me, but I had to look it up … https://www.cyberdefinitions.com/ (If you’ve not read any Winslow yet, try either The Force, about the New York Police Department, or the first book of his ‘Cartel’ trilogy, The Power of the Dog.)

1. The next in NILE’s Insights series is on Critical Perspectives in ELT, at 16:00 UK time on Tuesday, 23^rd March, and investigates how and why might language teachers incorporate social justice education into their language teaching practice?

More info here https://www.nile-elt.com/news/nile-insights-critical-perspectives-in-elt/887 and a registration link here: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/nile-insights-critical-perspectives-in-elt-registration-144985428319 Jason Skeet chairing; Rose Aylett, Maria Heron and Alan Pulverness discussing. (No Simon Smith – he’s just a pretty face on this occasion!)

2.  Lots of new, interesting stuff on the UKFIET blog https://www.ukfiet.org/blog/ since last I mentioned it, including pieces on Vietnam, the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, working with refugee language students, and this set of videos on the Abidjan Principles https://www.ukfiet.org/2021/second-anniversary-of-the-abidjan-principles-video-series/

Start with video #5 if you want a quick (animated!) introduction to the Abidjan Principles https://youtu.be/bbVyjGztGBQ

 3. This year’s NATESOL Annual Conference will be on Saturday 15^th May, which is a little while away. The call for papers, however, closes on 2^nd April. More info here https://natesol.wordpress.com/annual-conference-2021/ and in the two attachments below. If your paper is accepted, I’ll pay your £5 fee from my savings on commuting to work over the last year. I did ask Tony Picot for his usual joke, but I was disappointed to receive the following reply: Sorry. Too busy with my new hobby to think of a joke. I’ve taken up blindfold archery. If you’ve never tried it, you don’t know what you’re missing! 

4. And, finally, are you a super-recogniser? https://theconversation.com/super-recognisers-some-people-excel-at-both-face-and-voice-recognition-156817

1. Here’s another of the ECML’s project micro-sites, this one on teacher competences for languages in education: https://www.ecml.at/ECML-Programme/Programme2016-2019/TowardsaCommonEuropeanFrameworkofReferenceforLanguageTeachers/tabid/1850/Default.aspx Lots of material, including a short introductory video. I’ve attached the project flyer below.

2. Three good recent posts on the Oxford English Language Teaching Global Blog:

Erika Osváth on digital burnout https://oupeltglobalblog.com/2021/02/22/digital-burnout-students/

Ruth Gairns and Stuart Redman on learning vocabulary https://oupeltglobalblog.com/2021/03/15/learning-english-vocabulary-2/#more-15534

Charlotte Murphy on student engagement online https://oupeltglobalblog.com/2021/03/01/student-engagement-online/3.

If you’re still not quite 100% confident using break-out rooms in Zoom, you should read this guide written by a self-proclaimed geek Joe Fedewa for non-geeks like you and me https://www.howtogeek.com/717822/how-to-use-breakout-rooms-in-a-zoom-meeting/

4. The next webinar from the Lancaster Literacy Research Centre http://wp.lancs.ac.uk/literacy-research-centre/ is at 11:00 UK time this Friday, 19th March: ‘Transitions in students writing: what do we know from theory and research?’ with Soledad Montes Sánchez from Chile, who’ll be looking at the transition from school to university, with a particular focus on disadvantaged students. More info and registration link here: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/transitions-in-students-writing-what-do-we-know-from-theory-and-research-tickets-142870598807

5. And, finally, today’s phobia is allodoxaphobia. What’s your view on it?

1. ‘Making our classrooms more inclusive’ is the title of the programme that my colleagues in what the British Council calls ‘Wider Europe’ (it’s a long story) are offering from 11:00 UK time on Thursday, 18^th March. More information and a registration link here: https://www.eventsforce.net/britishcouncil/frontend/reg/thome.csp?pageID=2086452&eventID=3898&traceRedir=2

PDF of programme attached below – a stellar line-up!

2. Bloomberg allow you two free articles a month, I think. Here’s a decidedly sombre one on the future of USA-China relations https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2021-03-14/max-hastings-china-might-defeat-america-in-war-over-taiwan that might make for a good discussion class with older pupils.

 3. And here’s another possible discussion stimulant. Last time pandemic restrictions allowed me to visit University College London’s Institute of Education, which must now have been over a year ago, I remember being astonished by the plethora of adverts for essay writing factories – or ‘essay mills’, as they’re often called – stuck to every available surface. No need to write your own essays if you’re rich enough to pay someone else to do so! Here’s a piece on essay mills for WONKHE by Paul Greatrix of Nottingham University which gets quite hot under the collar https://wonkhe.com/blogs/banning-essay-mills-its-time-to-act/ Be sure, though, to read the first comment below the piece by the two lawyers who come in for fierce criticism from Mr Greatrix in his article.

4. I’m taking part in the opening session of the YORStory Online Storytelling Festival at 09:00 UK time on Saturday, 20^th March talking about Plain English (even though I’m not entirely sure what Plain English is). The programme is an eclectic one and includes Rafa Honigstein, the football pundit, and Ian Martin, one of the writers of the very sweary and very successful TV series, The Thick of It – as well as experts on plain English.

PDF of programme below, and if, having looked at the programme, you decide you’d like to sign up, here’s the link https://www.yorstories.com/ You need to click on ‘Select a Plan’ and then select the free option for the YORStory Festival 2021-World Storytelling Day.

5. And, finally, some digital literature. All free – or all the ones I’ve tried are, at least – and rather fun: https://editionsatplay.withgoogle.com/#!/ Try Breathe by Kate Pullinger https://editionsatplay.withgoogle.com/#!/detail/free-breathe

Posting early today, as I have an afternoon off, whoopee!

1. If you’re working in primary school or working with primary school teachers, I think you’ll find it both useful and enjoyable to attend this webinar on using picture books in the primary classroom at 12:00 UK time on Thursday, 18th March https://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/article/picturebooks-european-primary-english-language-teaching-pepelt-virtual-resource-primary

The webinar will also include an introduction to the PEPELT project – Picturebooks in European Primary English Language Teaching https://pepelt21.com/

One of the speakers, Gail Ellis, co-wrote with Jean Brewster a book for primary English language teachers that I think I’m right in saying is still the most downloaded British Council publication ever, Tell it Again! I’ve attached a PDF below and you’ll find a link and more info here https://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/article/tell-it-again-storytelling-handbook-primary-english-language-teachers

2. This is good (and open access; you may need to register), and I’ve just discovered it: Globe: A Journal of Language, Culture and Communication https://journals.aau.dk/index.php/globe/index

Here’s a link to an interesting piece on ‘exclusionary-inclusion’ by Kamal Raj Devkota from Tribhuvan University in Nepal: https://ddrn.dk/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/Globe-2018.pdf#page=119 and I’ve attached a PDF of the whole special issue of Globe in which Dr Devotka’s piece was published below.

3. Venice Irving from Jamaica has a new podcast in her Becoming a Happy Teacher series – just in case you aren’t already a happy teacher! https://anchor.fm/becomingahappyteacher/episodes/Introducing-Teacher-self-care-esam1g

4. A reminder about York St John University’s online course for teachers, Changing Englishes https://changingenglishes.online/ Well worth a look if you’ve not already paid a visit!

5. And, finally, a tour of Lynette Yiadom-Boakye’s Tate Britain show, Fly in League with the Night: https://youtu.be/6ee5gGkW7nk Here’s her Wikipedia entry: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lynette_Yiadom-Boakye I’d not heard of her before but I like the show!

1. My intention today is to not mention a single webinar: let’s see! (And let’s see also whether some of my more particular colleagues object to the formulation ‘to not mention’.)

Are you suffering from Zoom fatigue? What’s your personal rating on the ZEF scale? More info here https://news.stanford.edu/2021/02/23/four-causes-zoom-fatigue-solutions/ and a link to the Stanford University survey to assess your ZEF rating here https://stanforduniversity.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_1RpkgSOyl1fPhpY PDF of the research paper below. I scored 37 on the ZEF scale …

2. DEAR is a movement that appears to be gaining popularity in schools here in the UK – to judge by the number of mentions it’s received recently. Here’s two blog posts about it https://readlistenlearn.net/blog/drop-everything-and-read and https://educationblog.oup.com/secondary/english/if-you-do-one-thing-make-sure-its-drop-everything-and-read-dear

3. If you’re into Donna Leon and her urbane Venetian detective, Commissario Guido Brunetti https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guido_Brunetti_novels then you might like to pop in to Daunt Books tomorrow – well, their YouTube page – to watch an interview with her https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC7b45jrzxt4aDdXWEEYDdHA Not available till tomorrow.

4. There’s an Inuit Film Night at 18:00 UK time on Sunday evening at the Polar Museum here in Cambridge as part of their Big Freeze Polar Art festival: https://www.spri.cam.ac.uk/museum/bigfreeze/ Free tickets available here: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/big-freeze-art-festival-film-night-tickets-141850756431 You need to register but once you’ve done so, you can watch the films at your convenience for the next 24 hours.

The film night is a partnership between the Polar Museum and the Native Spirit Foundation: https://nativespiritfoundation.org/

5. And, finally, a friend sent me this: http://aero.tpk.edu.hk/~engweb/learn_and_know/can_you_read_this.html See what you make of it. I’m not sure how serious the science underpinning it is …

1. First up tonight, a (very!) short notice invitation from the University of Oslo to attend their (slightly delayed) celebration of International Mother Language Day tomorrow, Friday 12^th March. The event starts at 08:30 UK time. More info and Zoom link for tomorrow here https://www.hf.uio.no/multiling/english/news-and-events/events/conferences/2021/International-Mother-Language-Day/Mother-Language-Day

I’ve attached a PDF of the programme below.

2. Two events next Monday, 15^th March: the earlier of the two, at 10:00 UK time, is The Spectator magazine’s debate on the impact of the pandemic on disadvantaged children’s learning, The Learning Gap. More info and a registration link here https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/the-learning-gap-tickets-141437811301  I’m aware there are degrees of disadvantage globally which position this UK debate very much at the less disadvantaged end of the cline, but I’d expect The Spectator’s editor, Fraser Nelson, to chair a lively event. You need to register in advance.

3. The second event next Monday, at 12:00 UK time, is a talk by Ken Hyland, who’s a professor of applied linguistics at the University of East Anglia. Ken’s talk is entitled Why is peer review broken and how do we fix it? and will examine whether it’s true that all peer reviewers are ‘slow, biased, contradictory, hurtful or wilfully obtuse’? More info and a registration link here: https://www.bigmarker.com/UEAUK/Why-is-peer-review-broken-and-how-do-we-fix-it

4. WARNING! This one’s actually an advert and the product it is advertising, a virtual reality course, is well beyond the means of most of us, not to mention the cost of the virtual reality googles. I’m posting it, though, not as an advert but as an example of what is now technologically possible https://www.ecenglish.com/en/young-learners/virtualreality Click on the embedded videos and while you’re at it, do some window shopping for goggles https://www.oculus.com/quest-2/ How long before we can all afford this technology, I wonder? Maybe not so very long?

5. And, finally, having conducted a small straw poll yesterday evening, I now suspect that not as many people know about this site as I had thought! https://theenglishchannel.britishcouncil.org/content