How do you teach English?

Kaplan surveyed more than 500 ESL teachers from around the world to discover what tools they use to enhance their lessons. Here's an infographic they created to show the results.

Which do you use?

From Twitter to Glasgow (IATEFL 2012)

Barbara Sakamoto may be a familiar name in the international social media but she isn't usually present in the European conference circuit, so I was curious to hear what actually brought her over.

Barbara, in her interview with Nik Peachey and Kirsteen Donaghy, recalls how Twitter had brought her to Glasgow and how she got into Twitter in the first place. She believes that it is important to do things that makes us feel really stupid just to remind us of the feeling so that we know how it is to feel lost in a language learning class. According to her, she knew doing anything related to technology will make her feel stupid! Who would have guessed, right?

So, she got into Second Life and learned to become a webhead, got into Twitter, and to cut a long story short, Glasgow here she is!

You can watch her interview here:
http://iatefl.britishcouncil.org/2012/sessions/2012-03-22/interview-barbara-sakamoto

Also, don't miss her interview in iasku:
http://iasku.wordpress.com/2011/06/16/barbara-hoskins-sakamoto

UG2BK - Hinglish, Chinglish & Singlish?

This is so hilarious I've just got to share it here, too. Shame it's so fast that learners may have a hard time following it. Anyway, just sit back and try to enjoy it: The History of English in 10 minutes!

   

Stand By Me, Japan

This is a good an excuse as any to listen to a good song, and, at the same time, be reminded of the suffering the great nation had to endure earlier this year.

Why not use this video as a springboard for a class discussion on natural disasters, for example?

You might like to read this post on activities using songs.

 

Steve Jobs 24 Feb 1955 - 5 Oct 2011, R.I.P.

This is indeed a sad day for many, and whether you're an Apple fan or not, I'm sure it must have affected you.

There's nothing I can add to what has been said before, and what is still being said now, so I'll let Steve speaks for himself.

 

       

Truth or Lie: Activity for any classroom

I recently responded to a blog challenge by a video recording of myself - you can see it by clicking here. Most EFL teachers are probably aware of the activity where students are asked to say some things about themselves, and the others are to guess if they're true or false.

I suggested taking this a step further and have the students bring video recordings of themselves saying those things.

But, you can take it yet another step further. Although this activity is popular in the EFL classroom, there's no reason why it can't be used in the other classes, too. The topic doesn't need to be personal; it could be on anything. Examples:

• What is a tangent, or an apex? (Geometry/Art)
• They could describe an animal or an ecosystem. (Science)
• They could talk about the rules of rugby. (PE)
• They could talk about countries, or climate. (Geography)

As you can see, the limit is the extent of your imagination! Try it and let us know!

Sir Ken Robinson on work, talent, opportunities and passion

When Sir Ken Robinson speaks, one usually listens. He's a wonderful storyteller, a great speaker. He has no need for notes, merely relying on his memory, his experience, his passion. And, he's funny. Talking about passion is his passion. Recently, in March, to be exact, he spoke in Conway Hall, London; he spoke about finding our purpose in life. So, when I found out that Vimeo has published a video of his sermon, I rushed straight in. As usual, he spoke with his typical wit, recounting story after story. Even though it's 50 minutes, I can assure it'll be well spent.

Sheltering Change, more ideas for your lessons

I've always loved this song (written by Jagger/Richards, and released on the Stones' Let It Bleed album towards the end of 1969), and, as you probably already know, I'm very fond of Playing for Change, too. They are good enough reasons for me to link it here in this blog.

But how can we use it in our lessons, you might ask. Well, think about it and tell me!

I can think of numerous ideas - I'll just give you a few clues.

Before you even start playing the song, look at the title, 'Playing for Change'. What is change? What does playing for change mean? What does this organisation stand for? How did it start?

Then, the title of the song, 'Gimme shelter'. What's 'gimme'? What's shelter? What collocations can you think of? What do you think the song is about?

There is also the caption: It is in the shelter of each other that the people live

Have you heard of it? It's an Irish proverb. What do you think the 'shelter' here refers to? Why the definite article in 'the people'?

Finally, make sure they know what 'sign up' and 'mailing list' are.

So, even before you play the song, there's enough material for a whole lesson, depending on your class.

So, you've played the song; you've rocked the building, the DOS has come to see what's going on..., now what do you do?

Where were the musicians from? Can you name the country and nationality? How many instruments appeared in the video? How many can you name? Webquest: find out the names of those you don't know. Which instrument did you like best? Which performer? Which singer?

Diagnose the lyrics. Focus on phrases such as:

• a storm is threat'ning my very life today
• I'm gonna fade away
• It's such a shot away
• the whole of the third verse

The whole song is very metaphoric. Elicit interpretation. Elicit more examples. Get them to write more verses in groups. Choose the best.

More stuff you can use:

Related posts:

Building a school from the ground up

"When you educate a girl, you educate the whole world"

We are the champions: one song, countless activities

"When you educate a girl, you educate the whole world"

In January 2011, I posted a video showing how they were building a music school in  Kirina, Mali, from scratch. The school opened its doors in October 2010, and Playing for Change takes us into the school to see what teachers and the kids do...

Related posts:

Building a school from the ground up

Dogme still has its bone! The saga continues...

As titled in my previous post, dogme is indeed like a dog with a bone. The recent IATEFL 2011 Conference in Brighton seems to have started it off on a roller coaster ride once again. The weekly Twitter #ELTchat featured it for the second time, prompting a lively hour-long session, and with that in mind, Scott Thornbury decided to respond to five of the most common issues surrounding dogme.

1. Dogme is nothing new - we've always been doing it. Scott's answer: It wasn't so much that dogme was an idea whose time had come, but more that it was an idea which needed labelling.
2. It's OK for some, but it won't work in our context. Scott's answer: No single methodology is universally applicable, but comments from teachers applying dogme in a wide variety of situations suggest that it might be more elastic than some critics would have us believe.
3. Dogme is prescriptive; it imposes its rule of conversation-driven, materials-light, and emergent language top-down. Scott's answer: It isn't so much prescriptive as descriptive.
4. Dogme is evil! It's irresponsible and unprofessional. Scott's answer: We aren't suggesting that teachers go into the classroom without having a clue of what they are going to do and just hoping that something will just come up; we're actually suggesting that they go in with a very clear idea of how and where they want things to go, in relation to that particular class and the needs of that particular class.
5. To end the video, Scott addresses some positive comments such as 'It's changed the way I feel about teaching', 'One of the reasons why I like dogme is because it fights conservatism and laziness', and 'we overestimate the value of branded materials and underestimate the potential of ordinary people'. Scott's answer: What has been extraordinarily encouraging has been the responses of teachers saying things like how dogme has changed their way of teaching, how it's made them feel good about teaching, how it's given them professional self-esteem, and how it's given them a boost and often at a time when they needed it most.

There is life left in DOGME!

Related posts:

To be like a dogme with a bone

To be like a dogme with a bone

If you haven't heard of dogme, you must have been hibernating in your shell for too long, and you'll have an awful lot of catching up to do. If you have heard of it, you'll know that if you were to mention the word to another teacher, you're likely to win a friend for life, or... you'd be left wondering if you had bad breath! I don't know what it was really like in Brighton, but from afar, I can't help but think that some teachers are like a dog with a bone on the subject of dogme, and it's contagious!

Whether you've heard of it or not, whether you're in favour of it or not, I'd suggest you watch these enlightening interviews with Luke Meddings and Anthony Gaughan at the recent IATEFL 2011 Conference in Brighton. Unfortunately, their presentations weren't recorded (I think). Also, don't miss Diarmuid's hilarious parody of the dogme saga after that! Click on the image and the video will open in a new tab/window.

Then, there are a couple of excellent blogs, whose links I've posted at the bottom, which are currently discussing dogme. Do visit them from time to time. Interesting reading indeed.

Interesting thought-provoking discussions are going on at the moment here:

Diarmuid's Questions which dog me and
Gaughan's Every dogme has its day

Wiki, of course, has a page on Dogme language teaching, and more links can be seen there.

And, if you really want to know more about the subject, read Scott Thornbury and Luke Meddings' Teaching Unplugged.

Of course, both Scott & Luke have their blogs, which, undoubtedly, will contain references to dogme from time to time.

Related posts:

Tweeting is for the birds
What is m-Learning?
Speaking using close-ups

Tweeting is for the birds: Hockly vs Waters, IATEFL 2011 Brighton

This, along with the PechaKucha night, must have been the highlights of the IATEFL 2011 Brighton conference. The motion for the ELT Debate was 'Tweeting is for the birds, not for language learning', with Alan Waters speaking for the motion, and Nicky Hockly, against.

Here is an opportunity for those who haven't had the chance of watching a live debate in action to do so. The format of the debate differs slightly from the system I have been advocating for use in the classroom, but the essence remains the same.

Listen out for key points in debating:

• Language style
• Rebuttal
• Support (quotes, statistics, analogies, case studies, etc.)
• Clarity & logic
• Organisation
• Expression & delivery

So, watch this entertaining debate, and I hope it will inspire you to hold one of your own in your class/school. Please read the following:

Related posts

All you need to know about debate in the classroom

Debate: Tasks for everyone

Jackson Browne on Ted Talks: If I Could Be Anywhere

Ted Talks has a speaker with a difference - he isn't going to speak!

Don't worry - it isn't a silent video, lol.

Jackson Browne is one of my favourite singer-songwriters, and he has written many powerful songs in his long career, this one here being no exception. What I would like you to do first is to watch and listen to the song, and try to understand as much as possible.

Then, watch it a second time; this time, scroll further down and follow the lyrics.

When you've finished, think about the message Jackson Browne is trying to put across. Comment below by clicking on the pencil icon.

Sliding through the shimmering surface between two worlds
Standing at the centre of time as it uncurls
Cutting through a veil of illusion
Moving beyond past conclusions
Wondering if all my doubt and confusion will clear

If I could be anywhere,
If I could be anywhere
If I could be anywhere right now, I would want to be here

Searching for the future among the things we're throwing away
Trying to see the world through the junk we produce every day
They say nothing lasts forever,
But all the plastic ever made is still here
No amount of closing our eyes will make it disappear

If I could be anywhere,
If I could be anywhere
If I could be anywhere in history, I would want to be here

The Romans, the Spanish, the British, the Dutch
American exceptionalism, so out of touch
The folly of empire, repeating its course
Imposing its will and ruling by force
On and on through time

But the world can’t take it, very much longer
We're not gonna make it, unless we're smarter and stronger
The world is gonna shake itself free of our greed somehow

If I could be anywhere,
If I could be anywhere in time
If I could be anywhere and change things, it would have to be now.

They say nothing lasts forever,
but all the plastic ever made is still here
No amount of closing our eyes will make it disappear

And the world can’t take it, very much longer
It's not gonna make it, ‘less we're smarter and stronger
The world is gonna shake itself free of our greed somehow

And the world can’t take it, that you can see
If the oceans don’t make it, neither will we
The world is gonna shake itself all the way free somehow

If I could be anywhere, If I could be anywhere in time
If I could be anywhere and change the outcome, it would have to be now.

Related posts:
We are the champions - Ideas for using songs in the classroom
A day in the life (The Beatles)
Conditional Type II with Norah Jones
Conditional Type II - Comparing countries
Conditional Type III with Keith Whitley

A Day In The Life: One Song, Countless Activities: Simple Past Cloze, Phrasal verbs, Vocabulary, etc.

In We Are The Champions, I wrote about several ideas you could do with songs in the classroom, so if you'd missed it, you ought to take a look now.

Warm-up

Play the video, freeze it when Paul McCartney can be seen. Ask if anyone knows him, what they know: the group he belonged to, the instrument he plays, the period the song was written, etc.

Gap-fill

Play the video once, asking them to listen and, at the same time, watch the images carefully. Then, ask them what images they remember seeing, and if the images suggested anything to them.

Before playing a second time, get them to try the gap-fill activity, without asking for help. Remind them that each time they ask for help (?) or a hint, they lose points.

Phrasal Verbs

Once the gap-fill activity has been successfully completed, explain these phrasal verbs to them (after asking them to guess first):

blow out

turn away

turn on

wake up

get out

look up

As most phrasal verbs have multiple meanings, it's best to stick to what they mean in the context of the song, in order not to overly confuse the students.

blow out: the 'blow' here means to break into pieces and the 'out' gives a sense of outward direction.

   The gas explosion blew out all the windows of the house.

There may be no need to draw attention to the graphic imagery of 'he blew his mind out', but you could perhaps ask how he could have done this (answer: by shooting himself). However, if you want to go deeper, John could have been cheeky with his typical double entendre, and meant that the driver was stoned out of his head!

turn away: although 'turn away' is a phrasal verb meaning to refuse to allow someone into a place, here it isn't used as a phrasal verb as such. 'Away' is used as an adverb meaning towards a different direction.

'A crowd of people turned away' meaning if they were looking at the screen, they stopped looking at it by looking at a different direction.

turn on: mmm...this is a tricky one as one of the meanings has a sexual connotation, even a drug-related one perhaps. What was John thinking of when he wrote it? Depending on the age group of your students, you may wish to explain that it means 'getting someone interested in something'.

wake up: wake or wake up means to stop sleeping.

get out: to get out of bed is to leave the bed, especially after sleeping.

look up: As in 'turn away', the 'up' is used as an adverb to mean towards a higher direction.

'And looking up, I noticed I was late': remembering that he's gone downstairs to have a cup (of tea, probably) (you could also ask them about rooms in the house - he'd obviously went down to the kitchen from his bedroom upstairs), he could be looking back up the stairs, but more likely, he was looking up at a clock on the wall, and saw that he was late.

Analysis and interpretation

One could write a doctorate on this song, really! There are many aspects that can be discussed depending on the level and the age group of your students. You can analyse each line and draw multitudes of hidden layers behind John's irony and sarcasm. You can talk about subjects such as urban life, suicide, drug abuse, fame, politics, and so on. Whether he meant it intentionally or not, there is so much to be read behind John's words (and you could guess which were John's words and which were Paul's).

To put it in a nutshell, discuss the lyrics in class. Ask them for their personal interpretation (or work in groups). Compare interpretations. As homework, set a group webquest - ask them to find out interesting things about the song and prepare a presentation (leave the choice to them: could be PowerPoint, Prezi, Glogster, Vocaroo, Wallwisher, well, whatever tickles their fancy!)

You can also ask them to add another verse based on a piece of news they have read in the newspapers or heard on the TV.

I have also prepared a short quiz, testing rhymes, synonyms, antonyms and phrasal verbs. If you ask your students to enter your email, their results will be sent to you. Alternatively, if you make sure they enter valid references (such as class/school), ask me, and I'll forward their attempts to you.

Related posts:

Index of all Material by Category
We are the champions: Present Perfect activities
Conditional Type II with Norah Jones
Conditional Type III with Keith Whitley

One World - is it such an impossible dream?

"The next thing we knew the music started playing, children gathered for their own personal concert, and we all transcended to a place with no time, no fear, and no difference between us." And so, we watched, mesmerised by Mali's Tinariwen's desert blues, reminiscent of the late great Ali Farka Touré.

Boy, do I love this music. These are the roots of American blues, which, in turn, are the roots of most forms of popular music today.

So, just chill out, watch, listen, dig out some Ali Farka, and dream of achieving the objective of Playing for Change: peace through music. Dream of One World.

View Larger Map

Related posts:

Building a school from the ground up

Teaching Speaking Videos: Techniques, Feedback & Monitoring

Teacher trainer John Kay expounds on his tips on teaching speaking on this set of videos for the British Council. They aren't new, but even if you think you know it all, have a listen - it may refresh some of the stagnant cells! It did mine! ;-)

I first read about these videos in Barb Sakamoto's Starter-PLN Daily.

We Are The Champions: One Song, Countless Activities: Present Perfect Cloze, Idioms, Vocabulary, etc.

A lot of teachers who use songs for ELT restrict themselves to a gap-fill activity plus a singalong, but there are, however, many other activities you could do besides those, some of which I've set out below, and I also created a quiz incorporating some of them.

Due to copyright problems, I'm not allowed to embed the video here, but click on the video image, and then, again, where it says 'Watch on YouTube", and it will bring you to the video in YouTube.
(Note: I just tried it again, and it played the video here without any problem. I won't remove the above warning just in case you get the copyright message.)

Watch the video once. Then, click on the second image to start the interactive cloze activity. Play the video a second time, and while it's playing, try to fill in the missing gaps.

When you've completed that, have a go at the quiz - just click on the third image below to start. Only the email is obligatory, but if you don't wish to enter yours, just give a fictitious one, e.g. a@a.com.

If you provide an email, the quiz robot automatically sends you your results, along with the correct answers.

Ideas for using songs in the classroom for teachers:

Speaking: Play the first few seconds of the song (without the video image). This is a famous song, so chances are that a fair few of the students will know it. Ask them. Ask them what they know: the group, the names of the band members, the song title, how often they have heard the song, where they have heard it, what it means to them, what they think the writer was writing about, etc.

Depending on the level of your students, this song could lead to all sorts of interesting discussions, such as AIDS, struggling artistes, bullying, sports in general, football in particular, success and failure, etc.

Fill-in-the-gap: If you're doing this as an offline activity, have them guess the missing words before they listen to the song.

Jumbled sentences: Cut up the lyrics into strips of phrases, and ask them to put them in the right sequence. Or, you can jumble the words of a bar and they correct them. You can just write the words on the board, or you can prepare a word cloud. Click here to see an example.

Synonyms/Opposites: Ask the meaning and/or opposites for: pay, do, bad, made, come, end, loser, bring, fortune, go, pleasure.

Idioms: This song is great for idioms:

pay one's dues: to earn a given right or position through hard work, long-term experience, or suffering
kick sand in someone's face: to be mean, to insult, to criticise, to bully
take a bow: to say of someone after they have achieved something special
not a bed of roses (usually negative): not easy, not pleasant or good, rough

Rhyming words: Select a word, e.g., 'call', and ask them to think of words which rhyme with it. You can set up a group competition, if you want.

As an extension of the above activity, ask them to invent another verse to add to the song.

Related posts:

Index of all Material by Category
Idioms
Jumbled Sentences: Present Perfect
Cockney Rhyming Slang
Rhyming Words
Word Clouds - 101 Ways of Using Wordle in the Classroom

Earth Hour 2011: Join in! Spread the news!

From the humble beginnings of a one-city initiative in Sydney in 2007, Earth Hour has grown to be the largest ever voluntary action taken by mankind. What's more, this year, it carries added poignancy due to the triple tragedy which hit Japan on Friday 11th March, leaving millions of people without electricity. Earth Hour this year is not only to raise awareness towards the need to take action on climate change, but to show solidarity with the Japanese people.

Earth Hour was conceived by WWF and The Sydney Morning Herald in 2007, when 2.2 million residents of Sydney participated by turning off all non-essential lights for one hour, but each year sees more and more cities joining in. What's more, the call for this year is to go BEYOND the hour.



Will you be joining in?

Remember, tonight 26th March 2011 at 20:30 hours, local time.

To help Japan, go here.

Flipping Education With Technology: A Must-Watch Video

The Khan Academy happened almost by accident. It all started when its creator, Salman Khan, made a video tutorial for his cousins. You can find out what happened after that by watching this video. Khan, quite rightly, received a long standing ovation, and I must admit I haven't been so thrilled about education since Sir Ken Robinson's talk.

Khan's proposal, which wasn't his really, but was started by some of his early followers, is simply to reverse the teaching process. Use video as self-instruction at home, and bring what used to be homework into the classroom, where teachers spend more time with individual students, rather than explaining theories to 30 children. Khan's approach would also work well for students who want to supplement their learning while taking online courses.

The idea is, indeed, very exciting, especially for those of us who have been propagating the use of technology in teaching. It has been tested in some schools, and the result have been very encouraging.

Watch the video, and tell us what you feel. Spread the word - tweet this, post it on Facebook, etc.

 

Nuclear Energy Power Debate: What's the way forward?

With all the headlines on the problems of the Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant in Northern Japan, now is a good time as any to have a debate on the viability of nuclear power as a source of energy.

The strongest objection of the anti-nuclear power lobby are the safety concerns, but what other methods of producing cheap clean energy have we got? Is nuclear power a dirty word? Is alternative energy the way forward?

I'm sure this topic will generate heated debate in the classroom, so why not organise one?

If you are not familiar with formal debate, make sure you read these: All you need to know about debate, and Debate: tasks for everyone.

There are lots of information available on the web, but I'll include a few here to start you off on the right track.

Learn how a Nuclear Reactor Works

-  How Nuclear Power works from How Stuff Works.

-  The Nuclear Fuel Cycle from BBC

-  How a Nuclear Plant Works from BBC
-  BBC also has a graphic explanation of the Fukushima nuclear alert and some facts about radiation.
-  Updated 11 April 2011: Detailed BBC analysis.

-  The Union of Concerned Scientists in Facebook has links & information

All comments will be most welcomed. Thank you.