Fab English ideas

Michael Hoey : Old approaches, new perspectives: the implications of a corpus linguistic theory for learning the English language. 

An absolutely fantastic plenary, I’ve never heard Michael speak before (that’s the great thing about #IATEFL, us mortals get to call the gods by their first names!) but he was great. An interesting subject, very well-presented, with plenty of anecdotes and humour, and a strong theme.

So good in fact, I suggest you take out some time and watch, or at least listen to, him here while you read the rest of this.

Developing Competences : a framework for teacher professional development with Andrew Nye

Obviously anything on CPD was going to catch my eye and Andrew described and explained the new Cambridge English Teacher framework.

I’ve been a Cambridge English teacher for a few years, and the interview I did for them this morning got me a year’s free membership, so I’ll be renewing again thank you very much! Seriously I have done several  online courses with them, and will be doing their CLIL one as soon as I have time. Details can be found  on their website.

My interview made me a few minutes late for the ELT conversation between Jeremy Harmer and Scott Thornbury.

Although it is probably against conference etiquette I sneaked in (to an enormous auditorium and made a row of people stand up so I could get to a seat!) as there was no way I was ging to miss this one – although I was torn between this and the great Penny Ur who was programmed at the same time to run a workshop on Teaching English for Academic purposes: insights from experience.

The boys, Jeremy and Scott, talked about, amongst other things, the communicative approach, dogme, etc. They had a great repartee and some of the things they said particularly struck home, for example Scott’s comment about accepting correction in the language classroom that he would have resented from his friends outside. I’m sure my husband will recognize that scenario in my journey into the French language!

I also appreciated Scott’s comment about learning a language by using it, not learning a language TO use it.

Anyway, I’ll let you make your own mind up, by watching them here.

Bill Murphy hated his groundhog day, However I love mine, in fact I’m lucky because I will wake up tomorrow and get another day of #IATEFL. Our days do differ in one important way of course, nothing has been the same in my day, and I’ve learnt so much.

This afternoon I attended the following sessions:

Open Space event with Adrian Underhill

The idea behind this event fascinated me, billed as “a conference within a conference”, the idea is simple – attendees write a title/question/problem on a post-it, these are then grouped into common themes, we vote for our top ten or so favourites, then break off into different groups per theme to discuss/solve etc.

The only problem was that I did not obey the only rule of the session, I know, there was only one and I couldn’t even manage that, it was  the law of two feet -If you are not contributing or getting something then take a walk … to another group.

Actually, I did contribute, although the subject was not really what I’d hoped, or expected. I think our group was too eclectic and we all had different expectations of this event.

I would still like to attend another open space, however I think its success depends a lot on group dynamics, and maybe on choosing the right topic.

Motivating teenagers by involving them in assessment with Deborah Bullock

Perhaps one of my favourite sessions, I’m fascinated by the new theory that I’ve been finding out about, and conferences are there to pick up that, however you can’t beat a good old workshop when you walk away with a lesson for Monday and a way of improving your teaching in the long term.

I’m interested in self-assessment. It’s not easy in my context, a secondary school where frequent testing is not only expected, but the results are directly responsible for the pupils passing into the next year or redoing this one. However I agree with Deborah when she pointed out the benefits which include motivation, reflection, increased ownership, as well as a useful life skill, since self-assessment is required as much in the workplace as the classroom, if not more.

After discussing the disadvantages ( lack of accuracy, taking up teacher time, etc.) Deborah gave us some practical tips of how to put into place self assessment in our classrooms :

-make it meaningful

-make the criteria clear

– use functional “I can do” skills, along the lines of the European framework.

We looked at how to prepare a task form to scaffold the pupils in an oral presentation task, and then looked at how to negotiate assessment criteria with the students to produce a task assessment form. This should include:

-title

-criteria

-feedback, including “I could make it better by…”

-space for comments by learner and teacher

– overall grade.

Deborah managed to fit in a lot of useful information in a short time, whilst simultaneously encouraging group work and pair discussions.

I saw another couple of sessions that I’ll tell you about another day, I’ve a little last minute preparation to take care of for my own session tomorrow first.

Get all the info here.

Oh my, where to start, seven presentations in ten hours, several cups of coffee, some lovely people and a suitcase full of freebies, my brain is buzzing, or melting I’m not sure which!

What have I learnt today?

How to get published in a refereed journal with Graham Hall

A very interesting session, Graham gave plenty of concrete hints and ideas, including:

1. Write with a specific journal in mind, they all have different requirements relating to wordcount, style (theory vs practical for example), so look at a few copies and ask for their author guidelines first.

2. Start small, write up something small but specific from an action research project before trying to publish your whole thesis.

3. Don’t be too local or specific – make sure it will interest a broad audience.

4. Be sure your work is clearly written, is internally consistent and accessible – i.e. understandable and not full of obscure anacronyms.

5. Illustrate awareness of other research in the same field but don’t overdo the references, for example 15 is pleanty for ELT Journal.

He explained the editing process and the time delay of up to  60 days from receiving work, and his final piece of advice was upbeat and optimistic – kind of!

6. Don’t give up! Nobody is ever published straight off first time round, expect a request for revision at the very, very best!

The efficiency of inefficiency: an ecological perspective on curriculum by Kathleen Graves

This was a very well presented session, in which Kathleen talked about the place of relationships, students’ needs, time and a long-term view in the classroom. I couldn’t begin to do justice to all her ideas but I’m sure they’ll soon be available here.

Investigating praise and giving feedback by Lesley Keast

This was a presentation of Lesley’s dissertation for her M.A. that she did through Sheffield Hallam (where I’m doing mine) so I was especially interested by the postive things she had to say about the team there.

Her paper was detailed and very organised, and gave me an idea of the hard work I will have to put in!

Then I attended the debate – this house believes that primary ELT does more harm than good.

Fiona Copland did a fine job in proposing the motion, citing a lack of coherent evidence, the problems finding trained teachers for this level and the need to concentrate on literacy and Maths at this age.

Janet Enver opposed the motion with the comment “the deed is done”, primary ELT is an intergral part of the school curriculum in many countries and we should be working towards its successful development.

Audience participation brought up many issues dear to my heart, class numbers – for example I heard about classes of up to 70 children in some countries, and thought about my negotiating for class sizes of maximum 20. There were also teachers from Switzerland talking aabout ELT in multi-lingual countries, where other national languaes are already obligatory at primary level.

This was a fascinating debate, and I must admit Fiona nearly won me over, my own experience has shown that after a couple of years at secondary school, those pupils who learnt English in primary do not necessarily have better results than those who started later. This I feel is because, due to the haphazard nature of primary English, one year, or two, or none, or maybe German instead, we always have to “start from scratch” in secondary school.

I say “nearly” because there is one fact that pulls me back to supporting primary ELT, and for me it’s the most important – THE KIDS LOVE IT! I’ve shouted it because it’s very important for me! If they love English, they’ll be fine, they’ll learn.

All this was only the morning, it’s been such an information-packed day. I’m just poppping out for dinner, and then I’ll be back with this afternoon’s highlights in a bit.

Bon appetit!