Методи навчання

      

6 ideas for your new classes


Use these warm-up ideas to get to know your new students! Tom Veryzer shares some activities that can be done in person or online. Are these new ideas to you? How would you students like them? Let us know in the comments on the blog!

oupeltglobalblog.com/2021/10/07/warm-up-activities-students/?dm_i=1MVU,7KUXT,QPWGYX,UUVBR,1 

Learners demand more speaking practice. Our study reveals 52% of English learners leave their formal education without confidence in their speaking skills *

Meet your solution: Mondly by Pearson is the ultimate companion in tackling this challenge head-on. Seamlessly integrating with your classroom teaching, our app offers over 500 minutes of targeted speaking practice, building your learners' confidence:

www.pearson.com/languages/en-eu/educators/mondly-by-pearson.html?utm_source=Email&utm_medium=Email_journey&utm_campaign=CE_PCELP-24_CE_EU_PCELP-INST&utm_content=HmS_Email_journe 


How to boost your students’ exam performance using SMART goals

Having SMART goals will enhance your learners’ progress and motivation. In the ‘How to be SMART and build good habits’ pack of the Cambridge Exam Preparation Journey, you’ll learn how to introduce these in your classroom.

  

Discover practical tips to help your learners build good habits that will lead them to success.  

Explore the resources:  www.cambridge.org/gb/cambridgeenglish/exam-preparation-journey?nestedTab=pack-2-how-to-be-smart&utm_campaign=2425%20Prep%20Centre%20News&utm_medium=email&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-_0CR0Ax01yyeaj5uZPSs9x 

IELTS Test Day: Essential Advice for a Smooth Experience

Whether your students are aiming to study at a prestigious overseas university or seeking better career opportunities, their success hinges on how well they perform on test day.  That's why we've compiled essential IELTS test day advice to ensure they have a smooth and stress-free experience. This comprehensive guide will cover everything your students need to know, including what to bring, how to manage their time, and tips to stay calm and focused. 

takeielts.britishcouncil.org/blog/ielts-test-day-advice 

Start as you mean to go on: classroom warmers 

 

Get your lessons off to a lively start with our classroom warmers. The booklet features seven simple 10–20-minute exercises for primary, lower secondary and upper secondary students. Use these throughout your course to engage students in a fun activity and review language and vocabulary.   


Warmers.pdf

Dear teachers! 

Get free downloadable articles, lesson plans, and activitiesfrom Oxford University Press. Remember to check back regularly to access the newest resources for teaching teenage learners.

A guide to teaching teenagers and adults online PDF (579 KB)

Get expert advice on making the shift from the physical classroom to the remote classroom.

A guide to using e-book graded readers PDF (784 KB)

Get your learners started with extensive reading online, build their reading habits and keep them motivated to continue their reading journey.

Christmas activities PDF (1 MB)

A collection of themed activities for all levels and abilities to expand and revise vocabulary, and develop reading and writing skills.

Guy Fawkes Night - a lesson for teenage learners PDF (862 KB)

Themed lesson plans and activities to develop your intermediate secondary students’ listening and reading skills and their oral fluency through role play.

National Storytelling Week secondary PDF (654 KB)

Themed lesson plans and activities to expand your pre-intermediate secondary students’ vocabulary and improve their listening and creative thinking skills.

World Space Week secondary PDF (595 KB)

Themed lesson plans and activities to expand your intermediate secondary students’ vocabulary and develops their creativity and oral fluency.

Back to School lesson plans PDF (260 KB)

A collection of lesson plans perfect for teachers and students returning from the summer or winter break.

World Photography Day Resources PDF (1 MB)

Themed lesson plan and activities for using photographs in the class for teenagers.

A guide to teaching with reduced contact hours - teenagers PDF (236 KB)

Make the most of the classroom time available when your contact hours with students are reduced.

Online activities for teenagers – Google Forms PDF (1 MB)

Interactive content with automated marking that can be used alongside any of our Secondary courses.

Easter secondary PDF (525 KB)

Themed lesson plans and activities to teach your intermediate secondary students about traditions and customs though listening and reading activities.

Halloween Worksheets PDF (1 MB)

A collection of themed activities for all levels and abilities to expand vocabulary, develop reading and writing skills and improve grammar.

Valentine’s Day secondary PDF (342 KB)

Themed lesson plans and activities to develop reading and writing skills in your upper intermediate secondary students.

Myths and legends (Secondary lesson plan) PDF (588 KB)

Capture the imagination of your Secondary learners with some of history’s most entertaining myths and legends!

World Oceans Day activities PDF (510 KB)

Ocean themed lesson plans and activities with an environmental twist.

The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals PDF (690 KB)

20 practical steps for integrating The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals into your ELT lessons or syllabus. For learners of CEFR level A2/B1, and adaptable for higher-level learners.

elt.oup.com/teachersclub/courses/teachingteenagers/?cc=ua&selLanguage=uk 


A guide to teaching young learners online PDF (681 KB)

Get expert advice on making the shift from the physical classroom to the remote classroom.

A guide to using e-book graded readers PDF (784 KB)

Get your learners started with extensive reading online, build their reading habits and keep them motivated to continue their reading journey.

Christmas activities PDF (1 MB)

A collection of themed activities for all levels and abilities to expand and revise vocabulary, and develop reading and writing skills.

Easter primary PDF (462 KB)

Themed lesson plans and activities to develop your young learners’ writing skills and raise their cultural awareness.

Valentine’s Day primary PDF (1 MB)

Themed lesson plans and activities to introduce new vocabulary and cultural traditions to your elementary level young learners.

Myths and legends (Primary lesson plan) PDF (1 MB)

Capture the imagination of your Primary learners with some of history’s most entertaining myths and legends!

World Oceans Day activities PDF (732 KB)

Ocean themed lesson plans and activities with an environmental twist.

A guide to teaching with reduced contact hours - young learners PDF (395 KB)

Make the most of the classroom time available when your contact hours with students are reduced.

Online activities for young learners – Google Forms PDF (1 MB)

Interactive content with automated marking that can be used alongside any of our Primary courses.

Halloween Worksheets PDF (1 MB)

A collection of themed activities for all levels and abilities to expand vocabulary, develop reading and writing skills and improve grammar.

Guy Fawkes Night - a lesson for young learners PDF (740 KB)

Themed lesson plans and activities to expand your elementary young learners’ vocabulary and develop their organisational and group working skills.

World Space Week primary PDF (1 MB)

Themed lesson plans and activities to teach your elementary young learners about the solar system and develop their cooperation and disciplinary skills.

Back to School lesson plans PDF (495 KB)

A collection of lesson plans perfect for teachers and students returning from the summer or winter break.

World Photography Day Resources PDF (1 MB)

Themed lesson plan and activities for using photographs in the class for young learners.

elt.oup.com/teachersclub/courses/younglearners/?cc=ua&selLanguage=uk 


Artificial Intelligence: The Impact on Language Teaching (Talking ELT Episode 1)

You can learn more about the ways A.I. could impact the future of teaching with OUP easy-listening podcast! Join Hayo and Ben as they explore the dangers, opportunities, and implications:        www.youtube.com/watch?v=CPfU5XSIzmc&list=PLxE1zzJKa1eEMWEoJZQEKa6UvoBbpuIOI 

Listen to more episodes:  Talking ELT is the easiest place to hear about the big issues in English Language Teaching! Discover the latest trends, explore new approaches, and stay up to date with the issues you’re curious about:    elt.oup.com/feature/global/podcasts/?utm_campaign=cat_tl-human-tech&utm_source=dotdigital&utm_medium=email&dm_i=1MVU,8L6TL,QPWGYX,ZKTNH,1&cc=ua&selLanguage=uk 


OBuilt on Formative Assessment principles, the coursebooks from Oxford University Press offer comprehensive support!

Discover how innovative coursebook features, comprehensive test package, and extensive teacher support have all been designed to help teachers monitor learners progress and offer effective feedback.

Find out more:soup.pagetiger.com/assessmentforlearning/international?dm_i=1MVU,845E4,QPWGYX,X8556,1 

ur latest coursebooks help teachers master Assessment for Learning! Our latest coursebooks help teachers


Welcome to your Events and Webinars newsletter for April!


Unpacking the young learner exams: guiding your students in their learning journey

Watch a recording of our webinar. Get tips and teaching ideas to build your confidence when preparing students for Pre A1 Starters, A1 Movers and A2 Flyers.


Watch the webinar


Everything you want to know about Cambridge English Qualifications Digital: Panel Q&A discussion

Our new digital exams are the fast, flexible way to get a Cambridge English Qualification. We want you and your learners to feel confident ahead of exam day. Watch back our expert panel to hear all about the new exam experience, exam content, available preparation materials and much more.


Watch the webinar



Secrets To Effective Assessment: FREE Word Lists! 

When we create assessments, why is it important to make sure vocabulary is at a particular level?teachingenglishwithoxford.oup.com/2021/02/04/assessment-word-lists/ 


Cambridge English Newsletters

 

Get the latest information and news from Cambridge sent straight to your inbox!

Monthly newsletters:

👉 Resources for teachers

👉 Tips and advice for Preparation Centres

Sign up: share.hsforms.com/1A2m8yhHzSm6gylzYs4eVCQ3iz8b?utm_campaign=fy23%2F24-eventsandwebinars-news-ukieemeta&utm_medium=email&_hsmi=288593930&_hsenc=p2ANqtz--uuSCc06pto5fHe_e__LYDFDhNbLssEPj8bq-0qOY3ERgGRXr-SUIyoV0njUxsCysjqAq118Y6HeQ3-Ij9kzpPdMKuoA&utm_content=288593930&utm_source=hs_email 

What are CELTA and DELTA? 

CELTA (Certificate in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages) is a prestigious Cambridge qualification that gives you the right to teach English as a foreign language throughout the world.

The official status of the Cambridge CELTA / Delta Center allows the International Language Center to conduct Cambrige CELTA course.

This year we continue to support the professional development of teachers in Ukraine and around the world and offer online CELTA courses.

Thanks to CELTA you will:


Delta

- the highest professional qualification for English teachers.

✔️ An advanced qualification which offers a high-level blend of theory and practice. DELTA helps to find the answers to the questions "Why do we teach this way?” and “ How do students learn?"

✔️ For experienced language teachers with at least 2 years of post-CELTA (or equivalent course) teaching experience usually in the private sector

✔️ Consists of 3 modules (Exam, Developing Teaching Practice (6-week course), Extended Assignment) which can be completed separately

          Introduction To GLOBAL SKILLS:             drive.google.com/file/d/1SKi9-D38zR-Y_DmbHTST9x4kna1o3PCP/view?usp=sharing 

Guide your learners to assess and monitor their own progress!

This activity helps learners build a timeline to trace their progress and pursue their goals! They will create a series of short goals to help them achieve their long term objectives, encouraging them to stay on track and monitor their own learning.

drive.google.com/file/d/1C9vLuia-tWH8-FLwCoAZSZMGV2PmqCAr/view?usp=sharing 


Teachers Talk Tech

 

The new season of the popular Teachers Talk Tech podcast is available to download now. In the new series, experts explore how the latest EdTech trends can enhance your teaching, with topics ranging from game-based learning to digital inclusion.

Follow the podcast:   shows.acast.com/64133e4416eef400118aca47?utm_campaign=teacher-news-cl-global&utm_medium=email&_hsmi=259797664&_hsenc=p2ANqtz--xXh8OoE7jQswiqGqm8ZsYGV89QKMPI8EXTIKVwtgp8 


Global Scale of English

The Global Scale of English (GSE) is the first truly global English language standard, allowing teachers to more accurately and easily measure learner progress.

Based on research involving over 6000 teachers from more than 50 countries, it extends the Common European Framework of Reference (CEFR) by pinpointing on a scale from 10 to 90 what needs to be mastered for the four skills of speaking, listening, reading and writing within a CEFR level, using a more granular approach.

GSE resources help teachers select the right learning objectives, grammar and vocabulary required for their learners to move onto the next level. It's a more effective way of selecting the right lesson, course materials or assessments at the right time.

How does it help?

Teachers are able to use a common framework from which to measure learner progress on a local, national or international level – one which provides tools that guide them in identifying areas for focus and creating appropriate lesson content.

Learners benefit by having a clear understanding of what needs to be mastered at each CEFR level, keeping them motivated.

The GSE helps learners answer:

Watch the video to learn more:  www.pearson.com/english/about-us/global-scale-of-english.html 


Помічали, що запитання Do you write English? звучить вкрай рідко,натомість

Do you speak English? - максимально розповсюджене. Чому?

Тому що саме говоріння є основою якісної й ефективної комунікації. Та основною метою вивчення іноземної мови;)

На онлайн-курсі Proteach SPEAKING skills to teens (5-9 кл.) ви дізнаєтесь:

Старт: 01.05

Тренер: Геннадій Білоус

Ціна: 990 грн

Деталі та реєстрація: https://proteach.dinternal.education/speaking-skills


Find out more about Project Based Learning

What is Project Based Learning? What does it mean for classroom learning? And how can you implement it?

fdslive.oup.com/www.oup.com/elt/teachers/generalcontent/focus-papers/oup-focus-project-based-learning.pdf 



4 tips for developing teacher confidence in the classroom 📈


                                                                                                                             “Great teachers are not born, they develop over time” (Wiens & Ruday, 2014).

 

Teacher confidence improves through building ability and growing competence, which comes with practice and experience in teaching. 

oupeltglobalblog.com/2023/01/10/tips-teacher-confidence/?dm_i=1MVU,86LF2,QPWGYX,XJGQY,1 



Lesson plan

In this issue, we have included an IELTS lesson plan that focuses on Speaking Part 3. This lesson begins with a review of what to expect in Part 3 of the Speaking section of IELTS. Students are then introduced to expressions to ‘buy time’ to think and are encouraged to consider alternative perspectives to ensure they are able to provide appropriately-extended answers in a final Part 3 practice task.


speaking_part_3_overview_and_practice.pdf

Using technology to boost student motivation 💻 📱


Technology can support learning in a wide range of both formal and informal learning spaces including inside and outside the classroom, and it’s important that you have the necessary support to use it effectively.

 

We’ve created two guided worksheets that will help you to select the appropriate technologies for your classroom and how to design technology-based tasks that will motivate your learners.



Selecting appropriate technologies for your classroom worksheet.pdf
Designing tasks that will motivate learners worksheet.pdf

7 steps for teacher development 🍎🎓 


Did you know we have a 7-step framework to make your professional development more effective?


From identifying your goals to applying your learning in class, our step-by-step guide helps you make your learning more fun, practical, and relevant to you!

drive.google.com/file/d/1vClhbMxbocRCK-AdrVqh19BRKQ4g46hk/view?usp=share_link 



EXTENSIVE READING

How to turn your students into readers 📖


It's not always easy for students to sit down with a book or pick one up 📚. In this short video, Zarina Suhban shares some tips on how you can make your learners interested in reading!             www.facebook.com/watch/?v=2245369825641626 

We would like you to receive the Virtual Goodie Bag, where you will find a downloadable different materials:  

www.macmillanenglish.com/ua/catalogue/methodology 


This in-depth guide will empower your teaching and help you take control of your professional development:




Download now and get practical advice, resources, and training to help you get more from your professional development.

fdslive.oup.com/www.oup.com/elt/general_content/global/expert/oup-expert-self-directed-professional-development.pdf?cc=ua&selLanguage=uk&mode=hub 

Using Classroom Presentation Tools to deliver engaging lessons

12 October 2022 by Oxford University Press ELT Leave a comment

Since I started this beautiful journey as a teacher, I knew it was going to be a great challenge. We all know that we must spend a lot of time planning classes that keep our students engaged and motivated. During these twenty years teaching, I have witnessed all the changes and advances in English Language Teaching, from working with tape recorders, using only print books, and designing materials to fit the right level to all the fantastic classroom presentation tools we have today.

Classroom Presentation Tools have come to make our lives easier. We need to take advantage of all the benefits we get from them. They help us create an interactive learning experience, deliver engaging lessons and save time when planning. What are those features that make Oxford University Press’ Classroom Presentation Tools unique? Well, grab yourself a cup of coffee or tea and enjoy this tour.

Let’s start with the amazing Oxford English Hub, where you can now access Classroom Presentation Tools for our best-selling international courses. Along with accessing Classroom Presentation Tools, Oxford English Hub provides one place for easy access to ALL your digital course materials, for every step of the teaching journey. With interactive content and smart tools to save your time, and integrated professional development tailored specifically to your course, to support your teaching.

Let’s take a closer look at the features of Classroom Presentation Tools. Although all of them are important and useful, we are going to highlight five of them:

1. Embedded audio and video

All audio tracks and videos are just one click away and embedded in the right place in the Student Book or Workbook. The audio player provides great listening practice! You can adjust the speed of the track to support your students when they don’t understand or challenge them to listen to it faster. With the AB loop, you can select one specific part to play on repeat.

The video player supports your teaching by showing students the use of the language they are learning. One recommended strategy is to play it without sound first to make your students guess what is happening and help activate their schemata about the topic. Some videos have the script embedded in them to use them for role plays or discussion.

2. Focus

Focus is an effective tool to help students concentrate on one task at a time and make it easier to answer in class. By opening an exercise full-screen, it allows you to project one activity and not the whole page. Within this tool, you have access to all the other necessary tools such as Draw and Highlight, Check Answers, Show Answers, and the audio and video players.

3. Show answers tool

Most of the time, the answers to all exercises are in the Teacher’s Guide. However, having them embedded in the CPT saves you a lot of time! You can show all the answers at once by clicking on the big eye or request individual answers at the small eye. It will help students to check, correct and review their answers.

4. Notes tool

One way to use the Notes tool is to write or record reminders for your classes. However, you could also use the Text Note to write instructions for specific tasks. You can substitute writing on the physical board, a platform board, or dictating. Alternating them is a way of breaking with the traditional way of teaching.

5. Switch books tool

Saving time has become a key element when planning and teaching your classes. In your planning and teaching, you may use two CPTs: one for the Student’s Book, and one for the Workbook. The Switch books tool helps you change from one book to the other in one click in your CPT. Imagine that you assign an activity in the Student Book, and you’d like to complement it with the related pages or exercises in the Workbook. Simply click the link to switch to the relevant page of your second book. You can go back to your first book using the Switch book icon in the toolbar.

These are just five of many features you have in your Classroom Presentation Tools, available on Oxford English Hub. I’m sure you’ll love them as much I do!



7 tips for creative writing in English


Creative writing can be hard, so if your students ever need a hand in creative writing, we've got you covered.

Creative writing in English

Creative writing can be hard. Where do you start? Where do ideas come from? How do you get your characters? To help you, here are seven tips. Use these tips for creative writing in English – or in Spanish, Polish, Korean – any other language you happen to know! It’s a common approach.

1. READING

Creative writing starts with reading – this is the source. You’ve got to read A LOT. This will show you what’s possible and how it’s done. It will also give you ideas. A great way to start reading more is by using Oxford Reading Club – here you can find hundreds of graded readers which are right for your level. The more you read, the more you’ll see different styles, mix them up, and then write in a way which is completely new and completely you.

2. IDEAS

Every creative idea has possibilities. It could become a brilliant story, poem, play, or song lyric. It doesn’t matter. What’s important is to get it down on paper or on screen. Don’t let it just stay in your head. After you’ve written down the idea, you can decide how good it is and what form it might take. Then you can start to write it!

3. BEGINNING

Most creative writing is about telling a story of some kind. Every story has three parts: a beginning, a middle, and an end. If you’re having trouble getting started, try writing from the middle of the story, or even the end. You might discover it’s a better approach. Wherever you start, your first line really needs to ‘hook’ the reader’s attention and make them want to continue. Look at these three examples:

4. SETTING

Where does your story happen? Some people think you should write about places you know really well. But you can also do research and use your imagination. Maybe the setting is one place – that dark, little wood at the end of your garden or schoolyard – or several places which are connected: Chinese megacities, for example. Or maybe it’s somewhere fantastic that no human has ever seen: inside the blood, on the surface of Saturn, or in a parallel world where teachers are students and robots are gods. What does it look like? How does it smell? What sounds are there? If you can describe it in detail, you’ll create that place for your reader.

5. MIDDLE

This is where your creative writing can sometimes slow down. It’s natural – you’ve made a start, but you still haven’t reached the end. Stop … and try writing out the whole idea in just one sentence. Does it make sense? Is that the story, poem, or play which you’re actually writing? If it feels like your writing is losing speed or getting boring, introduce something quick and surprising. For example a gun, a ticking time bomb, a truck with no brakes, or a talking cat.

6. CHARACTERS

Creative writing is written by people (you), for people (your readers), and about people (your characters). Dealing with life’s challenges is what makes us interesting, and it’s exactly the same for the characters in a story, poem, or play. What do they want – and why can’t they get it? You also want to make your characters convincing. If you can’t invent someone completely new, try combining a few real people. Take the name of one person, the looks and voice of a second person; then add the house and car of a third person. See what kind of character appears!

7. END

By this time, you could have built up speed and be racing downhill. But don’t rush the end! Ask yourself what’s changed and – more importantly – what your characters have learnt. Before you write or type the final full stop, check the logic of the story up to this point. Does it all make sense? If so, make sure the end is definitely an end. Here are three famous examples:

 Andrew Dilger is a Managing Editor at Oxford University Press. He has been involved in English language teaching as a teacher, trainer, and editor for over a quarter of a century. He is passionate about the power of reading and claims to have read something every day of his life since he first went to school.



Learning English is not easy


It is difficult to remember the right words and pronounce them correctly. It’s uncomfortable when you get it wrong.   


But we keep trying because we learn from every mistake. And when you find the words, the moment is magic, and the next step is yours to take.   


Join the conversation and share your English learning story, or a moment you’ve experienced from your students’ journeys on social media with #findthewords or completing this form.

By completing this form, you agree to us sharing your story across our social media channels: 

elt.oup.com/feature/global/find-the-words/share-your-story?dm_i=1MVU,81KED,QPWGYX,WWS5C,1&cc=ua&selLanguage=uk 

Download free teaching and learning resources to help you find the words:

elt.oup.com/feature/global/find-the-words/?cc=ua&selLanguage=uk 

Teachers of English

Help your students find the words and share those amazing moments watching them grow and achieve!

Complete these fun activities with your classes and share their stories!


Effective professional development for English language teachers

5 September 2022 by Oxford University Press ELT 1 Comment

We all know good quality teaching leads to better learning outcomes. It’s therefore in the interests of everyone involved in education, whether this be government authorities, schools, parents, or the students, that teachers are well prepared and practice professional development throughout their teaching careers. Effective professional development also contributes to better job satisfaction and is an important factor in teacher wellbeing. Despite this, English language teachers (EFL and ESL) are often left to navigate the professional development journey themselves and find the time to carry it out.  

Considering both the importance of teacher professional development and the time constraints most teachers face, it needs to be as effective and time efficient as possible. Achieving this is no easy task because professional development is an ongoing and complex activity. But we’re here to help, and have pulled together the following foundations of effective professional development. 

Teacher choice 

Every teacher will follow a unique professional development (PD) path because of differences in context, needs, interests, and opportunities. Teachers will need to reflect on their interests, what is relevant to current ministry/school requirements and their students’ needs. Selecting topics is only one part of this process. There is also the question of what format or combinations of formats the professional development will take. 

Teachers want PD to fit their individual needs, so offering one “model” of professional learning doesn’t work. The scope of professional learning can be limitless. It can be a podcast a teacher listens to on the way to work, or a blog read during a lunch break. It can be the professional learning network you follow on Twitter or other social media channels, or it could be a talk at a conference or online event. Professional development should focus on active learning and regular self-reflection on pedagogical practices, professional needs and student needs. 

The points below illustrate some of the available options:

Our research shows that 85% of teachers say that their own personal interest in a topic was the most important factor in choosing professional development. You can access professional development on a wide range of topics and in a variety of formats on our PD homepage, allowing you to find the most relevant and practical resources for you.

Practical and classroom-based 

Effective professional development is always linked to the workplace. For teachers, this means it should be both practical and classroom-based. Teachers are sometimes reluctant to try new ideas because they are unsure how to implement them and because of the frustration they report when things don’t work as planned. The route to being the best possible teacher is through incremental steps.

Once a teacher has decided what changes they would like to make, they should try out small practical changes, and reflect on what happens to identify what does and does not work well. Any time something is less than successful, this should be seen as a learning opportunity rather than a failure. The best learning comes from reflecting on why things worked differently from what was expected. 

Our research shows that 77% of teachers want new ideas, tips and inspiration that they can link to their classroom practice. OUP works with leading researchers and practitioners to empower the global ELT community to teach and learn in the most successful way. Our expert guidance advises on the key issues shaping language education today and offers a wealth of insights to power your teaching. 

Discussion and collaboration 

Teachers should be constantly reflecting on what is happening in their classes and looking for ways to improve. However, this is often a richer and more rewarding experience when teachers discuss and collaborate with other colleagues and share new ideas and insights. While this can potentially be time-consuming, it is typically time well spent. This can be done at the level of the teacher’s own institution and can include observing others and working on team teaching projects. Teachers should also be encouraged to engage in discussions with teachers outside their institutions.  

Teachers can also benefit from connecting with teachers outside their institutions. Online events and communities are often the most effective avenues, allowing teachers to connect with a global community of educators. Thousands of English language teachers across the globe learn and share new ideas and engage in discussion on our social media channels and at our live events. Why not come and join the next English Language Teaching Online Conference (ELTOC) – find out more and register. 

Reflection 

As has been mentioned in the three previous sections, reflection is an integral part of professional development. Teachers need to reflect on their needs and interests when choosing a pathway. They need to reflect on how ideas can be put into their classes. Then once having tried things in the classroom, think about how successful or not their actions have been, while at the same time seeing all results as learning opportunities. Teachers should also not struggle on their own but use discussion and collaboration as opportunities to take their professional development in new directions. 

So, there you have it. Four considerations that are the foundations of a self-directed approach to effective professional development: teacher choice, practical and classroom-based formats, discussion and collaboration, and taking the time to reflect on your needs and interests.

We hope this has given you plenty of inspiration and some resources to help build your own PD journey. If you would like to delve deeper, then be sure to join Ben Knight & Naomi Moir at the next chapter of ELTOC for the session “Self-directed Professional Development”.



Bite-sized advice to help you encourage and strengthen parental engagement


By establishing home learning routines, parents can support and develop their children's learning needs, study habits and emotional self-regulation. Download our latest focus paper and get practical tips to engage parents in the learning journey:

drive.google.com/file/d/1Q07AwOhAaVSLpV9JC-aL9eVesDrog-Tv/view?usp=sharing 


10 top tips to help you connect with your student’s parents

27 September 2018 by Oxford University Press ELT 

Parents and carers sometimes can be difficult to deal with; they didn’t learn English like their children, none of the current digital tools were available to them. Many don’t understand the benefits of modern methodology. For this reason, it would be helpful for you and your students to start the year with a parent meeting. Show them the course book and all of the associated digital resources, and in doing so, gain their confidence. This is your chance to answer their questions, clarify their doubts, and give them the clarity they need surrounding your teaching methods.

Here are 10 tips to help you make that meeting a success!

1. Start by telling participants how varied your class is in terms of mixed-ability and learning disabilities, give them numbers for context. It is important that parents are aware that all students learn in different ways and at a different pace. Once they understand that, they’ll appreciate why it’s important to have such a wide variety of resources, including digital ones, to appeal to different learning styles and cater to differing special needs.

2. Walk parents through a unit, get them to listen to the dialogue, read the text, watch the video, and if the material you’re using has Interactive Whiteboard (IWB) resources try a couple of them too! This will give parents an understanding of the methodology. As well as this, showing parents the type of content and resources their children can use will show them that learning a language nowadays can be fun and effective at the same time. If you have a YLE course, do a song, a game, or a craft activity from the book with them in the same way you would do with your students. You only need to spend fifteen minutes or half an hour at the most on this. It’s a small investment in time but the benefits are vast. This will let parents feel the pleasure kids have working this way in class. Hopefully, then they will understand that although it seems that they are “doing nothing” because they sing songs and play games, they are actually learning and most importantly, they are enjoying learning.

3. Homework time can be tricky for parents for various reasons. Showing them which pages and resources are useful for supporting kids with homework is a great help. Walk parents through the course book, paying special attention to the pages where they will find resources like the Irregular Verb List, Pronunciation Guide, Grammar Reference, Vocabulary Bank, Glossary, Key Phrases Bank, and so on. Parents will focus on those pages when supporting their children with homework.

4. Our students may be digital natives (born after the year 2000), but that doesn’t mean that they are digitally literate as a study run by MediaSmarts (Canada’s Centre for Digital and Media Literacy) has demonstrated: “Young people are mistakenly considered experts in digital technologies because they’re so highly connected, but they are still lacking many essential digital literacy skills”. It’s important to support students at home and parents will play an important role here. Nowadays, most courses have online practice components on platforms, apps and/or e-books. Show parents how to download the e-book or app, and show them how to access and use the platforms. Parents must know how to do this. Navigating these digital materials is usually intuitive, but for the sake of clarity, you might want to show them the main navigation tools.

5. If you’re going to use the Learning Management System (LMS) functionality of the course, explain to parents the benefits. For example, you will have more time in class to get students to practise the language.

6. If students are going to use the online course materials autonomously, then you might want to give them an Online Learning Record like the one below (I was inspired by the “website learning record” of Headway and English File). Stress to parents how important it is that their kids keep this updated! This will help students to develop their study skills and to stay focused.

7. Remember that students with learning disabilities will benefit enormously from using content in digital format. You might want to inform parents of SEN students what aspects of the digital content you have are especially good for them. For example, if you have content on the Oxford Learner’s Bookshelf the audio functionality allows you to slow down the speed. Karaoke-style scripts of the listening found on some coursebook e-books are also an excellent tool for some types of SEN students. If you are in Italy, the student’s website of OUP course books used in the country will have a dyslexic-friendly version of the readings in the course book. Click here for an example for English File Pre-Int. Also, some OUP eBooks offer the course book readings in a dyslexic-friendly format. When this option is active, you will see an icon and you just need to tap it to get the dyslexic-friendly version of the reading. I’ve added this information. This function is available on selected OUP courses, like English File, Headway or Insight.

8. Another important point to consider before you decide to implement the use of online resources is how parents feel about their kids being online. Some parents have reservations about internet safety so they prefer kids not to use the internet or have a negative attitude towards digital. This could be an obstacle for the student’s digital skills development which is crucial for the future of any child. It could also be an obstacle for you to carry out your lessons with online content. For this reason, it is a good idea to run parents through the online activities their children will be participating in, acknowledging their concerns along the way. Fortunately, there are ways to protect them online. Sometimes local internet providers will have free parental controls that filter out inappropriate content. Make sure you understand the concept of parental controls, and how parents can utilise them. Widespread concerns from parents on internet safety can be a real blocker, if you’re facing this you should dedicate time to walk through the above with parents.

9. To raise awareness of internet safety, why not join the hundreds of activities done globally on the occasion of the Safer Internet Day (SID)? It is celebrated every year in February to promote the safe and positive use of digital technology by students. The next SID will be on 7th February 2023 so save the date and start planning ahead. The UK Safer Internet Centre has a resourceful website where you can find online safety activities and more free resources for download. Do check for Safer Internet Day activities in your own country and join the bandwagon!

10. Finally, I would give parents a handout with platform URLs, links to tutorials (always check on YouTube to see if your digital tools have tutorials), info on online parental controls by local internet providers, information about the Safer Internet Centre in the area (if there is one), the online learning record, and the list of student’s resources (e.g. student’s website, vocabulary app, verb tables, etc). Think of this handout as a reference for parents to have handy when they need to help their kids with homework or revising for a test.


Gina Rodriguez is a Senior Educational Consultant for OUP in Italy. She is a CELTA-qualified teacher, teacher trainer and speaker. She firmly believes that being a digital native does not mean being digitally literate. Students need support in developing digital literacy both from school and at home. Getting parents and carers involved in it will increase the chances of school success and reduce digital issue

Шановні колеги!


Запрошуємо Вас переглянути відеозапис вебінару "GET THEM TALKING: EFFECTIVE SPEAKING ACTIVITIES FOR YOUR LEARNERS" від видавництва "Лібра Терра": 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b51ZNmG45uc&t=1s


Бажаємо Вам усім безпечного і мирного літа!  


How to be more productive: 10 productivity tips

Struggling to feel productive? Check out our top 10 tips and tricks on how to improve your productivity levels.Does it sometimes feel like you have a lot to do and very little time to do it? If you’re interested in how to be more productive, read on to discover valuable strategies to help you manage your time more effectively.

 What is productivity?

Productivity is a term often used in business settings, though it can actually apply to all areas of life. In a business context, productivity may be measured by the number of sales calls made or a factory line’s output. In an academic situation, productivity could be measured by the number of questions answered or words written.

In its most basic form, productivity is output measured by input. However, quantifying productivity isn’t always straightforward if the results aren’t immediately tangible. Some projects and industries require a lot of self-motivation. For example, in service provider industries, when trying to get a promotion or attempting a creative project such as writing a book. For these types of work, productivity can’t always be measured in terms of immediate results or output.

When considering how to be more productive, many turn to time management techniques. Although interconnected, productivity and time management are two different things and not all productive people are particularly good at time management.

Time management is a range of skills and tools that promote the effective use of a person’s time. Productivity is about the results that are achieved within a certain length of time. Sometimes the most productive results don’t come from effectively managing a list of tasks – productivity is more concerned with the outcome.

What is toxic productivity?

Toxic productivity is essentially the drive to be productive at all times, at the expense of all other pursuits. At its core, toxic productivity is simply a new term for ‘workaholic’ with a fresh modern spin. 

Some examples of this are the social media trends #girlboss and #ThatGirl, where young women are encouraged to ‘have it all’ by working and having a side hustle, whilst also finding time to work out, look their best at all times, fund multiple holidays a year, cook healthy meals and maintain an active social life. 

Although these points may appear positive and aspirational, they also represent a toxic level of productivity coupled with the need to always achieve more. This can lead to long-term effects, impacting our ability to value ourselves beyond what we are “doing”. 

During COVID-19 and the rise of remote working, the lines between home life and work/study became significantly more blurred. Even as people return to the office or places of study, a potentially unhealthy need to be constantly productive and to ‘go the extra mile’, has become something of its own epidemic.

But isn’t productivity a good thing? In times of high stress – like a pandemic – toxic productivity and the need to constantly be seen as busy only masks stress and anxiety. This can eventually lead to burnout. The University of Manchester discusses workplace stress and its adverse effects on productivity in their course: Workplace Wellbeing: Stress and Productivity at Work.

Нow to be more productive at work

Although being productive is important in all aspects of life where outcomes are required or when people want to achieve goals, it is probably considered most important within the work environment.

As the modern workplace has developed and shifted to combinations of in-person, remote, and hybrid over recent years, the traditional 9-5 has given way to more flexible ways of working. Some of these changes have encouraged people to work more effectively, but for others, these new dynamics present challenges in productivity, both for the employee and the employer, who must develop new ways of tracking efficiency and motivating their workforce.

Making some simple adjustments to your workday schedule creates possibilities to see an incremental boost in your productivity, whatever your industry. We’ve listed some of these adjustments below.

If you’re interested in learning more about how we form habits or can change behaviour, check out UCL’s course on change intervention: Behaviour Change Interventions: Introductory Principles and Practice.

10 tips for improving productivity

Try incorporating some of these productivity tips into your daily schedule. Monitor what does and doesn’t work for you so you can build a lasting plan to improve your productivity. 

1. Stop multitasking

It’s often tempting to try and multitask, juggling numerous workday tasks at any one time. While this may feel productive, it rarely produces the best results. By focusing on just one task at a time, you will complete it to a higher standard and in less time, enabling you to move seamlessly on to the next task.

2. Set small goals

Large tasks or projects can feel intimidating and we often overestimate how long they will take to complete. You can create forward momentum by breaking tasks down into manageable, bite-sized milestones, which build until your project is complete. For example, clearing your inbox by answering four emails at a time throughout the day.

3. Take a break

It may seem strange to suggest taking breaks when talking about being productive at work, but regular breaks actually help decrease stress and increase productivity. Monash University’s course, Mindfulness for Wellbeing and Peak Performance, discusses how to improve performance by reducing stress in the workplace.

Many workplaces ensure employees take regular breaks. However, if you work from home or in an office that doesn’t monitor your activity, consider scheduling frequent short breaks of 10/15 minutes. Use this time to step away from your work, enabling your mind to have a rest and return with renewed motivation and potentially new ideas.

4. The five-minute rule

If procrastination is a big challenge for you, try the five-minute rule. By promising yourself that you will spend just five minutes on an outstanding task, you eliminate many of the excuses that stop you from starting. Almost anyone can dedicate just five minutes to writing an email, researching a topic, completing some filing or outlining a new task.

Often, once the five minutes are finished, the motivation to continue remains. Even if you move on to another productive task, the small jobs completed within the five minutes still represent an important contribution to your overall output. As ever, it is these small tasks that we put off the most.

5. Time blocking

Using time blocks is an established and well-known productivity strategy. By creating time block frames in your workday schedule, you make the conscious decision to dedicate a ‘block’ of time to a certain task.

Time blocks are usually divided into 60 or 90-minute sections. You may like to print the schedule out or colour code your tasks, as one of the benefits of time blocking is that once completed, it creates a visual guide for your workday.

6. Delegate

If you work as part of a team, look at your daily tasks and consider if any can be delegated to other team members. Often, we take on work that is outside our remit or can be done far quicker by others. 

Delegation isn’t about offloading work you don’t want to do. Instead, it’s about ensuring everyone is working on the tasks best suited to their skills and availability. If you’re interested in learning more about managing and delegating within a team, the Open University’s course Business Fundamentals: Project Management explores this topic further.

Entrepreneurs tend to try and juggle all of their business tasks. Delegating to new employees or using freelancers for things like social media content can mean more time is available for higher priority tasks.

7. Limit distractions

Becoming distracted is very normal, and focus doesn’t always come naturally. However, it is a skill that can be developed. Turn your notifications off, switch your phone to aeroplane mode, or use a productivity app like Freedom.

The Pomodoro technique is commonly used to prevent distractions and complete tasks. Users set a timer, removing all distractions from their vicinity (social media, emails, etc.) and work in timed sprints of 20-30 minutes. Knowing that you only have to focus for a short period is an excellent way of ability to focus for more extended periods.

8. Do the hardest thing first

It can be tempting to avoid difficult or time-consuming tasks and instead focus on quick wins. However, by taking on your most difficult projects first, you can increase your motivation and focus for the rest of the day. Consider prioritising these bigger tasks first in the day, or when you feel most productive.

9. Set boundaries

As we discussed in the section on delegation, employees often find themselves taking on work that is beyond the scope of their role. While it is considered a good thing to be flexible and take opportunities for career development, it is also important to set boundaries on your time.

To complete your tasks effectively and be productive, you must be able to complete them within a reasonable timeframe. Setting boundaries stop you from becoming overwhelmed. If you are interested in learning more about resilience at work and maintaining boundaries, look into Deakin University’s course Professional Resilience: Building Skills to Thrive at Work.

10. Identify when you’re most productive

With the advent of covid and remote working, the traditional 9-5 is becoming increasingly less common. Flexible and hybrid working has promoted the concept of working in more productive ways. Everyone is individual. Some employees work best in the morning, while others hit their productive stride after lunch. Identifying when you are most productive and then organising your daily schedule to make the most of these peak times is an excellent way to increase productivity.

Final thoughts

We have discussed some of the key aspects of increasing productivity both in the workplace and in our day to day lives. Focusing on trying one of two of these productivity tips at a time makes it possible for anyone to develop skills in this area, reducing stress and maximising our professional and personal goals.

How to improve self-esteem: 10 tips to value yourself more

Many people experience low self-esteem, but it can be managed with the right skills and practices. Here are 10 tips to improve yours.

On occasion, many of us experience poor self-esteem. Sometimes this way of thinking can become chronic and debilitating. It can get in the way of things, both in our professional and personal lives. By providing ourselves with the mental skills we need to manage our self-esteem, and our wellbeing in general, we can get on top of the problem before it gets on top of us.

Ideally, we’d learn about this from an early age. That’s why learning to build positive relationships and self-confidence is a key step in the Lego Foundation’s Learning to thrive through play course. If you’re reading this, however, the chances are that you’re a little bit older, and you’d like to know how you can handle your problems around self-esteem. Read on as we explore the issue and provide some strategies for doing exactly that.

What is self-esteem?

The word ‘esteem’ is rarely used these days without the word ‘self’ appended to the front of it. ‘Self-esteem’ refers to our perception of ourselves. Do we like the person we are? What do we think about our own strengths and weaknesses? Can we recognise our mistakes, and are we able to forgive ourselves for those mistakes and move forward?

Our opinions about ourselves can be complicated and multidimensional, but to begin with, it’s useful to place them on a single axis. We can place ‘high’ self-esteem at one end and ‘low’ self-esteem at the other.

In practice, people don’t always slot neatly into this simplified model. We might have higher self-esteem on some days than on others. If you’ve just finished a marathon, you might feel justifiably pleased with yourself; if you’ve had to bail out halfway, then you might feel pretty down in the dumps. 

What’s more, we might consider some aspects of ourselves more highly than other parts. You might recognise that you’re good at chess, but also that you’re not so good with social situations. Or vice versa.

If you’d like to delve more into the psychology behind self-esteem, take a look at our Understanding confidence open step by Helen Kempster of Goldsmiths University. You can also look at our Positive Core Self-Evaluations open step from Paula Caproni at the University of Michigan. It will take you through not just self-esteem, but related topics like self-efficacy, locus of control, and emotional stability.

What is low self-esteem?

Self-esteem isn’t something we tend to think about all that much unless there’s a problem with it. As you might expect, it’s people at the negative end of the spectrum who tend to suffer the most. 

By definition, suffering doesn’t feel good. However, it has its uses. For example, physical pain helps us to avoid damaging our bodies. You might recoil from a hot surface, or something sharp. Feelings of low self-esteem can often prompt us to take corrective action in our lives. We feel bad about something, we change it, and then we move on. This is a healthy and normal mechanism.

Low self-esteem becomes a problem when there is seemingly no end to these feelings, and when they’re disconnected from reality. Plus, there are some situations where corrective action can’t be taken. 

Why is self-esteem important? 

The way we think about ourselves tends to feed into just about every aspect of life. If you’re constantly worried about how you’re going to fail at everything you attempt, then it might well become a self-fulfilling prophecy. By contrast, if you have unduly high self-esteem, then you might try to do something that’s beyond your capability. 

A lack of self-esteem can control your behaviour, preventing you from even attempting tasks that you don’t feel comfortable with. This is something that even highly-competent professionals have to contend with, as Professor Josef Hallberg from the Luleå University of Technology explains in this open step on Low self-esteem and failures. He’s speaking here as part of the University’s Workplace Wellbeing course, which you can join if you’re hoping to build confidence at work.

What is emotional wellbeing? 

Related to self-esteem is our sense of emotional wellbeing. You might suppose that this is synonymous with feeling great most of the time. But this isn’t really a description of a healthy mind. 

If you feel great even during life’s toughest moments, then you aren’t emotionally well. And if you put pressure on yourself to feel great all the time, then you’re unlikely to make the situation better. In fact, you’re more likely to make it worse!

Emotional wellbeing refers instead to your ability to handle the emotions that life throws at you, good and bad. You might see immediately how this links to your self-esteem. If you experience intense emotions, and you’re not really sure where they come from, then it’s easy to think of them as a part of your identity. 

Taking care of your emotional wellbeing

However, emotional wellbeing is something that you can improve with practice. For some of us, doing this is a bit of a struggle. But the effort can pay dividends.

For example, if you take care of yourself emotionally, then you might be better at receiving feedback at work, or at college. You might also be able to have difficult conversations about subjects that give rise to negative emotions. 

This will allow you to collaborate more productively with other people — even if you don’t see eye-to-eye with them. This is a skill that’s incredibly useful in just about every walk of life. And this is made clear in BF&F’s open step on How to be More Self Aware.

In many cases, it can be helpful to hear someone talk about their personal experience with bad emotional habits. Take a look at Josef Hallberg’s description of his bad habits in this video on emotional wellbeing.

Is low self-esteem a mental health problem?

Low self-esteem is not a mental health problem, but it’s certainly adjacent to many of them. If you find your self-esteem is kept low for a long period of time, then it might be a symptom of a mental illness like depression and anxiety. If you’re worried about your mental health, make sure you speak to a medical professional to get the right help. 

Mind, the mental health charity cites a few symptoms which might indicate that long-running low self-esteem has become a mental health problem:

In recent years, mental health has finally been taken more seriously, which is great. However, saturating yourself in information about mental health, and self-diagnosing with the help of Google can sometimes lead to problems.

Mental health is something we should be actively promoting for ourselves and others. Coventry University’s course on Managing Mental Health and Stress provides the tools required to do just that. If you’re concerned about your wellbeing, awareness-raising initiatives, like World Mental Health Day, can also be hugely helpful.

As a society, we still haven’t settled on an optimal solution for treating mental health issues. In 2014, Professor Peter Kinderman of the University of Liverpool proposed a fairly radical rethink of mental health, which moves away from the ‘disease’ model. Many of his proposals have since become fairly mainstream, and they’re worth considering.

How to build self-esteem and value yourself

Let’s run through a few practical steps you might take, and habits you might get into, in order to build up your self-esteem. The strategies you pick out for yourself should suit your personality and lifestyle.

1. Look out for confirmation bias

If you’re dealing with chronic low self-esteem, then it can be difficult to accept compliments or to notice your successes. By contrast, failures might jump out at you, and stick with you for days, or weeks, afterwards.

This is often a result of something called confirmation bias. You’ve told yourself a story — that you’re dreadful. Your mind is hunting for evidence that confirms that story. Take a step back and try to be objective, and recognise this impulse for what it is.

2. Accept praise

Your confirmation bias might get in the way of you accepting praise. Therefore, you should be proactive about recognising praise and your impulse to dismiss it. If you’re struggling with confidence in the workplace, then it’s worth bearing in mind that you are valuable to your employer — if you weren’t, they wouldn’t be paying you! 

3. Write a list

If you’re struggling to keep track of the things that you like about yourself, then it can be helpful to write them down in a list. That way, when you’re tempted to talk yourself down, you’ll have a physical reminder of all of the things that you actually do like about yourself.

4. Practise mindfulness

You might think of meditation practices as a little bit flakey and impractical. But they’re actually immensely beneficial — provided that you actually practice regularly. The point of the exercise here is to become aware of what’s happening in your consciousness in the present moment. To begin with, you might be slightly startled by what you discover. 

This is something that self-compassion researcher Kristin Neff notes in this video from Monash University on Practising self-compassion, which is part of the university’s course on Maintaining a Mindful Life.

By developing your sense of compassion, you’ll also build broader mental toughness and resilience, as explained in this open step on Compassion for self and others. On the other hand, you might look into practising gratitude with the help of the University of Michigan’s Gratitude Teach-out.

Daily stress-management activities of this kind are covered in the first week of the University of Edinburgh’s course on Self Care and Wellbeing — which is well worth checking out.

5. Challenge yourself

Taking up a hobby can often be a great way to demonstrate to yourself that you’re actually quite capable. Set yourself a goal, and aspire to achieve it. It doesn’t have to be something spectacular like running a marathon. It can instead be something that you’ll enjoy doing regularly, and that you can track your progress with. 

You can apply this goal-oriented thinking to your professional life, too. In Luleå University’s course on surviving the workplace and managing stress — specifically the sections on developing yourself and your skills — they suggest that forming long-term and short-term goals is an essential step.

6. Exercise regularly

As advice goes, it might sound a little bit folksy, but ‘healthy body, healthy mind’ is difficult to argue with. Regular exercise has a whole range of benefits, and it’s even been proven to bolster mood. Even if it’s something low-intensity, like walking, the effects can be profound. Plus, it’ll get you out in the open air.

7. Sleep properly

If you aren’t getting enough sleep, then you’ll suffer from all kinds of knock-on consequences — many of which will lead to poor self-esteem. Make sure that you form the right habits for good sleep. Keep a regular schedule, and avoid screen time in bed. This is covered extensively in the University of Michigan’s Sleep Deprivation: Habits, Solutions and Strategies online course.

8. Build a healthy diet

If you aren’t eating properly, then you can expect to feel lousy. This is especially true if your eating habits are associated with a weight you’re unhappy with, or an unhealthy perception of how you look. Learn how to cook a few healthy meals, and develop a taste for whole foods. If you’re eating more than 5 portions of fruit and veg a day, then you’re likely to get everything you need.

If your perception of your own body is skewed, you might feel dissatisfied with it. In some cases, this can develop into an eating disorder. The good news is that if you’re in this position, there is help available. 

If you suffer from poor body image, you might look into Jameela Jamil’s course on body neutrality, presented in collaboration with Tommy Hilfinger. However, if your relationship with your body or appearance feels debilitating, a medical professional can offer you support and treatment options.

9. Address your weaknesses

If you’re uncertain of your competence in a specific area, it might be tempting to simply avoid it. You might think of a football player who always wants to bring the ball onto their stronger foot because they lack the confidence to shoot with the weaker one. If this reluctance extends to practice sessions as well as competitive matches, then it’s difficult to see this player ever overcoming this particular shortcoming. 

By throwing yourself at the areas where you lack confidence, you might determine that they’re not as intimidating as you supposed. 

10. Look for support

Low self-esteem is something that lots of people suffer from. Sitting down to have a chat with a friend or a family member can often provide you with a well-needed mood boost or a feeling of solidarity. 

If you find that your feelings are persistent and strong,  then it might be time to get more formal about the support you seek. Visiting your GP, a counsellor, or a psychiatrist might be extremely helpful.

If you’d like a few more tips, or you’d like to be more proactive about caring for your mental health, then take a look at our blogs on how to take care of your mental health and 12 simple self-care tips.

How to help someone with low self-esteem

In many ways, it’s more difficult to watch other people struggle with low self-esteem than it is to deal with your own — especially if it’s someone you care about. In this situation, you might want to act like a personal cheerleader, or just provide an attentive ear, or a shoulder to cry on.

Offering this kind of support doesn’t require a professional skill set, but it is something that you can get better at with the right basic training. We cover some of it in our blog on Psychological first aid: How to provide mental health support.

If you’re in a leadership position, then developing your own self-esteem is critical to helping others. You can learn about self-esteem in a leadership context with the Awareness and Confidence for Effective Leadership course. This uses the Savoir-Relier method, which will allow you to Build Trust and Grow your Self-Confidence.

Final thoughts

Low self-esteem is something that nearly everyone struggles with at some point in their lives. Learning to manage these feelings is therefore something that just about everyone can benefit from.

Ideally, you’ll want to learn about these things before they actually become a problem. Much like the notion that it’s a good idea to exercise regularly to prevent health problems, it’s a good idea to form healthy habits before you start to suffer from poor mental health or low self-esteem.

How to Conquer the 4 Top Foreign-language Speaking Fears

Fear #1: “What if I don’t know enough words to make it through a conversation?”

Many learners fear that they won’t know or understand enough words to interact in their target language. After all, how do you know when your skills are strong enough? Luckily, there are some simple tricks you can use to overcome this fear and be confident in your vocabulary.

Build your functional vocabulary with authentic media.

Once you have practice understanding words in context, you might find your fears about your vocabulary subsiding. That’s why it’s so valuable to build your functional vocabulary with authentic media. Not only does this help you learn more words, it also helps you understand them in native speech.

One fun way to ease yourself into understanding native speech is with FluentU, which uses authentic videos to teach languages. Videos are combined with interactive subtitles, giving you access to any word’s definition, example sentences and an associated image. You can even enjoy quizzes that help you practice what you learned.Another great option is to use YouTube. You can find a huge array of authentic materials just by searching in your target language, giving you plenty of tools to use to practice understanding vocabulary in context.

Prepare to make the most out of the words you do know.

When speaking another language, you probably don’t need as many words as you think. You just need to make the most out of the words you do know.

To practice this, practice thinking in your target language. Even if you don’t have all the words you want, you can often find workarounds that still allow you to communicate what you want.

Recognize the value of nonverbal communication.

To quote the great Ursula from “The Little Mermaid,” “Don’t underestimate the importance of body language!” For language learners, that couldn’t be more important. If you don’t have the vocabulary to communicate what you want, you might have the body language, facial expressions, hand gestures or drawing skills.

Want to practice? Find a friend and try to communicate with each other without using any words.

Don’t be afraid to use translators/dictionaries. 

When in doubt, a good translator or dictionary can help you fill any gaps in your vocabulary, and there’s no shame in using these to help you along. For instance, with Google Translate, you can enter in text or audio for speedy translation, so you’ll never need to worry about not knowing a word again.

Fear #2: “What if I feel shy and freeze up?”

Shyness can hold people back from interacting in their native languages, so it should come as no surprise that the same trait can hold people back in a foreign language. Here are some ways you can overcome your shyness and put yourself out there.

Build up your confidence in an online chat room or message board.

Chatting online through platforms like Reddit can be less intimidating than face-to-face interactions. You can post on message boards in your target language. For instance, there are subreddits that use predominantly Chinese, French, German, Spanish or another language. Not only will posting in your target language give you practice, it can also help you build up your confidence to overcome your shyness.

Pretend you’re playing a role.

Purposely not being yourself can make you less nervous. When speaking your target language, just create a character in your mind that you’re playing. That character can be confident and outgoing. You might even give them a fun name for a little extra excitement.

Find groups that are designed to help you meet people.

When everyone is together in order to interact, it can take away some of the intimidation factor of trying to interact. Services like Meetup can help you find groups that are getting together specifically to practice language skills. Hey, if everyone else is doing it, so can you!

Build yourself up. 

There’s no shame in talking yourself up, especially when you’re reminding yourself how awesome you are. Positive self talk can go a long way in helping you overcome your shyness.

You might go over nice things people have said to you, think about the strides you’ve made in your target language or even listen to a motivational song in your target language to pump yourself up.

Fear #3: “What if I embarrass myself?”

It’s easy to come up with ways you might embarrass yourself when using your target language, and this fear can fester. However, with some preparation, you’ll be ready to push that fear of embarrassment to the back of your mind.

Run through common scenarios ahead of time.

People who fear embarrassment often have worry about all the ways a conversation could go wrong. One way to overcome that fear is to run through common scenarios. You can consider what someone might say and also consider your response.

For instance, if you want to use your language skills at a restaurant, consider what the waiter might ask and how you might answer. You might even role play. If you don’t have a friend who will do it with you, you could always play both roles yourself.

This extra level of preparedness can help reduce fear of embarrassment.

Consider using a chatbot or virtual reality program for practice. 

There are some chatbots and virtual reality programs specifically designed to simulate real conversations, allowing you to practice without fear of embarrassment. This will give you time to build up your confidence before you use your skills in real life.

For instance, Mondly VR is a virtual reality Android app that engages you in realistic conversations. Mondly apps also feature a chatbot to give you extra language practice.

Fear #4: “What if I accidentally offend someone?”

If you haven’t mastered your target language, you might fear that your imperfect communication could actually offend someone. However, as long as you’re prepared to react to possible snafus, you can move past your fear of offending.

Remember you can use your smile to your advantage.

Even if you accidentally say something offensive, a smile can help show that you mean well. Most native speakers will be able to tell that you’re a non-native speaker and will cut you some slack if you seem pleasant.

Learn how to apologize and admit you made a mistake.

If things go poorly, you can always apologize. “I’m sorry, I’m confused” can go a long way, so be sure to learn this phrase in your target language.

 

Never fear! By identifying and addressing your language learning fears, you can continue your journey towards fluency confidently. As long as no spiders or clowns pop up along the way.


English as an International Language

Did you know that more than 75% of English users are non-native speakers? English is a truly international language, and an extremely useful communications tool. While learning grammar and vocabulary is important, if you want to make your voice heard, you’ll need to know how to speak clearly – and that means learning pronunciation.

Research suggests that pronunciation can account for up to two-thirds of communication breakdown between non-native speakers. OUP’s recent position paper ‘English Pronunciation for a Global World’ explains why pronunciation training should be central to English learning, and which elements are the most important ones to focus on to make your speaking clearly understood.

Speaking English clearly doesn’t mean a native-speaker accent

You may think you need to develop a near-native-speaker accent to have good pronunciation, but this simply isn’t true. Many famous people – international sports or music stars, for example – have an ‘accent’ when they speak English, but they are easy to understand. In short, it’s not about accent, but rather clarity of speech.

Within the United Kingdom or the United States, there is a wide range of native-speaker accents. The first goal of English learners should be developing pronunciation which makes your speaking comprehensible – not trying to acquire a particular accent.

Which sounds and features should you focus on?

There are some English sounds and elements of speech that are important to practise if you want to make it easier for others to understand you. Here is a quick summary (there is more information in the table at the end of this article).

Pronunciation exercise – compare the same word in three or more accents

To train your ear and help you think about the sounds you make when you speak, it’s useful to listen to the same word in a range of different accents. For example, you could look up the word ‘surprised’ in the Say It: English Pronunciation app or the Oxford Learners’ Dictionaries site and compare the British English and American English content for that word. Compare:

Then try to answer these questions:

To build on this, try looking up a word on the website Youglish, where you can compare examples from a range of accents – US, UK, Australian, Canadian, Irish, Scottish and New Zealand.

Make your voice heard

When you’re learning new English vocabulary, it always makes sense to look up, understand and practise the pronunciation – in particular:

Focussing on these elements will help you speak English clearly and confidently so that you can express yourself and make your voice heard in any situation.

English as an International Language – key pronunciation points


Jenny Dance is an English teacher and exam trainer with more than 20 years of experience. She has a passion for pronunciation learning and is also the Founder of Phona, publishers of the Say It: English Pronunciation app. Jenny regularly presents Pronunciation Live sessions on Facebook and Instagram with the Learning English with Oxford team. Follow Learning English with Oxford to hear about the next live event, or check out our bank of pronunciation resources for more English pronunciation tips.

 


Using Technology to Motivate Learners! : drive.google.com/file/d/1Pj7_VypBJE-2zxrPa_h1gCJ0-42b7kmZ/view?usp=sharing 

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25 ways of randomly placing students into pairs or groups

13 November 2018 by Oxford University Press ELT 11 Comments

There are many benefits to getting students to work in pairs and groups. These range from giving students more speaking opportunities to creating better overall classroom dynamics.

There are three broad ways of grouping students. We can let the students choose who they wish to work with, the teacher can make the groups, or we can group them randomly. In this post, I’ll show you a wealth of ways that you can organise your students randomly into pairs and groups.

The suggestions are organised into two sets. The first set of suggestions gets students to form a line which the teacher then divides up into pairs or groups of the desired size. The second set of suggestions gets students directly into pairs or groups.

Form a line

This grouping method requires students to stand up and form a line, complying to the set rule. The teacher then divides the line into pairs or groups. All except one of these require no extra preparation before class.

Directly into pairs or groups

Most of these suggestions require some degree of preparation before class.


Teaching Digital Literacy – Whose Job Is It?

4 February 2022 by Oxford University Press ELT 1 Comment

Last December I took part in an online discussion about digital literacy. Amongst the many interesting questions posed by teachers, one question came up that I had never been asked before – Whose job is it to teach digital literacy?

As someone who teaches it as a subject, and also as part of my ELT lessons, I just assumed it was something any and all teachers should do. Which is pretty much the answer I gave at the time. However, the question came up several times. I feel my assumption is not held by everyone, so I’d like to use this opportunity to qualify my answer.

What do we mean by digital literacy?

Having reflected, I think part of the issue is that the term ‘digital literacy’ means different things to different people. This is perhaps no surprise as it does encompass so many varied aspects.  Search the internet for a definition and you’ll find educational websites offering as many as 8 different literacies within the wider definition. Take for example the JISC website, which shows seven different aspects.

I suspect that the question of who should teach digital literacy is grounded in a common misunderstanding of equating it with simply the ability to use a computer or mobile. This is computer literacy but of course, is still part of the whole digital literacy area. Taking this line, it is easy to conclude “I teach English, I don’t teach computers, so we should leave digital literacy to the ICT teacher”. In the same way, being terrible at maths, I’d leave that to a maths teacher.

By the way, if you did search the Internet for a definition then you’re showing another digital literacy, specifically information literacy, knowing how to find, evaluate and share information.   Consider how often you get students to use the Internet, do you ever discuss this process with them? If you do, then you’ve taught digital literacy. However, if you didn’t search then you might still be wondering what digital literacy is so here’s the definition used within the OUP coursebook series Life Vision:

Digital Literacy covers a very broad spectrum of skills it can be defined in general terms as the ability to access, use, create and share information and content using a range of digital devices and applications in ways that show critical awareness and an understanding of what is safe and legal.

How is digital literacy related to language learning?

If you’re still wondering whose job digital literacy is, consider the ‘critical awareness’ part of the definition. Few teachers would argue that instilling critical thinking is not part of our job. Most course materials address critical thinking in some way, as complementary to teaching language. I said I assumed it was all our job to teach digital literacy because I see it in the same way. Critical thinking is part of digital literacy. Take the topic of fake news, an area that has found its way into many classrooms. Teaching how to spot fake news, and critically evaluate it, is part of information literacy and I am sure something all English teachers address. When we get students to look at texts online and go beyond skim-reading and scanning, by asking the students what they think of the article or the webpage, we’re addressing digital literacy.

Some of you might now be thinking “Shaun I see your point, but I don’t use the internet in class. In fact, in my class we don’t or can’t use devices” and to that, I would say you don’t need to. Many typical classroom practices are set up to teach it. Consider how often you use photos or videos. Visual media is very much part of the digital world so asking students to go beyond ‘what can you see?’ into ‘what do you think the message is’ makes them more digitally aware.

Consider all the topics you could use for language teaching that have a digital theme – from the latest TikTok fad to more serious issues such as cyberbullying and scamming. If, for example during a speaking lesson, you get students to discuss ways to stay safe online, or when to share or not share things on social media then you are addressing digital literacy.

Preparing students for a digital world

The teacher trainer in me appreciates it when a teacher raises a question that makes me pause so thank you to those that questioned whose job it is. After reflection I stand by my original answer, I think all educators go beyond their subject when they teach. Digital literacy is a life skill that goes hand in hand with language teaching. Not only is it a complement to what we do in the classroom but with teaching becoming ever more digital if we want our students to learn digitally then we have a duty to make sure they do it safely and knowledgeably no matter what subject we teach.

oupeltglobalblog.com/2022/02/04/teaching-digital-literacy/?dm_i=1MVU,7QWO3,QPWGYX,VL50Z,1 

Correct English Without Lowering Motivation In 6 Simple Steps

20 December 2021 by Oxford University Press ELT 1 Comment

There are many ways to assess learners, for example, mini-tests or observations, in order to evaluate and monitor their understanding and progress. As well as checking learners’ competencies in some specific language or skill, evaluation allows us to guide learners on how to improve. Part of this is noting any errors they make in completing the assessments, especially errors in the language they use. However, focusing on errors too much can be de-motivating for learners. They may struggle to improve because they are anxious about making mistakes, especially with productive tasks. So how can we correct English errors and at the same time keep learners motivated to improve?

One of the best ways to support learners in improving their accuracy is to follow a process. This has the advantages of offering a consistent approach which, in turn, helps to build trust that this is to help them. This process has six steps:

1) Decide a clear focus for accuracy

2) Agree on accuracy focus with learners

3) Have a ‘pause’ time within the assessment task

4) Note general errors

5) Correct English with specific feedback

6) ‘Say it again, say it better’

Finally, make sure you allocate a specific time or task for accuracy focus or error correction. Don’t let it dominate every class or learners will become demotivated. The focus should be on what learners can do or achieve.

 

Help learners reach for their goals, accelerate their progress, and go further by embedding assessment for learning into your daily teaching!



Did you join our livestream on Classroom management?


 Erika and Montse had loads of fun talking to you about classroom management and group dynamics with teenagers, answering your questions and sharing their ideas. The session is available for you to watch on Facebook at any time. 

 Watch the leavestream:   www.facebook.com/watch/live/?ref=watch_permalink&v=658193501826495 


                                                                                      Class management and group dynamics with teenagers

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                     with Erika Osvath and Montse Costafreda

Classroom Management is a broad term to refer to the set of skills and abilities a teacher should implement to provide a good environment for learning to happen in any learning situation. High levels of engagement and motivation are not always easy to get, especially in Secondary school. Let’s have a look at some ideas that can expand our management tools kit. 

One of the first goals of a teacher is to create a safe environment where positive relationships and good dynamics foster learning. Building a learning community takes time and effort, but the bonds and the respect that come out of it benefit everyone involved. 

Planning activities with the specific purpose of generating positive relationships -not just learning each other’s names- is one of the first steps. This encourages students to get to know each other and the teacher, find common aspects in their lives, create new bonds and, if successful, readjust some toxic relationships. 

A classroom is like an ecosystem, and as such, it evolves with time. Even though these activities are great for getting to know each other at the beginning of the course, we can also adapt them to be used throughout the academic year to keep expanding connections.

 - 2 truths and a lie: Classic pair activity, where every student comes up with 3 sentences about their lives. Their partner should guess which is the lie by asking questions.

 - 5 clues star: pair activity where every student draws a five-pointed star and writes something about themselves at each point. Their partner asks questions to get as much information as possible. 

- Find something in common: pair activity where the students talk to each other to find as many things in common as possible. The students share their findings with the class in a pair presentation. (All these activities can be adapted for online teaching by using breakout rooms) 


Any successful community has a set of basic rules and procedures, likewise, every school has their own policy on things like classroom behaviour and the use of mobile phones. Sharing these basic rules avoids misinterpretations and reenforces a safe space for interaction and wellbeing. Some rules can be discussed and agreed on with your students. Teenagers like to be treated maturely, and decision-taking shows trust from the teacher’s side. If they take ownership of the rules, they will feel accountable for their behaviour and comply with them. The following activities can be done both for the physical and online class: 

- Let’s get a deal! Students discuss some possible class rules issues in groups and come up with some solutions. Some topics could be: “How to move around the class when creating groups” “How often can I work with my friend/buddy?”  “Commitment to have the camera on during the class” 

- Let’s find a solution! Working together to find a solution for a common problem will foster creativity and collaboration. Some good examples could be: “How can we reduce noise from chairs?” “How can I remember to mute/unmute my microphone?”

 Disruption in class can come from a variety of causes: two key reasons might be: 

- the students don’t know what to do - the tasks are too difficult or too easy Keeping students on task and engaged in the activities can be hard in our face-to-face class, but it can be even harder in an online setting. We should make sure that our students understand the instructions of an activity and that they have the tools they need to complete it successfully. 

- Give clear instructions: o Provide written, step-by-step instructions. o Be clear about whether groups need to be created. o Use easy vocabulary o Make the objective very clear o Go through the instructions on the board or using a slide if online: read them one by one. Emphasize key words o Ask comprehension questions: avoid yes/no questions o Optional: ask one student to go over the steps again o Set a specific time to complete the activity - Split a longer activity into steps. Every step should have a clear objective and a set time. - Identify possible difficulties and provide help if necessary. 

- Gamify the activity: award a badge/point for every step of the activity finished successfully. This provides extra motivation and might trigger collaboration in the group. No matter how interesting the topic of the class is, teenagers’ attention spans have a limit. Planning breaks in the structure of our class will help refocus on the activity. Brain breaks are a perfect resource to activate and refresh our students’ minds after a challenging and intellectual activity. A brain break is a short and fun exercise that usually involves movement. They break the course of the activity and provide a space for the teenagers to let off steam. Movement stimulates blood flow to the brain, and therefore, students’ ability to concentrate increases again, which is also helpful for our students’ wellbeing. It is very important to set a specific time for the brain break, which shouldn’t be longer than 5 minutes. Brain breaks can be done in both a physical or in an online class: 

Model some stretches and ask the class to join you. Breathing slowly is key, especially if the class is too active - “Finger switch” stimulates both parts of the brain. Ask your students to stretch their arms and do a thumbs up with their right hand and to point with the forefinger of their left hand. Ask them to switch quickly. You can find plenty of exercises involving both hands on the internet. - “Flip the pencil” is a quick and fun activity. Set 1 minute in the timer and ask your students to flip their pencils as many times as they can. But, even if we create a wonderful community and we plan a perfect lesson with crystal clear instructions and brain breaks to refresh concentration, sometimes lessons do not go as planned and we still might need some tips to keep our students’ attention: - Include a personal anecdote in your lesson linked to the topic. - Add an extra brain break. 

- Offer 2 or three options for the next activity and include a game. 

- Prepare some memes and show one when you see attention is dropping. Make sure you create a mysterious atmosphere before revealing them. 

- Choose a word or phrase and ask them to clap when they hear it. Make sure you are going to say the word during the class and praise those who reacted first. 

Developing effective classroom management skills takes time and dedication. Keeping our students at the centre of the learning process will help us develop personalised and suitable strategies that will enhance our lessons and provide the best environment for our teenagers. 

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               Montse Costafreda © Oxford University Press 2021 

Активні, інтерактивні, .....

Everyday development activities for busy teachers | Learning in the rush

Martyn Clarke has led education development projects all over the world, and has written numerous blogs for OUP! In this article, he examines the everyday development opportunities that teachers could be missing out on.

 oupeltglobalblog.com/2017/10/26/development-activities/?dm_i=1Q6R,7EZAB,PPZIXZ,U4DC2,1 

https://oupeltglobalblog.com/2017/11/20/everyday-development-activities-busy-teachers-learning-rush-qa/?dm_i=1Q6R,7EZAB,PPZIXZ,U4DC2,1


Learning English with Oxford

10 steps to overcome language-learning barriers


Have you ever felt like you’re taking one step forward and two steps back on the road to learning a new language? It’s easy to feel stuck when you’re constantly forgetting new expressions you’ve learned and grammar rules keep getting jumbled up in your head. Many learners face barriers that are seemingly impossible to overcome. But the good news is, with the right tools and practices, there are lots of things you can do to make your life easier. So, here are ten common language-learning barriers and how to overcome them!

Four ways to test your English at home

BY OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS ELT POSTED ON MAY 11, 2020

Learning on your own at home can be challenging in many ways. Sometimes it’s hard to know what to study without the guidance of a teacher. It can be difficult to know if you’re improving, and what areas you still need to work on. Usually, taking tests is a good way of measuring progress. However, that’s tricky when lots of assessments have been cancelled or postponed. 

But, there is good news! If you want to keep learning and tracking your improvement in English, there are lots of online tools that help you along: 

1. Check your reading level 

At Oxford University Press, we offer a smart test to check your reading level. In the first part of the test, you’ll be shown a series of words (in context) and you’re asked to decide whether or not you understand them. The words will get gradually more and more difficult as the level goes up. You’ll also read a page in English. The test will ask you if it’s too easy, too difficult, or just about right. Once you’ve chosen, you’ll be shown your reading level in English. 

This learner-driven exercise isn’t like a traditional test – there’s no mark given at the end and you can’t fail. Instead, it works as a tool to help you discover your reading level in English on your own. You can use it as many times as you like to check your progress, so it’s a great way of measuring improvement, too. 

The Oxford Learners’ Bookshelf is currently offering access to 148 graded readers for free. The offer lasts until the 30th of June, so you’ll have plenty of time to read and boost your level. You could even set yourself a goal of re-checking your reading level at the start of July. That way, you can see how much you’ve improved after two months of using the free graded readers. 

2. Build your own test 

If you’ve been focusing on particular grammar points, you can actually build your own test to discover how much you’ve learned. Headway, one of our popular general English courses, has a ‘build your own test’ tool. You can choose to be tested on grammar topics such as conditionals, modal verbs, time expressions and verbs patterns. 

There are twenty topics to choose from and each topic has ten questions; five multiple-choice questions and five where you have to write your own answer. Once you’ve submitted your answers, you’ll receive your marks. If you’ve made a mistake you’ll be shown the correct answer. 

There are also exercises you can do to work on your grammar, vocabulary and everyday English, from making small talk to practising compound nouns. 

3. Do a practice test 

The Oxford Practice Grammar series has free downloads available online with practice tests and answer keys. There are three levels available, so you can choose the one most appropriate to you; basic, intermediate or advanced. 

The basic test covers past, present and future tenses, as well as other topics like adjectives and pronouns. However, if your level is higher, you can test yourself on common intermediate topics such as reported speech, past and present tenses, modal verbs and word order. And if you’re feeling really ambitious, the advanced level tests you on grammar points like prepositions, adverbial clauses, determiners and quantifiers. 

All the tests come with an answer key, so you can check your answers to see how well you did. The topic lists also provide a good study guide, so you have an idea of what is covered at each level. This way, you can really focus on your grammar and boost your level while learning at home! 

If you’re working at roughly a B1 or B2 level, you can use the practice tests for the Oxford Test of English to test your skills. These will also help you become familiar with the question types and format of the test, and allow you to practise your English at the same time. 

4. Take the Oxford Test of English demo

Another way to practise for the Oxford Test of English is with our two hour demo. This will allow you to see how each of the four modules of the test work. Just like in the real test, you can take the modules one at a time, or you can sit them all a once.

There are four modules in the test: Listening, Speaking, Reading and Writing. The Listening module has four parts and takes about 30 minutes to complete. In the Speaking module, you practise skills like answering questions, leaving a voicemail and giving a talk. It should take about 15 minutes. 

The Reading module has four parts. Each part is designed to test your reading skills in a different way – for example, you’ll be asked to read for gist and complete a gap-fill exercise. You’ll have approximately 35 minutes to answer all the questions. And in the Writing module, you’ll be asked to write an email response, and choose between writing an essay or a review. The whole module takes about 45 minutes to complete. 

Even if your test has been postponed, you can make sure you are fully prepared for sitting the Oxford Test of English. You’ll be able to take your test at the first opportunity and feel confident about what to expect. 

More tips for studying at home 

Are there any other ways that you have been testing your English at home? If you are struggling to stay motivated, check out our post full of useful tips.  And if you want to add some creativity into your study routine, have a look at these six creative ways to practise English online.

You can also find more resources to practise your English on our dedicated Learn at Home page, including free access to 148 Graded Readers e-books for all levels, ages and interests (available until 30th June 2020).



On the 18th May a Facebook LIVE session with Andy Gao, Terrie Craddock, and Daniel Brayshaw.

We all know it’s challenging to get your teenagers active and engaged during classes, so our experts will share some practical ways of empowering your students to feel more involved and motivated about their learning, online or in the classroom!

How to create  active and engaged teenage learners:   www.facebook.com/watch/live/?v=381529733237403&ref=watch_permalink 

Looking for minimum stress and maximum fun?


Too many "fun" ways to learn are just typical study tactics in disguise.


C’mon, flashcards are never going to hold a candle to video games.


It may sound strange, but you can’t learn everything by studying.


As it turns out, you may have to totally stop studying to really become fluent.


Check out these 12 wicked fun ways to learn any language, and we think you'll see what we mean.

 Support Remote Learners with Learner Agency! 👩‍🎓

Help your students meet the challenges and opportunities they are facing in education today! Download our Learner Agency position paper and learn to create active learners who will flourish remotely and in the classroom. Give students the skills to adapt to a changing world!

 What is learner agency?

Learner agency refers to the feeling of ownership and control that learners have over their own learning. When students believe their actions can make a difference, they become more confident, engaged, and effective learners. Every student can develop their agency – but they must be supported by their teachers: view.pagetiger.com/learner-agency-paper/1 

Метод CLIL (Content and Language Integrated Learning). Предметно-мовне інтегроване навчання

У світі все більше і більше набирає обертів впровадження технічних та цифрових технологій. Скрізь нам потрібні фахівці. Однак, на сьогодні спостерігається попит на фахівців, які окрім фахових знань також мають і знання іноземних мов. Отже, як поєднуються між собою фахові знання, предметно-мовні та загальномовні компетенції? Це і є метою, яку ставить перед собою методика CLIL – предметно-мовне інтегроване навчання.

Застосування методики CLIL у навчальному процесі дає можливість вчителям інтегрувати вивчення іноземної мови з іншим навчальним предметом. Перевага для учнів:  цікавий зміст мотивує учнів до вивчення німецької мови та закладає лінгвістичну базу, над якою надалі вони зможуть самостійно працювати, наприклад, під час навчання.

 How to bring CLIL into your classroom:    www.youtube.com/watch?v=kR6OnEqq1Fc

Методика CLIL для першачків.mp4

Корисні ресурси:

https://elt.oup.com

http://www.macmillaninspiration.com

http://www.cambridge.org

https://www.teachingenglish.org.uk

Безкоштовні матеріали для занять:

http://www.clilmedia.com

https://www.teachingenglish.org.uk


What is CLIL?

CLIL stands for Content and Language Integrated Learning. It refers to teaching subjects such as science, history and geography to students through a foreign language. This can be by the English teacher using cross-curricular content or the subject teacher using English as the language of instruction. Both methods result in the simultaneous learning of content and English.

What is CLIL?

Well, that's a good question.  CLIL is an acronym, and as such it tends to attract people's attention.  If we were to ask the question 'What is subject teaching?' or 'What is language teaching?' we would probably be expecting more than four short articles in response.  But CLIL has been bold enough to encapsulate itself within an acronym, implying that it is an approach, a philosophy - an educational paradigm with frontiers that can be defined. 

If you teach EMI (English as a Medium of Instruction), LAC (Language Across the Curriculum), CBI (Content-based Instruction) or CBLT (Content-based Language Teaching; if you work in Bilingual Education; if you're a subject teacher working through the medium of a foreign language, or a language teacher bringing in content into your English lesson, you work within the area of Content and Language Integrated Learning.

From Ancient Rome to the Internet

The acronym itself is a good one, because it is largely self-explanatory.  Invented back in the mid-1990's, it seems to be passing the test of time. CLIL itself has been around for a long time - and was put into practice by ancient Roman upper-middle classes, who preferred to have their children educated in Greek.  However, should you want to find definitions of modern CLIL, it is relatively easy to find them.  Just Google the title of this article, on a restricted search, and you'll find 180 sites to choose from, all of which attempt to answer your question. 

 

Five definitions of CLIL

1.  CLIL is a member of the Curriculum Club.

Here's the simplest of all, from the European Commission itself:

"Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL), in which pupils learn a subject through the medium of a foreign language……"

On this purely descriptive level, this quotation endorses CLIL as a construct - as a member of the Curricular Club.  It seems uncontroversial because we do not know to what extent or to what level pupils 'learn a subject' through the foreign language, and we are left unaware of any reasons for doing CLIL.

2.  CLIL has a dual focus.

The next one offers a more detailed description:

"CLIL refers to situations where subjects, or parts of subjects, are taught through a foreign language with dual-focused aims, namely the learning of content, and the simultaneous learning of a foreign language".

(Marsh, D. 2002. Content and Language Integrated Learning: The European Dimension - Actions, Trends and Foresight Potential).

This quote is useful because it highlights some of the educational intention inherent to the CLIL paradigm.  Through CLIL-type practice, one learns [subject] content whilst at the same time learning a foreign language.  What could be better than this?  The 'dual-focused' objective would seem to be implying that CLIL kills two birds with one stone. 

3.  CLIL buys us time.

Indeed, if we return to the European Commission's quotation, and read a little further, we encounter the following phrase:

"It [CLIL] provides exposure to the language without requiring extra time in the curriculum".

This would seem a good reason as any to promote an approach with a twin set of objectives. One of these objectives is clearly educational (to learn subject content and a foreign language) and the other is administrative.  Since educational and administrative needs often fight for space, this seems a good way to promote peace between them.  We were told in the European Council Resolution in 1995 that,

"…..all EU citizens, by the time they leave compulsory schooling, should be able to speak two languages other than the mother tongue".

Curricula attempting to achieve this aim have been getting more and more desperate in their attempts to find timetabling space.  What is the possible answer to this problem?  Why CLIL, of course.  Instead of studying Geography in the majority language, do it in a foreign language.  As long as it works, the pupils learn the same subject concepts and skills, but increase contact time with the foreign language - crucial consideration in the improvement of attainment levels.

4.  CLIL causes change - and you don't need to be a genius to benefit from it.

So far so good.  Now let's look at a different type of observation on CLIL. David Graddol wrote that CLIL is

"…an approach to bilingual education in which both curriculum content (such as science or geography) and English are taught together.  It differs from simple English-medium education in that the learner is not necessarily expected to have the English proficiency required to cope with the subject before beginning study". 

(Graddol D.  English Next, British Council Publications, 2006)

This suggests that CLIL is far from the innocent creature that we read about in the first quotation from the European Commission.  Graddol suggests that a powerful element of CLIL is its role in the improvement of language skills, and that pupils do not necessarily need a particularly high level of foreign language attainment to do their 'CLIL-ing'.  Now this sounds quite radical.  Why?

Without going much further in this introductory talk, we might say that the five or six phenomena described in the above bullet-points are all desirable, in educational terms.  Ensuring that students understand the content, reducing teacher-talk, increasing the focus on skills, influencing publishers to do likewise and getting students to learn language items that are always contextualised, always functionally necessary in the classroom - sound good at any level of curricular discourse.  What is CLIL?  Well already it looks as if it is something like 'good practice', and if we take Graddol at his word, it can be applied across the ability range.  

5.  CLIL motivates

Finally, another quote that extends the scope of CLIL still further;

"CLIL is about using languages to learn………..It is about installing a 'hunger to learn' in the student. It gives opportunity for him/her to think about and develop how s/he communicates in general, even in the first language".

(Marsh, Marsland & Stenberg, 2001)

We can see from the first part of the underlined sections that CLIL views language as a 'vehicle', not simply as an entity in itself.  This is a central component of the CLIL package.  As English becomes an essential add-on to any curricular programme around the world, it is moving into a position where it becomes a subject that pupils learn in order to do something else. 

CLIL also seems to contribute to the buzz-concept of our times - namely 'motivation'.  Teachers' forums talk about it endlessly, as do the blurbs on the back of scholastic textbooks and the opening lines of ministerial declarations.  Does CLIL install a 'hunger to learn' as Marsh et al claim?  If this is true, then we need to know exactly why.  Why should CLIL motivate more than other conventional approaches?  Could it be because:


How to bring CLIL into your classroom.mp4

Метод TPR (Total Physical Response)

Метод повного фізичного реагування 

 Немного истории

TPR (Total Physical Response или метод полного физического реагирования) появился в 60-70х годах прошлого века и с тех пор занял особое место в обучении английскому дошкольников и младших школьников, хотя изначально предназначался и для взрослых.

А появился он вот как: профессор психологии Джеймс Ашер, наблюдая за тем, как дети осваивают первый язык, заметил, что они проводят достаточно много времени, слушая речь взрослых и выполняя их команды, прежде, чем сами начинают говорить. Ашер сделал вывод, что слова или фразы лучше всего запоминаются, когда на них реагируют действиями.

Теория о полушариях

Также, в основе теории Ашера лежит популярная в то время теория о полушариях мозга, согласно которой правое полушарие отвечает за образное мышление, интуицию и творчество, а также движения, а левое полушарие — за абстрактно-логическое мышление и языковые способности.

Ашер предположил, что нужно избегать изучения языка с помощью одного только левого полушария и стараться максимально задействовать правое — через движения и наглядные материалы.

Кстати, сейчас теория о полушариях уже не считается верной. Просканировав мозг более 1000 человек, ученые из университета Юты доказали, что оба полушария во время разных видов деятельности активны примерно одинаково. Тем не менее, с детьми метод TPR отлично работает и дело совсем не в полушариях.

Как работает метод TPR

По сути, метод TPR  — это запоминание новых слов или фраз с помощью жестов или выполнения команд преподавателя. Например, на слово ball — мяч, дети изображают жест, как будто играя с мячом, на слово pen — ручка — делают вид, что пишут воображаемой ручкой и т.п.

Действительно, дети запоминают английские слова и фразы гораздо лучше, когда их изучение подкреплено жестами. Ведь у дошкольников и школьников 7-8 лет преобладает наглядно-образное мышление. Поэтому перевод не нужно и даже вредно использовать — пока еще не развито абстрактно-логическое мышление проводить параллели между русским и английским детям тяжело. Чтобы запомнить новое слово ребенку нужно соотнести это слово с его образом — предметом, картинкой или жестом, в чем нам и помогает TPR.

Первоначально, метод разрабатывался для разных возрастных категорий, но, по понятным причинам, прижился он только в обучении детей. Представьте себе взрослых с энтузиазмом выполняющих команды, которые дает преподаватель (ниже есть и такое видео — но, как вы понимаете, это скорее исключение). А вот для детей использование элементов TPR в сочетании с другими методами на уроках английского подходит превосходно.

Плюсы TPR в обучении детей