During the sessions we covered a huge range of topics, including the weather, pets and other such tefly topics including induction, use and abuse of materials, student motivation, etc, etc. Read on to find out more.
Getting into induction
In the morning session we kicked things off by talking about induction and the move towards a lighter touch approach, understanding that very little is actually retained in these sessions and always needs to be repeated in various different ways. We talked about differentiation between returning and new teachers and about the importance of building team too.
One feature we thought is important in induction is making sure everyone is ok for the first lessons. One thing we all agreed on is that we probably should head to the books in the first class or two, instead it’s more important to work on connections. Harry Waters shared the first day activities that are on the TEFL teachers in Seville Facebook group. We need to create a space where the students want to be there (after a long holiday). On top of that there are a lot of “admin” things to take care of especially around the organisation of online materials. We need to give teachers time and support for online set up and also devote class time to it. And more than anything we need to build confidence, for both teachers and students.
The use and abuse of materials
And what about September, any further thoughts on where we’re going to be? In class, online, hybrid? Whatever space we’re in, the online workbooks and self-assessment materials will continue to be really useful; our ability to gather so much info about the students. We commented that there is now an overwhelming amount of material with publishers producing more and more all the time as they continue to justify their costs. What happens with all the creativity, fun and personalisation when we are confronted with all this material. We need to approach it all with care bearing in mind students’ (and teachers’) needs.
Motivation, visible learning and elite sport
We went on to talk about motivation, setting short-term goals and mused on the idea that learning a language is in many ways like going to the gym. We went on to talk about John Hattie’s “Visible Learning” in this respect and related to when students really learn something. Are exams a good indicator? They are certainly an indicator. We wondered whether students then use the language to satisfy the teacher/exam and balanced this by asserting that the use of challenging language initially needs to be “set-piece”, rehearsed and shoe-horned into language use so that students can move from rehearsed to more natural language. We try to create a naturalness into the artificiality of the classroom. We talked about the importance of teaching chunks of language and about making it automatic. We moved on to “cognitive load”, automatisation and learning to drive; it starts off as a huge effort and then becomes natural, and the same is arguably true in learning languages. Our use of group work can release pressure on the brain and reduce the cognitive load. There’s huge amounts of research into elite sports but much less into second language acquisition. What can we learn from the research?
One thing we agreed on is that there has been a shift from a focus on communicative competence to exam preparation and that many of our students are achieving more and more. Has B2 become the accepted minimum? Is there a shift from C1 to C2 as the aspiration for our students? Are we getting better at it? Are our students getting better at English within this shift of focus towards exams? Does this tie in with the “Demand High” ideas of Jim Scrivener? How much are bilingual programmes in schools part of the answer? All of this can put more and more pressure on our students, we need to be mindful of that.
Which coursebook?
One Hubber asked for suggestions for a B2/C1 book which isn’t based around exams. We talked about two year per level systems and about using the same book across two years. The favourite non-exam book still seems to be English File from OUP, we love the extra communicative activities, although people weren’t so keen on the listening activities and the big jump into exams. We talked about the challenges of making exam books interesting and accessible and the need to prevent us all from just tumbling from one book exercise to another. We talked about using shorter books, CUP’s Compact was mentioned as was the Straight to… series. Within the group there was strong support for Macmillan’s Ready for… series, especially as it often has more communicative activities too. Whatever book we chose, newer teachers will always need help and guidance to use them effectively.
And when we’ve got even the driest coursebook we can give things a twist with some easy-to-do and low preparation activities. We like to give students the answers first and then they work out why it’s this and not that. Alternatively we can give them a couple of possible answers rather than the empty space or a choice of four. We agreed that the process is more important than the correct answer.
A trip down memory lane and back to the future
We talked about some (very) old favourites and wondered if they are still useful and available. Reward Resource Packs for communicative activities, In at the deep end for a functional approach to teaching business English, Streamline English and Off Stage! all got honourable mentions. What’s your favourite golden oldie?
Teach This was mentioned as having a huge variety of usable materials. You just need to input the language focus and the level and you get all sorts of things.
Stress, guilt and saying no
We started off in the afternoon session talking about levels of stress as one Hubber had recently stepped down from a project and we talked about the need to know when to say no, and the feelings of guilt which that often entails. We then went on to talk about a project which another Hubber had recently started: setting up their own website to market courses and we chatted about the benefits of learning how to do these things to be able to edit the site in the future rather than needing to rely on someone else doing it.
Our projects
This led on to some discussion around websites and blogging, and a query as to whether the blogging boom of the early 2010s was over. A couple of coffee break participants were regular bloggers during the hey-day and reflected whether this was also due to how their timetables had changed now: whereas in the past they were working in afternoon classes and so had more time during the mornings to read blogs, nowadays they’re working in other areas of ELT and so that ‘free’ time is now part of their 9-5 working day.
That said, there are still some prolific bloggers out there with great sites. Katherine Bilsborough’s Creating ELT Materials, which was started in June 2021, was mentioned as a new favourite.
Carrying on the chat around projects we had been working on, one Hubber shared her experience of designing and running a course to educate young people, and their families, about menstruation. This was particularly interesting as she talked about the cultural norms surrounding the topic as well as making people feel comfortable about using terminology related to the topic. It was also interesting to hear about how she designed the course: running it over a period of weeks rather than an intensive course, as she said this gave participants more time to absorb the content and provided them with adequate space and time to ask any follow-up questions they might have had. We talked as well about the benefits of running a course like this online, as participants might feel more able to discuss sensitive issues in a safe space, perhaps feeling more comfortable accessing the course from home.
Don’t get too comfortable…
From there we talked briefly about COVID and the benefits and drawbacks of moving online. Some learners thrived in an online environment and it feels a shame to force them back into a traditional classroom. However, there were many others, particularly those in underprivileged communities, whose education suffered significantly during the pandemic.