Teresa

Time for a cuppa!

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Wow, it’s been a massively busy couple of weeks in the TEFL Development Hub. Looking back over the posts to generate the questions for the Coffee Break there’s been so much and always the quality of contributions has been great! Thank you all so much!

Over the last few weeks we’ve been looked at (new or at least new to me!) expressions, including “mediation”, “on-boarding” and “back-channels”, we’ve swapped tips about CV design, learning management systems and using google maps in class as well as talked about some big issues in ELT like inclusivity, the role of the teacher and, of course, our developing thoughts around online, hybrid and socially distanced teaching.

Some of these threads were brought up again in the Coffee Breaks, at their normal slots of 11am and 5pm (CET). Here’s the notes from the combined sessions, we hope they’re useful.

Note-taking… “it’s fun to take notes feeling like a student again!”

Are students not progressing as quickly as in previous years?

It certainly feels like many of our students are not moving as quickly as might expect them to this year, and this seems to be a problem lots of us are noticing. Can we expect them to be working in the same way as normal when we are in the middle of a pandemic and things have been disrupted for over a year (for most of our students)? We think not and while lots are still doing well, others aren’t and it’s problematic for all concerned.

Is reading the problem? 

Are teen students lacking concentration and motivation when dealing with reading texts? Is this because we get information so immediately nowadays? Is it only in the English classroom or symptomatic on the wider educational plain? We wondered whether it was more of an issue in language and humanities subjects which are less ‘logical’ than scientific and mathematical subjects – there’s more to be ‘read around’.

However, this concentration issue seems to be less of a problem for business English students, who are in general thriving more in an online environment.

The contribution of mobile phones

We also talked about separation anxiety which teens (and adults) can suffer when separated from their phones and the use of digital wellbeing apps to make them (and us) more aware of how long we spend on our phones and for what. There was also a definite feeling that we shouldn’t be judgemental of how parents dealt with phones and screen time during the pandemic. There was also talk around fostering autonomy with learners – however we reached the conclusion that those who were responsible learners before would likely be more autonomous post-pandemic.

Here were some fun videos we thought of sharing with people on the topic of phones:

Google maps

We also talked briefly about Google Maps – great for personalisation, e.g. for learners to show you their route to school or their favourite local place, etc.

The online learning conversations continue…

The shift in learning, teaching and training online continues to develop and deepen.

We talked about how increasingly on initial teacher training courses like the Trinity CertTESOL and the CELTA planning points are being added asking trainees to describe how it would be different in an alternative learning and teaching environment, whether that be face-to-face or online. 

We wondered whether between trainees who had done their courses online or face-to-face, who would be an advantage at interview? The feeling was that it’s easier to move from online teaching into the physical classroom than vice-versa. The feeling was that teaching skills are perhaps more natural when we’re together. One trainer said they often suggested to trainees that a class is a bit like a party in your house, you want people to mingle and have a nice time and with reference to making sure fast finishers are appropriately occupied, “you wouldn’t leave someone with an empty glass, would you?!” All this added to the idea that new teachers might be better off training online rather than face to face. We noted that there’s no difference in the syllabus on the Trinity and Cambridge training courses and the qualification and certificates are exactly the same.

In terms of hiring teachers, there are certainly new questions to add in around experience and comfort of working online and hybrid around interviews. Teachers who don’t have experience will be at a disadvantage.

Now we’re all more comfortable with Zoom, many schools are working with “Zoom windows” (not to be confused with hybrid teaching) where a student can just connect online if they can’t come to class for a week or so because they are quarantined or confined to home temporarily. This started for many because of COVID restrictions but has now been used in all sorts of circumstances; students who are ill, who are away (perhaps with divorced parents who don’t live as close), student who are tired, or because it’s raining! We need to draw the line and make sure these tools are used appropriately.

In some schools class sizes have had to come down because of the pandemic, will they be able to go back up again? Will the English teaching business be financially sustainable if we have to have smaller class sizes?

Hybrid classes have their pluses, for sure. For many students they are more convenient but are they as effective? The problem seems to be with engagement; one member told a story about a fabulous student who was “in class” while watching a football match at the same time! We talked about the possibility of having some kind of agreement or contract with students about how to behave. This lead to talking about the importance of good “on-boarding” procedures.

One contributor said they preferred teaching online as they can go on mute and just listen rather than get caught up in more active roles in monitoring. If we can listen better, we can better understand students needs and more easily focus on examples of language to follow up on. They said that with breakout rooms we can have more control about who goes where.

And teaching pronunciation with masks… 

This is another new area of challenge. There were all sorts of thoughts on the subject… some said students might feel better able to experiment with sounds from behind a mask. Another idea was for students to make the sounds and the identify what was physically going on. It was then related to creating independent learners and an interesting conversation on our role as teachers; to encourage independence or to maximise how much we can help in an hour. We agreed that it depends on the student.

And while we’re talking about pron… a top tip; use voice-recognition software to help students practice as well as being a good way to create a safe space for students to practice until they get more confident. 

Storing all our materials

Another advantage of working online is that we no longer need to carry everything about from place to place and from country to country. We love the search feature in Google Drive that searches for key words in titles and also throughout the text… a real life saver! And a real space saver too. We can also easily edit and improve our material and adapt it for different learners.  Jim Scrivener was quoted as saying that teachers should  “Throw away all your materials” as was Mari Condo’s concept of get rid of everything you haven’t used for a year.

Related to the “travelling teacher”, we doubted whether the annual TEFL migration would happen this year. Will ther be summer schools? What’s going to happen in the UK and Ireland (traditionally large scale summer tefl employers)? And then what about the supply of teachers from the UK into the EU post-Brexit? We’re living with uncertainty.

Thinking critically

We talked about critical thinking and about how it is a key skill and was thankfully being introduced into coursebooks. One member is doing his MA in TESOL dissertation around critical thinking to judge the effectiveness of critical thinking of materials over a defined course of study. We talked about critical thinking around diversity and inclusion issues and developing an awareness of our own biases too. We also talked about our increased understanding of mediation.

Here are some resources:

And thank you! Thank you all for coming and thank you for connecting, sharing and developing with us all! Thank you too to the note-takers, it’s great to be able to share so much of what was said so that we can all see everything! 

See you soon!

Trainer Talking Time

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This was our first monthly event focussing on teacher training and it was great to see so many Hub members there. We broke off fairly quickly into breakout rooms after an initial hello and these were the three suggested questions:

  • How have you supported your teachers in their in-house professional development with the move online?
  • What other skills have teacher training courses needed to include?
  • How is observing online classes different to face-to-face classes?

From monitoring the chats, it felt like a lot of the conversations were around supporting teachers, initially with the move to online teaching in March 2020 and then again for those going back into the classroom – either in a socially-distanced or hybrid format – in September.

Supporting teachers

Different schools took different approaches to the move online: for some, teaching online was optional, with the opportunity to observe their more confident colleagues before starting their own groups online; in other cases, staffing was drastically reduced, sometimes with one teacher taking on all the remaining students whilst learning to use Zoom at the same time.

Some schools had a weekly trouble-shooting session for the move online, which started changed as teachers became more comfortable and confident with teaching online.

There were also ideas-sharing sessions, such as a monthly ‘Zoomroom’, for teachers to come together and share what had been working for them.

It also felt like a positive move that those who were ‘just’ teachers were becoming the experts, as trainers and managers often weren’t in the online classroom learning the important lessons about what works and what doesn’t. The role in that case became one of a facilitator – spotting who the experts are and asking them to help others.

For those involved in in-house development, adapting paper-based books to the online environment was mentioned, although in some cases learners are able to access their own copies of the books.

Another positive note was a feeling of becoming more ‘Zoom competent’ – as teachers and students gained experience working with whichever platform they were on, routines became much more routine and activities flowed more easily.

Supporting students

In some cases, schools provided guides to support parents during lockdown to help them help their own children.

There was also some chat around the idea of ‘digital natives’ – whilst many of our learners feel confident with a smartphone or tablet, many struggled with digital literacy on a desktop.

There was sometimes a degree of ‘assumed literacy’ for students which wasn’t always there.

People also mentioned how having the chat function had helped support weaker learners during online lessons – they could ask questions privately to teachers so felt more confident during the lessons.

And, another positive is that after the initial feeling of being a bit of a YouTuber when classes first moved online, some people now feel that the online classroom is a much less teacher-centred space, allowing for more collaboration between students and higher-order activities.

The hybrid classroom

It felt there was a distinct lack of resources to support teachers who were dealing with hybrid classes from September, particularly around ways of increasing interaction and engaging learners in both environments.

Teachers found a lot of online support through Facebook groups, particularly as in the States it was already being used in mainstream education. Doing a search in the groups (e.g. ‘hybrid’) will throw up great resources. These groups were highlighted (thanks Lucie!):

Teacher Tech – Alice Keeler

Teach with Tech

Teachers teaching with tech

Teachers using Jamboards

Some key points which were mentioned to make the hybrid class easier were the positioning of the camera, using a mic which can pick up the responses of learners in the traditional classroom and a reminder to always nominate rather than asking an open question to the class. And when nominating, it also helps to alternate between the two environments – or encouraging students to nominate a classmate in the other environment. It can also help to tell the students in the non-virtual classroom to imagine that their classmates are in the room next door as this encourages them to speak more loudly and clearly J

Some teachers have tried a buddy system, whereby a student in the classroom is paired with a student online. Alternatively, having one student in the physical classroom who’s ‘responsible’ for those online – ensuring instructions have been understood, sharing vocabulary in the chat box, etc.

For the teacher, it’s better to think of the class as having two objectives: one for those in the masked classroom and one for those online.

Working with lower-level groups was mentioned as being particularly tricky, as a combination of poor audio quality and mask-wearing can make it difficult for them to hear each other clearly.

Harry has also done a couple of great blogposts with tips for the set-up of a hybrid classroom and some hacks and activities.

Backchannelling on teacher training courses

It was suggested that backchannelling – setting up an alternate communication channel (e.g. using the chat box alongside what’s happening ‘live’) – was essential for the hybrid classroom. When working with younger learners, this needs to be done carefully as it could potentially lead to chaos. It’s also important for there to be a community of trust before private channels are opened up between students.

This led us on to talk about the idea of using it during lesson observations. Some trainers mentioned that they had always commented to fellow observers during pre-service training courses as it provides them with the opportunity to get much more from the observation process; others said they felt it could be distracting during a face-to-face course, but would feel comfortable using it during observed lessons.

It was also highlighted that although (online) chatting during the observation encourages reflection in action, it doesn’t provide reflection on action and this needs to be balanced out.

The private chat function can also be a good resource for encouraging pairwork on courses (or in classes). This can be especially useful if breakout rooms aren’t possible.

As an aside, there was a question of who can see the private chat if the chat is saved after the meeting ends – as a trial, we asked participants to send private messages to each other to see if they were visible in the saved chat. They weren’t, and from the settings in Zoom, it doesn’t seem to be a feature, but may be possible on other platforms.

Training online

Trainers were also largely thrown in at the deep end with pre-service qualifications, and some higher-level assessed teaching practice, moving online in 2020.

This feeling of not being an expert was mentioned by a couple of people – whilst in the past you would have gone into teacher training confident in your own teaching abilities, the shift online meant some felt a little like imposters observing and assessing others. However, on a positive note, some trainers felt that it was good for trainee teachers to see that we were learning too and making mistakes.

Keeping to the key principles on a training course was mentioned – balancing the tools available with the teaching skills needed, always with the idea that any tools should make the teaching better, to achieve the learning objective in a more effective manner. It’s very easy for us to get over-excited by a new tool and switch off our critical faculties!

KISS – keep it super(?) simple

However, it feels there’s still a slight discord in online teaching courses, with the best online methodology missing. It feels that at times classes have turned to ‘death by Powerpoint’ and as trainers, we need to be introducing our teachers to other formats, without overwhelming them with too many resources.

Another point which was mentioned was the importance of ensuring an online course provides trainees with the same support (both from tutors and peers) as a face-to-face course. The time dedicated at the end of a lesson for trainees to reflect and then share their thoughts with the tutor and peers is essential.

Recording lessons

This was briefly mentioned as a great tool for self-reflection, followed by some chat around the ethics of recording lessons, who has access to the recording and the purpose of recording.

A suggestion was that it might be possible to pin your video so that you’re the only one visible in the recording, but other people can be heard.

Listening back to snippets of the recording can really help to improve your teacher talk or online interaction.

Someone mentioned that it might be possible for Zoom to provide a transcription of a recording and otter.ai was mentioned as a (paid) site which will do the same.

A couple of extras:

Students accessing the class from home with technology has been explored on a smaller scale before – AV1 is a robot which was designed to support children who are in hospital or aren’t able to attend the school for other reasons.

There was also a report of an 8-year-old that worked out how to block her Zoom account so she couldn’t attend lesson.

Gavin Dudeney’s Facebook post was also highlighted:

So, suddenly not only are people being asked to use Zoom to teach all their classes online, they’re also being told they should be making it even more exciting by incorporating two hundred tools – Padlet, Quizlet, Schnizlet, Kahoot, Schrute, Gamut, Kakadu, Dobedoo and loads more.

Teachers are being told that they can’t just do it – there are experts who work in this field. It’s not the same as teaching face-to-face. You can’t just do what you’ve always done.

But, see… the thing is, you can (at least for the moment), and you probably actually should. Because your students need a teacher at the moment, not someone carrying out hurried experiments.

Ah sure, people will try to sell you things and tools and their advice and more, but maybe – just maybe the first thing you need to do is simply do a bit of teaching. Pick things up slowly, try something new occasionally.

Stick some sticky whiteboard paper on a wall in your house, get a decent webcam and a microphone and do what you do best – teach. Draw, write, show, demonstrate, ask questions, involve people, have discussions. Do what you know. In a while maybe try the breakout rooms, or add something else in. But first get comfortable.

Online teaching IS different, and in time you may well want to do a course, or get some more skills. And these may make you a better online teacher for as long as it’s needed. With some training you’ll acquire new skills and work out how to combine asynchronous tools with synchronous tools, how to plan an online course, how to moderate an online course, how to support and mentor people online. All this would be great, and useful – in the long run.

But for now, you know how to do what you do, so just do it like that and don’t get stressed or pressured. There will be time enough for everyone to become experts, I suspect.

Hub digest – 9th April, 2021

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Wow, we’ve had a great week in the Hub! On Tuesday, we launched a new feature – a fortnightly Focused Forum. From the poll in the Facebook group, the benefits and drawbacks of using coursebooks was the topic of choice and it was great to be joined by some of our members to discuss the topic together.

The Wednesday Question this week was inspired by a tweet: “Learning is underrated. Grades are overrated.” There was some engaging discussion around alternatives to graded assessment which will be interesting to explore more in the future.

Then on Thursday we were fortunate to have not one but two webinars this week! In the morning session, we were joined by Lina Gordyshevskaya and we chatted about the essentials of teaching pronunciation; then in the afternoon, James Taylor and Ilá Coimbra came along to share the Raise Up! project with us and provided some great tips on creating more diverse and inclusive classroom materials. Lots of food for thought from both of those sessions and the recordings are available to all members who couldn’t make it on the day.

Next week, we have our first Trainer Talking Time on Tuesday and then Coffee Breaks on Thursday.

Inclusion and diversity with the Raise Up! project

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Inclusion and diversity with the Raise Up! project - with James Taylor and Ilá Coimbra (webinar)
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As well as showcasing the incredible Raise Up! project, James Taylor and Ilá Coimbra were keen to look at the question of how we can make materials and resources for our lessons more inclusive in the webinar.

What’s the current situation?

White, young, heterosexual, urban, middle-class people are ‘the norm’ in mainstream materials.

From their teaching, training and materials-writing, James and Ilá have gathered a list of groups and identities which are neglected in mainstream ELT materials. This is by no means an exhaustive list – unfortunately it continues to grow rather than getting shorter.

  • Women
  • Black, Asian and minority ethnic people
  • LGBTQIA+
  • Disabled people
  • The working class
  • Indigenous people
  • Non-conventional body types
  • Non-hegemonic countries and cultures
  • Refugees
  • People living and working in extreme conditions
  • Non-urban environments
  • Elderly people
  • Aspects of faith
  • Neurodiversity
  • Immigrants
  • Non-conventional families

In some areas there have been improvements: for example there are more women and black people in positions of power now in materials. However, in many other cases, materials provide a stereotypical view of these other groups and identities, if they are even included.

For example, you won’t find families with LGBTQIA+ members represented in materials, whilst disabled people and the elderly are often included but in quite a stereotyped way: the cranky old granny or the cute granny knitting in her rocking chair or the inspirational woman who’s hiking up a mountain in spite of her age – not that there’s necessarily anything wrong with these images, but there’s very little space in materials for elderly people to just live ‘normal’ lives, leading to quite a limited portrayal of the elderly.

Often, when certain groups or identities are included in materials, it’s because they’ve done something incredible…rather than just for ‘being’.

Why is inclusivity and visibility important?

Incorporating these identities which are often under- or misrepresented, has a hugely positive impact in our classrooms:

“You can’t be if you can’t see it.”

Learning a language is a cultural experience so you can come into contact with other worlds and other ways of being, helping them to understand their own place in the world (especially important if they feel they don’t belong when they physically are). Ilá mentioned that a common thing in many trans narratives is the feeling of not belonging and not really knowing who they were until they saw a transgender person – making these identities more visible to them in our materials will help them form their own identity.

Students can be themselves

You create a classroom where learners can be who they really are – something we would all want. For those of us with privilege, we don’t have to hide aspects of ourselves away, but many people do.

Acceptance is motivating

Zoltán Dörnyei one of his key principles of motivation is that you have to feel accepted as you are – if you don’t, it creates a barrier to their learning. Some research suggests that learners grow passive resistance to their learning if they feel their voices aren’t acknowledged. Furthermore, if learners feel they aren’t being represented in the materials, it can make them feel distanced from the language. They need to feel like they belong in the English-speaking world. We are also creating a safe space for all our learners to be who they are in the classroom – this fosters motivation and boosts learning.

Visibility fosters empathy and can help prevent bullying

Deviations from ‘the norm’ is one of the many causes of bullying – when we bring other narratives into the classroom, we can help support learners who might be struggling. Even if your class do fit the ‘norm’, we can introduce our learners to other narratives, helping them to appreciate the differences in the world.

Adapting learning resources

Not all teachers can create new materials for each lesson, but there are ways you can adapted the coursebooks you’re already using.

 

  1. Remember your aim is to create an inclusive classroom

The idea is to create a classroom in which each individual feels they belong

  1. Images and other supplemental materials

You can find alternative images to bring people who are normally not there into the classroom. Take a critical look at any images you choose to include! Ilá shared an image search for gay couples – however, the results were still largely young, white, fit, good-looking…’the norm’.

If different identities are represented in your images, consider how –James shared the image below: the black woman isn’t really a part of the group and she’s staring straight at the camera.

Some photobanks focus on diverse images – James mentioned Unsplash, Nappy, TONL and Black Illustrations and you can find links to others in this blogpost. Remember to use legally-sourced images and to credit images on your materials.

  1. Discussion questions

These are a great way to change something in the coursebook without creating extra work for yourself! Look at the questions – often used as a lead-in or in follow-up to a receptive skills or language task. It also allows you to ask your learners more critical questions, as coursebook questions can often be fairly superficial. You’re familiar with the context and culture you’re teaching in and also know how far you can take the discussion with your learners.

  1. Encourage empathy and intercultural understanding, criticism (critical thinking), self-discovery, alternate perspectives and learner-centred learning, not censorship

Asking your learners questions to encourage them to see things from a different perspective builds empathy. Also, by asking your students to think about what isn’t represented in the materials (e.g. during a unit on families, asking, ‘What other types of family can you think of?’), you’re encouraging a learner-centred approach.

When we ask our learners to see things from a different perspective and bring other narratives into the classroom, we’re training our learners to spot injustice, using the language classroom as a tool for social change. Check out Paulo Freire’s Pedagogy of the Oppressed.

If there are materials in a coursebook which you feel aren’t inclusive, rather than ‘censoring’ them, use it as an opportunity to discuss with the learners and think about why they might be inappropriate or too limited.

  1. Focus on what (or who) is missing, bias and values

Neutral coursebook subjects – shopping, travel, education – these are all laden with values but are often represented in a very superficial way. Although more recent publications are including a more critical approach – e.g. in a unit or shopping, there might be questions about consumerism – we can include more of these questions in our lessons.

John Gray suggests you ask your students:

Why is this topic here?

How is the topic and the subjects being presented?
What other ways of presenting about the topic and subject are there?

  1. Ask for help

We shouldn’t expect to be able to include everyone in one class, unit, course J

Ilá mentions that one of the biggest challenges for her was knowing how to accurately represent a minority – looking for sources, trying to cover everything that should be included and talking to people.

If you don’t know what terminology to include or if you don’t know how to represent a particular group, ask someone in the know; talk to other teachers who have more experience, look for ready-made resources such as Raise Up!, IDEAL+ or Tyson Seburn’s coursebook sample. It’s important for us as teachers to listen to other narratives as well as we all have unconscious biases.  

Another important point is that we’re not including resources inappropriately and exploiting others to include a grammar point:

Be careful not to re-exploit their pain just for the sake of a grammar syllabus. Do not turn the harm, violation and exploitation of enslaved human beings into a convenient tool to introduce the next grammar point. The trauma experienced by victims of human trafficking is not for our pedagogic use. Respect, empathy and justice come first – appropriate lexis, grammar and skills must arise from the theme.

– Judy Boyle

There’s a link to her webinar for the British Council here (thanks to Karen for sharing in the chat). We need to be careful of triggers in the classroom – again, the classroom should be a safe space for students.

James went on to share some examples of inappropriate activities taken from existing materials, such as one which asked learners to discuss whether gay marriage, gay bashing, gay doctors, etc. should be allowed – legitimising the discussion of things which should not be discussed; and another where a friend is asking for advice – however, the depiction of the friend is inappropriate and one of the learners in the lesson may identify with that depiction – how would that make them feel?

Diversity is not likely to happen soon in mainstream publishing, but local publishers and teachers have much more opportunity to bring different topics into the classroom. Also, it would be good for trainers to think about how to raise trainees’ awareness of diversity and inclusion during pre-service training courses so they approach materials with a more critical eye both during the course and when they start working.

Raise Up!

There are currently three books for teens and adults on the market: the first was a multi-level book, written by James and Ilá; next came a B1 book which includes other voices and narratives – half of the book was written by Ilá and the other by guest authors; then they released a B2 book, in which each lesson was written by a different author. This last book includes two audio lessons and also has a powerpoint version available too.

There are also teachers’ notes which are more than just an answer key: they’ve tried to include extra resources and alternate ways of using the material and they’re written for people who might not have experience with the topic, or much experience as a teacher.

There are more books coming this year…

Everyone involved in the project is a volunteer, with all money from the books going to charity:

  • Casa 1, a shelter for the LGBTQI+ community in São Paulo
  • Las Patronas, a Mexican organization which supports migrants travelling through Mexico to the US border
  • Lifting Hands International, a group based in Greece which works with refugees

They also have a blog with articles, lesson plans and interviews for those who are interested in the project. This is particularly useful if you have a materials idea which involves copyrighted material (as this can’t be included in the books).

There is a lack of diversity in ELT materials writers, so James and Ilá are keen to have people get in touch to allow for new voices to get involved. At the same time, it’s important for people with privilege to think about how they can represent people in their materials. They’re looking for editors, illustrators, bloggers…do get in touch if you’re interested!

raiseupforelt@gmail.com

You can also check out James’ sites: theteacherjames.com and taylormadeenglish.com for lots of lesson plan ideas and resources.

The Essentials of Teaching Pronunciation

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The Essentials of Teaching Pronunciation - with Lina Gordyshevskaya (webinar)
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It was fabulous to have Lina Gordyshevskaya join us to talk about the essentials of teaching pronunciation. Phonology is often seen during pre-service qualifications, with sessions tending to focus more on supra-segmental elements (connected speech, sentence stress, intonation, etc.). However, for a long time it has been seen as “the Cinderella of English teaching” (Adrian Underhill) as we focus more on grammar and vocabulary – though as we know, you can’t teach either of these without looking at pronunciation.

Teachers have a number of fears around pronunciation:

  • fear of the chart (there was a suggestion to check out Mark Hancock’s version)
  • where to start? what should I aim for? As we know, intelligibility is now the key, but many learners are still aiming to sound like a ‘native’ speaker – if that’s the case, dig deeper: why is this their goal?
  • finding the balance between accuracy and intelligibility is important

Intelligibility is very tied to familiarity with accents as well: you may find it very easy to understand learners or other speakers in the context where you work, but struggle with accents from other areas.

Decoding is an important skill to help our learners with their receptive skills – rather than them being able to produce a model of connected speech phrases (e.g. /dʒə’wʌnə/), it helps them when they’re speaking to other people, watching shows or listening to English podcasts.

Depending on what your learners’ goals are, you can adjust your pronunciation work to suit their needs – who will learners be communicating with? Where will they be using English?

Also, it’s important to know your context and the issues your learners might have with English. There are some useful resources to help which can provide you with some generalized issues, but spending time with your learners and doing a needs analysis is the best way to gather information.

Generally, if you’re working in a monolingual context, your learners will have similar issues (although there may be times when a particular dialect within a language has features of English phonology which another doesn’t). However, with a multilingual class, you need to identify the most critical issues across each language and then find common issues as these will be the first you can focus on with the class together. When you focus on more specific issues, hopefully you’ll have the flexibility with your group to allow them to complete self-study rather than attending the class that day.

It’s important for there to be collaboration in setting the syllabus for pronunciation too – what you know learners need and what they would like.

Make it physical!

Make a start by getting learners familiar with what’s in their mouths and what’s involved in making sound. This can be as easy as the difference between voiced and unvoiced sounds, and then moving on to think about the place and manner of articulation of particular sounds so they can feel it.

Remember as well that we’re using muscles which need to be warmed up and as well that through practice, learners will become better able to produce the sounds more instinctively (muscle memory). There were some great analogies here around doing squats and yoga – you have to know how to do things well and then remembering how to do them to improve.

From: https://www.languagesoftheworld.info/phonetics-and-phonology/innovations-to-the-human-vocal-apparatus.html

Make it visual!

Check out Tools for Clear Speech which has some incredible visuals.

You can use lots of other tools to make it more visual as well, such as rubber bands for identifying short and long vowels, hands, chopsticks, or paper to work with aspirated consonants.

Read Lina’s Top 10 resources for teaching pronunciation physically and visually

Make it practical!

Speech recognition is a great tool – it can be quite sensitive so learners need to exaggerate to pronounce the words quite clearly – apps on their phones, Google Docs, Google Translate.

You can also find examples of speech on sites such as Tube Quizard and YouGlish – this can be particular good for seeing how intonation changes in different phrases.

Series are a great resource for learners to notice features of connected speech, or the difference in pronunciation of certain sounds in different accents. Although these aren’t always authentic (as scripted productions), you can sometimes find some more realistic shows and films, such as Chef, GoggleBox or talk shows.

Make it artistic!

Language is music with its own melody and rhythm.

Often with pitch and intonation it can help to be a bit of a drama queen!  Take a sentence and say it with different emotions to notice how your intonation changes. You can also try Lina’s activity Banana? Banana!

Working with intonation it can help to hear a sound at a different pitch; whilst working with rhythm and sentence stress can be done effectively with a metronome.

Intonation and pitch can be important in intelligibility as a phrase may sound sarcastic with a lower pitch or flat intonation or sympathetic with a falling intonation. Miscommunication or misunderstandings can occur if the intonation patterns of English – and other languages – aren’t familiar to your learners.

A couple of resources suggested in the comments were Carole Graham’s Jazz Chants and a book by Ken Wilson (which we couldn’t remember the name of) though you can find lots of scripts on his blog. Lina also mentioned the short film skwerl (How English sounds to non-English speakers) – have students listen first without watching and try to guess what’s happening between the two people…usually they’re able to identify the plot from the way the actors are speaking, even though they’re not using coherent English.

Extras

 What’s your approach to phonology? Is it integrated into your lessons or a stand-alone slot?

Be proactive – analyse what you’ll be working with to predict what problems might arise with pronunciation.

Teach your learners communication strategies so they know what to do if there’s a communication breakdown due to pronunciation.

There was also some chat around ELF / EIL – thanks to Lucy for this definition in the chatbox:

“E.I.L.: English as an international language, a newer acronym which implies English is going to be spoken in almost all situations where a second language is required. E.L.F.: English as lingua franca, which is similar to E.I.L. but implies a situation where two people who need to communicate are forced to use English.”

Communication is about collaboration – the listener needs to be willing to understand the speaker as much as the speaker needs to be intelligible There was an interesting post on Robin Walker’s English Global Communication blog with research that suggested intelligibility in the past was often judged by inner circle speakers.

As teachers, we can do a lot to dispel the ‘native speaker ideal’ by introducing our learners to different accents from around the world – both models of speakers whose first language is English, as well as role models of people who have learnt English themselves as a second (or third, fourth, fifth) language!

L1 can be useful to show similar sounds – even in multilingual classes, learners can try to identify a sound which is similar in their own language.

Sometimes as well it can help learners to make one sound to move to another, such as /w/ to /r/.

What are the benefits and drawbacks of using coursebooks?

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Thank you to everyone who attended our first Focused Forum – for anyone who couldn’t make it, keep an eye out for the next one on Tuesday 20th April. We’ll post a poll the week before with three options to choose from and please do add other questions which you’d like to talk about.

We split into breakout rooms fairly quickly during the session, chatting first in larger groups and then mixing up the groupings into smaller groups for a second chat.

From the group feedback at the end, it’s clear that there was lots of interesting chat and that nobody felt hugely anti-coursebook, which is sometimes a feeling which comes across on other platforms.

Here are some of the main benefits and drawbacks of coursebooks, as well as some further ideas which were discussed:

Benefits

  • coursebooks can save time when planning
  • they provide structure with a syllabus and objectives
  • it can sometimes be difficult to adapt authentic materials to lower levels – Keynote from National Geographic was mentioned as a favourite for a coursebook which is already using authentic materials (TED talks) across levels
  • there was also talk around the culture of coursebooks, as some people mentioned learners in their contexts much prefer having a physical book to use
  • they are a good scaffold and can be very effective with judicious use

Drawbacks

  • they can quickly become outdated
  • they require adapting and supplementing to be more relevant to your context
  • there is often a lack of diversity (both in terms of the elements which James and Ilá spoke about in the Raise Up! webinar, but also cultural diversity and an awareness of English in and from other countries)
  • new editions often aren’t that different – just shiny new images – but often mean teachers can struggle to source older editions for their students
  • they tend to be expensive
  • it’s very difficult for freelance teachers to sample coursebooks – meaning that you might get tied to a particular book or series because of the initial investment
  • they are often designed for a group environment (Work with a partner / Tell you partner about…)

Some other themes which came up during feedback:

Is there a market for one-to-one coursebooks? Perhaps rather than a coursebook as such, it would be a framework for lessons along with appropriate methodology for working in a one-to-one context.

There was also discussion around how well coursebooks support learners in their receptive skills and the subskills around listening and reading.

With the move online, teachers are trying to flip the classroom more to avoid spending time in the online environment reading. There was positive chat around how this allows for differentiation: students who require more time with a text can work through it at their own pace; however, in our exam preparation classes, it’s also important that learners are trained in timings.

On the topic of exam preparation and coursebooks, there were questions around how useful content is for learners and a suggestion that when we look at exam activities, we should share with our learners how this skill will help them in the future.