Coursebook writer Wendy Arnold talks to us about coursebooks – do they ever really work? Schools and ministries of education buy new coursebooks, but how much do these change the way students learn and teachers teach?
Do’s and Don’ts For Teaching One-to-One Online (with Alex Li)
Challenge, Conflict and Cooperation in Online Education (with Simon Galloway & Dave Weller)
App Based Language Learning (With Jake Whiddon)
The Art of Story Arcs and Transitions in Language Lessons (With Diederik Van Gorp)
Learning Language at Home with Technology (With Mark Pemberton)
Coursebooks - Our Masters or Servants? (with Ian McGrath)
“Coursebooks make good servants, but poor masters.” But who is usually the master in the language classroom? The teacher or the coursebook? Ian McGrath joins us to discuss how coursebooks can be used, what affect they have on teacher autonomy and how teachers can make themselves the masters rather than servants.
Ethics of English Education (With Dave Weller)
Student Centered Vocabulary Teaching (with Mario Rinvolucri)
For our last podcast of the year (and the decade!) we interview prolific TEFL author Mario Rinvolucri. “Most of the vocabulary teaching that gets done is based on texts, written, audio, or video. The problem with this kind of text-based teaching is that everything is external to the learner: the text hits him or her from outside. It makes much better motivational sense to have the new words rise from a situation that is internal to the students, where they create the situation that ushers in the need for new words.” Today we explore this idea with Mario Rinvolucri, author of “Vocabulary” and “Humanizing Your Coursebook”, how teachers can make vocabulary teaching more student-centered.
Xmas Special - Native-speakerism and Discrimination (with Marek Kiczkowiak)
Understanding Connected Speech (with Mark Hancock)
You taught the vocab, you practiced the grammar, drilled the pronunciation, checked the concepts, played the listening and… the students understood next to nothing. But why?! We ask Mark Hancock (author of Pronunciation Games, English Pronunciation in Use and Pron Pack) what makes authentic English listening so difficult for students and what teachers can do to help learners understand connected speech.
Podcast: What's Wrong With Performance Reviews And How To Fix Them (With Matt Courtois)
The end of the year means performance review time. How often do you go into a performance reviewing thinking “I’m really excited about this”? If you’re anything like us, probably never. We talk about why performance reviews get a bad reputation, why they’re not all bad and what teachers and managers can do to get the most out of them.
Reflection in Teacher Education (with Ben Beaumont)
From Experience to Expertise (with Alan Maley)
Episode 75! What's The Best Way to Learn a Language (With Dave Weller)
For our 75th episode, we discuss a question which is both very simple and highly complex: What’s the best way to learn a language? We challenged each other to fit everything we could about language learning onto a single page of A4 paper, then compare our notes in a marathon 60-minute discussion. For maximum effect, prepare your own notes on “What’s the Best Way to Learn a Language” before you listen.
Technology in Language Education Part II - Fad? (with Ray Davila)
The second of our two-part special on technology in the classroom, with Ray Davila, where we discuss the drawbacks of the increasing involvement of technology in education. We talk about what gets neglected instead of technology (where did the budget for those interactive whiteboards come from anyway?!), the effects on how teachers are assessed and evaluated and if technology might eliminate the need to learn a language altogether in the near future…
