Unplugged teacher training

I enjoyed an interview of Anthony Gaughan by Andi White at this year’s IATEFL (online), a real conversation about whether dogme is ‘enough’. Andi mentions “principled ecclectivism“, essentially fitting the method to the learner. Anthony responds that a good teacher should be able to operate in a wide range of ways. Though I like the […]

Black Dub: Surely – Silverado

A silverado pairing, surely. Black Dub is Daniel Lanois (songwriter, producer for U2 and Dylan and others) and Trixie Whitley, she of the big, fat voice. Touching, intimate songs like Surely, a reincarnation of Amazing Grace, and funky, jazzy stuff. Got tickets for Berlin on 29 July. Coming? I think a Silverado is a type […]

The Webbies

In EFL, we are just so behind. Look at the brilliant stuff that media designers and game builders and public educators and entertainers are up to, and it makes you want to weep. I have to stop surfing now, and get back to work, but it’s just too cool, all of it. A very few […]

Sue Palmer

In her IATEFL plenary on ADHD, Asperger Syndrome and dyslexia, Sue Palmer hits home: that development happens in ‘biological time’, and that children are missing out on essential interpersonal learning when they have less quality face time. She refers to Peter Hobson, a specialist on autism. “In this presentation, she discusses how rapid socio-cultural change, […]

Learning about learners

In my course we’re writing essays, and I summarized some recent learnings on learners. May not make for very exciting reading, but writing it all down does clear the mind of many, many cobwebs! Essay: ‘If we can train students to record their new lexis in a more useful manner, we can do a lot […]

Pronunciation practice for geoscientists, 1

As she heard the bird, it occurred to her that the word she had heard was “a third”, not “a turd”. (ö) Let me roast my toast, then I’ll head for the coast. (long o) This plot shows the cost of lost lives in a dotted line. (short o) All fall over the clover. (short […]

What’s going on here

This word map summarizes recent Island Weekly posts, in case you were wondering, and shows my current academic preocupations. With essays, the diploma course forum and the teacher’s diary being obligatory, it’s a little quiet around these parts, frankly.