English teaching professional number 94 2014 09

Issue 94 September 2014 The Leading Practical Magazine For English Language Teachers Worldwide Teaching, not testing Roger Hunt and Marianne Pickles Tidy teaching, messy learning Adrian Tennant Keep moving on! Alex Case Do you blog? Helen Collins • practical methodology • fresh ideas & innovations • classroom resources • new technology • teacher development • tips & techniques • photocopiable materials • competitions & reviews w w w e t p r o f e s s i o n a l c o m New FOURTH EDITION Behind every great teacher .is a great coursebook! Headway Fourth edition Teacher’s Book provides solid support for perfect classroom performance Headway’s trusted methodology is proven to work Support your students with comprehensive integrated materials BEGINNER ELEMENTARY PRE-INTERMEDIATE INTERMEDIATE UPPER-INTERMEDIATE For more information please visit: www.oup.com/elt 100 million students… trusted title… Join the Headway success story! Contents MAIN FEATURE TEACHING, NOT TESTING ENGLISH TEACHING CONFESSIONAL Roger Hunt and Marianne Pickles test transcription as a way to teach listening 48 Sara Machado embarks on a voyage of discovery DEAR MR ABRAMOVICH 49 Nasy Inthisone Pfanner makes letter writing enjoyable FEATURES TIDY TEACHING, MESSY LEARNING Adrian Tennant says learning isn’t linear C IS FOR CREATIVITY CONTENT UNDER THE SPOTLIGHT 10 Rod Ellis and Peter Lutzker contribute to the creativity concept JUST LIKE YOU, JUST LIKE ME TEACHING YOUNG LEARNERS 12 Maria Kazakou does some serious awareness-raising 22 Chris Roland extends the language content of his classes TEACHER DEVELOPMENT ACTION RESEARCH IN ACTION 52 Emily Edwards reports on a personal research project THE BLAME GAME 14 Youssef Nezrugui investigates students’ attitudes to teachers CURIOUS CONNECTIONS TECHNOLOGY 16 DO YOU BLOG? 19 FIVE THINGS YOU ALWAYS WANTED TO KNOW ABOUT: PLAGIARISM ON THE INTERNET 25 Nicky Hockly addresses theft of intellectual property Simon Mumford kills two birds with one stone ACCENTUATE THE POSITIVE Robin Walker learns to love the L1 OVER THE WALL Alan Maley makes some satirical suggestions TECHNIQUES FOR IMPROVEMENT WEBWATCHER 27 Louise Wilde coaches students individually DO SOMETHING DIFFERENT WITH YOUR COURSEBOOK REGULAR FEATURES IT WORKS IN PRACTICE 36 REVIEWS 42 SCRAPBOOK 44 34 38 Alex Case pushes his learners to try new things 59 32 Sasha Wajnryb compiles tested tips on teaching vocabulary KEEP MOVING ON! 57 Russell Stannard recommends a website creation tool Rachael Roberts develops dialogues SUGGESTIONS FROM THE STAFFROOM 55 Helen Collins offers practical advice on blogging COMPETITIONS 21, 60 Includes materials designed to photocopy • www.etprofessional.com • ENGLISH TEACHING professional • Issue 94 September 2014 • Editorial I ntegration is a major theme in many of the Adrian Tennant sees a rigid adherence to linear articles in this issue In our main feature, teaching procedures as a hindrance to learning Roger Hunt and Marianne Pickles integrate He would prefer to see a more integrated approach, listening and writing in a transcription procedure to where function and use are preferred over form help their students become better listeners Their and system technique proves popular with the students – and effective in helping them decode natural speech Maria Kazakou addresses another form of integration in her article on using worksheets supplied by the Robin Walker recommends taking features of the Disabled Access Friendly Campaign Building on her students’ L1 pronunciation and integrating them into own friendships with disabled schoolmates, she now their pronunciation of troublesome English words in raises awareness of disability issues with her students order to make it easier to say them correctly He and inspires them to recognise that disabled people proposes that if the students can produce a particular are ‘just like you, just like me’ sound in their own language, it must be possible for them to reproduce that sound in an English word – we just have to locate those sounds within the L1 and draw them to the students’ attention Simon Mumford integrates the teaching of various seemingly unconnected structures and concepts, Helena Gomm Editor and uses what initially might seem strange bedfellows helena.gomm@pavpub.com to produce innovative learning activities Rayford House, School Road, Hove BN3 5HX, UK Tel: +44 (0)1273 434943 Email: admin@pavpub.com Fax: +44 (0)1273 227308 Web: www.etprofessional.com Editor: Helena Gomm Cover photo: Jupiterimages/Brand X Pictures/Stockbyte/ Thinkstock Editorial Consultant: Mike Burghall Published by: Pavilion Publishing and Media Ltd, Rayford House, School Road, Hove BN3 5HX Editorial Director: Andrew Chilvers © 2014, Pavilion Publishing and Media Ltd Designer: Christine Cox ISSN 1362-5276 Advertising Sales Manager: Carole Blanchett, Mainline Media Tel: 01536 747333 Fax: 01536 746565 Email: carole.blanchett@mainlinemedia.co.uk Publisher: Fiona Richmond Subscriptions: Pavilion Publishing and Media Ltd, Rayford House, School Road, Hove BN3 5HX Email: info@pavpub.com Numéro de Commission Paritaire: 1004 U 82181 Prix l’unité = EUR14.75; l’abonnement (6 numéros) = EUR59 Directeur de la Publication: Fiona Richmond Pages 40–41, 44–45 and 50 include materials which are designed to photocopy All other rights are reserved and no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted without prior permission in writing from the publishers • Issue 94 September 2014 • ENGLISH TEACHING professional • www.etprofessional.com • IELTS is the only English test they need – and now there’s even more help preparing them for the test • Over 300 interactive activities for IELTS Listening, Reading, Writing and Speaking • Timed IELTS practice tests with model answers • ‘My progress’ feature where students plan and monitor their learning • Take a look at the program FOR FREE at http://takeielts.britishcouncil.org/prepare/road-to-ielts IELTS for schools Help prepare your students for IELTS Teaching, not testing M A I N F E AT U R E Roger Hunt and Marianne Pickles see transcription as a good way to develop listening skills I have long felt that the traditional approach to listening skills used in the average coursebook and advocated on the average preservice teacher training course is at fault Basically, this traditional approach tests comprehension and nothing more; there is no teaching or learning going on Testing students is, of course, valid as a means of finding out what they can’t yet and then going on to help them it, but how much testing is needed in terms of classroom time? I would argue that the answer is far less than time spent on learning listening skills At the International House Barcelona conference in February 2013, I gave a talk in which I outlined some ways of teaching listening skills One of these involved getting the students to transcribe short passages of text by listening as many times as they wanted until they had worked out ‘all those little words’, as one student put it After my talk, Marianne Pickles introduced herself to me and expressed an interest in working on transcription in her classrooms What follows is the result of her research and experimentation and our (mostly email) collaboration on this topic She did all the work and she deserves all the credit Roger Hunt The idea When Roger mentioned transcription, it immediately struck me as a good idea At the time, most of my students were preparing to take Cambridge exams and the majority of them found the listening paper very challenging I soon realised that the typical classroom routine of ‘doing a listening’, ie playing a CD, did not provide them with the help they needed in order to improve, but instead simply tested what they could already It is certainly the case that extensive listening plays a vital role in the development of listening skills, and I encouraged my students to it for this Most of my students were preparing to take Cambridge exams and the majority of them found the listening paper very challenging reason However, many of them found it incredibly difficult to get into a routine of listening to English at home As a result, I wanted to find shorter, more focused tasks that would help my students to develop their listening skills Transcription seemed to have potential, so I decided to try it out What is transcription? At this point, I think it’s important to make clear precisely what transcription is Part of doing so is to state what it is not: it is not dictation Dictation is traditionally a whole-class activity led by • Issue 94 September 2014 • ENGLISH TEACHING professional • www.etprofessional.com • the teacher, who reads a text aloud for the students to write down The teacher usually controls the number of repetitions and which parts are repeated The students are accustomed to their teacher’s accent and the teacher has the option of reading slower if the students are finding it hard The only similarity between this and transcription is that it involves writing down what you hear In my opinion, the mental processes involved in it and the potential learning that can result from it are completely different Transcription involves listening to an audio recording and writing down every word The fact that it is done from recordings means the students can replay the sections they have difficulty with as many times as they like, but the delivery is always the same It can, therefore, provide excellent training in understanding features of connected speech, so long as natural-sounding texts are chosen Transcription is not a whole-class activity led by the teacher: it is personal In this way, it lends itself to being done at home because it is important to be able to spend as much time as you need However, there are ways of adapting it for classroom use, as we will see The initial plan The first thing I did was make an extensive – and entirely over-ambitious – plan of action I wanted to know more about what was involved in transcribing texts and how I could use the activity to help my students My provisional plan was as follows: Self-experimentation Transcribe some B2-level Spanish audio to understand the transcription process better Theory Find out what ELT books say about transcription Methodology Consider whether transcription is adaptable to the context of different approaches Materials collection Consider using different genres, lengths, accents, levels and sources (coursebooks, past papers, graded readers, internet, self-recorded, etc) Implementation Experiment with different ways of playing the audio (eg CD player, laptop, cassette player, mobile phone) to see if this has an impact on the students’ experience This is particularly important if the students are controlling the audio Improvement Try it, make notes, reflect, improve and try it again Draw conclusions from the findings Extra homework Give the students the option of doing more transcription at home in addition to what we in class Feedback Ask the students what they think about the activities and write down their comments Make notes about the teaching implications Encourage my colleagues to get involved Evidence Take ‘before, during and after’ recordings of students speaking in order to see if their pronunciation improves This is not very scientific because of the variables involved, but might provide some interesting results nonetheless 10 Conclusions Determine whether or not the activities have helped the students to develop their listening skills This was my starting point, but the plan evolved and changed as the project developed The self-experiment Before I could anything else, I had to try transcription for myself in order to understand the mental and practical processes involved I took a 70-second excerpt from a B2-level Spanish exam as my recording because I wanted something challenging, but manageable I set up the audio on my computer and started writing what I heard It took me a total of 40 minutes to complete the whole process, which involved three stages: listening and writing, correcting my work using the published transcript, and noting new vocabulary The transcribing required concentration and patience, but it was enjoyable and motivating because it was like solving a puzzle or cracking a code The correction stage was absolutely invaluable as it made me notice my errors When I had finished, I felt a real sense of achievement While Spanish does not have all of the problematic features of connected speech that English is known for, I did have to deal with unknown vocabulary, unclear word boundaries, spelling and punctuation On that basis, my selfexperiment meant I was much more informed about how to introduce transcription to my students The theory While there was plenty about dictation in methodology books for English, I found very little on transcription JJ Wilson states that dictation ‘can be dull; transcribing requires no creativity or emotional investment on the part of the transcriber’ He may say the same about the transcription of audio recordings Indeed, a concern I had had about the process was that the students might find it boring However, having done the activity myself, I realised that this concern was unfounded I enjoyed transcription because it was a cognitive challenge, so there was no reason to think my students would not take pleasure in the same kind of activity, assuming it was set up properly and they knew what they were supposed to The students Before I could think about which materials to use, I had to consider my target audience At this point we were about six months into the course, so I knew the students quite well At the start of the project, 46 students were involved All of them had Spanish as their L1 except one of the C2 learners whose L1 was Romanian As you can see in the table below, the majority of the learners were around B2 level, most were women and a wide range of ages were represented Level Number of students Women/men Age range Type A2 1/4 40–55 General/business B2 25 20/5 15–55 FCE prep C1 6/2 15–40 CAE prep C2 8/0 22–60 CPE prep Totals: 46 35/11 • www.etprofessional.com • ENGLISH TEACHING professional • Issue 94 September 2014 • Teaching, not testing The beginning Here, I deviated substantially from the plan I had made, deciding (for reasons of practicality) that the majority of the transcription activities would be done as homework I used edmodo.com to make a virtual classroom where I could put up the audio recordings and the instructions over a ten-week period Before I invited the students to join, we did a short demonstration in class and I went over the instructions These also appeared on the Edmodo page and were as follows (I added a Spanish translation for the A2 students): Task: Transcribe this audio file (try to write down every word) When you have finished, correct your answers with the attached transcript (use a different coloured pen) Bring the corrected transcript to class on Monday/Tuesday.  Rules: You can play, rewind and stop the audio as many times as you like There is no time limit You must write your transcription in pen, not on the computer Advice: Don’t worry if there are some words you can’t understand We are using the listening process to learn more English This is not a test! I thought it was important for the instructions to be as clear and succinct as possible I wanted the students to understand that it was the process, not the product, that mattered and that it was OK to make mistakes I showed them the transcript I had made so they could see what a finished transcript might look like When I introduced the idea to my C2-level group, one student said ‘I’ve been doing this kind of exercise for a long time I think it’s good We had to a transcription every week at university It had to be five minutes long and we chose the topic I learnt a lot from it’ This was encouraging After the first week, I started getting more positive and encouraging feedback, such as ‘I really liked the homework Can I have more of this?’ The middle The end During this process, I observed the following: Over the ten weeks, I experimented with using different types of text In week 1, I used short excerpts (no more than one minute in length) from Cambridge exams I went on to use different lengths, sources, levels and accents I knew which adjustments were successful, based on student feedback and the fact that I was looking at their transcripts every week I came to the following conclusions about choosing texts: Positive and negative reactions Forty-four of the 46 students reacted favourably to the process of transcription, although they became less motivated if the recording was too long or too difficult This meant it was important to choose the texts carefully One of the two who did not enjoy transcription said ‘I’ve changed my method I did it lying on the sofa with my iPad and I enjoyed it much more’, which suggests that the means of playing the audio can be influential The other student responded positively to changing the level, reporting that she was less frustrated when the texts were easier One student said she thought transcribing was ‘like a game’ and another said she liked to it at night because she found it relaxing Many of the students’ comments also showed that they enjoyed the challenge of it Furthermore, those who had finished their classes because they had done their exam asked if they could continue doing the transcription homework Getting things wrong Students of the same level tended to have similar difficulties Common problems were mishearing or not hearing prepositions and pronouns Indeed, the students often commented that it was the ‘little words’ that they had the most difficulty with, so the transcription exercises raised their awareness of why they found listening hard Correcting Some of the teenagers were a little confused when I set the task and they said ‘So, you’re giving us the answers?’ It was clear from their work that some had simply copied the transcript without listening to the recording I think the problem was that they found it hard to see that the act of doing the transcription was the important part, not the finished document Indeed, all the students had to understand that they were expected to make mistakes and that correcting their work would help them to improve Some of them were worried that their finished transcript was messy, so I referred them to the transcript I had done 30–60 seconds is a manageable length Use natural-sounding monologues or dialogues Use a cohesive text, not a random string of unrelated sentences Vary the accents, especially if the students are taking an exam like Cambridge: First Remind the students they can listen via mobile, tablet, PC, etc Songs are unlikely to be appropriate Teaching suggestions One option is to set the transcription homework as described above and nothing more with it However, in order to make the most of your materials and consolidate the students’ learning, I would recommend going beyond this Dealing with meaning: comprehension questions In the classroom, we normally seek to help our students to understand and respond to the meaning of a text before looking at its language features However, when transcribing, students meet the text without having heard it before and copy it without having dealt with meaning This worried me at first, but doing my self-experiment made it very clear to me that as long as the text is of an appropriate level, the students will automatically try to make sense of it as they go Nevertheless, the students may still have unanswered questions, so I found it helpful to devise comprehension questions for the text and ask these in class after they had transcribed it at home Dealing with language: grammar, vocabulary, phonology After dealing with meaning and giving the students a chance to respond to the text, it can be used to raise awareness of grammar and vocabulary However, I • Issue 94 September 2014 • ENGLISH TEACHING professional • www.etprofessional.com • think it’s important not to miss the opportunity to look at these issues in conjunction with phonology One of the major reasons for doing transcription activities is to help the students better understand confusing aspects of connected speech Here is the perfect opportunity to discuss these features and focus on any that are particularly problematic Short whole-class transcriptions Transcription can be done in class as well as at home, but in this case the excerpts should be much shorter: three or four sentences at most For instance, a tricky section of a listening being studied in class could be chosen This gives the students the chance to hear that part many times and to deal with it in detail It is important to remember that the teacher does not have to control the playback of the recording Indeed, it can be much better to pass this control over to the students I have found that this gives them more opportunities to use the language (as they negotiate over the playback) and also makes them feel more relaxed about the activity Collaboration Doing short transcriptions in class can be adapted to be more collaborative The procedure is the same as above, but the students are put in pairs One is given a copy of the transcript at the start and the other has to transcribe from the recording The student with the transcript can tell their partner which words are right and wrong, but can’t tell them the answer or show them the transcript This is an enjoyable activity and the students benefit from the peer support Student-chosen texts During the project, I found that even my highest-level students were extremely reluctant to choose texts to transcribe, even when I directed them to specific resources, such as their coursebook, past papers or the BBC’s Words in the News website However, giving them some say in what they transcribe can make the activity more engaging for them One way of doing this is to offer three options and ask them to choose the one they want to Student-made recordings The plan I made before I started the project mentioned recording the students before and after in order to see if their pronunciation became better In the end, it wasn’t practical for me to this, but it did give me an idea for another transcription activity Using free recording software such as Audacity, the students can record their own three- to four-sentence text for the rest of the class to transcribe One could be done per class over a few weeks The student doing the recording would have to pay special attention to their pronunciation and would get a lot of practice when rehearsing for and making the recording The students who were transcribing could consider the differences between these texts and those of native speakers, providing further opportunities to raise awareness of features of connected speech Transcription gives students a great deal of exposure to features of connected speech Over time, they become better at recognising these features and decoding them; this raised awareness may even lead to better pronunciation It is also beneficial that new vocabulary is encountered in its spoken and written forms Additionally, transcription offers an opportunity to practise spelling and punctuation I found this project to be extremely helpful for my students and I incorporated these activities into my regular teaching I hope that having read this, you will try it too Wilson, J How to Teach Listening Pearson 2008 Marianne Pickles works for Cambridge English as an Assessment Manager She is DELTA qualified and taught EFL for six years In Spain, she was the Director of Studies at a private language school and a speaking examiner for Cambridge English marianne.pickles@gmail.com Roger Hunt is Director of Education at International House Barcelona, Spain He has been a teacher, teacher trainer and educational manager in many parts of the world for over 30 years He is particularly interested in ancient and medieval history RHunt@bcn.ihes.com This is your magazine We want to hear from you! IT WORKS IN PRACTICE Do you have ideas you’d like to share with colleagues around the world? Tips, techniques and activities; simple or sophisticated; well-tried or innovative; something that has worked well for you? All published contributions receive a prize! Write to us or email: helena.gomm@pavpub.com TALKBACK! Do you have something to say about an article in the current issue of ETp? This is your magazine and we would really like to hear from you Write to us or email: helena.gomm@pavpub.com Writing for ETp Would you like to write for ETp? We are always interested in new writers and fresh ideas For guidelines and advice, write to us or email: helena.gomm@pavpub.com It really worked for me! Did you get inspired by something you read in ETp? Did you something similiar with your students? Did it really work in practice? Do share it with us helena.gomm@pavpub.com English Teaching professional Pavilion Publishing and Media Ltd, Rayford House, School Road, Hove BN3 5HX, UK Fax: +44 (0)1273 227308 Email: admin@pavpub.com • www.etprofessional.com • ENGLISH TEACHING professional • Issue 94 September 2014 • IN THE CLASSROOM Tidy teaching, messy learning Adrian Tennant argues for a more organic approach I guess we’ve all experienced it: the moment we realise that none of our students has actually learnt what we’ve been teaching them It’s not that they haven’t learnt anything; it’s simply that we’ve focused on one particular thing, but they seem to have learnt other things Clearly, these other things must have been in the lesson, but to us they were incidental, only part of the bigger picture So what’s going on? It is often at these moments that we start questioning ourselves as teachers: Do I know what I’m doing? Am I any good? What’s wrong with my plan? Sometimes we have another perspective: Why aren’t the students learning what I’m teaching them? Why can’t they see what the aim is? What’s wrong with them? But maybe what we need to be doing is looking at what’s going on in the relationship between teaching and learning Teaching and learning To my mind, there is a fundamental difference between teaching and learning (at least between the way we usually teach in classrooms and the way in which people learn) Teaching is organised, it’s linear; we start at the beginning, we go to the middle and we finish at the end But learning isn’t like that Teaching is tidy, learning is messy What I mean by this? Well, let’s look at a particular area of grammar that is taught at some point in every language classroom – the past simple (and in particular, the difference between regular and irregular verb forms) In the majority of cases, teachers begin by introducing their students to the past simple forms of the regular verbs: walked, talked, stopped, etc After all, this is logical, isn’t it? There’s an easy rule to learn and it can’t be that hard But then what we next? We start to confuse our students by teaching them irregular verbs: went, wrote, got, etc How we this? Well, we tell them that these are exceptions In other words, we teach them a rule and then we tell them to forget it – well, maybe not forget it, but certainly break it! How confusing this must be for the students What we’ve done is put ourselves (the teachers) before the students We start with things because they are easy to teach, not because they are easy to learn Wouldn’t it be easier to teach the students irregular verbs first, and then tell them that for some verbs there’s a rule? Instead of having to ‘unlearn’ something – the rule we’ve just taught them – they can keep building on existing knowledge The interesting thing is that when we look at the way young children learn English as a first language, this is exactly what we see I know that some people will be jumping up and down by now, saying that we shouldn’t be looking at first language acquisition for models to help us with second language acquisition, let alone second language teaching But my question is: Why not? Just look at this list of high-frequency verbs: be, get, have, make, go, do, see, eat, drink and sleep Do you notice something? Of course you do; they’re all irregular Now I’m not saying there aren’t any highly frequent verbs that are regular • Issue 94 September 2014 • ENGLISH TEACHING professional • www.etprofessional.com • ENGLISH TEACHING CONFESSIONAL Sara Machado sees language learning as a voyage of exploration rather than a loss of identity I ’ve found myself telling other people – friends of mine who have either studied English as a foreign language and need it professionally, or people who are currently living abroad and have to speak English all day long – that I love the taste of Portuguese words in my mouth, how my voice sounds in Portuguese and the way I express myself with those words Working as an English teacher at a language school in central London, I’ve come across foreign students from a wide variety of countries I see them bonding in the hallways, using English as a common language, and I find them quite interested in learning each other’s languages, too Not only is English the common denominator, especially with people from very different backgrounds and walks of life, but it is also the common enemy – yes, enemy ‘Why are you studying English?’ I ask ‘I want to get a better job, to earn more money.’ Fair enough, I think Another frequent answer is: ‘I love travelling and meeting people from other countries.’ OK, that makes sense! But what about the culture you learn about through the language? Do you not care about getting to know that, too? Particularly with adult learners you get a more acute sense of practicality, usefulness, productivity, the purpose of learning to something They come from the standpoint of an almost crystallised identity and cultural background that they are not fully aware of Only when placed in a foreign, and sometimes hostile, environment does that identity come to the surface The feeling of belonging that emerges becomes a cell that imprisons language students, preventing them from immersing themselves fully in the experience Is this a fear of losing their identity at a subconscious level? I believe so ‘I have 35 years old,’ says a Brazilian student I correct her and say ‘I am 35 years old’ She frowns at me disapprovingly ‘That does not make sense!’ she replies This feeling of ownership, and the control of a certain code and the logic attached to it, makes the foreign language they’re learning even more foreign and devoid of meaning I’m a firm believer that if you can’t perceive meaning or sense in something, in this case language, you can’t manipulate and express yourself through it The students’ mother tongue becomes an important part of their identity – and it’s not something they’ll let go of easily just to earn more money or travel around the world There will always be a better word or expression in their own language that doesn’t exist in English However, what many of them fail to see or acknowledge is that there are myriad other expressions in English that they don’t have in their language and that they can use to give colour and emotion to their speech Coming across the expression It’s raining cats and dogs, they dismiss it as ridiculous I reply: ‘Really? I’m pretty sure you can find an expression crazier than this in your own language.’ They pause, and then nod.  At the same time, students are not aware of how they express themselves in their own language – and much less how they use their vocal apparatus to speak in their own language Familiarity breeds contempt If you’ve lived for too long speaking the same language in the same environment, you can’t distance yourself from it and you end up taking it for granted I’m certain that most teachers (if not all) have observed how students mimic the sentence structures, intonation, stress, etc of their mother tongue when speaking English It’s natural and, as language teachers, we are aware of it Students are not They don’t see their language as something foreign; it’s part of who they are and they’ve never known themselves in any other way Hence the importance of students being aware of how their own language works and why it plays such a pivotal role in the specific kind of mistakes they tend to make Raising their awareness is not an easy task, but it would probably make them love their language even more, enable them to let go of the fear of losing their identity and help them embark on the exciting journey that learning a new language should be In my view, having a knack for languages does help, but this accounts for just 50 percent of what you can accomplish and how fast you can accomplish it when learning a foreign language The other 50 percent is motivation, hard work, enthusiasm and love of adventure ‘In order to learn English, I had to stop being Japanese for a while,’ a student told me once I take his point But I agree with it? No For me, learning a new language brings new layers of oneself to the surface Having learnt English as a foreign language in my home country, I’ve always felt that whenever I speak English I’m experiencing a different part of me Nevertheless, I’m always myself I argue that to learn a language successfully you need to surrender yourself to the experience and to how it can transform you One should not be afraid of it, it is a life-changing and playful experience A very well-loved and well-known Portuguese poet, Fernando Pessoa, once said ‘My homeland is my language’ Living in London, I get what he means, but very much like those navigators from Portugal and other countries who set out in the age of exploration to (re)discover the world, I’m willing to navigate into foreign waters and find out what hidden treasures may be out there for me I try to teach by example, and I hope that my students see that the same is possible for them 48 • Issue 94 September 2014 • ENGLISH TEACHING professional • www.etprofessional.com • Sara Machado has been teaching since 2006, and she has worked for Malvern House in London, UK, since 2010 She studied English and German language and literature at university in Lisbon, Portugal, and knew then that she was destined to become a teacher sarafmachado@gmail.com WRITING Dear Mr Abramovich Nasy Inthisone Pfanner prompts her students to make renewed efforts with formal letters F ormal letters play an important role in communication between individuals, companies and organisations They may be used for making a complaint, building a relationship, responding to a proposal – the possibilities are endless A good formal letter can make the difference between success and failure, so being able to write one is essential for success in one’s professional as well as one’s private life My students also need to learn how to write a formal letter because it is one of the requirements of the Matura exam, which they take when they leave school They have to pass this exam in order to go on to study at university Features of formal letters that the students need to know about include layout (positioning of addresses, date, subject line, etc), structure, properly matching opening and closing salutations (Dear Sir – Yours faithfully; Dear Mrs Smith – Yours sincerely), paragraphing and formal language Introducing letter writing When I introduce formal letters in my writing class, I give the students examples of letters, we discuss them in class, and they then have to write one for themselves I correct their letters, putting comments on them in the hope that the students will learn from these Before I return the letters to the students, I discuss with the class the best letters and those that need improvement, without identifying the writers On one occasion when I set a letter as a homework assignment, we had already covered formal letters in class several times, so I expected that it would serve only as additional practice The instruction was as follows: You are going to attend a university in Boston for a year as an exchange student Your mother has an excolleague there, Dr Susan Jones, who might be able to help you with all the necessary preparations, including finding accommodation Write a formal letter to Dr Jones: introduce yourself, explain your situation and ask for help (280–300 words) When I collected the students’ work a week later, I was in for a real disappointment Some of the writing was sloppy, in the wrong format and displayed a very limited range of vocabulary Out of the 20 students in the class, only one got a plus (good), 14 got an OK (average), three got a minus (below expectations) and two got a zero for not doing the assignment at all As the students would have to write a formal letter in their exams the following year, it was important to sort out these problems I decided to give them more practice in the hope that they would take the work more seriously, but instead of having them work individually, I produced a sheet of ten prompts, made a photocopy so I had two copies of each prompt, cut them out, placed them face down on the desk, and let the students each pick one They then had to work in pairs with the person who picked the same prompt, and they were not allowed to exchange their prompts with other students This ensured that they couldn’t choose to work with a friend or pick a prompt that interested them more They had a week to work on it, and each pair was required to write one letter together I made the prompts humorously ludicrous (see page 50), and this served the purpose of capturing the students’ attention and interest A week later, each pair had to read their prompt and their letter to the class Everyone thought that the letters were funny They enjoyed writing them, and learned a lot by working cooperatively I didn’t collect the letters in, but I stood next to the students and looked at each letter while it was being read out loud The structure, language and tone were much better than their first letters I highly recommend teaching formal letter writing to students because I feel sure they will need it sooner or later Writing letters requires practice, so even if some students seem hopeless at first, don’t give up on them Let them work in pairs or groups This gives them an opportunity to discuss the assignment together With enough practice they will eventually get it right Nasy Inthisone Pfanner was born in Laos, but grew up in the US She has published articles about education and Lao Americans She has a Masters degree in German Language and Literature (Arizona State University) and a Masters degree in Education (University of Michigan) She teaches English at BORG Dornbirn-Schoren in Vorarlberg, Austria nasypfanner@gmail.com • www.etprofessional.com • ENGLISH TEACHING professional • Issue 94 September 2014 • 49 List of prompts You have an interview for a job as a surf instructor in Hawaii Jenny Hu is an expert on job interviews Furthermore, she was born in your local area and lived in Honolulu for four years Write to Jenny Hu and introduce yourself, explain your situation and ask for help 250–300 words You have just got a summer job working as a dancer on the luxury liner Queen Mary II You are worried about the weather, getting seasick, the working and living conditions, etc Emily Ward, the head of human resources on Queen Mary II, is your father’s ex-girlfriend Write to Emily Ward and introduce yourself, explain your situation and ask for help 250–300 words You will work on a Navajo Indian reservation as a nursing assistant this summer You know very little about these people, their culture, food, etc Furthermore, you must learn the Navajo language You read in the newspaper that Dr Chuck Howard, your mother’s former lover, lived with the Navajo Indians for ten years as a doctor Write to Dr Howard and introduce yourself, explain your situation and ask for help 250–300 words You have got a summer job on a kangaroo farm in Australia Your job is to box with the kangaroos for five hours every day, rain or shine You are concerned about the weather, the hard work and the food You read in the newspaper that Dr Steve Miller is an expert on kangaroos Furthermore, he used to box with kangaroos while growing up with his family outside Sydney Write to Dr Miller and introduce yourself, explain your situation and ask for help 250–300 words You found a piece of art at a garage sale and you suspect it to be an original Da Vinci You want it to be examined by the experts at the New York Metropolitan Museum Anna Müller, originally from your town, is now the Director of the New York Metropolitan Museum Write to Anna Müller and introduce yourself, explain your situation and ask for help 250–300 words An unknown Hollywood director came to your town and asked you to star in his new film He didn’t give you any information about the pay, work, living conditions, etc He said: ‘It’s now or never.’ You want to go, but you are a bit scared You read in the newspaper that Linda McMillan, a former student of your school, is a lawyer specialising in actors’ rights Write to Linda McMillan and introduce yourself, explain your situation and ask for help 250–300 words You have written a romantic novel called Burning Heart that you want to get published Many publishers have already turned you down You are heartbroken and are thinking about giving up writing altogether Dan Brown, the bestseller author, gives advice on how to be a successful writer You attended a lecture given by Dan Brown in Rome Write to Dan Brown and introduce yourself, explain your situation and ask for help 250–300 words You are the star football player of your school team Roman Abramovich, owner of Chelsea Football Club, made you an offer to practise with his team You need to pass your exams first, which will take a year You are nervous and excited about this offer Write to Roman Abramovich and introduce yourself, explain your situation and ask for help 250–300 words You have been offered an internship with the CIA this summer Your job will be to accompany agents on missions, including overseas missions to dangerous war zones You are worried about your life and safety Write to Mr John O Brennan, the Director of the CIA (a personal friend of your teacher) Introduce yourself, explain your situation and ask for help 250–300 words 10 You are a fan of The Beatles You want to invite Paul McCartney to give a concert in your town and raise money to help blind children in Africa Your English grandfather and Paul McCartney’s father were neighbours while growing up in Liverpool Write to Paul McCartney and introduce yourself, explain your situation and ask for help 250–300 words 50 • Issue 94 September 2014 • ENGLISH TEACHING professional • www.etprofessional.com • Language Learner Literature Awards 2014 Congratulations to the winners of the 2014 Language Learner Literature Awards The LLL Awards are given by the Extensive Reading Foundation (ERF), a not-for-profit organisation that supports and promotes extensive reading in language education The winning book in each of five categories is chosen by an international jury, taking into account the internet votes and comments of students and teachers around the world Young learners Winner Congratulations from to all the winners and finalists Adolescent and Adult: Intermediate Skater Boy Winner by Maria Cleary Illustrated by Lorenzo Sabbatini Published by Helbling Languages ISBN: 978-3-85272-526-0 by Vicky Shipton Photo research by Pupak Navabpour Published by Scholastic ISBN: 978-1-908-35198-2 Judges’ comments: The book has a familiar story arc, but it invests it with energy and humour The illustrations are engagingly off-beat Judges’ comments: This biography reads like a story, bringing this 1970s iconic figure to life for all students who may not know reggae music The images include a lot of personal family photos that really add to the book Finalists The Heron and the Hummingbird retold by Rachel Bladon (OUP); Time Jump: Back to the Stone Age by Paul Shipton (Scholastic) Finalists The Cellist of Sarajevo by Steven Galloway, retold by Annette Keen (Pearson); Time Games by Victoria Heward (Black Cat) Adolescent and Adult: Beginner Winner The Tomorrow Mirror by Nicola Prentis Illustrated by Christian Bienefeld Published by Pearson ISBN: 978-1-44793-805-7 Judges’ comments: The story grabs the readers right from the beginning, and keeps their interest all the way through the book, culminating with a surprise ending Finalist The Sorcerer’s Apprentice retold by Bill Bowler (OUP) Adolescent and Adult: Elementary Winner Bob Marley Anne of Green Gables by Lucy Maud Montgomery, retold by Michael Lacey Freeman Illustrated by Gaia Bordicchia Published by ELI ISBN: 978-88-536-1576-3 Judges’ comments: This excellent book, simply but engagingly, retells the story of Anne and her relationships with Marilla, Matthew and the community and environment around her Finalists The Caribbean File by Richard MacAndrew (CUP); War Horse by Michael Morpurgo, retold by Alex Raynham (OUP) Adolescent and Adult: Upper-intermediate and Advanced Winner A Dangerous Sky by Michael Austen Published by Cambridge University Press ISBN: 978-1-107-69405-7 Judges’ comments: This is a well told and written story that touches on many interesting themes including facing life abroad, following your dream, romance (both wanted and unwanted) and facing your fears Finalists Dracula: The Graphic Novel by Bram Stoker, based on a script by Jason Cobley (National Geographic); Oscar’s Journey by Fiona Joseph (National Geographic) 2015 Awards Have you enjoyed a reader that was published in 2014? The nomination and voting procedures for the 2015 Language Learner Literature Awards will be posted on the ERF website (www.erfoundation.org) TEACHER DEVELOPMENT Action research in action Emily Edwards explains how it can work A s a language teacher, you may or may not have heard of terms such as action research, teacher research or reflective teaching, which are all useful and practical forms of continuing professional development (CPD) In this article, I will explain what action research (AR) is and how it can benefit your teaching and professional development Then, as an example, I will briefly outline my experience of doing AR in Australia Finally, I will provide a step-by-step plan of how you can get involved in AR yourself What is action research? While ‘research’ is often seen as something done by academics to other people, AR is something you can yourself in your own classroom in order to help improve your teaching, your knowledge about teaching, your students’ learning and possibly your school’s materials or curriculum, too AR is one specific form of teacher research, but it is different from reflective teaching in that AR is more systematic and involves a particular process One benefit of adopting this approach is that, afterwards, your work will perhaps be more easily shared through presentations and publications As Anne Burns explains, AR involves identifying a situation in your own context that you are interested in and would like to explore, and then taking a critical and systematic approach in investigating it This consists of planning an ‘intervention’ (eg a new class activity or method, or an aspect you’d like to consider more deeply) that you then implement while documenting the results Overall, this becomes a cycle of four steps, which are flexible and can be adjusted: Step 1: Planning an intervention Step 2: Action – implementing the intervention Step 3: Observing the results Step 4: Reflecting on the results – which leads on to planning the next cycle To give you an idea of some aspects of teaching and learning that can be investigated through AR, Table shows some examples of research questions designed by teachers on the English Australia/Cambridge English Language Assessment Action Research in ELICOS (English Language Intensive Courses for Overseas Students) programme and published in Cambridge Research Notes, issues 44, 48 and 53 All these teachers were working with adult ESL learners in Australian language schools or colleges The second column of the table shows that these research questions cover a range of topics, some of which will, I hope, be relevant to your own teaching situation Table 1: Examples of AR topics Research question Area(s) of ELT What is the relationship between progress and Motivation; advanced language learners motivation in high-level general English students? How can students be encouraged to become more aware of specific aspects of their pronunciation difficulties? What grammar teaching approaches and techniques receive a positive response from students? Pronunciation; learner autonomy Grammar teaching; learner–teacher negotiation Does blogging help with fluency and creativity? Writing; use of blogs and technology How will the use of formative speaking assessments Use of technology; speaking; assessment through VoiceThread impact on outcomes and engagement for students on ESP courses? How can a class of EAP/IELTS learners autonomously assess and monitor their own progress in relation to their formative written assignments, and how can I assist them in this process? 52 • Issue 94 September 2014 • ENGLISH TEACHING professional • www.etprofessional.com • Learner autonomy; writing; assessment TEACHER DEVELOPMENT How can AR help? Table 2: My AR project So, why get involved with AR? Well, I reached a point, a couple of years after obtaining my CELTA, when I really wanted to understand my teaching more, especially why some activities, methods or strategies worked in the classroom and others didn’t A few years later, now doing postgraduate research and inspired by AR, I realise that being able to reflect critically on my teaching has not only made me much more engaged in my career, but has also improved my lessons and general ability to adapt my teaching to my learners Each AR project you will, of course, also focus on improving your knowledge and practice in one particular area of ELT It is not always easy for teachers to commit to taking on an AR project, with common challenges being a lack of time and support Another benefit of doing AR is that it encourages you to seek out and read relevant research that is directly related to your own classroom experiences, and this can offer fresh ideas to try out, as well as developing your understanding of the theory For example, try skimming through The Cambridge Guide to Pedagogy and Practice in Second Language Teaching, edited by Anne Burns and Jack Richards, to find a topic related to your interests and needs After that, it’s useful to read up-to-date research articles on your topic; these may provide ideas for your own project Aside from helping you with your teaching and knowledge development, doing AR can allow you to become part of a community of teachers engaging with and in research This community can start in the staffroom, in terms of collaboration with colleagues Outside your immediate teaching environment, though, sharing your research and results with others at colloquiums, workshops, conferences and through publications makes you part of a wider Stage Intervention Data collection methods Stage I tried out three activities (peer evaluation, editing using a checklist, goal setting) to see which one was most successful in using the new assessment rubrics to help my students Questionnaires, focus group, tracking of assignment scores, teacher’s journal The goal-setting activity was the most useful and successful in my context I focused on goal setting, and then implemented several activities over three cycles to discover which one was most successful in helping my students improve their writing Questionnaire, focus group, tracking of assignment scores, semi-structured interviews, teacher’s journal Encouraging my students to create and monitor writing goals benefited their progress (4 weeks; cycle) Stage (8 weeks; cycles) national and international ELT community In Australia, for example, the English Australia Journal often publishes teachers’ action research reports, and teachers and research students can present their findings at an annual free TESOL colloquium at the University of Sydney Of course, it is not always easy for teachers to commit to taking on an AR project, with common challenges being a lack of time and support – ideally from mentors, other teachers or academics One solution to this is taking part in a structured programme, such as the Action Research in ELICOS programme in Australia A similar programme has recently started up in the UK – both of these are supported by Cambridge English Language Assessment My AR project The research question for my AR project was number from Table I was teaching an upper-intermediatelevel multilingual academic English class, in which my students had to complete frequent written assignments First of all, I wanted to help them become more independent in monitoring their own progress and improving their writing ability Selfdirected study skills and writing proficiency are important requirements for study at university in Australia, Results which is where most of my students were heading Another reason for choosing this area was that I had just designed new assessment rubrics (criteria) for marking written assignments, and I wanted to integrate these into my lessons to help my students become more aware of what they needed to achieve in their writing A third reason for selecting this focus was that my class operated on a rolling-intake system, meaning that new students could join the class any Monday, and others could leave any Friday – although all the students had to complete a minimum of ten weeks in order to receive a grade and certificate This system meant that setting class goals was difficult, so I wanted to teach my students to set their own individual goals and evaluate their own work in order to focus on their specific needs My project consisted of two stages, and the main features are summarised in Table Throughout the project, I read more and more articles about learner autonomy as well as assessment for learning theory, which refers to helping students use assessment criteria, self-reflection and feedback from the teacher and each other to learn from their previous assessment tasks in order to improve for the next ones Part of this process involves setting and monitoring progress goals, which became the focus of the second stage of my project • www.etprofessional.com • ENGLISH TEACHING professional • Issue 94 September 2014 • 53 TEACHER DEVELOPMENT Action research in action Overall, I found that explicitly focusing on goal-setting methods in class really helped my students to make progress and achieve the scores they wanted in their written assignments, so these activities became a fixed part of the course – one example is the goalsetting record sheet shown in Table Following my students’ interview comments, I also reflected on my role in fostering learner autonomy, and I concluded that I needed to guide my students more by encouraging them and providing them with concrete examples of goals and methods to help them achieve their aims As a result, I started developing new self-study material, based on the assessment rubrics, so that my students could select the area they wanted to improve most and then have clear examples of how to go about this If you’d like to read about my project in more detail, as well as the projects of other teachers in the 2012 programme, you can access Cambridge English Research Notes 53 for free online at www.cambridgeenglish.org/images/ 142798-research-notes-53-document.pdf An action research action plan I can’t emphasise enough how taking part in AR has benefited my professional development, and I hope to have many more AR experiences in the future Finally, I’d like to note that it’s certainly possible for an individual teacher to AR alone However, collaborating with other teachers and/or academics, or taking part in a more formal AR programme locally or nationally, is highly recommended For me, being part of a national project with other teaching professionals and receiving academic support from Professor Anne Burns went a long way in sustaining my motivation to complete the project So, to summarise this article, here are eight steps to follow if you’d like to try doing AR yourself or, ideally, Table 3: Example of a goal-setting record sheet The students were asked to reflect on their feedback from each writing assignment, set a goal and think of a practical method of achieving it Then later they had to check whether this strategy helped them to improve their score for the criterion they focused on Goal (based on essay criteria) What should I to improve? (method) Result – did this help me get a higher score? ‘I need to make sure my paragraphs are well structured.’ ‘I will highlight the topic, supporting sentences and examples, and check the course handbook to revise how to structure my essay.’ ‘Yes: 13/20 for structure and cohesion = +2 points.’ with a colleague or team of teachers at your school Good luck! Step 1: Choose an area of learning or teaching you’d like to investigate in the context of your classroom or school – eg learner autonomy and writing assessment References Burns, A Doing Action Research in English Language Teaching: A Guide for Practitioners Routledge 2010 Burns, A and Richards, J C (Eds) The Cambridge Guide to Pedagogy and Practice in Second Language Teaching CUP 2012 Step 2: Narrow down your topic to a Action research resources specific research question – eg Question in Table Cambridge Research Notes 44: www.cambridgeenglish.org/images/ 23162-research-notes-44.pdf Step 3: Read books and articles about this topic to find out what other research has been done Note: this step can be done at any time during the project Step 4: Design an intervention to try out – ie an activity relating to your research question, or a way of deepening your knowledge about an aspect of teaching/learning Step 5: Carry out the intervention and collect data at the same time – eg using questionnaires, interviews Step 6: Analyse the data you’ve collected – eg by collating results, transcribing interviews and looking for themes in the responses Cambridge Research Notes 48: www.cambridgeenglish.org/images/ 23165-research-notes-48.pdf Cambridge Research Notes 53: www.cambridgeenglish.org/images/ 142798-research-notes-53-document.pdf For more information on the English Australia/Cambridge English Language Assessment Action Research in ELICOS project, see www.englishaustralia.com.au/ action-research-program Free TESOL journal articles TESL-EJ: www.tesl-ej.org/wordpress/ English Australia Journal: www.englishaustralia.com.au/page php?id=178 Free ELT Journal articles: www.oxfordjournals.org/our_journals/eltj/ editors_choice.html Step 7: Reflect on what you’ve discovered, and then decide whether you need to take further action or explore further – eg implement a new cycle of AR to test out an adapted or extended activity, or to collect more data relating to an idea Step 8: Try to present your project and results at workshops, colloquiums and conferences, or publish in magazines or journals – so that other teachers can also benefit from your findings 54 • Issue 94 September 2014 • ENGLISH TEACHING professional • www.etprofessional.com • Emily Edwards is a postgraduate TESOL research student at the University of New South Wales in Australia Her research project explores the impact of the Action Research in ELICOS programme on English language teachers’ professional development She also works part time as an academic English teacher and course developer e.c.edwards@hotmail.co.uk Do you blog? TECHNOLOGY Helen Collins presents an introduction to blogging in the classroom I f you’re interested in starting a blog for yourself or your students, but you’re not sure where to start, here are some ideas and tips to help set you off Why use blogs? Engage your students with an authentic medium that takes them out of the classroom (and away from the coursebook) into the real world, using English as a medium to communicate As well as helping your students to improve their language skills, you are also helping them to learn useful life skills Motivate your students to produce the best work they can Blogs are public, in that there is a wider audience than just the teacher who will see their work This motivates everyone to their best Collaborate outside lessons by ‘flipping’ or ‘connecting’ your classroom, and use your blog to prepare for and continue work done in class A ‘getting started’ checklist (for examples of blogs, see www.helencollinselt.com) Do you need/have you got parental permission? There are specialist educational platforms where students don’t need an email address, and this will give comfort to parents Is your blog going to be private or public? This depends on the content Public is more authentic and encourages the students to be more careful about their work Private is safer and may be more acceptable to the parents of younger learners Is the name easy to remember? If your students can’t find the blog, they won’t use it How are you going to organise it? By topic? By date? By student? Spending time planning ‘labels’ or ‘tags’ (the words you use to categorise each post) can save a lot of time later How much class time are you planning to spend? Now you’ve decided to set up a blog, a little planning will save you a lot of time later Here’s a checklist to help you get started: What type of blog you want? Teacher, student or class? Investigate and choose an appropriate platform This depends on the type of blog you create, but a good guideline for a class/student blog is ten percent of class time for beginning bloggers How much time you have? A blog is very quick and easy to create, but some planning is involved before creating it so that you can use it effectively Once you’ve learnt how to use your blog, it’s up to you how much time you want to spend on it How good at technology are your students? Whether ‘native’ or ‘immigrant’, you will need to show the students what to at first, but they’ll learn very quickly and soon be independent bloggers Then you can ask them to take over the administration of the blog! How are you going to assess student work? Give clear instructions and use rubrics, so your students can selfassess before submitting any work Start small and use your blog! Keep beginning tasks simple (see below for ideas) and have your blog up in the classroom as the students enter The more you use it, the more your students will use it A ‘things to consider’ checklist Once you’ve decided the type of blog you want and how you will use it, you’ll need to think about activities Again, a little bit of planning will help you get the most out of your students and your blog Here are some things to consider: Don’t allow your students to post personal information (such as addresses, photos, etc) on the blog Instructions need to be clear, either on a handout or on the blog itself If the students are not sure of what they are doing, they’ll quickly lose interest Set up ‘blogging rules’ to ensure the students use English and become aware of blogging etiquette (see www.helencollinselt.com) Encourage learner autonomy by making sure your students know what is expected of them before they start Design tasks with clear aims and expectations and include the assessment criteria Where possible, provide a model so the students can self-assess before ‘publishing’ Take into account copyright law It’s important that you and your students have permission to use video, images and texts on the internet See www.creativecommons.org (also a • www.etprofessional.com • ENGLISH TEACHING professional • Issue 94 September 2014 • 55 Do you blog? good source of images) and Nicky Hockly’s article in ETp Issue 93 for more information Some students don’t like using technology Include ‘participation’ in your assessment criteria to encourage everyone to complete the tasks In class, be prepared for fast finishers Get them to help their peers, an internet quiz, etc Have a back-up plan Technology sometimes fails! A ‘quick-start’ checklist You don’t need to prepare anything special to create blogging activities for your students – convert coursebook activities into digital activities by getting the students to comment, discuss and collaborate online, instead of in the classroom using pen and paper And you don’t need to limit your blogging activities to reading and writing tasks By using free web tools, you can get your students contributing to the blog verbally! Here are some simple ideas for beginning bloggers: Post useful links to websites and important course information (such as exam dates, homework instructions, etc) on the blog for you and your students Drill grammar and vocabulary on the blog – using coursebook exercises, the students write multiple sentences using the target language on the blog instead of in their notebooks Encourage collaboration by getting them to comment on their peers’ sentences Extend the activity by discussing online or in class, playing an error-correction game, etc Find and embed online games and quizzes for homework; then get the students to comment on them, using language for expressing opinion, agreeing and disagreeing, etc Use other free web tools to create quizzes, flashcards, short animations, etc that can be used over and again, year after year See the list of ‘great web tools’ below Use authentic online materials as prompts for speaking and writing tasks A nice beginning activity is to get the students to embed their favourite YouTube videos, then discuss them on the blog (in writing or verbally) at home or in class Encourage the students to keep an online diary You can organise a class blog by student name to see individual student posts, instead of having individual students create their own blogs Encourage learner autonomy and save your preparation time by getting the students to create or find materials they want to use in class and post them on the blog Popular blogging platforms There are lots of blogging platforms, but here are a few that are popular with teachers: www.blogger.com – This is free, simple and intuitive to use Users need a Google account See Russell Stannard’s very helpful www.teachertrainingvideos.com for video tutorials on how to set up a blog in Blogger www.wordpress.com – This is often considered the best blogging platform, and it is used by serious bloggers However, some functions incur a fee and it’s not as easy and intuitive to use as Blogger www.edublogs.org – This is based on Wordpress, but adapted specifically for teachers There are free and pay-for accounts, and it is especially good if you want your students to have individual student blogs www.kidblog.org – This is free, simple and basic, created by teachers for teachers and suitable for kids, as its name suggests www.slideshare.net (convert PowerPoint, Word and other documents to embed in your blog) www.docs.google.com (work collaboratively and embed documents, PowerPoints, etc in your blog) www.livetyping.com (create moving reading texts) www.wallwisher.com (create an online noticeboard) www.goanimate.com (create animated cartoons) www.voki.com (create a speaking avatar) www.profprofs.com (create online quizzes and embed them in your blog) www.audioboo.com (students complete speaking tasks and post them on the blog) www.storybird.com (create an online storybook) www.quizlet.com (create online flashcards and embed them) www.superteachertools.com (create online flash games and embed them) www.photopeach.com (create online movies using images) www.pimpampum.net/bookr (create an online book using Flickr images) www.classtools.net (create educational games and embed them) For more ideas and examples of some of the ideas and tools described above, you can consult my own blog at www.helencollinselt.com/ and www.class.helencollinselt.com You can see examples of what I have done with my students in the past at www.class.helensclassroomelt.com/ Great web tools There are hundreds of free tools you can use to liven up your blog Here are 15 easy-to-use tools to get you started Remember, you don’t have to all of this, get your students to the work www.authorstream.org (convert PowerPoint to flash to embed in your blog) 56 • Issue 94 September 2014 • ENGLISH TEACHING professional • www.etprofessional.com • Helen Collins is a teacher, teacher trainer and centre director at ELI, Seville, Spain She is also responsible for, and has designed, ELI’s blended learning courses She holds the DELTA, Blended Cert ICT and IH Young Learners Cert helen@eli.es TECHNOLOGY In this series, Nicky Hockly Five things you always wanted to know about plagiarism on the internet (but were too afraid to ask) Plagiarism seems to have got worse with access to technology My students often copy and paste whole chunks of text from the internet You’re not alone – many teachers complain of this The internet has brought us instant access to an extraordinary wealth of knowledge and content But this has its downside For students, it’s all too tempting to search online for content for an assignment, and then to copy it and hand it in as their own work After all, why put in all the effort of writing something in a foreign language when somebody has already done a better version of it, and it is freely available on the web? Plagiarism has always existed, but the internet has made it a lot more tempting, and a lot easier Well, luckily for teachers, we know what plagiarism is – and that it’s bad! Not necessarily Plagiarism is a tricky area and it doesn’t mean the same thing to everyone Students (and teachers) come from a range of educational contexts, and understanding of what exactly constitutes plagiarism can vary Although most of us agree that verbatim copying of content is plagiarism (and is unacceptable), a recent study1 found that teachers themselves can be ambivalent about whether unattributed paraphrasing of someone else’s work constitutes plagiarism What’s the difference? For example, when I’m writing an article, I often make reference to and paraphrase other people’s ideas or research, but I need to ensure that I correctly attribute that work (as I just did for the study I mentioned above), rather than making it look like it’s my own original work The key concept for students to understand is the difference between attributing ideas and work to others (quoting your sources), and passing that work off as your own (plagiarism) So plagiarism doesn’t only mean copying content verbatim, although this is the easiest form of plagiarism to spot It can also mean not attributing sources correctly and making other people’s ideas look like your own This may well be unintentional on the part of the student Clearly, it’s important for students to understand the various forms plagiarism can take (see point below for more on this) How can I check whether a student’s work is plagiarised? There are a number of plagiarism detection tools available; some, but not all, are free You’ll find useful lists of plagiarism checkers in a blog post by Richard Byrne at http://goo.gl/Lblrcz and from Jennifer Scottson at http://goo.gl/xltbyr As Byrne points out, many teachers simply copy and paste a chunk of text into Google when they suspect plagiarism If that text is already out there in a web page or article, Google may well find it for you, so it’s a good first port of call My students think it’s fine to plagiarise if you can get away with it! You need to discuss plagiarism overtly with your students Often they haven’t been taught at school that plagiarism is not acceptable They may have been using sources such as Wikipedia since primary or secondary school, but nobody has ever explicitly told them not to copy from these sites directly, or how to quote their sources So the first step is to sensitise your students to the various forms of plagiarism, and to help them understand why it is unacceptable You can also point out the consequences For example, in high-stakes contexts where assessed work may lead to a certificate or degree, plagiarised work can lead to students being expelled from an exam – or even from an entire degree programme explains aspects of technology which some people may be embarrassed to confess that they don’t really understand In this article, she explores the issue of theft of intellectual property in the age of the internet, and suggests what you can about it How exactly can I help my students become more aware of the issues around plagiarism? Here are two activities to try out in class: Have your students discuss the infographic at http://goo.gl/QxFO1z, which describes ten types of plagiarism You could first ask them to put each type of plagiarism on a scale of (not serious) to (very serious) to encourage them to analyse their own attitudes to the different forms of plagiarism Then encourage them to come up with a checklist of ways to avoid plagiarism in their own work If you’re a teacher trainer, this activity could also be carried out with teachers as a useful sensitising exercise Have your students play the online game about plagiarism at http://goo.gl/ehMo45 in pairs Produced by Lycoming College, this game leads the students through a number of scenarios in which they need to identify the correct action to take This is a fun and educational way to help your students understand plagiarism and how to avoid it Like copyright and Creative Commons (see ETp Issue 93), understanding plagiarism and how to avoid it in the age of the internet is an essential skill for students of all ages And it is our duty as educators to help them develop this understanding Lei, J and Guangwei, H ‘Chinese TESOL lecturers’ stance on plagiarism: does knowledge matter?’ English Language Teaching Journal 68 (1) 2014 Nicky Hockly is Director of Pedagogy of The Consultants-E, an online teacher training and development consultancy Her most recent book is Digital Literacies, published by Pearson She has published an e-book, Webinars: A Cookbook for Educators (the-round.com), and has recently co-authored Going Mobile, a book on mobile learning (DELTA) She maintains a blog at www.emoderationskills.com nicky.hockly@theconsultants-e.com • www.etprofessional.com • ENGLISH TEACHING professional • Issue 94 September 2014 • 57 Subscribe today English Teaching professional supports your professional development by giving you: n Practical tools you can use in your classroom n Links to resources to improve your teaching n Tips, tested lessons and techniques from other teachers in our It Works in Practice series n Ideas on how to create a productive learning environment n Different approaches to new teaching situations n Information on how you can progress in the world of English language teaching Delivered direct to your door, English Teaching professional is packed full of ideas, tips and techniques Your subscription includes: • issues per year Your own printed copy, six times a year • Digital version Full online access to the English Teaching professional website • FULL online access Exclusive access to the digital edition of English Teaching professional Subscribe for one year at our standard rate £34 For more subscription options visit www.etprofessioanl.com WAYS TO SUBSCRIBE PHONE Call our subscriptions hotline on +44 (0)1273 434 943 ONLINE Contact our secure website and order online at www.etprofessional.com BY EMAIL Email our subscriptions team on info@etprofessional.com www.etprofessional.com Webwatcher I t is not often that I write about a technology before I have at least tested it with a few students and decided if it is worth sharing, but I am going to make an exception with Google Sites, a tool which allows you to create a website very easily and which is completely free It is very easy to use and allows easy links through to all Google’s other products If you are looking for a really simple way to set up a school site, a class blog, a teacher blog or even individual student blogs, then this could be the tool for you What is Google Sites? Google Sites is part of the growing range of products that Google offers as part of their sign-up, so you need a Google account to use it Basically, it lets you create a website with a menu system and pages, but there are a few additional elements that mean it has the flexibility that we need as teachers or school administrators You sign up, click on ‘Create site’, give your site a title and a URL (the web address where people can find your site) and then you can begin to add pages The menu is automatically produced, so the more pages you add, the more pages will appear in your menu Flexibility is provided by the different page types that you can produce The standard type, called ‘Web Page’, allows you to produce pages where you can include pictures, links, text and video You have lots of choices for formatting, including different set layouts and columns You can customise almost any feature to make sure that you get the right look and feel for your site You can even make use of pre-defined templates where most of the hard work has been done for you However, it is so easy, there is really no need to use these Another page type is ‘Announcements’ Here you can post your latest news, announce something important (eg a reminder to hand in coursework) or even treat it as a blogging page where you write your latest post You can give your announcements page any title you like and, of course, you could have several So, for example, I could have one where I update users on my latest videos and call it ‘Latest videos’, then another where I write my blog The announcements page simply displays the information so that your posts or entries can all be viewed on it It also allows for comments, so you can develop the social aspect of your site The ‘List’ page type works slightly differently as there are pre-defined templates for you to use In order to choose the right one, you have to think about when you might want to use a list In my case, it might be a list of my upcoming talks or perhaps a list of the articles I have written that can be found online You can, of course, make lists on any web page, but this page type helps you to create them easily and add and display further information The next page type, ‘File share’, is really useful for teachers It allows you to create a page specifically for file sharing If you are creating a class website, this is the page where the students could access the learning content You can organise the files by week or by type, and your students can either view or download them Of course, Google Sites is fully integrated with Google Docs, so if you keep your files on Google Docs, it is even easier to make them accessible on your new website I really like this page type and I can think of all sorts of ways to use it For example, you could have a main section called ‘Course content’ and then various submenus organised week by week Each Russell Stannard sets his sights on Google Sites submenu page would contain the learning content for that week You would simply create a separate ‘File share’ page for each submenu page that you created The benefits I will definitely be using Google Sites in the future and it is certainly something I will be training teachers to use I like it for the following reasons: It is very easy to use but can produce something quite complex It has a simple initial learning curve, but if you want, you can really get into detail with it through Google Gadgets, etc It links with other Google products really easily, including email, Google Drive, Google Docs and even Google Calendar It is free Beyond the basics Once you have got your head around the basics (see below for my help videos), keep pushing on, as Google Sites could open a whole new world to you You could start thinking about it for things like assessment, course management and flipping the classroom (delivering instruction online and doing ‘homeworkstyle’ activities in class) The integration with other products, such as Google Docs, could even allow you to produce questionnaires, surveys and quizzes The number of ways you could use Google Sites will grow as your knowledge of it and the products it links with develop Google has its sights on you, too! It is also worth thinking about the future Google is moving more and more towards the educational market, and the Google educational apps are generating increasing interest We may start to see schools moving away from platforms like Moodle and Blackboard and looking towards Google to host their content I have even heard rumours that Google is developing a virtual learning environment like Moodle When we work with Google products, we are helping our students to learn about them, too, and it is very likely that these skills will be useful to them in the future Of course, like many, I worry about Google’s dominance on the internet, but we can’t get away from the fact that having an awareness of their products and the way they work together is very useful to us and to our students Help videos on using Google Sites can be found at: www.teachertrainingvideos.com/googlesites/index.html (for the basics) www.teachertrainingvideos.com/googlesites2/index.html (for more advanced features) Russell Stannard is the founder of www.teachertrainingvideos.com, which won a British Council ELTons award for technology He is a freelance teacher and writer and also a NILE Associate Trainer Keep sending your favourite sites to Russell: russellstannard@btinternet.com • www.etprofessional.com • ENGLISH TEACHING professional • Issue 94 September 2014 • 59 Prize crossword 67 ETp presents the sixty-seventh in our series of prize crosswords Once you have done it successfully, let your students have a go Send your entry (completed crossword grid and quotation), not forgetting to include your full name, postal address, email address and telephone number, to Prize crossword 67, English Teaching professional, Pavilion Publishing and Media Ltd, Rayford House, School Road, Hove, BN3 5JR, UK Ten correct entries will be drawn from a hat on 10 December 2014 and the winners can choose one of these titles: Macmillan Collocations Dictionary or Macmillan Phrasal Verbs Plus Please indicate your choice on your entry 17 16 26 13 22 26 26 23 8 12 19 11 26 26 25 26 26 23 26 14 23 24 13 24 19 26 N 16 13 16 7 25 26 23 19 18 19 25 8 26 25 13 17 25 16 26 25 16 22 26 26 23 19 21 16 M 19 26 16 25 7 24 23 26 16 16 21 19 19 26 21 18 10 13 14 13 23 17 10 26 11 26 19 26 6 26 15 26 26 18 11 26 17 16 26 22 26 20 25 13 26 25 11 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 M N 16 VERY FREQUENT WORDS *** A male monarch *** In front of someone *** A series of entertainments organised each year at the same time *** Word used for connecting possibilities or choices *** An adverb used for emphasis *** An official line between two countries *** A large thin book with a paper cover published weekly or monthly *** To have a duty to someone *** The interest you give to something you are watching *** A word used to refer to all the people in a group *** Flat, not bumpy or rough FREQUENT WORDS ** One of five digits at the end of the foot ** An unreasonable dislike of something ** An advantage or good quality of someone or something ** A number of countries ruled by one person or government ** Someone who watches a TV programme FAIRLY FREQUENT WORDS * To bend from the waist as a sign of respect * A feeling of great respect and admiration * To shine with a soft light * A mix of flour, fat and water used to make pies * Someone who writes articles about news events To solve the puzzle, find which letter each number represents You can keep a record in the boxes above The definitions of the words in the puzzle are given, but not in the right order When you have finished, you will be able to read the quotation 23 26 19 16 18 23 22 14 19 * A small insect that lives in underground colonies * To pull one vehicle behind another LESS FREQUENT WORDS – Able to move very quickly (informal) – The belief that men and women should be treated differently – English taught to people who not live in an English-speaking country (abbr) – Able to be done – A boring person interested only in computers (informal) – Large quantities of something – A type of large heavy oven that is permanently lit – A word used in letters to introduce the subject matter – A situation so complicated you can’t make much progress – To make a mistake (formal) – A residential road used by commuters to avoid traffic jams – A word used to show surprise, excitement or pleasure – A word used to give an example (abbr) – To record something officially so it cannot be ignored – To say something unpleasant in an indirect way 25 22 25 14 26 21 16 18 25 60 • Issue 94 September 2014 • ENGLISH TEACHING professional • www.etprofessional.com • 21 16 – A large stone on a grave – A temporary structure to prevent people getting through – To take back something a buyer can no longer pay for – The island that consists of England, Scotland and Wales – A list of possible questions with their answers (abbr) – To speak in a very enthusiastic way about something – A sad poem about someone’s death – A shoe made of canvas and twisted rope – A type of music from Jamaica – A word to describe an animal or plant that doesn’t grow big – Contracted form of have – A beautiful view – To look after someone very well – The worst time in someone’s life – To annoy someone – To remain longer than you should – Rock or earth containing metal – A piece of land covered in grass – The day when the Second World War ended in Europe – A journey to Mecca made as a religious duty – A man who delivers milk – A scarf made from feathers 18 25 17 17 25 16 13 22 26 26 25 16 Old Russian proverb LEARNING TEACHING TECHNOLOGY CAREERS CULTURE CONNECTING YOU TO A WORLD OF OPPORTUNITIES EUROPE’S LEADING ANNUAL EVENT FOR P E O P L E PA S S I O N AT E ABOUT LANGUAGES /LanguageShow Join 9,000 like-minded individuals at the 26th edition of Language Show Live taking place at London Olympia Central this October Keep up-to-date with changes in the industry at free TEFL seminars, check out the latest technology in language teaching, find resources from 130 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Ready for Series Prepare for excellence • Skills development for the 2015 exams • New content and updated material • Video for the Speaking test • Computer-based practice tests • Teacher training videos by the author, Roy Norris For more information, visit: www.macmillanenglish.com/exams ... in 2014 12 • Issue 94 September 2014 • ENGLISH TEACHING professional • www.etprofessional.com • Maria Kazakou has been an English and Italian teacher for more than 15 years and she enjoys teaching. .. • Issue 94 September 2014 • ENGLISH TEACHING professional • www.etprofessional.com • the teacher, who reads a text aloud for the students to write down The teacher usually controls the number. .. any highly frequent verbs that are regular • Issue 94 September 2014 • ENGLISH TEACHING professional • www.etprofessional.com • When it comes to teaching, there are two constraints that need to