Short list for Ben Warren Prize

Among titles shortlisted for the annual International House Ben Warren Trust prize is onestopclil.com (now merged, since its nomination, with onestopenglish.com).

OnestopCLIL has some great resources for anyone teaching CLIL (Content and Language Integrated Learning), though it requires registration and subscription for full access to its contents. Its older sibling is one of the best sites on the internet for resources for English language teachers.

The 2,000 GBP Ben Warren prize is awarded to the author or authors of the most outstanding work in the field of language teacher education.

>> Full 2009 shortlist
>> More about CLIL

Dogme and Technology

Dogme ELT is a "materials-light" methodology and also a very active discussion group.

The discussion group has got a bit hijacked of late in futile debates between the advocates of technology and its detractors but Graham Stanley now suggests a way forward in his Dogme 2.0 for ELT wiki, with a call for "vows" that would outline technology's place in Dogme ELT... Can you (and how...?) use technology and remain "faithful" to Dogme...?

(In case you wonder, Dogme ELT had "vows" when it was first set up back in 2000, as did Lars von Trier's Dogme 95 film-making, from which it took its name).

Dogme has been defined as being "conversation-driven, materials-light, focused on emergent language"; all of those things strike me as being "right" and the challenge is how to stay with that and still use technology -- without the technology taking over the conversation, and becoming the focus of attention.

One of ways that can be achieved, I think, is that the learners should use technology to create and communicate, not merely to consume... as I've suggested previously.

A similiar definition of Dogme comes from the blurb on a new book on Dogme, Teaching Unplugged: Dogme in English Language Teaching (Luke Meddings and Scott Thornbury, Delta Publishing, 2009): it's a "materials-light, conversation-driven philosophy of teaching that, above all, focuses on the learner and on emergent language" (my italics).

It's not nearly so well known as some of the ELT publishing giants, but Delta Publishing has got some really great books for English teachers...

Resource books for teaching young learners

Some of the excellent titles in the OUP resource book series

In the technology session we had on our teaching very young learners course this week, I mentioned the books in the superb OUP resouce book series for teachers of young learners.

Among the titles we have in the library (not quite the complete series) are the following, with the age groups they are intended for given in parenthesis:

• Art and Crafts with Children (4-12)
• Assessing Young Learners (6-12)
• Creating Stories with Children (4-14)
• Drama with Children (5-12)
• Games for Children (4-10)
• The Internet and Young Learners (7-15)
• Projects with Young Learners (5-14)
• Storytelling With Children (7-14)
• Very Young Learners (3-6)
• Young Learners (5-12)

Sample pages, activities, etc., are available online (registration required).

Clearly, not all the activities are suitable for very young learners, but I can most highly recommend the series...

Sure, you can find great things on the Internet, but you've got wonderful things in books, too!

10 books for teaching young learners

Someone on our post-CELTA support group asked the question the other day... Did anyone have suggestions on how to spend a £500 budget (!) on books for the staffroom for those teaching young learners?

These would be my suggestions, with the cash left over being spent on giving each teacher their own personal copy of the first...

A skill you can teach yourself...
First a supremely useful skill, which will entertain and teach your young learners, and will save you ever again having to waste your life stealing pictures from Google-is-Evil:

• 1000+ Pictures for Teachers to Copy, Andrew Wright (Longman): Unquestionably my first choice, this book gave me the most useful skill I've learnt in nearly 30 years in teaching [Amazon]

A bit of theory...
Then a bit of theory, with plenty of practical ideas in these three books too:

• Teaching Languages to Young Learners, Lynne Cameron (CUP): Essential background reading, you don't want to teach young learners without being familiar with what's in this book [Amazon]
• Teaching Teenagers, Herbert Puchta and Michael Schratz (Longman): Definitely my next choice. In my experience, one of the vital things about teaching kids is your attitude to them: this book changed my attitude to kids, radically so [Amazon]
• How Languages Are Learned, Patsy Lightbown and Nina Spada (OUP): One that all language teachers should read [Amazon]

Books full of practical classroom ideas...
And then five great resource books in the superb Oxford series:

• Drama with Children, Sarah Phillips (OUP), [Amazon]
• Storytelling with Children, Andrew Wright (OUP), [Amazon]
• Art and Crafts with Children, Andrew Wright (OUP) [Amazon]
  
• The Internet and Young Learners, Gordon Lewis (OUP) [Amazon]
• Writing with Children, Jackie Reilly and Vanessa Reily (OUP) [Amazon]

I put drama and storytelling first in my list there deliberately, with arts and crafts next. One of the most frequently asked questions on our support group is "Can anyone suggest games for young learners?".

But, at least in my own experience, I've found that drama and stories and making things are often in the end more engaging, more entertaining and more language-rich than most "games".

Oh, go on then, there's also a Games for Children in the same Oxford series...

The power of story telling

Once upon a time...

Another one I didn't have to search for, as it came to me via my RSS feed: an article on storytelling by Mario Rinvolucri on my favourite ELT site, teachingenglish.org.uk.

Story telling, Mario says, is "a uniquely powerful linguistic and psychological technique in the hands of a language teacher" and suggests various story-telling techniques that a teacher can use.

One of the most frequently asked questions on our post-course support group must surely be "Can anyone suggest games for younger learners?". Yes, here, here and here, but is it games or stories that will really engage your young learners?

For slightly older learners, ones that can already write in English (though it doesn't have to be at a particularly high level), don't just stick to story-telling, I'd say, but get your learners to enjoy story-writing...

To learn more about story-telling, there is also the excellent Storytelling with Children, by Andrew Wright.

Working with images

I've only just flicked through it quickly but Ben Goldstein's Working with Images (Cambridge 2008) looks interesting, with "75 practical teaching ideas for the language classroom".

Apart from the general information about the book, the information on the Cambridge website includes a page of useful links for working with images.

Working with Images, which comes with a CD-Rom image bank, is in the Cambridge Handbooks for Language Teachers series.

Teaching Teenagers

A book I read a long time ago and now wish I'd included as one of my list of 10 ELT books your Mum could get you for Christmas: Teaching Teenagers, by Herbert Puchta and Michael Schratz or "Teaching Teenagers: Model Activity Sequences for Humanistic Language Learning", to give it its full title.

I've personally never been much good teaching teenagers -- I've not got the patience for it, apart from anything else. But if you have to, and many of you teaching in private language schools will have to, read this book. It made me look at my teenagers in a different way: teenagers aren't wild animals (no, really!), they're human beings, too.

I can't remember now who first suggested the idea to me, or whether or not it was in this excellent book, but the vital thing about teenagers is not their attitude to learning English (or to you), but your attitude to them. Treat them like wild animals, and that's how they'll behave...

It takes something special to get on with teens; whether you've got that or not, ask your Mum to get you this book -- and get yourself some attitude!

>> Buy it on Amazon.co.uk

Me, from A to Z

Not so well-known as the big ELT publishers, Delta Publishing has an excellent "Professional Perspectives" series of resource books for teachers (image, right).

My favourite is Chandler and Stone's The Resourceful English Teacher, which has lots of practical ideas on how to use things like the OHP, video etc (though an update -- or a new title -- to cover the Internet would be an idea).

I also like some of the ideas in Chris Sion's Creating Conversation in Class ("Student-centred interaction"), including "Myself from A-Z", which suggests having them create an "A-Z of your own life", which might be a great way to have people get to know each other at the start of the year, as it will reveal a surprising amount about yourself.

As is pointed out, you need to give a few examples, which can be "trivial, personal or humorous". I found it surprisingly difficult to complete an A-Z of my own life, but don't think it matters if your learners can't. My own examples:

• A is for...?
• B is for Barcelona, where I've lived for over 25 years
• C is for cycling, which is one of my great passions in life
• D is for drawing, which is one of the other things I enjoy doing most (though perhaps doodling would be the correct term...)
• E is for...?
  

The book seems to suggest a "whole class" presentation, but small group, or pairs, might work better, I think.

It's also something that might work well on a class blog, on which each learner could post (and update) their own...

10 great ELT books your Mum could get you for Xmas

10 really useful books for English teachers... Your Mum (or your Gran) always buys you socks for Christmas, or knits you scarves in colours you wouldn't be seen dead wearing? Here's some better ideas...

In each case, I've provided the Amazon.co.uk link, if you want a copy (free p+p if it's going to a UK address).

1. The most useful ELT book I've ever read... 1000+ Pictures for Teachers to Copy, Andrew Wright (Longman ELT) [Amazon]
2. A book you really should read... How Languages Are Learned, Patsy Lightbown and Nina Spada (OUP) [Amazon]
3. A book you really need to read if you teach them... Teaching Languages to Young Learners, Lynne Cameron (CUP) [Amazon]
4. Try it, kids love it... Drama with Children, Sarah Phillips (OUP), [Amazon]
5. Kids love this too -- and you want stories, not "games", if you ask me... Storytelling with Children, Andrew Wright [Amazon]
6. For any of you doing private classes... One to One: A Teacher's Handbook, Peter Wilberg (LTP) [Amazon]
7. A great introduction to another specialised field... Teaching Business English, Mark Ellis and Christine Johnson (OUP) [Amazon]
8. Vocab, not grammar, is what is really vital, some people say... How to Teach Vocabulary, Scott Thornbury [Amazon]
9. No, I really want to spend Christmas reading a really good, useful book about grammar... Teaching Tenses: Ideas for Presenting and Practising Tenses in English, Rosemary Aitken (ELB Publishing) [Amazon]
10. Need to teach yourself English grammar...? About Language, Scott Thornbury [Amazon]

Now all you need to do is get your Gran on to Amazon!

Task-based learning

To accompany their new book, Doing Task-based Teaching, Dave and Jane Willis have launched a new task-based learning website, which has articles and lesson plans on the subject.

Your CELTA course tutor must have mentioned Jane Willis' classic A Framework for Task-based Learning, one of the books I'd most recommend after you've finished your course.

Getting the most out of your OHP

Collecting dust in the corridor: ye olde OHP...

I guess chances are your school either long-since abandoned its overhead projectors (aka OHPs) in favour of interactive whiteboards, or else, er... hasn't actually got to the OHP stage of technological evolution yet.

The excellent TeachingEnglish.org.uk site has a new article on using OHPs (which it describes as "the most underused and sometimes misused" of classroom technology resources).

Another place where you'll find good ideas on using an OHP (and lots of other resources, too) is Chandler and Stone's The Resourceful English Teacher, one of the titles in a great "Professional Perspective" series from Delta Publishing.

1000+ Pictures for Teachers to Copy

I would say Andrew Wright's 1000+ Pictures for Teachers to Copy is the best, most useful book I've read in 25 years in English teaching.

It's practical, it's useful, it will save you (and your learners) lots of time, it's fun -- and it teaches you a skill that I think all teachers should have, especially anyone teaching young learners.

You can't draw? You don't need to be able to draw -- all you've got to do is learn how to copy a few simple images.

Publisher: Longman ELT, ISBN 0175571007. Available from Amazon.com.

Business English, links and books

Websites
Some of the ELT publishers have useful resources for teaching Business English on their websites -- including MacMillan (at OneStopEnglish)...

There are also interesting Business English resources on the OUP site.

You will also find things of interest (notably a Business English blog) on te4be.com -- which stands for Technology for Business English.

There's another (horribly designed) Business English blog here.

The wonderfully named "Business Balls" site has "free materials, articles, and ideas for ethical personal and organizational development", which anyone teaching Business English may find useful.

You will find a fuller list of Business English links on the IH Barcelona website, including primary sources like the BBC and Financial Times.

In your mail box
The discussion forum of the Business English SIG (Special Interest Group) will bring things of interest to your mailbox. The group also has an interesting links page and is part of IATEFL.

MacMillan has a Business English site which, among other things, will send you a weekly Business English lesson plan.

Don't search -- have things come to you...! More links to stuff in your mailbox here on this blog.

Books
Business English basics
On our Celta Course website there's a brief introduction to teaching Business English. But never turn to the Web if the information is readily available to you in a book, I would say.

The Web can be useful if you are looking for authentic materials for your Business English class but if it's how to teach Business English, then there are a couple of good books on the subject that are well worth reading.

• Teaching Business English, Mark Ellis and Christine Johnson (OUP, 1994)
  
• How to Teach Business English, Evan Frendo (Longman, 2005)

Both will give you the basic notions of teaching Business English (and make you feel you are better prepared for it, and hence more confident) as well as practical ideas.

Coursebooks
If it's a coursebook you want, then -- among the scores of Business English courses available -- I can highly recommend the excellent Market Leader series. Market Leader is particularly good for its "case studies".

There is also a Market Leader website, with additional materials on it.

More on case studies in Business English.

Teaching 1-2-1
You may also find yourself teaching Business English "one-to-one" (as private classes), in which case there are a further two books I would recommend, again both for getting the basic principles and the practical ideas:

• One-to-One: A Teacher's Handbook, Peter Wilberg (LTP, 1987)
  
• Teaching English One to One, Patricia Osborne (Modern English Publishing, 2005)

On the Web, OneStopEnglish also has a section on Teaching 1-2-1.

Like to suggest something else?
Use the "comment this post" link below...

Bibliography

I can recommend all of the following, with the Dudeney book and those published by OUP being particularly good for one-off lesson plans based on a particular website/page.

• The Internet and the Language Classroom, Dudeney, G. (Cambridge, 2000)
• Dave Sperling's Internet Guide, Sperling, D. (Prentice Hall, 1998)
• How to Use the Internet in ELT, Teeler, D. and Gray, P. (Longman, 2000)
• Internet and ELT: the impact of the Internet on ELT, Eastment, D. (Summertown Publishing, 1999)
• Internet English Gitsaki, C. and Taylor, R. (OUP, 2000)
• The Internet, Windeatt, S., Hardisty, D. and Eastment, D., (OUP, 2000)
• The Internet and Young Learners, Lewis, G. (OUP 2004)
• Teaching English with Information Technology, Gordon-Smith, D. and Baber, E. (Modern English Publishing, 2005)
  

Note that most of the above -- all published fairly recently -- make no mention of blogs, one of the big phenomena, the big success stories, of the Internet. Some don't even mention Google! What is published about the Internet quickly becomes dated (note particularly how the links the books give will quickly break).

Some publishers have companion websites for their "resource books" (also course books) -- partly to combat this problem. The three OUP books above all do (registration required):

Other ELT publishers websites