Language & learning skills collected ideas

‘How to get the most out of the IATEFL conference’ by Dr Susan Barduhn

 Key points from the webinar:

- Meet other delegates asap

- Study programme ahead of time

- Choose a key area that you want to attend workshops and talks on- to keep you focused and run in to the same people

- Use coffee/ lunch breaks and evening activities for  networking

- For guidance on having a focused, thematic day, follow one of the Special Interest Groups (SIGs) – eg. most relevant to me – ESP (including EAP).

- Visit the exhibition area which includes publishers, jobs market, educational organisations, resources for sale

View IATEFL webinar from IATEFL 2013 here

‘Teach like a Champion: 49 techniques that put students on the path to college’

by Doug Lemov (2010) 

I’ve always preferred clean lines; a clean desk, minimalist design,Ariel Narrow, Calibri.  

People often have strong opinions on fonts, I don’t know why, but it can cause outrage. There are websites out there dedicated to the criminalisation of comic sans.

It turns out there is a very good reason for sticking to the elegant simplicity of sans serif fonts. (These are fonts without the fussy tails, flicks, edges or twirls that you find in traditional print fonts such as Times New Roman or Georgia.) 

The simple reason is that these fonts are much easier for dyslexic people to read.

Might be worth considering the next time you design a PowerPoint deck, an assessment or even a poster.

Read more in depth info. on dyslexia- friendly fonts here.

Documentary which explores the life of social justice internet activist Aaron Swartz.

Extensive reading’ is basically:

reading a lot, for pleasure, fluently, where the focus should be on the overall meaning of what is being read.

Extensive reading should therefore be:

‘easy’ - up to 95% ish of words should be understood

enjoyable; depends on the student, reading material should be chosen appropriately

uninterrupted. The cycle of extensive reading is important; if one feature goes, another will be affected. I.e. if there are too many unknown words and therefore reading is broken up by the need to look up words, pleasure is affected. Students will then be less likely to read a lot.  

more about reading than analysing. If tasks are introduced (for eg. when a tutor needs to check that reading has been done), they should be as unintrusive as possible, eg. as a follow up rather than a mid-reading task.

Graded readers are a useful resources for extensive reading.

The ‘Extensive Reading Foundation’ has been set up to ‘promote extensive reading in English as a Foreign Language’ more info. and resources here.  

Paul Arden