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To the Editor

Letter 1

Hello Hanna

I hope you had a relaxing holiday and a great start to the new year!

A few weeks ago, I fell in love with a short animated film titled A single life.

The film tells the story of a young woman called Pia who is able to jump backwards and forwards through her life thanks to a mysterious vinyl single.

It's perfect for the classroom. It's just 2 minutes long but packed with so many details to discover and layers of meaning to uncover. The more you watch it, the more you will see. It's not surprising that it was nominated for an Oscar award in 2015.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pzAZnOyMTI4

Jamie Keddie

 

Letter 2

Over the last two years, Covid-19 has come to dominate many of our conversations. It crops up in class week in, week out, no matter what other topics we’re supposed to be discussing. As we enter the third year of the pandemic, we at Lexical Lab have put together a collection of some of the language we’ve taught around the topic. Get your free copy by signing up to our mailing list:

https://www.lexicallab.com/?fbclid=IwAR2kjvK48tk2b9Xf6c1JZGJoHO0HuscqzjAmOZsrvVQ8SuNfMAbtLk7Ztjg

 

ONLINE LANGUAGE LESSONS

Regular live lessons with expert teachers to boost your spoken English

FIND OUT MORE

ONLINE TEACHER DEVELOPMENT

Short self-study or Zoom courses

FIND OUT MORE

WEBINARS

Regular webinars on English language teaching and British culture

FIND OUT MORE

LONDON SUMMER SCHOOL

One and two-week teacher development and language development courses every July and August

FIND OUT MORE

Without grammar you can say little, without lexis you can say nothing. Vocabulary, chunks, patterns, phrases, collocations, words, words with grammar – whatever you want to call it, lexis is the true building blocks of language. What is lexis? What lexis should we teach? At what level? For what course? How much? And how to teach it? How do students best learn it? How does it help with skills? How can we test it?

These are the kinds of questions we aim to explore.
We write materials to help students learn better.
We train teachers to be better lexical teachers.

We are Lexical Lab.

 

Letter 3

Dear Hanna Kryszewska,

We are writing to let you about the following four conferences, which will be held on March 8 - 11, 2022, in Orlando, Florida, USA:

  • The 13th International Conference on Complexity, Informatics and Cybernetics: IMCIC 2022
  • The 13th International Conference on Education, Training and Informatics: ICETI 2022
  • The 13th International Conference on Society and Information Technologies: ICSIT 2022
  • Décima Segunda Conferencia Iberoamericana de Complejidad, Informática y Cibernética: CICIC 2022
The official language for the first three events is English and for the fourth it is Spanish or Portuguese.

These conferences have always contemplated the two modalities of participation: face to face and virtual. However, given the current Coronavirus situation and travel restrictions, at this moment we are only accepting submissions for virtual participation. If the situation changes and we feel the safety of our participants would not be at risk, we will start accepting submissions for face-to-face participation, and those authors who submitted their article for virtual participation will have the ability to change their participation modality to face-to-face, if they wish.

As stated before, the Proceedings of these four conferences have been indexed by Elsevier's SCOPUS since 2010. The 2022 proceedings will also be sent to Elsevier's SCOPUS.

To submit an article to any of the collocated events, go to: https://www.iiis-2022conf.org/spring2022, and select your respective event.

Thank you for your time, and we look forward to your contribution.

Respectfully,

IMCIC/ICSIT/ICETI/CICIC 2022 Organizing Committee

 

Letter 4

     

 

Do you want to give excellent foolproof listening lessons using authentic recordings, to motivate your students and enable them to confidently process spontaneous spoken language outside the classroom?

If so, Integrating Authentic Listening into the Language Classroom is here to help! It is a practical and accessible resource that addresses the theory behind authentic listening, to equip readers with the knowledge and skills to use authentic recordings in their teaching with confidence.

Integrating Authentic Listening into the Language Classroom contains 18 easy-to-digest chapters which are accessible for both new and experienced teachers alike. The first part looks at the theory around the need to use authentic listening and the second covers the practical ways teachers can use authentic listening in their classes. It has tried-and-tested decoding and comprehension activities that work in any language classroom; activities, examples and teaching anecdotes relatable to a wide range of teaching contexts; additional transcripts; a glossary of key terms; and a bibliography.

Pavilion ELT

 

Letter 5

Hi All!

It´s been a long time since we last met face to face in Cambridge. I hope you are healthy and doing well . Wishing you healthy and enjoyable new year 2022 and look forward to hearing from you one day again. Maybe at our ATECR conference on 9-10th September 2022.

Jana

Jana Jilkova, ATECR president

 

www.atecr.com                                    IATEFL Inclusive Practices and SEN SIG treasurer

 

Letter 6

One of my favourite corpus linguists in action. Perhaps it’ll interest you too

😀 Marta Rosińska                        

You ain’t gonna like it: bad grammar’s not so bad. – The Times

Remember all those grammar rules from school? No? Most of us don’t. Mike McCarthy, renowned corpus linguist and co-author of the 900-page Cambridge Grammar of English answers the awkward questions that regularly bother us about English grammar. In this helpful A-Z field guide, McCarthy tells us what the conventional rules are as well as shows us what people are writing or saying now and gives simple reasons why you might choose one or the other so that you can speak and write with confidence.

Through witty and entertaining examples pulled from 50 years of teaching, 40 years of field notes picked from books, newspapers, letters, radio and TV, etc., and shamelessly eavesdropping on people’s conversations in public spaces, and a British and American English computer database, McCarthy has created a book to browse and enjoy, as well as a useful reference to keep on your bookshelf.

Why a Field Guide to grammar?
– A to Z format makes it easy to access and to find what you’re looking for
– Presents solutions to a host of common, everyday grammatical problems
– References current events to bring relevance to the grammar (fronted adverbials anyone?)
– Looks at historical usage to illustrate how the English language has evolved, and continues to evolve
– Gives guidance on appropriate usage where more than one way of saying something exists
– Distinguishes between spoken and written grammar where appropriate
– includes advice on vocabulary, spelling, pronunciation, punctuation and style
– Compares North American and British grammar, and includes Englishes from around the world
– Charming drawings to illustrate the playfulness in the English language
– Grammar guide backed by data and research

True to the Chambers name, this field guide is as much quirky as it is informative. It is the perfect gift for any language lover, student, teacher, struggling parent or carer supporting their child’s schooling, the grammar purist or the grammar descriptivist.

 

Letter 7

#CLIL #ChemistryChallenge #Trial

Here is a very rough outline of how an interactive class can look like using only the google drive environment (freeware).

Look here

Maciej Durczewski

 

Letter 8

Calling teachers from around the world: we want to hear from you!

The new-look Modern English Teacher will bring you topical discussions and practical ideas from teachers across the world in a bumper-sized magazine published six times a year, and we are looking for submissions to one of our exciting new features! Global Voices gives you the opportunity to share your teaching stories or personal accounts of how teaching is for someone in your country or teaching context, in around 200 words. 

If you are interested in getting involved (whether you are an experienced writer or simply looking to submit your first small piece for publication), here are some prompts to help you put together your story for Global Voices:

  • How are you teaching, for example, are you teaching in face-to-face classes, live online, hybrid teaching, flipped classes, etc? Where and when are the classes held?
  • Describe your classroom/teaching area, the average length of classes, typical levels of English and the number of students you have on average. What equipment and tools are you using?
  • How do you prepare lessons? Do you create your own material, supplement coursebooks with your own material or only use published material the school provides?
  • What’s the most important thing about teaching for you? What have you had to learn this past year and will you continue to use it in your teaching in the year to come? What would make your teaching day easier/What would you like to see happen in the teaching world in the next year or so?

Submit your story to the editor, Robert McLarty (Robert.McLarty@pavpub.com), ideally with a supporting picture! Contact us for more information on the requirements of the picture. 

If you have any questions, please contact Robert or the Head of ELT, Kirsten Holt (kirsten.holt@pavpub.com).

You can submit an article at any time, and if it is selected, it will be featured in the next suitable issue. 

 

Letter 9

 

Dear colleague,

InclusiveEd, the Inclusion Conference for Education is taking place online on Wednesday 23rd March.

We’ve created the agenda to bring together schools and colleges just like yours, who share the same opportunities and challenges and are looking for fresh ideas and inspiration to drive their inclusion practices forward.

Join us for the latest updates on SEND developments, as well as practical strategies and insights from thought leaders within education on how to implement inclusion strategies to bring about real change for students.

Confirmed Presentations

  • National SEND Developments - Updates - André Imich -  Department for Education
  • The SEND Review - How to Ensure that the SEND Reforms Deliver on Improving Aspiration and Outcomes - Brian Lamb
  • Stop Throwing Kitchen Sinks - Stephen Tierney
  • Rescuing Disadvantaged Learners - Policy and Practice - Ben Levinson OBE
  • Rethinking the Disadvantage “Problem" - Liz Robinson
  • We Need to Talk About Jason: Closing Persisting Attainment Gaps - Jean Gross CBE
  • Mutuality, Chance, or Choice? - Professor Sonia Blandford
  • 'Educationally Isolated' Schools: Rurality, Relationships, Recovery - Professor Tanya Ovenden-Hope
  • Removing Obstacles from the Paths of Disadvantaged Learners: a Look at How it is and How it could be - Sir Tim Brighouse

Join fellow senior leaders and policy makers in education, diversity and inclusion professionals, disability and student services practitioners, SENCos and Local Authority Advisors by booking to attend.

Please click here or on the button below for the full list of presentations and workshops included in the agenda.

Date: Wednesday 23rd March

Time: 9.00am-5.00pm

Price: £100 excluding VAT

We hope you or a member of your team will be able to join us.

Best regards,

TeachingTimes Team

More here 

 

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