Some highlights from the annual IATEFL conference, which took place in Belfast on 17-20 May
The first post-pandemic 'in-person' IATEFL conference saw a slight dip in attendance figures – about 1600 delegates compared to the pre-pandemic figures of nearly 2500 attendees – but it didn't detract from the electric atmosphere, which was largely due to the ability to interact face-to-face again. Indeed, I didn't see members of my PLN for three long years! Between networking and catching up with friends and colleagues I managed to see some sessions. Here are some highlights.May 29, 2022
Mar 4, 2022
What I saw in the war
A lesson based on Janine di Giovanni's TED talk
Image source: TED.com [Fair use] |
Jan 6, 2022
News Quiz 2021 - Follow Up
Activities for reviewing and recycling the language from News Quiz 2021
I hope you enjoyed the latest edition of the News Quiz and didn't find too difficult. Like last year, the follow-up activities come in different formats, most of which can be edited and adapted for your needs. These include drag'n'drop activities on LearningApps, one matching activity on WordWall (Intermediate level only) and 'traditional' worksheets in PDF/editable Google Docs.
Image credits: NASA [PD]; TapTheForwardAssist [CC BY-SA 4.0]; Glenn Francis [CC BY-SA 4.0] |
I hope you enjoyed the latest edition of the News Quiz and didn't find too difficult. Like last year, the follow-up activities come in different formats, most of which can be edited and adapted for your needs. These include drag'n'drop activities on LearningApps, one matching activity on WordWall (Intermediate level only) and 'traditional' worksheets in PDF/editable Google Docs.
Dec 30, 2021
News Quiz 2021
Photo by Hello I'm Nik on Unsplash |
Unlike the previous year, the news stories related to coronavirus (oops, COVID-19) are kept to a minimum. But just like last year, the quiz is available in three formats: Google Slides, Quizizz and a
PDF / editable Google Docs.
Jan 10, 2021
News Quiz 2020 - Follow Up
Activities for reviewing and recycling the language from News Quiz 2020
The traditional news quiz has changed its format this year so the follow up, which usually consists of paper-and-pen activities, had to follow suit. I've created a series of interactive online activities on WordWall and LearningApps, which you can adapt if necessary and share with your students. There are also 'traditional' worksheets in Word and PDF, which those of you teaching remotely can display via ScreenShare on Zoom or Teams or simply send to students by email.
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Image credits: Frankie Fouganthin [CC BY-SA 4.0], TenAsia [CC BY 3.0], U.S. Secretary of Defense [CC BY 2.0] - via Wikimedia Commons |
Jan 3, 2021
News Quiz 2020
Here's the delayed 2020 edition of my traditional news quiz with apologies to my friends and followers. I hope it still arrives in time for your first lesson of the new year.
This year's quiz is heavily influenced by the pandemic, which shouldn't come as a surprise! Still it has a considerable dose of non-Covid related new stories from the world of sports, science and entertainment.
Aug 13, 2020
Something Just Like This
A listening activity based on a Coldplay's song, which can be optionally followed by jigsaw reading.
This is a song activity based on a surprise collaboration between Coldplay and the Chainsmokers from a couple of years ago. I've used it successfully with students of different ages: teenagers and young adults, who complimented me on my musical taste (!)
Note that the teacher's notes are not provided because the student worksheet is pretty self-explanatory. To check the answers for the While Listening activities, see this lyrics video:
This is a song activity based on a surprise collaboration between Coldplay and the Chainsmokers from a couple of years ago. I've used it successfully with students of different ages: teenagers and young adults, who complimented me on my musical taste (!)
Note that the teacher's notes are not provided because the student worksheet is pretty self-explanatory. To check the answers for the While Listening activities, see this lyrics video:
May 25, 2020
Zoom activity: Photos of the week
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Photos of the Week section in The Atlantic |
Mar 22, 2020
3 ideas for synchronous online lessons on Zoom
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Photo by Caroline Feelgood on Unsplash
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On the other hand, teachers have taken to Twitter sharing activities, ideas and advice that is more pedagogy- rather than technology-driven. In a matter of a few days, the somewhat morbid hashtag #coronavirusteaching has gone viral (pun intended!).
So consider me jumping on the bandwagon. In this post, I'd like to share some activities that have worked well for me in this past week under a partial lockdown.
Jan 5, 2020
News Quiz 2019 - Follow Up
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Image credits: Frankie Fouganthin; Milliped; SounderBruce; under Creative Commons license [CC BY-SA 4.0] |
Activities for reviewing lexis from News Quiz 2019
Some of my followers have already been asking me for follow-up activities, particularly Quizlet sets, for the traditional end-of-year news quiz, which I posted last week. Incidentally, it was the 10th News Quiz I'd posted here, on my blog (you can see all of them HERE), since I first launched the blog at the end of 2010... by posting News Quiz 2010. So, how's that for a #10yearchallenge? I'm actually surprised I've kept at it for so long!Dec 29, 2019
News Quiz 2019
Traditional end-of-year news quiz for the first lesson of the new year
Just as I finished working on this, a thought crossed my mind: perhaps it should have been an end-of-decade news quiz this time? Ah well... Anyhow, in keeping with the tradition, here's an end-of-year quiz based on the hottest news stories of the past year.
It's a usual mix of politics, sports and entertainment - but no mention of Brexit whatsoever!
And as usual, it's packed with lots of lexical chunks and other vocabulary items for your students to explore.
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Photo by Katherine Cheng [CC BY-ND 2.0] via Flickr |
Just as I finished working on this, a thought crossed my mind: perhaps it should have been an end-of-decade news quiz this time? Ah well... Anyhow, in keeping with the tradition, here's an end-of-year quiz based on the hottest news stories of the past year.
It's a usual mix of politics, sports and entertainment - but no mention of Brexit whatsoever!
And as usual, it's packed with lots of lexical chunks and other vocabulary items for your students to explore.
Dec 14, 2019
10 paper-and-pencil activities using Quizlet
I first mentioned Quizlet in a blog post in 2013. Over the past six years it has become a staple in many EFL/ESL classrooms. These days whenever I ask participants of my workshops to indicate by a show of hands whether they are familiar with Quizlet, almost every hand in the room goes up. That is with a rare exception of my recent session at TESOL Italy, where, to my utter surprise, none of the 10 or so participants had heard of this wonderful online tool. But even those who do actively use Quizlet are not always aware of the 'offline' opportunities it affords. In this post I'd like to share 10 'offline' (i.e. paper-based) activities you can do in the classroom using your Quizlet sets.
Mar 12, 2019
Still blogging - but elsewhere
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CUP booth at IATEFL Poland in Wroclaw (September 2018) Can you spot my book? |
Jan 7, 2019
News Quiz 2018 - Follow Up
Activities for reviewing lexis from News Quiz 2018
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Image credits: John Bauld flic.kr/p/McsiQi [CC BY 2.0]; Alisdare Hickson flic.kr/p/24W89b5 [CC BY-SA 2.0]; NASA [PD image] |
If you haven't seen the news quiz, it's not to late - click HERE
You can preview the activities below or download them in Word format and edit/adapt them as you wish. The key (answers) and teachers' notes are provided at the end of each level.
UPDATE: a Quizlet set for advanced level: quizlet.com/_5wm0we
Dec 29, 2018
News Quiz 2018
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Photo by KRIS AUS67 on Flickr [CC BY 2.0] |
Aug 30, 2018
Present Simple or Hard Present ?
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'The sun rises in the east' - a commonly used example of the Present Simple Photo by @CliveSir via ELTpics on Flickr |
Apr 6, 2018
8 dictionary activities
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Photo by Hana Ticha via eltpics on Flickr |
As dictionary publishers moved increasingly towards online platforms in the 2000s - and some discontinued the printed version, for example Macmillan - learners' dictionaries made further strides towards improving learner experience. Today's online learners' dictionaries (see the list in my Essential lexical tools) not only offer natural examples and highlight co-text, their entries come complete with collocation boxes, grammar information and common error warnings. All this makes a good learner’s dictionary an essential, indeed indispensable, learning tool. Yet, despite their obvious benefits, I find, much to my regret, that online dictionaries are underused by learners and teachers alike. Here are some activities to get your students using learner's dictionaries and hopefully starting to appreciate their value.
Jan 6, 2018
News Quiz 2017 - Follow Up
Activities for reviewing the language from News Quiz 2017
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Collage made with
photos by www.kremlin.ru [CC BY 4.0],
Beyoncé
(@beyonce) on Instagram
[fair use],
Alex Fau on Flickr https://flic.kr/p/qKyoQ2
[CC BY 2.0]
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For a suggested sequence of activities, see last year's News Quiz Follow Up - click HERE
Update: Vocabulary from the quiz on Quizlet: https://quizlet.com/leosel/folders/news-quiz-2017/
Dec 29, 2017
News Quiz 2017
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Image source: Billboard |
Dec 18, 2017
The state of stative verbs
or why I've stopped teaching them (and why you shouldn't bother with them either)
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Photo by Emma Newman Segev via ELTpics on Flickr |
Sep 29, 2017
The double life of the asterisk sign
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A small glyph with lots of functions |
Sep 1, 2017
Four 'back-to-school' activities
May 28, 2017
Powerful tea and other (im)possible collocations
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Photo by Christina Martidou via ELTpics on Flickr |
Feb 27, 2017
Trendy terms, tantalizing techniques and talented teachers in Thessaloniki
A report from the 24th TESOL Macedonia-Thrace convention, which took place in Thessaloniki on 11-12 February
Earlier this month I had the pleasure to attend and the honour to present, for the first time, at the TESOL Macedonia-Thrace international convention in Thessaloniki. While the best thing about the conference - like with most ELT conferences lately - was catching up with teachers from my PLN, making new friends and connecting with professionals from all over Europe, here are highlights from some of the sessions I attended.
Earlier this month I had the pleasure to attend and the honour to present, for the first time, at the TESOL Macedonia-Thrace international convention in Thessaloniki. While the best thing about the conference - like with most ELT conferences lately - was catching up with teachers from my PLN, making new friends and connecting with professionals from all over Europe, here are highlights from some of the sessions I attended.
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