Top 12 of 2012

and tips for new bloggers

Photo by aclil2climb via eltpics

This post is written in response to Adam Simpson's blogchallenge, which, he admits himself, is an act of "shameless self-promotion". And this is a man who urged us not to vote for him when he was recently  nominated for annual Edublog Awards and who was also the winner of last year's TeachingEnglish blogathon! Anyhow, here is my Top 12 of 2012.
There is, however, one difference. Seeing that it was really difficult for me to decide which posts are MY personal favourites, the list below, unlike that of Adam's, is a list of the most viewed posts of 2012.

1. In response to Hugh Dellar's Dissing Dogme: In Defence of… TBL

Hugh Dellar's anti Dogme series were enlightening and hugely entertaining but there was one particular argument which I didn't quite agree with and addressed in this post which has had the highest number of clicks this year. I don't know if it's down to an increased in interest in Task-Based Learning or because of the inclusion of a buzz word in the title (Dogme)

2. Highlighting lexical chunks with Diigo

I am happy that this entry was one of the most visited. And I am quite proud that I invented a new use for this social bookmarking tool. If you have a projector in class, do check it out. A bit teacher-centred but you can't have it all.

3. Two axis of word relationships

An attempt to introduce terms from linguistic semantics (syntagmatic and paradigmatic) into ELT although I've renamed them as horizontal and vertical word relationships.

 4. Does digital mean better?

The word "technology", like grammar, is an instant magnet. Write a post about technology in education and – no matter which side of the debate you're on – lots of pageviews and comments are guaranteed.

5. Every Breath You Take

A classic activity for a classic song, which I've been using (for ages!) to introduce the concept of collocations - with students and teachers alike. 

6. Teaching vocabulary out of context: conclusions

A wise man once said, "A blog is only as good as the comments it gets". In a desperate attempt to engage with my audience, I split this post into two, posing questions in the first part and providing conclusions in the second part. It seems to have worked.

7. Sloppy Brits or Uptight Americans?

Written in one go, this post garnered the highest number of comments (33) this year.

8. Spent but enriched

My venture into the world of online gaming (thanks to Graham Stanley) and a lexical activity that stemmed from it.

9. Honesty Day

Another song-based activity for the day that for some reason is celebrated only once year.

10. What is your favourite chunk?

What is the difference between a collocation and chunk? And what is your favorutie chunk? It's still not too late to take part in my mini-survey.

11. Before you listen here are some words you may now know

A personal story, interesting research findings and a useful (IMHO) template here, but stats on my blog show most visitors stumbled upon this post by googling: "a guy with headphones photo".

12. The principles of principled Eclecticism according to Chia Suan Chong

I've never written conference reports but this summary of the closing plenary at the annual TESOL France colloquium is an exception.

Cartoon by Dave Walker via We Blog Cartoons

Thinking of taking part in the TeachingEnglish blogathon and winning a trip to IATEFL (like Adam Simpson) or starting up your own blog? Based on the above list, here are some ideas for blog posts that are bound to guarantee success, exposure and lots of clicks.

12 blog post ideas for new bloggers 1. Write a response to someone (preferably famous) expressing your opinion 2. Write about a web tool or app you use 3. Take two pieces of jargon from another (even unrelated) field and apply them to ELT 4. Write something about technology (whether you're pro- or anti- doesn’t matter) 5. Blog about your favourite activity 6. Do a mini action research project in your class and post the results: preferably in two instalments 7. Rant 8. Write about something new you've learnt 9. There are many obscure "days" throughout the year: Honesty Day, Fun at Work Day, Dress-Up Your Pet Day and certainly loads of bad hair days. Pick one as a topic of your post. 10. Conduct a mini poll among your readers 11. Write an apology – even if you know the person it's addressed to is not going to read it 12. Summarise a conference talk / workshop / webinar you've enjoyed Blogger's block? Finally, if you have run out of ideas about what to blog, post a Top 5 or Top 10 list of your recent blog posts!

Thank you to all my readers and happy blogging to all new bloggers!