Category Archives: #AusELT Twitter chat

PARSNIPs: Controversial topics in the English language classroom

Leave a reply

 

parsnips-74305_640

 

Our April Twitter chat is happening on Sunday 2nd April at 8.30pm Sydney time – click here to see the time where you are – and don’t forget the clocks have gone back! Hope to see you there!

We have a controversial topic this month! Or is it? It’s true that publishers of global ELT coursebooks try to avoid certain issues that may cause offence, often summarised under the handy ‘parsnip’ acronym:

P          for Politics
A         for Alcohol
R          for Religion
S          for Sex
N          for Narcotics
I           for “isms” (eg communism, atheism…)
P          for Pork

But this is controversial in itself, with different teachers (and authors, and publishers) responding in quite polarised ways. You can read Scott Thornbury’s insightful overview of the issue here: https://scottthornbury.wordpress.com/2010/06/27/t-is-for-taboo/ and do have a look at the comments as well.

So what does #AusELT think about this? Here are some questions to get you thinking

  • Have any ‘taboo’ topics have come up in your classroom? By accident or design?
  • How did you/the students respond?
  • Are there issues we **should** be raising with our international cohorts in Au/NZ?
  • Are there any specifically Australian taboo topics?
  • Do you have any tips for how we can handle sensitive material in the classroom?

See below for some useful further reading and help with Twitter. Hope to e-see you on Sunday!

Further reading

#ELTchat have discussed this a couple of times if you need some ideas:

There have also been some useful published resources for teachers wishing to engage with controversial issues in the classroom:

  • Taboos & Issues by Richard MacAndrew & Ron Martinez
  • Parsnips in ELT: Stepping out of the Comfort Zone (various).Vol.1 &Vol.2. These 2 free ebooks were crowd-sourced from the online ELT community including #AusELT regular Mike Smith as one of the authors!
  • 52 by Lindsay Clandfield & Luke Meddings, reviewed by Mike Griffin in the English Australia Journal here.

Not sure about Twitter?

Why not have a go? We can help you out. Get in touch with any of the AusELT admin team on Facebook or Twitter (eg, @sophiakhan4,  @heimuoshutaiwan or @Clare_M_ELT) or by leaving a comment below. Here are some posts that should also help you get started:

This post by @sophiakhan4

#AusELT Twitter chat Sunday 5 March 2017 – Discrimination against non-native English speaking teachers

Leave a reply

In our Twitter chat for March 2017, we discussed discrimination against non-native English speaking teachers. This chat has now taken place but you can read the summary here.

Have a look at the following questions and links to prepare for the chat.

Questions

  • Why should we be concerned by this topic?
  • Why would students from abroad pay to study in Australia, only to be taught by a teacher from their home country or a surrounding country?
  • Do students need a native speaker to acquire native sounding accent?
  • Is a native sounding accent really important?
  • What can we do about discrimination, and why is it important to do something?

Links

You’ll see we had a similar chat last year, so a quick read through that (link above) would allow us to really move the topic forward.

This chat has now taken place but you can read the summary here.

For those new to Twitter chats, these posts should get you started:

If you are not sure about Twitter and need a hand to get started, do message Gerhard on Facebook or Twitter (@heimuoshutaiwan) or by leaving a comment below.

Teacher Motivation & Recharging your Batteries (#AusELT Twitter chat summary, 6/11/16)

Leave a reply

Read the summary for some great ideas and links on how to make your teaching life a more positive and fruitful one. Managers will also find some guidance on how to build teacher motivation in the workplace.

 

Happy 2017!

Poll: Last #AusELT chat of 2016!

Leave a reply

1d8854

That went fast…

It’s already time for our last Twitter chat of this year (we usually take a little break over December and January as so many people are away) – and the topic is up to you! Please vote in the poll below and we’ll announce the winner on our Facebook page and on Twitter towards the end of next week. The chat will take place on Sunday 6th Nov at 8.30pm Sydney time (click here to see the time where you are).

If you are not sure about Twitter and need a hand to get started, do message me on Facebook or Twitter (@sophiakhan4) or by leaving a comment below.

You might also be interested in these posts:

Need help with Twitter?

#AusELT 1-page guide to Twitter

So you have a Twitter account – now what? 

Conferences & Presenting (AusELT Twitter chat, Sept 3-4, 2016)

Leave a reply

CC0 Public Domain Free for commercial use No attribution required

Note: This chat has now taken place. You can read the summary here. Great tips for conference attendees and presenters, some persuasion for would-be presenters, and definitely some big love for networking!

September’s #AusELT chat is coming up! This time we’ll be talking about conferences and presenting including:

  • why attend a conference anyway
  • how to get the most out of the experience
  • why presenting could be good for you and how to get started
  • dos and don’ts for presenters

We’ll also be using the ‘slowburn’ format for the first time this year. For us, this means the chat will be spread over the whole weekend instead of just 1 hour on Sunday night 🙂

We’ll start early on Sat 3rd September, and run right through till late on Sunday 4th September. You can contribute, read and discuss tweets on this theme at any time in that period, so feel free to drop in and out a few times over the weekend! Just remember to add the #AusELT hashtag to your tweets so we can all see them.

If it is your first time using Twitter, slowburns are a nice and gentle way in to connecting with others. You might also be interested in these posts:

Need help with Twitter?

#AusELT 1-page guide to Twitter

So you have a Twitter account – now what? 

Looking forward to e-seeing you this weekend!

This post by @sophiakhan4

Reflective Practice: Benefits, Tips, Feedback (#AusELT Twitter chat on 7/8/2016)

Leave a reply

double-tree-reflection

Dear AusELTers

Our August Twitter chat is happening on Sunday 7th Aug at 8.30pm Sydney time (click here to see the time where you are).

In our Twitter chat for August 2016 we discussed reflective practice.
This chat has now taken place but you can read the transcript/summary here.

This topic was suggested after there was a lot on interest in a post on the #AusELT Facebook page recently about using teacher post-lesson reflections effectively. As this is a familiar concept to most of us from pre-service training and in-service observations, perhaps we can use this as as a jumping off point. Some questions we could consider here are:

  • Is this useful? Why?
  • Could we do it better? How?
  • Is RP really a skill that can be developed?
  • How can practising teachers, trainers and managers also benefit from RP?
  • What are some problems or obstacles to effective RP?
  • What are some useful ways to ‘operationalise’ it for individuals or institutions?

Looking forward to discussing these questions or any others you care to bring with you on Sunday.

If you are new to Twitter, please come along, we are a friendly bunch  (send a tweet to me @sophiakhan4 and I’ll look out for you!)

You might also be interested in these posts:

This chat has now taken place but you can read the transcript/summary here.

This post by @sophiakhan4, edited by @cioccas

Addressing literacy issues in very low / pre-literate learners

Leave a reply

**This chat took place on Jul 3rd 2016. Many great ideas and resources were shared. To read the transcript and access the links, please click here.**

 

Some initial questions for the #AusELT Twitter chat at 8.30pm on Sunday, July 3rd.

Q1: What is a pre-literate learner?

Q2: What are the literacy basics?

Q3: How do we approach / begin teaching pre-literate learners?

Q4: What tools can help support pre-literate learners?

Q5: What tips / strategies can you suggest for addressing literacy issues in pre-lit learners?

Q6: How do you manage a multi-level literacy class?

Q7: Can you recommend any useful resources for helping pre-literate learners?

Remember when you answer to add A1, A2, A3 etc. to show which question you are answering. This makes it easy to follow the chat when it’s moving quickly.