Category Archives: Resources/activities

How to engage language learners online – #AusELT Twitter chat, 4th February 2018

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Our first Twitter chat for 2018 took place on Sunday 4th February,
This chat has now taken place. Click here to read the transcript.

Because we’re running our awesome video competition on Engaging Learners Online, we thought we’d also make that the topic of our first Twitter chat for the year. That way you can brainstorm your ideas, or get some support for what you’re not sure about, by using our community as a sounding board. Of course, even if you’re not planning on entering the video competition, we want you to join us to discuss anything to to with this broad topic.

Please join us with your questions and thoughts about…

  • your success stories in engaging students in online language learning
  • what are some of the hard things about engaging learners online?
  • what do your learners think about online learning in the classroom?

And also your ideas for…

  • what are some strategies for engaging learners online?
  • what are some things we should be mindful of when encouraging students to go online for their language learning?

We look forward to engaging with you on Sunday!

This chat has now taken place. Click here to read the transcript.

 

This post prepared by @cioccas

[Photo taken from https://www.flickr.com/photos/eltpics/5285506614 by @CliveSir, used under a CC Attribution Non-Commercial license, http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/%5D

PARSNIPs: Controversial topics in the English language classroom – #AusELT Twitter chat, 2nd April 2017

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This Twitter chat was held on Sunday 2nd April 2017. We don’t have a summary for this, but see some useful resources listed below.

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