You Have Been Tagged!

You Have Been Tagged!

 

A few days ago I received an invitation to take part in a sort of serial blog chain. I have enjoyed reading the responses of other people and now it is my turn to put words to paper J

The task is as follows:

                      Acknowledge the person who tagged you

           Give 11 facts about yourself

                    Answer the tagger’s 11 questions 

          Write 11 questions of your own

          Tag 11 of your friends to continue the chain.

My invitation came from Marisa Constantinides, who is based in Athens. She has become one of my dear friends, and a source of much wisdom.

So let me give you some facts about me to start with.

1.      I am the only one of my family to have lived outside Scotland. My sister and my parents live (d) within a stone’s throw of where they grew up. I moved to teach in Champagne when I finished college, and then moved to Jersey in the Channel Islands, where I have been ever since.

2.      In my free time I play Bass, electric bass, and guitar, in a variety of line-ups of musicians. Most of the time I play in the local ceilidh band (pronounced Kay-ly). We play folk music from England, Scotland, Ireland and France accompanied by a Caller who teaches traditional dancing.

3.      When looking for escapism, I love nothing better than a trashy novel. I can read them on my kindle so no one else is aware of what I’m reading. I still love books though, and have a fine collection of reference books at home.

4.      I have two cats, but growing up I was always uncomfortable around felines. I would really prefer to have a dog, but the little furry girls have grown on me J

5.      I’m looking forward to Christmas, but I don’t have any idea what I will be serving up for dinner. We have the tradition that our friend brings the meat as his share of the proceedings, and he will only tell me at the weekend what he has sourced. It’s great fun- although I will be scrabbling around finding interesting vegetables to go with whatever he has chosen.

6.      Every year my friends and I go carol singing around the pubs to raise money for charity. We will be out and about this weekend 

7.      I learned to drive in France when I was working there, but my French was a bit dodgy at the time. I am still friends with the family of the driving instructors, who took pity on me and invited me to meals at their homes to help me improve my French.

8.      I am researching how to flip some of my teacher training sessions. I want to save time in the classroom for HOW to teach not WHAT to teach.

9.      I live in a Victorian town house- and we have been doing something to it ever since we moved in.

10.   My 25^th Wedding Anniversary is coming up in February. We spent our honeymoon in Paris.

11.  I enjoy Christmas, but as a Scot, I really prefer New Year. We throw a big party for our friends and neighbours, invite the musicians to bring their instruments and have fun into the wee sma’ hours J

Now for Marisa’s questions:

1.      How long does it take you to draft and finalise a blog post?

Usually I write it and then sleep on it. The next day I proofread it and check whether it needs amendments- then post it.

2.      Which ICT tools do you actually use with your classes?

I like simple things for my students. With my business students I use apps like email-writer or IBE (International Business Etiquette). In general classes I use Glogster, YouTube, Animoto, Jing.

3.      What is your absolute dream job?

I am actually very happy with the one I have now. I have always wanted to be a teacher, but I like the semi-autonomy I have, and the chances for CPD.

4.      Which classroom activity do you enjoy doing with your students?

I like ‘getting to know you’ exercises, especially when I have to merge new students with an existing group on our rolling programme.

5.      How many of your current friendships were started through a social network?

Many of them. It is a wonderful feeling when I get the chance to meet face to face with friends I have been talking to online for months. It’s like catching up with family.

6.      Which household chore do you hate the most- and which one do you love?

MY least favourite chore would have to be ‘Cleaning the toilet’. I love cooking, and I don’t actually mind ironing, unlike most of my friends.

7.      Name your 10 Desert Island Discs

I don’t have a fixed preference for music- it depends on my mood on any given day. I would certainly include some Mozart, some Scottish and English Folk music and some rock in my list.

8.      Do you wish you had studied something different?

Maybe. I was very interested in the Linguistics course my daughter did at University, but I might not have been interested when I was her age.

9.      Describe the naughtiest thing you have ever done.

It was probably the time we went skinny dipping at midnight. The island is very Methodist, and I dread to think what the reaction would have been had we been caught.

10.  What artistic aspirations or skills do you have?

Apart from playing in the band, I do a little folk singing. I’d love to be able to decorate cakes really well.

11.  Which TV series do you keep watching again and again?

I don’t. I watch very little TV, don’t buy DVDs to watch at home, and having seen something that’s usually enough. Unusually, I have been watching the Inspector Montalbano series with my husband. He really enjoys them, and records them faithfully to watch later. I watch the subtitles- and try to learn a bit of the Italian dialect J

Here are MY questions:

1.      How much time do you spend on social networking in a typical day?

2.      What was the last thing you read for work purposes?

3.      If you could change one thing about your workplace, what would it be?

4.      Would you stop work if you won a million on the lottery?

5.      Do you like a particular genre of music?

6.      Are you a team worker or a leader?

7.      Do you prefer words or pictures to get your message across?

8.      What’s your speciality in the kitchen?

9.      What was the name of the last novel you read?

10.  Have you done/not done something this year that you regret?

11.  If you could live in another country- which one would you choose- and why?

I’d like to invite anyone who wishes to complete the questionnaire to do so.

I feel that most of my friends and contacts have already been tagged, and I don’t want them to feel under an obligation to do it again.

However, if they would like to, I’d be delighted to read what they have to say.

My choice of participants would include:

Elizabeth Anne

Chaouki Mkaddem

Aiden Yeh

Mbarek Akkadar

Belkis Yanes

Nick Michelioudakis

Lisa Phillips

Marian Steiner

Claire Hart

Martin Postlethwaite

Russell Stannard

These are all people I’d love to find out more about J

# ELTchat of 20th November 2013: Teaching Grammar at (zero) Beginner Level

First #ELTchat of 20 ^th November 2013:

Teaching Grammar at (zero) Beginner Level

The first question raised was: Should we?

@esolcourses suggested that teaching grammar explicitly was not productive when working with beginners. Although she thought her ideas were unconventional, she has vast experience in this area. She explained that she believed chunks of high frequency vocabulary should come first, before learners are ready for explicit grammar forms. @JoHart agreed that having functional language was more important than being elegant. In fact, @Marisa_C thought that @esolcourses was using a lexical approach, in company with many other teachers.

So, is there a perfect approach?

@OUPELTGlobal was correct: In a way, even grammatical items are lexical at beginner level.

@Marisa_C agreed that beginning with chunks still provided a doorway to grammar during the feedback or error correction stages. She argued that grammar could be seen as generative, where functions and phrases aren’t.

It appeared that an inductive, non-explicit approach, with the target language in context, and providing opportunities for use, came top of the list. The practice occasions would be especially important, as many comments were made about giving ownership of the material to the students, and avoiding having them parrot exact phrases. Being able to manipulate chunks of functional phrases, after memorising them, would be the desired effect for the learners.

@leedsacademy felt that it was important to give learners the tools to make the language work for them.

@OUPELTGlobal: Yes, so inductive rather than deductive approach

@Marisa_C made us smile with her idea of the mythical grammarless pidgin creature, but was right when she asserted that students need to Observe, Hypothesise, and Experiment.

Is there, perhaps, a need for learner training?

@Marisa_C thought that it might prove useful to ask students how they think they learn best, and how they expect to learn grammar, even before they start their course. She said that a good idea was to fill them up with lots of rules and when they are unable to communicate, this provided an opportunity to discuss the best way. (This might have been tongue-in-cheek). She asked whether it was possible to provide functional chunks and yet check grammar awareness at the same time. @esolcourses believes that uncovering grammar at a leisurely pace often works better.

Do we need different approaches for YL and Adults?

There was consensus on this point. Young Learners are often non-analytical and unable to grasp abstractions. @HanaTicha suggested that if children wrote their own course books, they wouldn't contain explicit grammar structures. It is a sad fact, however, that without some parent education, there will be occasions when even toddlers are expected to learn rules.

Adults would, generally, be more open to thinking about the grammar. @leedsacademy mentioned that many of her students expected explicit grammar tuition.

 @esolcourses provided a word of caution, though. She said that adult learners often learnt complex structures in their ‘chunks’, which conventional courses would not teach until a certain level of proficiency had been arrived at.

 @Marisa_C suggested explaining the rule briefly and then moving on to meaningful, contextualised practice, although the odd analytical learner would have a great time with a grammar book in hand.

Should we use metalanguage?

Is grammatical terminology useful at beginner level?

@OUPELTGlobal thought that adults might appreciate it, although he wasn’t convinced that it was appropriate for real beginners. But do learners have to know the term ‘verb’ to use one? @leedsacademy thought that it was useful, as knowing the word classes could help students generate new utterances of their own.

@leedsacademy and ‘esolcourses reminded us that students may have varying degrees of literacy in their own language and that the teaching of grammar could easily depend on what they bring to the classroom in terms of previous knowledge.

‘Students have beginner English, not beginner brains’

@VeerleGrauwmans suggested that the grammatical terms could be translated into the students L1, or @OUPELTGlobal thought that explanations in the L1 could be given at the end of the lesson. @Marisa_C also mentioned Google Translate in cases where the class was multilingual.

Is it easier to create materials or use a coursebook?

Using material created for the students appears to be more effective than using a coursebook. @ddeubel reminded us of a very old classic series for teaching conversation

 (and grammar). http://t.co/5JRU9SUIOX

@Marisa agreed that she usually prepared her own. @esolcourses has an excellent website for students to use, which is continually updated.

Our discussion was really about how to teach grammar well, not whether we should worry about the terminology J

So, what works in class?

@Marisa_C pointed out that highly complex free activities, such as problem solving, are often beyond the language capabilities of beginners.

There were many good suggestions of things which could work:

1. ·        Diagrams
2. ·        Video clips
3. ·        Animations (goanimate etc.)
4. ·        Objects
5. ·        Visuals in context: magazines, newspapers,photographs
6. ·        Substitution tables
7. ·        Cards with pictures or words for students to assemble
8. ·        Start with chunks and add words to form more complex sentences
9. ·        Mingling activities (e.g. Find someone who)
10. ·        Pictures ( came up time and again)
11. ·        Contextualised dialogues (if well-scaffolded)
12. ·        Application drills
13. ·        The disappearing dialogue, (also known as the vanishing technique)
14. ·        Role-play
15. ·        Scrambled sentences
16. ·        Simple cloze or gapped dialogue
17. ·        Chants ( Jazz Chants is excellent for ALL levels as long as not overdone)

A good point from @face_english : Context should always be the focus, right?

 LINKs

 I’ll leave you with some links from @face_english:

battleships: using a picture grid screencast.com/t/1pFXmFdC

http://t.co/vX9DOUIDv4

http://t.co/cQ4ErTW7jk 

#ELTchat Tribute to Dave Willis Wednesday 30th October 2013

#ELTchat: Summary for the two chats which took place

on Wednesday 30^th October 2013

Due to the untimely passing of Dave Willis, #ELTchat decided to pay tribute to him and to celebrate the work he did for the ELT community at large (as suggested by @eltexperiences). This applied to both discussions. 

Interestingly, the number of participants taking part, not including lurkers, was evenly divided between the early and later sessions. This included @pjgalantry and @HanaTicha who took part in both chats- addicts, methinks J

Although Dave Willis was well known for both the Lexical approach and Task-Based Learning, it was the latter which struck a chord with both groups of chatters. The Lexical Approach was briefly mentioned in the evening chat, but will make good material for a future discussion……..watch this space

@leoselivan had written a lovely piece a few days earlier which @Marisa_C shared at the start: http://t.co/8NugrkBCQ1  ‘We are lexically indebted to him’

@PatrickAndrews thought that the importance of TBL was authenticity and motivation and others agreed that ‘learning by doing’ was an effective way to use the target language and that ‘the task chosen was highly important’ @MrChrisJWilson

So TBL needs some sort of authentic and challenging task, and collaboration Marisa_C

@Shaunwilden told us that he started out in the PPP mode and coming across the TBL framework changed him as a teacher. I would like to echo this as it was the same for me. HanaTicha worried that it meant throwing away the PPP approach, which can still be a valuable resource, albeit with judicious use.

@teflgeek wanted clarification: were we discussing TBL in its purist form, Coursebook TBL or teacher adapted TBL? He suggested that his own method closely approximated to TBPPP. Marisa_C asked whether anything remained in its ‘pure’ form these days. She said that TBL accepts a presentation (PPP) within the task cycle- if required.

How is the second attempt at the task handled?

This took up the majority of the first chat, as participants offered each other advice gained from their own experiences.

MrChrisJWilson said that his students, particularly the teenagers, rolled their eyes and lacked motivation. He thought it could be a lack of awareness of deficiencies in the first draft. He explained that he used TBL mainly for writing tasks. michaelegriffin suggested a new partner and a bit of input or correction would help. teflgeek thought the problem might be caused by students being product focussed. He felt disappointed by the spoken output of his students, which he deemed ‘ephemeral’ as he believed that they focussed more on the answers than the developmental process. PatrickAndrews believed that this was actually what is contained in normal communication- for a product, through a process! teflgeek took issue with this and suggested that there might always be a purpose, but not always a product: transactional/interactional communication- which was disputed by MrChrisJWilson as being a false dichotomy as they overlap.

And from a Literacy Teaching perspective?

@JoHart explained that with adults, using TBL allowed them to draw on their own experiences or needs. She suggested using what the students need to achieve as the basis for a meaningful task.

Has anyone tried using TBL in a BL Context?

Marisa_C had experience and was happy to say that it worked well in blended learning mode, especially if you had groups in breakout rooms.

Others agreed that TBL lent itself to an online environment. HanaTicha asked her students to make their own videos and discuss the steps in a Facebook group. pjgallantry had experimented with Moodle with his ESOL students. It depends how tech-savvy the students are, and how the lessons are set up, according to him.

Marisa_C was interested to find out whether the synchronous environment, in real time, made TBL easier to implement. pjgallantry suggested that Blended Learning was often about the task, but not necessarily the complete cycle. Some online courses, such as the OU’s EAP course, have a clear task based focus.

Is the Flipped Class the New TBL?

The Flipped Class model, where the task is largely done in class, allowing for differentiation, would relate BL to TBL, according to pjgallantry. In answer to Shaunwilden, he suggested that it tends to lead to a cyclical module design when used with TBL. He explained that he had designed a BL ESOL course as part of his DELTA mod3 which used TBL as its core. Shaunwilden agreed that the cyclical nature of both was evident.

So it can be said that both f2f and online tasks are able to use the TBL core; it depends on the tools and the tasks.

Can Course or Resource books provide material?

pjgallantry: TBL is largely tailored because of its nature. This comment was met by: does that put TBL out of reach for busy teachers constrained by coursebooks? @teflgeek. Marisa_C suggested that reversing the order of  things in the coursebook could provide a challenge, and this was agreed later by @Shaunwilden.

@jospa74 : My problem with TBL is the lack of resources.

 Penny Ur’s book ‘Discussions that work’ was suggested as a good source of material, which could be used for speaking and writing lessons as well as the full TBL cycle. There was a rolling of the eyes from Shaunwilden when the Zoo Activity was mentioned- not because it is bad material- perhaps just a trifle overusedJ. I like the book because the tasks can be used with mixed level or ability classes and can be tailored to their needs. I also like a very old book which has a few excellent tasks called ‘Ideas for Listening and Speaking’. Of course, as Shaunwilden said, it isn’t the book/ material you use, it is the framework you use it in. pjgallantry asked whether anyone had taken coursebook materials and recast them in a TBL framework. Shaunwilden suggested doing the activities in reverse if the material is too PPP. Josipa74 used the key expressions parts of Business Result with speaking practice in ‘real’ situations. Marisa_C suggested that most CB follow-up activities don’t actually sit well with the TBL cycle. She thought that the main problem was that coursebooks usually have structural, rather than task syllabuses. She did mention, though, that there was definitely materials design in TBL which could be found in  good ESP and Business English materials.  I suggested ‘Cutting Edge’ as a book with a task based edge and was shot down in flames. Shaunwilden proposed that it was actually quite traditional up to the task activities.   I was delighted to hear from @stephenburrows who told us that he had been trained by D and J Willis themselves (lucky!). They said that Cutting edge had been designed to be 100% TBL, but, due to feedback from teachers and publishers, it was necessary to add more PPP grammar elements to ensure that it would sell. Comments were made to the effect that it always comes down to money!

What is a task?

Shaunwilden offered this link, where Dave Willis discusses the answer to our question http://t.co/QmA3HKmm5p

A tricky question to answer and @theteacherjames asked for time to think about an answer. HanaTicha thought that tasks are culture based. I suggested that tasks offered real time language opportunities and often solve problems. pjgallantry wondered whether a task was the same as a problem.

Josipa74: tasks need to be lazy-student proof, in discrete stages, to prevent students finding ways to take the line of least resistance.

stephenburrows offered us  Willis and Willis’s simple taxonomy of tasks:

·        Ranking

·        Brainstorming

·        Problem solving

Prahbu’s version has:

·        Information gap

·        Opinion gap

·        Reasoning gap (this last; typical of problem solving)

So, a definition- and what about the linguistic element?

stephenburrows: The key is the focus on Meaning over Form. It’s a communicative approach, with a goal, which makes the difference. But the language shouldn’t be forgotten.

Marisa_C: So it seems like a task must be challenging, involve decision making and have some linguistic outcome.

@sbrowntweets: I would say that a task has to have a NON-linguistic outcome; otherwise it’s just a language activity. The main aim is to produce something other than language. @rapple18 was in agreement on this point.

Josipa74: shouldn’t it be something that native speakers do? And that has many possible outcomes?

For a task to be challenging to all students, it would be best to give students different approaches to the same task, according to pjgallantry.

Marisa_C agreed that the task needed to be achievable, yet involve a degree of challenge where students would need to pool their linguistic resources - and the task could then create a need for new language.

stephenburrows concurred and pointed out that this met the requirements of the Model stage; to feed in new language, which is subsequently reflected on after the learners try to use it. This is different from a simple revision of known areas. He said that a task without a Model stage failed to demonstrate new linguistic possibilities.

pjgallantry thought that students actually required evidence of what the linguistic outcome was or they became frustrated.

@MarjorieRosenbe gave us a tangible example of how that works in a Business English context, where students need to work out the answer to a given situation. She suggested that her students often become involved in the task and the language might easily take a backseat.

Josipa74 told us about the time she had her class make Ginger Beer over a period of three days. This was a practical lesson, which I’m sure will be remembered- even if there didn’t appear to be much of a linguistic outcome.

But how do you keep the students on track-and using the target language?

Personally, I find that monolingual groups are quick to revert to their L1 if not motivated to speak in English. As most of my classes are mixed nationality it isn’t too much of a problem for me, and I don’t really mind, as long as the end result is done in English, as required.

This struck a chord with some of the other participants, who suggested that the teacher needs to take on the role of police/ monitor, which is a criticism of TBL. MarjorieRosenbe and stephenburrows appeared to think that this was not likely if the task was in the target language. HanaTicha thought that given the chance, most students would use L2.

At the other end of the cycle- do you use task repletion or a further, more challenging task?

Nearly everyone was in agreement here.

Stephenburrows: task repetition is vital- communicative task-delayed error correction- feedback- task……….

HanaTicha: students appreciate a ‘second chance’ if they feel they can learn from previous mistakes

Shaunwilden: It depends on how they fared during the earlier parts of the cycle.

Links :

Dogme and TBL: http://t.co/Gr6LTGrije   courtesy of @michaelegriffin

TBL and coursebook: http://t.co/jhgRqix3nG

TBL and PPP fusion:  http://t.co/v1zmCFekKs  courtesy of  @teflgeek

http://t.co/XL1Zikpf9b  English UK link to CPD sessions

I had such an interesting time while writing this, that I tried out a TBL session with my mixed level PM class today. It went extremely well and I would like to thank everyone for their contribution.

Interview with Dave Willis

Our newest member, @melody_philip, taking part in #ELTChat for the first time, finished by saying: I’ve learnt a lot. Thank you everyone.

Colour Code:

Purple: Participating in both chats

Navy: Lunchtime participants

Red:  Evening participants

Blue: Moderators

#ELTchat summary 2nd October 2013 Career Advancement Options for EFL Teachers

Career Advancement Options for EFL Teachers

So- you've been a teacher for a few years and are wondering where the road will take you next......
The participants of Wednesday evening's #ELTchat looked at a variety of options, and discussed the pros and cons of each.



@theteacherjames kick-started the proceedings by asking

' where do you see yourself in 10 years time?'

Most of us really felt that we wanted to be in the same place, doing the same thing- teaching, while others had ideas of making it in other spheres.
It was suggested that we will probably all be involved in a lot more freelancing- not necessarily a good thing! A few were thinking about moving into more mainstream teaching sectors, or there was even talk of  setting up a learning centre with space for colleagues to run courses- a nice dream:-)

But are we talking professional enhancement, moving up the career ladder, or simply more money?

One option is to gain more qualifications. In Israel it seems that an MA can open many doors. Going into academia with a doctorate would allow you to do research, or teach on MA courses. There are always a few niche jobs that you could help to develop in your workplace with the right qualifications: how about a certificate in teaching Young Learners, Exams, or International Business, or Online Teaching? Perhaps you could offer something new to your school.
Some of us had colleagues who did PGCEs  (Post Graduate Certificate of Education) and ended up in the State sector, or International schools- not something which filled everyone with enthusiasm! However the benefits were viewed as being good conditions, nice students, a strong union and decent money, which is not to be sniffed at :-)
However work in academia is not a given, and many of us have known colleagues who have had bad experiences with job security afterwards. But, - Is there job security in any ELT job?

How about becoming the owner of a school?
There was a lot of disagreement on this one. Given the recession, this could be more of a nightmare than a dream, but much depends on the country you are planning to base yourself in.The autonomy of having your own school appealed to one or two, but the fact that you can never switch off, have to be aware that the customer is king, and worry about inspections, led to shudders from the others.

Or Management?
Promotion could easily take teachers out of the classroom. Not only would you lose the camaraderie of the staffroom, but the holiday entitlement might change- and not for the better! As all of the chat participants are passionate about teaching and learning, the opportunity to no longer be in the classroom didn't meet with much favour. @theteacherjames did say that he would like to be in management but continue to teach as well- possibly the best of the options.

So what is the furthest you can realistically go and still keep in touch with the classroom?

Materials writing?
@marjorierosenbe mentioned that all publishers are different and looking for fresh ideas, but @vickyhollet was more cautious.She warned that the writing option was precarious at the moment for both writers and publishers.It was thought that the way materials are commissioned has also changed- today publishers are more likely to spot a gap in the market and employ a team to write, for a fee, rather than an individual approaching them with an idea. There is also the success of self-published material online, or for companies such as The Round. There is a new IATEFL sig on this and MAWsig is on facebook too.

@hartle made me chuckle when she said that teachers are all materials developers on a daily basis anyway,  :-)

Teacher Training?
It works in terms of professional development, but does it pay the bills? @johnarnold joined us and said thatbeing a teacher trainer was more rewarding, but materials writing was more lucrative. Another problem is the scarcity of these jobs. There are a lot of teachers out there looking for something to aspire to. And back to those qualifications we talked about before- in some places you need at least a Diploma, if not an MA to even be considered.

Diversification?
The important thing is to be involved  and not burnt out.Keeping your fingers in several pies was seen as the best option, as it can deliver advancement, satisfaction and money. Professional development in the form of blogging was also viewed as a good way to get your name known, as was attending or presenting at workshops and conferences. This doesn't necessarily equate to more money, though it can bring rewards in the form of prestige.

I leave it to @hartle to finish with  a tongue-in-check comment:
'so what we want is a safe, creative job connected to teaching and didactics rather than management, with a huge salary!'

All pictures taken from #eltpics sets on flickr. CC some rights reserved (most are my own pictures)

#ELTchat Summary 18th September 2013 How to Exploit Reading Texts

How to Exploit Reading Texts.

An Authentic text

This was an interesting discussion, with a group of international participants, all experienced teachers and material designers, sharing their advice.

@MarjorieRosenbe, fresh from her break, started off by asking the direction of the chat: 

Is this any type of text; classroom and homework activities?

@Charlesrei1 mentioned that he was less confident exploiting texts than images, and was therefore looking forward to the discussion. He also mentioned that he worried that text based lessons could fall flat if the topic held no appeal for the class and hadn't yet found a way to revive them.

@worldteacher talked about a workshop on exploiting 50-word texts she had attended. The speaker had suggested that it was possible to derive 4 hours of lessons from one text.

It was agreed that authentic texts were not only for advanced students and that texts of all levels need to be made accessible to the class, whatever their level. @MarjorieRosenbe’s students are delighted when they are able read an authentic text , and having fun with texts, to activate vocabulary and give students confidence was a major factor in her use of them in her University classroom.

 @Marisa_C shared her pinboard for simple texts, as they are less easy to find http://t.co/zeaganukS3  .She also suggested http://t.co/UB6ge1aSW  for texts at different levels of complexity, on the same topic.

The provenance of texts was questioned. Do we just use Native speaker English, or can texts be taken from a variety of Non-native speaker sources. It appeared that the use of NNS sources was dependent on the teaching context, country, and the time available in the curriculum.

@touqo asked how copyright is dealt with when exploiting texts and @AnthonyGaughan thought something like Wikinews, which is copyright free, or Creative Commons licensed texts, would be the best solution.

@MarjorieRosenbe shared one of her lesson ideas:

·        Use a text from the NY Times- a true story about a small boy who takes his mum’s car.

·        Students can look at key words and teach them to each other

·        Give students difficult vocabulary and they write their own story before they read the text. Meeting new vocabulary is then not a problem.

It also makes them interested in finding out what the real story is about.

·        Read the text

·        Add words or substitute words in the text

·        The stories can be read aloud and students can vote on the best, funniest, most creative etc. This is done only to share their work in groups- not as a reading aloud task.

@Marisa_C raised her concerns about reading aloud- which had been covered in a previous #ELTchat You can access the summary here http://t.co/XJcezLiGDJ

·        Students could act out the text, which gets them using the new vocabulary.

·        or produce a piece of writing: you are one of the characters in the text, describe it from your point of view.

·        or collaborate to create crossword for another group to complete.

Activities to start with, before reading, to activate schematic knowledge

@worldteacher: always use realia, or if not possible pictures to generate interest.

 There are more than 15000 pictures available for teachers, by teachers, on the #ELTpics site on www.flickr.com/photos/eltpics  

@EnglishWithK   usually gives a list of the key words with explanations, but @Marisa_C suggested that teaching all of the new vocabulary could lead to the loss of strategy training.

@worldteacher: prediction is vital and helps students be more discerning at other times. Many others agreed with this view.

@Marisa_C likes to invite students to form their own questions while predicting, rather than a dependency on the coursebook or the teacher.

@Marisa_C shared an old post on the value of prediction http://t.co/gXTk80sGC6

@AnthonyGaughan added his ideas http://t.co/7vZNMu9fny

as did @Charlesrei1  http://t.co/dfFgzJpbTG   

@pjgallantry suggested that cartoons might work. Students could supply the words and then compare with the text afterwards.

To see level of language complexity, the Oxford 3000 check tool will help with authentic texts

the native reader

And how to approach the text itself?

@worldteacher: Is skimming and scanning ALWAYS a good idea before reading for detail?

 It was agreed that both are not always necessary, and that it would depend on the text, and how native speakers would deal with it too. Also, if the gist is obvious, and there are no real points to scan for, it would be a waste of time. However, students need to learn the scanning technique, as they often want to read everything in detail, which is not always the most efficient way to handle a text.

@Marisa_C There is a suggestion about top-down reading ( from global to local processing) rather than close reading.

Reading for bias was also mentioned. @Charlesrei1 tries to integrate this with every text as he sees it as a critical skill. He defined it as interpreting the author statements and assumptions, together with reading between the lines and reading with different views in mind.

@Marisa_C : F Grellet’s book http://t.co/kZiHjKKG7D  suggests different levels of questioning; in particular clarify content v clarify rhetorical organisation.

@pjgallantry: a way to help students with text is to place it in a global context and relevance to their situation, as pre, mid, and post text work.

Using web tools

Using web tools

@nroberts88 suggested putting text through http://t.co/SEGrvwCar6 to show the students a map of the text. They can then guess the theme or title. (This is a new tool for me, and one I will be looking to test in the near future.) Thank you.

Wordle or Tagxedo were also recommended as word cloud tools the students could use to predict the topic. Tagxedo has the edge here, as interesting shapes can also be used to predict the topic. As @pjgallantry said: you could import a picture that relates to the story; e.g. the shape of a car could be used for a new item about a car. @worldteacher thought that it helped with critical thinking too, as students would have to offer reasons for their guesses.

From @ozge  via @Marisa_C : a tool to simplify any web text http://t.co/lhlzTYp1kT

Lots of ideas to look through, some good practice for pre-reading and tasks to do while reading- and some excellent sources of material: a great #ELTchat as always, thanks to everyone who took part in the chat.

Join us next Wednesday BST 12.00 or 21.00 for the next instalment………