IN_winter_2015

IATEFL Slovenia Magazine Winter issue 2015, no. 66

Cross-curricular: Librarianship Animals and children Motivation revisited European Day of Languages Conferences Psychology and English

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• bakin p easy it is to assign labels to people you don’t know. n o o p s a e • 1/2 t

Step 2

ing: to n write down about what Slovenians are like. Put them on the board. ners some ideas oppstudents TAsk fectio ted s coto ifideas s m , a r r a g g 0 Then ask them give you some on what teenagers and secondary school students are like. u 1 s • 1 ing)

red or ic • (powde When you have a selection of these on the board, ask them to underline those that are true for them personally or for their friends.

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Step 3

At this point you can introduce the topic of refugees and point it out to students, that it is really to see them as a mass of stereotypes until you know each personal story.

How toeasy do it:

In a heatproof bowl, placed over a saucepan of Place the sifted confectioners sugar in a shallow If they wantmelt to discuss the topic with you, ask them firstFirst, to doform somethe research bringinto facts to cm the simmering water, the chocolate and butter. bowl. chilledand dough 2.5 next lesson.

Remove from heat and let cool to room temperature. balls, and then roll each ball in the sugar. Make sure each ball is completely coated, with no If you want to, you can show students the following video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JMQjyRc7eiY In the bowl of your electric mixer, fitted with the chocolate showing through. Place the sugar-covor find it on Youtube with keywords: I’m Muslim but I’m not... and have them produce their own version of it. paddle attachment (or with a hand mixer), beat ered balls on the prepared baking sheet, spacing the eggs and sugar until thick, pale, and fluffy about 2 inches (5 cm) apart. (about 3 to 5 minutes). (When you slowly raise the beaters, the batter will fall back into the bowl Bake cookies for about 8 to10 minutes or just in slow ribbons.) Then beat in the vanilla until the edges are slightly firm but the centres extract. Add the cooled chocolate mixture and are still soft. (For moist chewy cookies do not beat until incorporated. over bake. Over baking these cookies will cause them to be dry.) Remove from oven and place on In a separate bowl whisk together the flour, salt, a wire rack to cool. and baking powder. Add dry ingredients to the chocolate mixture, stirring just until incorporatThese cookies are best eaten the day they are ed. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate until baked. With a lot of milk  firm enough to shape into balls (several hours or even overnight).

Makes about 3 dozen cookies.

Preheat oven to 165˚ C and place rack in centre of oven. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.

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Recipe taken from: http://www.joyofbaking.com/ChocolateCrinkles.html

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IATEFL Slovenia Magazine Vol. 15, No 66, Winter issue 2015 Published by: IATEFL Slovenia, p. p. 1677, 1001 Ljubljana Email: info@iatefl.si www.iatefl.si tel: 041 907065 IATEFL Slovenia President: Lea Sobočan Vice president: Sandra Vida IN editor: Dolores Malič Printed by: Design Studio, d.o.o.

Graphics: Petra Turk Articles, letters and other contributions should be addressed to IATEFL, p. p. 1677, 1001 Ljubljana Email: info@iatefl.si

Dear readers, can you believe it's nearly Christmas?

Are you wondering how it is possible for a year to go by that quickly?

Our new IN is full of readable articles and there's also the announcement of two plenary speakers for our upcoming conference in March.

You can still catch our "early bird" prices if you'd like to find some more inspiration with our IATEFL Slovenia  As usual, you're invited to join us in any way you like - we're always happy to welcome new members.

I hope to see you in March and I wish you all a very joyful December and a great New Year 

IATEFL Slovenia Board Members: Janja Čolić Dolores Malič Nataša Meh Doroteja Podgrajšek Lea Sobočan Sandra Vida Cover-page photo: Matjaž Zalar ISSN 1855-6833

Cross-curricular teaching: librarianship by Jasmina Nurkić ...........................................................................

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The influence of animals on children’s learning and development by Andreja Pinter . . ..........................................

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Something old, something new: motivation revisited by Andrea Fischer PhD ....................................................

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HUPE 2015: Šibenik, 24–26 April by Doroteja Podgrajšek and Janja Čolić . . .....................................................

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WHAT TO EXPECT AT THE CONFERENCE 2016? Plenary speaker: Ken Wilson . . .....................................

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WHAT TO EXPECT AT THE CONFERENCE 2016? Plenary speaker: Thom Jones . . .....................................

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Celebrating the European Day of Languages at school by Barbara Kragelj Jerič..................................................

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Issues of morality in public life: interdisciplinary cooperation between psychology and English by Ana Koce Jurjevčič .......

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Building bridges by Jasna Džambić . . .....................................................................................................

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IATEFL Slovenia's Lesson Jamming Saturday .........................................................................................

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What are these people like? ................................................................................................................

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Ivy Smith by Tjaša Lemut Novak . . ........................................................................................................

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To be up-to-date with what is going on, visit our website: www.iatefl.si

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Cross-curricular teaching: librarianship

for novels only, another classified the books by genre, another worked on dictionaries, and so on. In the process, the students started borrowing novels themselves and talking to their peers in class about their project and the most interesting materials. It was great to see how much they enjoyed making their lists and working as a team.

When they had completed their handwritten lists, the number of novels had gone up to 195, but then it was time for the next stage of the project...

by Jasmina Nurkić, Meša Selimović High School, Tuzla, Bosnia and Herzegovina Cross-curricular teaching in a secondary school means joining forces with teachers of other subjects in order to find common ground where you can work together, complementing each other’s knowledge; this is sure to benefit your students and ultimately give them an advantage in the modern world. English in particular is one of those subjects that can be taught in the context of almost any other discipline.

the English materials available in our school library, thus making them more readily accessible to all our students and teachers. Prior to the project, we had a list of 50 books, but I knew that there were quite a few more on the library shelves thanks to some donations our school had recently received. the school’s librarian, Ms Amira Hasić, and I had to work together to make it into an interesting, useful project that everyone – the students, the school and the teachers – would benefit from. So the list became only the starting point of our project: we also planned librarianship workshops, presentations for the school’s open day and presentations in English for our younger students.

This type of learning is aimed at answering the needs and interests of the students. As a result, they are highly motivated from the very start to take an active part in the process of acquiring and applying the new knowledge. What it takes is teamwork, on the part of both teachers and students, and being prepared to invest time and effort into getting up-to-date and practical types of knowledge. The following is a brief description of a cross-curricular project my students, the school librarian, Ms Amira Hasić, and I enjoyed doing during the last school year.

After consulting with Ms Hasić, I asked for volunteers who might participate in the project. It takes the right kind of personality to become a good librarian and enjoy yourself doing this kind of work. Our volunteers were all well-read students with a great love of literature. They were also team players with good organisational skills.

However, the idea of just sitting in a quiet library noting down various information on books might not sound particularly appealing to any teenager! This meant that

We arranged the best time for our volunteers to participate in weekly workshops. Initially, the students were assigned different tasks to carry out in pairs or groups of three. One pair went through the library books looking

Ms Hasić held workshops teaching the students some basic librarianship skills, including the use of technology and how to achieve successful communication with the students borrowing books. The students were amazed at how much more there is to the job of librarian than many people realise. It’s a job that requires good computer and organisational skills, the right kind of personality, and above all a broad knowledge of different genres and topics to ensure a good service and help for the readers.

Open Day 2015 was an excellent chance for our volunteers to show what they had achieved in the previous months.

They made posters with the most popular book titles and photographs showing different stages of the project. Flyers were also made and distributed to student guests from elementary schools, informing them on what our library has to offer and the project they were working on.

Finally, working again in pairs and groups, the volunteers gave presentations on their project to first- and second-year classes at our school. This gave them an opportunity to practise their public speaking, while the younger students were made better aware of the school’s resources and the school itself was once again made proud of its diligent students and their contribution. All in all, then, the project gave us all an example of the many benefits a cross-curriculum approach has to offer.

Motivating senior secondary school students means finding something that is at the same time educational, interesting and challenging, and preferably something that will also take them away from the classroom setting and traditional learning. This is how I came to the idea of including our students in making a complete list of all

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To be up-to-date with what is going on, visit our website: www.iatefl.si

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The influence of animals on children’s learning and development

ready to take part in his games and thus also bolstering his imagination. Often they played Batman and Robin together, for example (she always seemed to enjoy taking the role of Robin!).

Moving on from my experience at home, at school I asked a girl who has a dog called Runo a few questions.

Me: What pet do you have at home?

Student: I have a dog.

Me: How do you take care of him? Do you like doing that? Does taking care of a pet teach you anything?

Student: Yesterday I got up at 6 in the morning and took my dog for a walk. Usually my mum does that, but yesterday I felt that he would like to go out with me. I really enjoy running with Runo. He’s a big dog and he sometimes scratches me when he jumps up, but that doesn’t bother me. As long as he’s happy. Taking care of a dog teaches me how to care for someone and I like the fact that someone else needs me.

Me: Do you like talking about your pet?

Student: Sometimes it’s the easiest way to start talking to someone new when you have your dog with you. Then I can talk about him and there is always something to talk about, because he’s always doing something funny or naughty.

Me: Have you ever thought about how your pet could help you with learning?

Student: It would be really nice if he could do my homework instead of me! Only joking! But yes, I’m always more relaxed when I can pat my dog after doing homework or studying. And I really enjoy it if he’s with me when I study.

Me: Do you think your pet senses when you are sad?

Student: That’s a really funny question, because I think that when I am sad, my dog is sad too. He always comes and curls up beside me like he wants to comfort me, and that makes me laugh and feel better.

by Andreja Pinter Vitanje Elementary School “Dogs are not our whole life, but they make our lives whole.”

(Roger Caras) The idea of including animals into learning isn’t new, and indeed there are many institutions around the world which are already exploiting the benefits of animals in the classrooms. But there are also institutions fighting for animal rights, such as PETA, which warn us that the classroom isn’t a suitable place for an animal. Seeking a compromise between these positions, perhaps the most appropriate idea is to keep the pets at home, where they are properly taken care of, and teach parents how they might “participate” in the process of learning and their children’s development. So that is the focus of this article: how can we, as teachers, give parents directions and advice on how a pet might participate in the life, school work and socialisation of a child. How can parents use pets at home to help their children not only with their school work, but also to develop as human beings? Can a pet help a child to become more confident, more social and even more successful than his petless peers? I for one am certain it can.

To explore this subject, first, I examined some studies that have shown how animals change children’s behaviour and influence them, then I looked at some examples from my own home to show how a dog helped my son with his development and in what ways pets might be included in learning specific subjects, and finally I asked some of my students about their pets at home and how they feel around them.

Various schools have conducted studies in which they involved animals in the classroom and found out that it improved children’s social skills and reduced problematic behaviour. When a child emotionally bonds with a pet, walks it, feeds it and so forth, he or she feels more confident and has a higher level of self-esteem. And when a child is taught proper animal care, he or she is learning to take responsibility.

When we provide a child with an opportunity to talk about animals, it gives him or her a chance to practise skills such as listening, perspective-taking and critical thinking and skills which are often lacking in the workplace such as: • Working in teams 6

• Participation in discussions • Appreciation of others’ views

The research shows that all children can benefit from the presence of a nonjudgmental pal with paws. In one study, for example, children were asked to read in front of a peer, an adult and a dog. Researchers monitored their stress levels, and found that the children were most relaxed around the animal.

Children who grow up with animals are also healthier. Not only do they have fewer allergies than children in households without pets, but, according to a new study, they also tend to get fewer respiratory and ear infections during their first year of life.

So here are some examples of how we can include animals in learning different subjects: MATHS: Ask “How much does the terrapin weigh?”, for example, or “How many kilometres do birds fly when they migrate?”. At a very early stage of learning, we can count an animal’s legs or add up the legs of all the animals we have.

GEOGRAPHY: “What part of the world does a certain animal come from?”, “Which countries do birds fly over when they migrate?”

LANGUAGE: “What words would we use to describe a particular pet?”

BIOLOGY: The anatomy of a certain animal can provide a good illustration of more general principles.

I myself had the opportunity to see the benefits of having a dog in the early stages of my son’s development. When he was growing up, his physical and verbal development didn’t go hand in hand. While he could say his first words at a really early age, he was very insecure about walking on his own.

He kept clinging to my hand and didn’t trust himself to let go. Anyway, I found that the only way to make him forget about his fear of falling was to give him the dog’s leash (of course it was important here that the dog was calm and well trained). Eventually he was able to let go of the leash and didn’t need to hold anyone’s hand anymore.

And it didn’t stop with that: later my son learnt about the responsibility of taking care of a pet, he learnt how to love other

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As a final word, I would like to emphasise once again that helping parents recognise the benefits of including animals in learning is another of the things we as teachers can do. If we research the subject, we will be well placed to give valuable advice on the ways their pets, and indeed other animals, might be included to support their children’s development.

“Dogs never bite me. Just humans.” (Marilyn Monroe)

living beings and he also learnt something about discipline. The older he got, the more I included our dog. She’d always liked listening to stories when I read them to my son – when she heard that it was storytime, she always came into his room and started listening –, so when my son started reading stories on his own, he was more motivated if he could read them to her.

Meanwhile, at school, he prepared an oral presentation using our dog as the main character. And because my son is an only child, the dog was an invaluable companion in his play, always

Online resources • www.companionanimalpsychology.com/2014/01/do-children-benefit-from-animals-in.html • www.onegreenplanet.org/animalsandnature/talking-about-animals-thebenefits-for-a-classroom-and-for-the-21st-century-society • www.peta.org/teachkind/humane-classroom/whats-problem-classroom-pets/ • www.parents.com/parenting/pets/kids/pets-good-for-kids/ • http://healthypets.mercola.com/sites/healthypets/archive/2012/09/07/ children-with-pets-at-home.aspx

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Something old, something new: motivation revisited

by Andrea Fischer PhD Károli University Budapest, Hungary Introduction Present-day teenagers are somewhat different from those I met when I started teaching 20 years ago. They belong to the so called ‚Z-generation‘ and seem to require different approaches and techniques to keep them on their toes, to establish a work-climate and lift their ‚affective filters‘ on a daily basis in the classroom.

The focus of my article is the challenge I face when every now and then I return to secondary school teaching in addition to my full-time teacher training job. Motivational strategies, learner training, warmers and energizers, Multiple Intelligence Theory and drama are just a few ‚old‘ concepts that need to be redefined when trying to work with the ’Z-generation’ students successfully in a rapidly changing context. It is even more of a challenge when I face those otherwise bright students who are either low-level, or very mixed- level and just low-motivated anyway when it comes to learning English.

Thus, in this article first I shall explore and compare the X-, Y- and Z-generation characteristics and highlight the differences. Based on my experience, next I shall share a handful of practical ideas that I found helpful when trying to cater for the internet generation’s needs being a ’pre-internet’ teacher. These revisited elements helped me work) successfully with a rather challenging 9th grade group (15-year- olds), against all odds.

Generations X, Y and Z Being in my late forties, as a teacher I am a representative of the X generation since I was born well before the so called ’digital era’. However, most of my students are ’millennial’ people who belong to generation Z. Below is a chart that reveals where you, the reader of this article belong according to your year of birth: Generation

Born

X

1966 -1976

Y

1980s -1999

Z

2000 or later

Table 1. Who is who: the 3 generations From a personal point of view, my adolescent son and daughter belong to generation ’Y’- they are almost Z. The gaps I notice between our attitudes, speed and priorities on a daily basis is mostly funny but I occasionally find them frustrating and annoying. For instance, they would call me a ’dinosaur’ with all their love when they see me using my rather old ’stupid phone’ while texting a friend.

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Meanwhile, they are gadget-geeks and multi-task: watch TV, chat on their smartphones, check what homework is on their laptop or tablet using facebook chatting with at least four other people simultaneously. I sometimes pleasantly surprise them with setting up a facebook group for the three of us to share information like an interesting article, but my digital competences are very limited compared to theirs. What I find most alerting is that it is almost hopeless to communicate with them face to face and catch an internet-free moment or two in their lives.

Although I’m trying to keep up with the flow and do use the internet for both learning and teaching, I still have some seemingly old fashioned habits. I do enjoy and insist on trying to find the time to meet friends in the real, keeping eye-contact while talking to them and still going to a library first when I need a book – unlike them. To further prove the width of the gap between us, I could continue listing examples endlessly.

Z-generation Learners (Digital Natives)

X-generation Teachers (Digital Immigrants)

prefer receiving information quickly and from multiple sources (peer learning)

prefer slow and and controlled release of information from limited sources

prefer parallel processing and multitasking

prefer singular processing and single or limited tasking

are generally impatient

are generally patient

process pictures, sounds and video before text

tend to provide text first, before pictures, sounds and video

learn ’just in time’, ie. very last minute

teach ’just in case’, since it might be tested

prefer and ask for instant feedback, results and rewards

prefer deferred feedback and gratification

are game- and fantasy oriented

are work- and reality oriented

prefer learning something that is relevant, instantly useful and fun

teach the curriculum and prepare learners for standardized tests

Table 2. Different generations in the digital culture (Adapted from Jukes and Dosaj, 2004) Instead, I shall now focus more on the classroom entity, compare and contrast some traits and preferences of the Z-generation learners and their X-generation teachers. The two-column chart below reveals some striking differences between the two generations about speed, patience, primary source of information, how they process information, motivation and goal orientation. Y and Z-generation learners are also often referred to as ’digital natives’, whose reading or writing habits are very different from that of an X-generation

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teacher’s, who is the classic ’digital immigrant’(Prensky, 2001) like myself.

Looking at the major differences listed above, one might wonder how it is still possible to maintain any successful teacher-learner relationship in a classroom. At the same time, it is crucially important to be aware of these different approaches that are culturally imprinted in us and adapt to those changes which we cannot influence. Since most of my students belong to ’generation Z’, the gap between my students and me is getting larger every day. For example, those teenagers who were born between 1995 -2009 have never experienced the pre-internet world, cannot imagine life without wifi and are completely lost and feel paralysed without their smart phones.

Both their digital literacy and their digital competences are very high level, ranging from creating websites, wikis, they live a virtual life on social media, blogpost etc.

As a result, one might wonder how an X-generation teacher can teach a group of Z-generation learners in a language classroom with very limited technical resources, ie. ’chalk and board’ mostly. No smartboard, no projector or laptop is available in most schools in Hungary and access to the computer rooms during the English lessons is also very limited. Who should change, adopt or adapt in such circumstances then?

Should the students learn the old way or should us, educators learn the new way so we can teach them differently? Or could we find a healthy compromise somewhere in between? Although this complex digital gap seems to be impossible to bridge at first sight, the X-generation teacher should still do the impossible: enter the classroom, face the learners, tailor make the lessons, try and meet their diverse needs and come up to expectations. Thus, I started to collect a checklist of useful ideas which are classroom MUSTs to survive. They cater for some of the differences outlined in Table 2. and take into account the learner preferences within those limited technical resources.

Below each idea there is a favourite sample task of mine to illustrate it.

Classroom ideas 1. Surprise element The aim is to create that spark and have something of a surprise, something unexpected, hidden, or to be guessed or discovered as a must in every lesson. My favourite activity is based on a shoe-box which can have different ’ingredients’. The original activity is called ’Mirror int he box’ and the teacher gives the following instruction,’ There is a well-known, famous person’s picture in the box, someone who everybody knows. Open the lid, take a look at the picture, and finish the following sentence: ‘This is a person who…’ Then close the lid and hand on the box to the next person’. Since this activity can only be used once with a mirror, later the box might as well be used to hide an object that needs to be described, or a picture to be dictated.

2. Speed factor Many of the activities reflect the current interest within our profession in activity-based learning and visualization. This echoes the digital native student’s preferred way and speed of information collection and processing. Actiities with gamelike elements, speed and competition is also suggested by

Lindstromberg (2004,6-7.) when talking about how to motivate low-proficiency teenagers. My favourite activity that meets all these requirements is the old ’Snap’ card game. The cards can have any two type vocabulary on them that can be grouped, but irregular verbs, minimal pairs are also suitable for this activity. Students in small groups (2-4) shuffle the cards and deal them face down to make a pile of cards in front of each player. Establish the rule. Take turns to quickly turn your top card face up, say the word, and put it on top of a pile in the middle. When you see two cards together on top of the pile that are eg. minimal pairs/irregular verbs etc. put your hand on the pile and say ’Snap!’ The winner is the one who collected more cards within the time limit.

3. Visual stimulus Students who belong to the Z-generation are very visual. They usually read something that is written on the board, in the book or on a handout. How about reading and decoding something that they can only feel but cannot see? This activity called ’Show your back!’ includes the spatial intelligence element as well, since the learners need to read something that is written on their backs by a partner with a finger. Students think of a vocabulary item (any, topic based, or containing a certain sound etc.) and write the selected word on their partner’s back using their finger only. They should use capitals.

4. Clear goals and ’gadgets’ Almost anything that the teacher can do to make classwork relevant will help low-motivated, digital native students. If, for instance, they need to look up new vocabulary, for a srictly limited time I allow them to pull out their smart phones for 5 minutes and use an online dictionary in class. There are several free LearningApps available on the internet that can make vocabulary development effective, motivating, relevant and fun at the same time. ’Quizlet. com’ is an all-time favourite among my students who use it both individually and in groupwork for practising, extending, recycling vocabulary while playing. As a result, their goal motivation is stronger and more fundamental than ever. In this short article my aim was to share my experience and increased awareness about the Z generation. I also attempted to share some low-resource ideas, activities and techniques that seemed to work with my low-motivated Z learners. I believe the emphasis should be less on technology and more on pedagogy in ELT. An English teacher’s task includes developing the students’ people-skills with an emphasis on communicative competence, especially on their sociocultural competence. Being able to select and integrate the wealth of technology in a purposeful and motivating way is how far I have been able to adapt and change so far. Credibility, flexibility and practicality are my motto.

References • Jukes,I. and A. Dosaj. 2004. Understanding Digital Kids Teaching and Learning in the New Digital Landscape. InfoSavvy Group.

• Lindstromberg, S.(ed.). 2004. Language Activities for Teenagers. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

• Prensky, M. 2001. ’Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants’. On the Horizon.

Vol.9/5. MCB University Press.

a.fischer@invitel.hu

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HUPE 2015: Šibenik, 24–26 April

by Doroteja Podgrajšek and Janja Čolić

Only about a month and a half had passed since the 2015 IATEFL Slovenia conference in Topolšica and we were already looking forward to travelling to Šibenik to attend the 23rd annual Croatian English Teachers’ Association event. It goes without saying that the location near the Adriatic Sea was an additional incentive to attend! The conference talks, workshops and plenaries took place in the three hotels of the Solaris beach resort, so in between we got the chance to stretch our legs walking from one to the other and enjoying the scenic route along the beach.

On the first day we learnt more about using technology from Deborah Healey, who gave us some useful tips and introduced us to websites to help us navigate through the vast area of modern technical classroom aids (one of the topics was using Skype in the classroom; when you get the chance, check out the website we were recommended: https://education.skype.com/). Deborah also gave the closing plenary on “gamification”, which is definitely a project worth considering implementing in your classrooms; a very useful site when trying to gamify your educational approach is http://www. textivate.com/#. Other ways of making your classroom techniques more game-like include assigning points and bonus points for various achievements, holding a weekly quiz, using badges, setting tasks at different levels and with time constraints, and marking students’ progression (see https:// badgeville.com/products/in-app-gamification/#platform).

Paul Dummet shared some ideas on how to develop critical thinking in your students, for example by using multiple sources of information, by questioning assumptions, by asking “why?”, by adopting a curious and enquiring approach, and, when working with various types of texts, by asking

these three questions: What is the author aiming to do? How successful is she or he in this? Why did she or he manage/fail to do this? We should also encourage our students to recognise emotive language in texts and to read between the lines.

Our students need these skills in order to distinguish between facts and opinions, to make informed decisions, to question the mass of information available, to achieve deeper mental processing, and to cultivate reasonableness.

On the same day Kate Mulvey prepared what was in our opinion one of the most inspiring workshops of the whole conference this year, on how to use art in the ESL classroom.

She shared with us the fact that the Paul Getty Museum makes available all of their images for public use free of charge (they are accessible here: http://www.getty.edu/about/ opencontent.html) and that the Guggenheim Museum also has a section dedicated to learning through art (http://www. guggenheim.org/new-york/education/school-educator-programs/learning-through-art/for-educators/find-lessons).

Then we started working in groups: every group was assigned a picture; first we had to think of questions we would ask about it, then we thought of a story behind it and finally, after listening to a couple of examples of poems about a winter scene, we had a go at writing a short poem ourselves. This is what our group came up with (our picture was Hans Hoffmann’s A Hare in the Forest): Don’t Scare the Hare Nibbling, nibbling quietly, Waiting for a carrot, listening for the fox, watching for the hunter.

Suddenly, a butterfly whispers by…

“Is this the end?” the lizards hiss.

Another subject area which was covered at this year’s event in Croatia was neuroscience. I attended two workshops on this topic, one given by Vida Škreb, who explained the “theory of the four rooms”, and the other by Gregor Pirš, who, among other things, made us aware of how important it is to read task instructions as carefully as possible.

Another area that was widely covered at the conference was the needs of SEN (special educational needs) children; the workshops on this area, both theoretical and practical, were interesting and well worth attending. We got many ideas for helping SEN children learn English more easily and faster.

One key idea behind teaching such children is “If they don’t learn the way we teach, can we teach them the way they learn?” (Harry T. Chasty). It is important to remember that is isn’t SEN children who go to school because of us, it is us, the teachers, who go to work because of them – they are our responsibility, and helping them learn English in a more pleasant way can be rewarding as well as challenging.

Also we might do well to follow the Croatian example: they’ve already prepared special students’ books and workbooks for SEN children that are essentially the same as the originals, just not as extensive or detailed (bigger letters, different fonts, more space, fewer and simpler exercises, etc.).

Attending HUPE conference gives you more than just new knowledge, new activities to use in the classroom and ideas on how to improve your work: there is also time to relax, time to analyse and improve your work, you have an opportunity to use English all the time, and you get the confidence to realise that you rock! Apply yourself and keep learning and both you and your students will benefit in the end.

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To be up-to-date with what is going on, visit our website: www.iatefl.si

To be up-to-date with what is going on, visit our website: www.iatefl.si

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1.

He has been to Slovenia before, with great success, but not recently, so many will be happy to see him again because they know his sessions are always superb. But for those who have not heard of him yet, he is an ELT trainer and author. He has trained teachers in more than thirty countries and written more than thirty ELT titles, including a dozen series of coursebooks. His most recent course material includes Smart Choice, an American English course for young adults published by OUP, and Achievers, a British English series for teenagers. He is also one of the team of authors who wrote New Standard English, a course for China which takes learners from primary to college level, which was co-published

by Macmillan UK and Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press, Beijing. He is Editor-in-Chief of a new primary series co-published by Macmillan China and VEPH Vietnam.

released when he Monday, which was er ist M d lle ca s ng so written and ren was a collection of . Since then, he has or tio th ica au bl T pu EL T ed EL st ish fir bl pu se material.

2. His e the youngest-ever integral parts of cour as tim e or s th at um m alb hi g as in ed was 23, mak songs, publish 0 language teaching 20 an th e or m ed rd co

3. He has also written more than a hundred ELT radio and television programmes, mostly for the BBC, including fifty radio scripts for the Follow Me series, thirty Look Ahead TV scripts and a series of plays called Drama First. He also contributed material to Extr@ English, an ELT sitcom commissioned by Channel 4.

4. For many y e

ars, Ken w artistic dir as ector of th e English Teaching The which tou atre, a company red the wo rld ming stag e-shows to perfor­ learners of English . Th than 250 to e ET T made mo­re urs to 55 c ountries in Europe , Latin Am e­rica, Afric the Middle a, East and A sia.

London 5. Ken liveifseinDede and with his w works in a nd two cats a nd of his garee shed at th es his time ivid den. He d ing riting, train between w . He is curing asand study ing for a M y d tu s y tl ren ng at ative Writi ters in Cre ege, Univeroll Birkbeck C n. do n sity of Lo

r-student communication in strategies for ensuring teache en sev t nec con ly On y nar be maintained, in a hi6. His ple ween teacher and students can bet link l vita the how w sho l personal technology. the classroom wil themselves have sophisticated ts den stu the ere wh n atio situ tech classroom or in a

7. He explains why he thin ks

this is an importan about: “In the last t topic to talk few years, I have at tended a number presentations abou of edutech t how technology is transforming th teachers and stud e lives of ents. There is no qu estion that this is tru taking into accoun e, even t the realities of th e digital divide. Ho presenter commen w ev er, two ts made me pause to think. One was dramatic observat th e rather ion that technology would ‘blow down of the old-fashione the walls’ d classroom. The ot her was that traditio rooms with a teac nal classher and students at desks ‘would soon In my opinion, such be extinct’. observations abou t education are no t helpful.

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at most d to me th lks work e rr u c c o 8. It ttending those ta the people a h requires ic h w , m up in a syste ts to turn n e d tu s d n place. The teacher a time and d e re g a sumably at an s (and pre arning e ir u q re system rm of le t some fo a th ) s e p ho they are to ts e il h w e c la e studen will take p t before th s ju t o n r, gethe leave. after they d n a e iv rr a

onference 23rdInternational Iatefl Slovenia Conference nternational Iatefl Slovenia Conference 23rdInternation lovenia Conference 23rdInternational Iatef l Sloveni

onference 23rdInternational Iatefl Slovenia Conference nternational Iatefl Slovenia Conference 23rdInternation lovenia Conference 23rdInternational Iatef l Sloveni

WHAT TO EXPECT AT THE CONFERENCE 2016?

Plenary speaker: Ken Wilson

WHAT TO EXPECT AT THE CONFERENCE 2016?

Plenary speaker: Thom Jones

1. Thomas Jones has been an activity leader, teacher, Director of studies, and centre manager in summer schools and teacher, trainer, dos and principal in year round schools in France, Greece, Germany, Indonesia, Australia, the USA, UK and Mexico, he has been lucky enough to train teachers around the world. Formerly part of the senior executive for the summer school operation at Embassy CES before becoming Director of Operations USA for Studygroup he returned to the UK six years ago to work with Trinity College London and now works with a range of educational entities under his own brand: Brock Solutions Agency. He presents regularly around the world but most recently at MEXTESOL and closer to home at IATEFL, English UK events and schools and universities around the UK. He runs a summer programme at Cambridge University. He is also a freelance trainer in business and management. limited grasp

has only a very 2. He is rubbish at maths andles.

His mother thinks he is great. of even basic scientific princip

3. In his plenary “If music be the food of lo guitar in lettuce” ve, wrap that he is going to expl ore inspiration an tivation in educat d moion.

This is how he desc ribed the plenary himself: “This is a session lo oking at new idea s around the essent dichotomy of unw ial illing participants an d the fact that everyone learns, and teaches, in differe nt ways. We are of slung in the direct ten ion of buzzwords and fads and rare seem to engage w ly ith the reality that most students wou rather do ANYTHIN ld G than go to a clas s…any class, at an age. When we have y so many ways to m otivate why do we often not choose to use them?

4. A holis tic

app best fro m all ele roach to gettin g the ments o ensurin gt fa progres hat students a course and sa nd teac hers tive, the nd enjoy it. It will be re will b in e works and lea teracho rn be NO c ing and doing p elements … ommun al singin there will forced t o g leaving do star jumps. or anybody We will the roo m with be to do in co class to morrow ncrete things fuse of ins to mite of piration leadin light the knowle g to the dge. dyna-

5. There will be shouting, throw-

ing things and probably some swe­eties involved somewhere.”

9. I then had a conversation with the 19-yea r-old nephew of a friend, who told me how things ha d changed when his school in stalled computers for ever y student.

He was pleased th at the class now had acce ss to so much more inform ation and that more learning was self-generated. Ho wever, he also noticed a sudd en lack of communication be tween the class and som e (not all) of his teachers.

k me to thin 10. Thiseleedd to establish that we n t help elines tha id u g e m so et the link b ensure tha cher and the tea tween the st. After all, t lo class is no ra r is there fo the teache er expertise is dh reason, an is talk ething. Th worth som eas to revive nt id uniwill prese ent comm .” d tu s re h teac age e edutech cation in th

So what are you waiting for?

Register for the event early for the early bird price and help us plan the event more efficiently  13

Celebrating the European Day of Languages at school

nia who would be willing and able to be our guests. I do not think I am being over-demanding when I ask them to be: • Present on the day of the workshop, • Fluent in English or Slovene, • Able and willing to prepare an approximately 30-minute workshop about their home country, culture and language, • Willing to do all of the above for free (well yes, this is rather a big ask!).

by Barbara Kragelj Jerič Each year I ask my students the question “What is the most important language in the world?” As an English teacher, I’ve got used to the answer “English!” But at this point I do everything imaginable to ensure that the kids realise their mother tongue is the most important language in their world.

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I have learnt from experience that if the guests are immigrants, Saturdays are usually best for the workshops. Since we have no funds to pay them, it is impolite to ask them to use their vacation time for us. Once the number of guests has been determined, I check for interest among the students. Usually, they are quite motivated to participate, especially because I emphasise that their knowledge of English is not important. I then create the same number of student groups as there are workshops. The kids usually get to spend about half an hour with each guest and usually do not want to leave. Even if time was not of the essence, however, I do not think I would make the workshops longer than 40 minutes. It is important to keep in mind that the guests are usually not teachers and guiding a group of kids for half an hour (and repeating that about four times in one morning) is not an easy task. After each workshop, there is a five-minute break and there is some snack time in between the sessions.

That being said, my primary occupation is English. I have been teaching English for ten years and have worked with many different kinds of English learners: elementary school pupils, high school students, and a variety of university students and adults in evening classes. All these groups have one thing in common: most of them are often not able to use their theoretical knowledge of English in real life conversation.

I live in Goriška in the littoral region. This is not a rich part of the country, so pupils do not generally spend their afternoons at private English schools or their summers at foreign (or even Slovene) camps to improve their language skills.

Most of my students give back almost exclusively what I have taught them. So the idea of foreign language workshops has been very useful to me in gaining the trust of my students and the local community and for emphasising the value of English instruction. The concept is very simple and so is the organisation.

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With an event like this, there are many different fun and challenging ways for the students to learn: • The students do research on the guests’ countries.

• The students make posters and other items of decoration to use in the classrooms to make our guests feel at home.

• The students make name signs and learn how to welcome the guests in front of the school.

• I explain and show the proper ways to meet and escort our guests from the car park to their classroom for the day, to show them the important rooms in the school (classrooms, staff room, toilets, etc.) and to offer some coffee and mineral water.

• I ask them to bake something at home and bring it in to sweeten the event for the guests!

The European Union has observed the European Day of Languages on 27 September since 2001, while in 1999, UNESCO declared 21 February as International Mother Language Day. This is great, as I can choose between the two to set a convenient date for the actual workshops.

At this point, I look around for immigrants (in fact, I look for them throughout the year!) or other foreigners visiting Slove3

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To be up-to-date with what is going on, visit our website: www.iatefl.si

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I use the event to have as many pupils contribute as possible.

In other words, with the above and other activities, I make sure a larger number of students is involved in the preparation of the event as opposed to relying mainly on the students who do best in English.

The photos below give some idea about the workshops, but in truth they cannot even begin to present the excitement, the joy and the fun we have with them!

Picture 1: A simple welcome sign used at the main entrance.

Picture 2: Pupils waiting for the guests.

Picture 3: Mrs Raplenovich, an opera singer from Ohio, presenting the USA with the help of PowerPoint, countless photos and singing.

Picture 4: Mr Raplenovich, a former American teacher, worked his way to the students’ heart and minds through making them work hard. Students mostly remember him by „Think of a question. I‘m moving forward, but I‘m coming back.“ Picture 5: Mr Kaminski, a Canadian professional volleyball player, surprised everyone with his thorough and interesting PowerPoint presentation of Canada. He thus showed our pupils, including the athletes among them, the need for other skills and for sportsmen and sportswomen to master things beyond their sport.

Picture 6: Mr Squire, a British man presenting the UK. Picture 7: My co-worker, Mrs Kavčič, a Slovene teacher, making sure the pupils learn something about Slovene language and culture beyond the classroom.

Picture 8: Mrs Muznik, a sign language specialist, teaching the school’s 12–14-year-olds the basic expressions in sign language.

Picture 9: Dejan Ladika, a TV presenter from RTV Slovenija, who made a Saturday morning fun with interesting stories from his line of work. He also taught the students how to write a TV report and demonstrated how to act in front of the camera.

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To be up-to-date with what is going on, visit our website: www.iatefl.si

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Issues of morality in public life: interdisciplinary cooperation between psychology and English

by Ana Koce Jurjevčič, Bežigrad Gymnasium

Morality is a framework of beliefs, values and judgements of what is right and what is wrong from the social and ethical points of view. It comprises a system of moral and ethical values (honesty, justice, equality, etc.) and social norms.

The question of morality in public life is of the utmost importance for the education of young people, and as such it was discussed in our group of fourth year students preparing for their psychology exam.This issue is also one of the crucial questions in our students literary studies of Oscar Wilde’s An Ideal Husband, which presents the dilemma of whether to accept one’s punishment when one’s wrong is uncovered or to pay a blackmailer to avoid its being revealed in public.

In order to present the question of what is and what is not moral, an English and a psychology teacher at Bežigrad Gymnasium carried out a debate on the issue of morality and idealism in public life with our students (26 girls and 23 boys) in the last year of their secondary education, followed by a research project presenting our students’ personal views on this topic.

In trying to ensure wider and more profound knowledge, the idea of an interdisciplinary approach was found to be a particularly useful one: the studies in psychology first prepared the students for the theoretical background of the project, while the literary studies that followed enabled practical and fairly realistic examples of moral questions, using the fictional characters encountered in An Ideal Husband.

Using knowledge gained in both fields, the students expressed their own standpoints in a series of responses to statements in a questionnaire. The results of the research showed us something about their awareness of moral standards and their evaluation of the hierarchy of moral values.

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These values represent individual expectations and beliefs on what is positive and acceptable in action and behaviour.

They have existed since the beginnings of mankind, though adapted to the way of life at any particular time, and determine the choice and evaluation of actions. The values are acquired within primary and secondary socialisation.

Psychologist Musek’s research into values presents the following categories: • • • •

hedonistic (pleasure, comfort, contentment) potential (values of power and possession) moral (character, work, family) and character-building (artistic, spiritual, cultural)

In the development of our personality, we first strive for hedonistic pleasure. Our next step is material values, achievement and success. Later in life, responsibility and obligation become more important. In the end, our priority is fulfilling our life goals, developing our gifts and building our character.

As the moral sense develops, each person is believed to go through various phases of how they predominantly form their moral judgements: • the pre-conventional stage (age approx. 8–10): obedience, fear of punishment, benefit • the conventional stage (10–13): fitting in, social approval, acceptance of law and order • the post-conventional stage (13+ and depending on intelligence and education): being in accordance with society, the universal ethical principle Below the results of the questionnaire filled in by our students as presented in the form of tables and charts.

To be up-to-date with what is going on, visit our website: www.iatefl.si

Table 1: The most commonly chosen values. (Rarely chosen values included culture, life, knowledge, courage, decisiveness, friendliness, morality and peace.)

Rank

Value

No. of Mentions

1

SINCERITY

20

2

LOVE

18

3

HEALTH

13

4

HONESTY

13

5

HAPPINESS

12

6

FRIENDSHIP

12

7

FAMILY

11

8

VERACITY

9

9

FREEDOM

8

10

TRUTH

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Sir Robert’s wife, Lady Chiltern, is appalled by her husband’s backing a project which he has only recently rejected as fraudulent.

She persuades him to withdraw his promise to Mrs Cheveley, thus preserving his moral integrity, for which she loves him. Not too keen, he writes a letter to Mrs Cheveley, informing her of his denial to suggest that the government reconsider the question.

Table 5: Q3.1 – A politician must make his own decisions, which are then evaluated in elections.

Boys

Girls

Total

3.91

3.92

3.92

Table 6: Q3.2 – A politician’s compliance with the wishes of lobbies is:

In response to the following questions (Q1–Q7.2), students rated behaviours on a scale of 1 to 5 (with 1 being least morally acceptable and 5 most morally acceptable). Tables 2–13 present the means of the students’ responses.

As a young man, Sir Robert is lured into selling confidential information about the government backing the Suez Canal project to Baron Arnheim, who as a result makes three quarters of a million pounds. Sir Robert, then secretary to Lord Radley, makes 110,000.

Table 2: Q1 – Selling insider information is:

Boys

Girls

Total

1.96

1.46

1.69

Sir Robert is now blackmailed by Mrs Cheveley, who in return for his letter telling the Baron to buy Suez shares demands him to support the Argentine Canal scheme, a financial speculation into which she has invested heavily. Giving in to her threats, he promises to act as she demands.

Table 3: Q2.1 – Mrs. Cheveley’s actions are:

Boys

Girls

Total

2.00

1.73

1.86

Table 4: Q2.2 –When a blackmailed politician does not accept responsibility and does not step down, he is considered:

Boys

Girls

Total

2.17

1.81

1.98

Boys

Girls

Total

2.22

1.96

2.08

Sir Robert tells the whole truth to his friend Lord Goring, who first cannot believe his friend sold himself out but then takes a pragmatic approach, promising to do what he can to defeat Mrs Cheveley.

Table 7: Q4.1 – Pragmatic solutions are more important than morality.

Boys

Girls

Total

2.61

2.58

2.59

Table 8: Q4.2 – It is acceptable to be helped by a friend if blackmailed.

Girls

Boys

Total

4.35

4.19

4.27

Lord Goring talks to Sir Robert’s wife, hinting at her over-rigorous moral standards and idealism about her husband’s integrity.

Table 9: Q5.1 – Friends are to be supported, even if their decisions are dubious.

Boys

Girls

Total

2.83

2.50

2.65

Table 10: Q5.2 – A politician must be supported by his family members.

Boys

Girls

Ttotal

2.65

2.46

2.55

In the end, Lord Goring blackmails the blackmailer by threatening to expose her past as a thief, thus preventing the truth about Sir Robert’s dishonesty being revealed.

To be up-to-date with what is going on, visit our website: www.iatefl.si

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Table 11: Q6.1 – A person that has been blackmailed can use blackmail in defence.

Table 12: Q7.1 – One’s political career is more important than the truth.

Boys

Girls

Total

Boys

Girls

Total

2.96

2.46

2.69

1.91

1.50

1.69

Sir Robert is promoted for the report on the truth about the Argentine Canal, while his wife advises him to resign from politics. Lord Goring, however, makes her understand that her husband’s political ambitions are far too important for his happiness to do so. She gladly forgives his mistakes in the past, accepting his advancement in politics.

Table 13: Q7.2: Morality is an important factor in society.

Boys

Girls

Total

4.26

4.65

4.47

Building bridges Impressions of an over-thinker, i.e. teacher

International IATEFL Hungary Conference, Budapest 9 – 10 Oct 2015

by Jasna Džambić Note: The author of this text does not expect from the readers to share her views on the following matters, but asks them to respect the right to express oneself freely and without judgement.

Graph 1: Variation in means grouped by gender.

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Q1 Q2_1 Q2_2 Q3_1 Q3_2 Q4_1 Q4_2 Q5_1 Q5_2 Q6_1 Q7_1 Q7_2

4

Mean

3

2

1

0

Girls

Boys Gender

Conclusion Interdisciplinary cooperation between the English and psychology departments enabled a thorough study of the literary work and a detailed psychological analysis of the main characters. It also allowed a sincere analysis of current open questions concerning morality. While sincerity, love, honesty, health, happiness and friendship are crucial moral values for our students, culture, knowledge, life, courage, decisiveness and morality are 18

deemed less important ones. According to our students, of the behaviours in the questionnaire, it is most immoral to sell confidential information and give priority to one’s political career over the truth. Accepting a friend’s helping hand is considered absolutely moral, showing that in adolescence, friendship is vital in building one’s identity. Most students agree that morality is crucial in the functioning of society, indicating that social norms are deemed to come before personal morality.

To be up-to-date with what is going on, visit our website: www.iatefl.si

RECAP: 1. Good workshops I visited:

 WORKING WITH MIXED-ABILITY GROUPS (Edmund Dudley and Erika Osvath) – by focusing on different learner types we enable instant differentiation, higher engagement of the students and their active involvement, meaningful language use and increase the students’ self-esteem IDEAS: 1. Piece of music (play a piece of music to the students, then let them discuss it in pairs; there are no expectations of what they will/can say – this raises their self-esteem); 2. Beauty (students are supposed to think of something beautiful – they close their eyes and imagine/ visualise it; then they draw/describe it; they exhibit their products; other students comment) 3. Repetition (poem by Jean Little): Today I will not ...............

Today I might .................

I don’t think I’ll ......................

I need ....................

- Students first write their own ideas and are then shown the original/model poem 4. I’m from ... (students collect childhood memories – objects, sounds, tastes, images, words, people; forming sentences: I’m from the scent of grass / I’m from the stars high above / ...

5. The five senses poem (It sounds like / It tastes like / It smells like / It looks like / It makes me feel – students complete the sentences)

 EBONY AND IVORY: FOSTERING TOLERANCE IN AN EFL CLASSR OOM (Barbara K. Horvath) – ideas to use in classes with mixed nationalities, different soci al/cultural/ economic backgrounds EXAMPLE: 1. Disadvantaged students (stand in a line game – 5 (or more) students come forward and are handed different life situations written on a piec e of paper; they stand in line (some are more in the foreground than others) according to their situation – different situation means different chances – discu ssion: How do you feel?

2. LGBT students (Imagine how you’d feel game– the point of this activity is the reversed situa tion, which means that we turn a usual situa tion around – e.g. minority becomes majority ; the teacher asks the students to imagine a situa tion where majority becomes minority, e.g. mos t of the society is gay and the heterosexuals are in minority; afterwards the students try to express how they’d feel in such a situation)

 MIND THE APP (Thomas Strasser) – use of Internet and applications in the classroom “The Internet is not evil and it’s there.”

“Getting information off the Internet is like taking a drink from a fire hydrant.”

“A fool with a tool is still a fool.”

1. Great commercial: type “Did you know the BOOK?” in YouTube browser – a must see  2. Useful Internet sites: • URL shrinkers: www.bit.do, www.goo.gl • Free images: www.pixabay.com (find images which can be used according to Creative Commons) • Videos: www.nicertube.com (videos without other YouTube “distractions” • Creating polls, questionnaires, quizzes: www.polleverywhere.com, www.kahoot.it • Word visualisation: www.wordle.net • www.learningapps.org

To be up-to-date with what is going on, visit our website: www.iatefl.si

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There was an elephant in the room.

BEST MOMENT: relaxing and recharging batteries in our bohemian AirBnB apartment in central Budapest, listening to Swan Lake and bonding with Lea  - feels like being at the right place at the right time – very liberating

BEST QUOTE: Jaz sem Nora. 

BEST WORKSHOP: Jane Revell – Use it or Lose it!

- a workshop on training your memory

There was an elephant in the room.

The 25th International IATEFL Hungary Conference has officially begun. It is nice to be here again. It gives me a chance to see some old friends I got a chance to meet in the past, to make some new as well, to catch up with my gals Lea, Sandra and Dragana, to relax, to hopefully learn some new things and tricks to use in the classroom etc.

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BEST CONFERENCE AREA: Nostalgia Room where IATEFL Hungary displayed memories, documents and pictures from their 25 years together.

CONFERENCE SONG (great idea, btw): Looking forward, looking back (Slim Dusty)

BEST EVENT: Saturday evening Silver Jubilee Party organised

by IATEFL Hungary Organising Committee – great, great show!

But I cannot help but wonder why there weren’t any discussions, talks etc. on the current affairs in the world? Why weren’t there any open space slots to give us, the educators, a chance to discuss the matters which we all know will interest our students? Some room in the programme for finding ways on how to discuss such issues and answer such questions we all know our students will have now or in the near future.

nobody actually wants to talk about, but they should be discussed...

So I’m going through the programme, trying to go out of my comfort zone as well and choosing some workshops I would usually not choose – tech-based, for example...  The organisers have once again managed to offer a great range of workshops and talks; sometimes it is really hard to choose only one in one time slot. But these are the joys of going to conferences, right? Anther great event was also the show on Saturday evening – hilarious!  Another great touch to mark the Silver Jubilee (25 years of IATEFL Hungary) is the so-called „Nostalgia Room“: the organisers managed to collect most of the materials, conference programmes, information on other events organised by the association, pictures etc. of the last 25 years of the association – the room had such a nice feel, going through the stories, impressions, old pictures and programmes. Such a good idea! Therefore it is necessary to thank the organising committee of IATEFL Hungary to put together such a good conference. I am glad and happy that through the years we have become friends, not only colleagues and that we can learn from each other and support each other in such a way. Thank you!

To be up-to-date with what is going on, visit our website: www.iatefl.si

I cannot go past the fact that no one was talking openly about the current political situation, which has become more that just political, of course. The situation that escalated to such a degree that it is alarming and concerning for all of us, not only the ones fleeing their homes in search of a better life, in search of peace… I keep asking myself: should a teacher be political as well? Should we talk about politics, about the economic crisis, about the state of our nation(s) in the classroom – and

However, it bothers me (and this is my personal opinion) that we act as if we have a hold button for problems when we need them to stop existing, but the world does go on and we should do something and we as educators actually can. We can seize the opportunity to be able to reach broader audiences – we should use the ability we have been given by this profession to guide students to a reasoned view, not one based on terribly one-sided and untrue information, but rather one that always offers room for both sides of the story.

And we should be encouraged to also discuss such things, to be given room for such discussions and to make action plans; events such as conferences should also equip us, the educators, with the necessary tools to be able to discuss such issues in a non-biased way in the classroom. (And talking about it in the hallways during breaks or at the evening party is not enough…)

I feel this is definitely an issue worthy of discussion at any teacher conference – however the lack of discussing such a pressing issue worries me – perhaps this is due to the fact that programmes are set months before the event takes place, but we, who are conference organisers as well, should be able to adjust to a serious issue facing teachers.

We are all humans, regardless of race, colour, religion, economic status etc. And at the end of the day, it all comes down to compassion. We should be able to show compassion and we should definitely teach our students to be compassionate. This is the bottom line.

So: can we do better or will there be more elephants in the room in the conferences to come?

photo_http://all-free-download.com/

So, the show has started, everything is running smoothly and it’s time to go through the programme – I like going through conference programmes, it feels like I’m on a treasure hunt, choosing interesting topics, looking for new twists on old ones. However, I have noticed in the past few years that I keep choosing workshops and presentations which I think will offer me food for thought and not just a bunch of ideas for classroom use.

Aren’t we all in need of some more challenging topics and discussions, the ones that will leave us pondering for hours after we have heard them? We need new insights on old and worn out ideas, we need more thinking outside the box, we need some boldness and we need courageous ideas... and we need to talk about the world issues, the burning issues, the taboo topics, the topics

I am an over-thinker, that is a fact. And times have been slightly uncomforting lately. The world has taken a strange turn as far as humanity is concerned and me being a very contemplative and analysing soul, I cannot help but wonder: why didn’t Budapest, the heart of a country showing so little solidarity in the past few months in regard to the refugee crisis, show itself also in a different light as so many smart, thinking, critical, bold and innovative individuals came together at the same time at the same place? The occasion could not be more convenient: there was plenty of time to discuss the burning issues which, by the way, have so much to do also with our very own teaching profession. Before coming here, a dear friend of mine said she will never set foot in this country again – I respect that, but is not this generalising as well? Should we punish the whole nation, including our dear colleagues who have worked so hard to organise such a good event (time and time again) just because the leading men have once again made poor decisions? I beg to differ... The ones definitely worth mentioning are the teachers who have helped actively in refugee camps, since the whole liberal world seems to be criticising the Hungarians and rambling about how awful they are only by taking into consideration the actions and decisions of their president Orban. It is definitely necessary to give credit to those individuals who did what seemed best and most humane for them. Let us not forget about that.

talk, most of all, about the roots of the problems, rather than just commenting on the problems themselves? I am aware of the fact that many teachers will rather stay low-key for the sake of keeping their jobs and, as my friend Grenville Yeo said – not crossing the authorities. However, that does not mean we cannot discuss it at conferences – in fact, there would have been every justification to do so. I am also aware of the fact that IATEFL Hungary (perhaps) wanted to stay strictly apolitical, which is a statement in itself and I respect them for that as well. But on the other hand, why should any teacher organisation always be so politically correct?

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IATEFL Slovenia's Lesson Jamming Saturday

What are these people like?

In the day and age of learner centred teaching, it has become more and more evident, that just sticking to the book is not enough. It can never cater for your student's needs alone and even less so can it be up to date with what is goung on in the world. And students usually want to talk about current news and things that concern them in that particular time much more (and with every right) than what the book is prescribing they should be interested in.

Therefore teachers are constatntly faced with the need to bring our teaching up to date. This is sometimes hard and - depending also on the season/part of the school year and other factors, we often find our heads blank, supply of ideas low and in the everyday rush, we resort to the easiest way out - the coursebook.

Because it is not just you who feels that way sometimes, a group of teachers in Germany started the Lesson jamming "movement". They get together and talk about the current needs of their students and then create a lesson plan (or more) based on their own particular needs. They reported on the experience at the Manchester conference April 2015 and from then on, joint creation of lesson plans or Lesson Jamming started spreading internationally.

IATEFL Slovenia had our first Lesson Jamming Saturday in October. Unfortunately, not many people came, but the ones who did, participated with joy and learned a lot from each other. What you can read on the following pages is the outcome - you will see it was difficult (read: impossible) to just stick to one 45 minute lesson.

We wanted to teach our students a bit about tolerance and acceptance, of course, not forgetting the four skills we need to teach them anyway. We felt this is what our students desperately need in our current circumstances: breaking stereotypes, realizing that people are never stereotypical, but at the same time, not directly talking about the refugees (althoug it might creep up at places).

We agreed the idea is good and we need more Lesson Jamming with more of you so I hope you can join us next time or at least use our ideas to have great lessons with your students.

The obvious positive sides of spending a Saturday Jamming were the following:

• You will meet many incredible teachers and see how creativity embraces us all when we put our heads together.

• You will get great ideas for future lessons, or just the good feeling that you helped somebody else with your ideas • The lessons produced will be really learner centred and won't involve the so-much-hated coursebooks • Using your brain on a Saturday may seem like a hard thing, but it will inspire and fill with energy • No matter how (in)experienced you are, you will definitely feel like you are a valuable part of something bigger, and you will get friends you know you can count on in the future • Lesson jamming is much more intense and creative for everybody involved - as opposed to the passive listening to other people talk - it won't be "us" and "them" any more... but everybody becomes "us" So if you think you would like to be a part of our next lesson jam or if you think you would like to organize one at your school, watch out for our announcements or let us know so we can help you spread the word or organize it.

See you at the next Lesson Jamming event!

You can find more about Tom Heaven and his group at http://tdsig.org/2015/03/iatefl-tdsig-day-profile-tom-heaven/ and you can find more about our events on our website, our FB page or (of course) at our conference. photo_http://all-free-download.com/

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To be up-to-date with what is going on, visit our website: www.iatefl.si

To be up-to-date with what is going on, visit our website: www.iatefl.si

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Lesson 1 - STEREOTYPES

Lesson 3 - EFFICIENT DEBATE

Step 1

Step 1

Step 2

Step 2

Put students in pairs or small groups. Each group gets a worksheet and writes their ideas on what the people on photos are like. This will probably bring up many stereotypes on different groups of people. Point out how easy it is to assign labels to people you don’t know.

Ask students to write down some ideas about what Slovenians are like. Put them on the board.

Then ask them to give you some ideas on what teenagers and secondary school students are like.

Students compile their own rules for a successful debate. Write them on the board. They could do this in groups, each group devises at least 5 rules. The first group reports, the other groups just add to that list.

Randomly assign students to be in a Pro/Contra or Audience team. Assign a topic and have students discuss the topic.

When you have a selection of these on the board, ask them to underline those that are true for them personally or for their friends.

This should bring up the fact that we are not stereotypical and that each person is different. When you know someone as a person, things are not only black and white any more and the more you get personal, the harder it is to put a label on anyone.

Step 3

At this point you can introduce the topic of refugees and point it out to students, that it is really easy to see them as a mass of stereotypes until you know each personal story.

If they want to discuss the topic with you, ask them first to do some research and bring facts to the next lesson.

If you want to, you can show students the following video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JMQjyRc7eiY or find it on Youtube with keywords: I’m Muslim but I’m not... and have them produce their own version of it.

*It is a good idea if you laminate the colour print of this worksheet so you can reuse it!

Lesson 2 - FORMING YOUR OWN OPINIONS Step 1

Either use the HW students brought or use examples from the internet to get students to think about whether they are reading FACTS or OPINIONS and ask them to be careful about the source they get their information from.

Step 2

Have them look at one piece of news through articles from different websites (for example BBC, CNN, Guardian, Independent and Daily Mail) This is a good moment to also check what Wikipedia says about the same topic.

Have students discuss the differences. photo_http://all-free-download.com/

Step 3

Ask students in groups to write a short paragraph about what they have learned from this and present it.

Lesson 4 - ESSAY WRITING Individually, students turn the debate from previous lesson in an essay.

They should plan this carefully.

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To be up-to-date with what is going on, visit our website: www.iatefl.si

To be up-to-date with what is going on, visit our website: www.iatefl.si

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1

You are going to write an essay. Choose one of these titles (they are all past Matura titles or adapted from them)

A B C D E

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Plan your essay. Think about these questions. Then write a plan, with some brief notes to show what you are going to include in the essay.

1

Introduction. How am I going to give the reader a first idea about the important aspects of this essay? Can I identify the main problem(s) in this topic? Can I find a ‘hook’, that is an interesting question or brief insight that will catch the reader’s attention?

Body of the essay. How many paragraphs do I need? How can I present both sides of the argument? Can I give some interesting examples to illustrate the points I want to make?

2

3

3

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Teenagers rights are often violated The more things you own, the more you are owned by things Letting migrants in Europe will cost us our national identity.

Words are the most powerful weapons We all find time to do the things we really want to do

Conclusion. Can I answer the questions about the topic which I asked in the Introduction?

Can I sum up the arguments without repeating? Can I say why one side of the argument is more convincing than the other?

Join a partner and tell each other about your plans. Tell your partner what you find most interesting about his/her plan. Can you give some positive advice on how to improve the plan?

Introduce any changes necessary in your plan.

4

Write a first draft of the essay (about 220 words).

5

Join a new partner and read each other’s drafts. Use the points below to give your partner some positive feedback.

Content: Is it interesting? Provocative? Which are the good points made?

Are the arguments well supported?

Language: Is it varied? How appropriate is vocabulary? How good are sentence structures?

Organisation: Are there at least three parts? Are ideas in a logical order?

Is the introduction interesting? Is the conclusion good?

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Write a clean copy of your essay, hand it in and relax!

To be up-to-date with what is going on, visit our website: www.iatefl.si

Ivy Smith

by Tjaša Lemut Novak

Knowing the subject 1: Introducing language

By Kevin Thomson This series of articles explores twelve professional practices that are important for the development of English language teachers.

Development in these practices moves through a series of key stages, from being aware of the practice to being able to help other teachers to progress. These articles will help you to develop your understanding, skills and confidence in these areas.

Useful vocabulary concept-checking questions

to drill

to elicit

You use concept-checking questions to check that your students understand the meaning of a word, phrase or grammatical structure.

When you drill language, you say a word or phrase with the correct pronunciation and the students repeat it.

When you elicit information you get your students to tell you the information instead of giving the information to them.

It is important for a teacher to know her subject well. Your learners need you to give clear explanations about the language you are presenting such as grammatical forms. It is also important for you to be familiar with different ways in which you can present new language.

There are many different ways to introduce new language. For example, you could introduce the present continuous tense by giving your students a story to read then looking at examples of verbs in the present continuous in the text. You could prepare a song for your students to listen to then pick out negative and positive verb structures in the words of the song. You could also draw some simple pictures on the board and elicit an example of the structure you want to present to your students. Most importantly, you should try to use a variety of ways of introducing new language. When you introduce new language it is an advantage if the activity is interesting and memorable for your students.

©Mat Wright

• Give your students the following story to read: Grandma: What did you do at school today, Nina?

Nina: Well, we watched a video about pandas that live in China. Then, we talked about the video with our teacher.

Grandma: That sounds interesting!

Nina: Yes. After that I played with my friends.

• Ask your students to look at the sentence ‘After that I played with my friends’.

• Ask your students if this sentence is talking about the past, present or future.

• Ask your students to underline three verbs in the dialogue that are in the past simple.

• Explain that ‘watch’, ‘talk’ and ‘play’ are regular verbs.

• Ask your students how we form the past of regular verbs. Elicit that we add ‘ed’ on the end of the verb.

• Drill the words ‘watched’, ‘talked’ and ‘played’. Pay careful attention to correct pronunciation.

• Drill the sentence ‘I played with my friends’.

Key points to remember • Use a variety of ways to introduce new language to your students.

• Using stories, songs, a text or drawing on the board are all good ways of introducing new grammar forms to your students.

Useful classroom phrases For the teacher • What do you think _______ means? (for eliciting) • Listen carefully and repeat after me. (for drilling)

Activity: Presenting the past simple with a story The following is an example of an activity in which the teacher needs to know her subject well – in this case it is essential that she knows which verbs are regular and also how to pronounce the past form of these verbs.

• Give clear explanations of the rules of new grammatical forms by asking questions about the language and eliciting answers from the students.

• Ask concept-checking questions to check if your students understand new language.

Over to you Make a note of three things you have learned from this article. Write them below and then share them with another teacher.

In this activity you present the past simple tense by using a story. Your students read the story and then you look at examples of regular verbs in the past. You then elicit the rule for making the past simple form of regular verbs. Finally, you work on pronunciation by drilling examples of regular verbs in the past and a sentence containing one of these forms.

• Tell your students that they are going to read about a student called Nina. Nina is telling her grandma about her day at school. Nina is 10 years old.

• Ask your students to predict one thing that Nina did at school.

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To be up-to-date with what is going on, visit our website: www.iatefl.si

To find more ideas for teaching English visit www.teachingenglish.org.uk

© British Council 2015