British Council TeachingEnglish 31 October 2012

TeachingEnglish Newsletter 31 October 2012    Regular readers will know that the TeachingEnglish website has hosted a number of Guest Writers. Why not have a look at our archive where you can find articles and blogs by ELT luminaries such as Adrian Underhill, Carol Read and Michael Swan. LearnEnglish Teens  Welcome to our new website with material especially designed for teenage learners. LearnEnglish Kids Children can develop their English skills with topic-based games, songs, stories. LearnEnglish Central Develop your English, with language games, downloads, stories and articles. BritLit The aim of BritLit is to help teachers from around the world to exploit English literature in the ELT classroom.      Premier Skills Communicate in two of the world's global languages - English and football  Welcome to the latest edition of the TeachingEnglish newsletter!   This week we have some interesting food for thought - research findings which suggest language learning helps your brain grow, and are dictionaries a thing of the past?   We also have a survey for you. Did you followIATEFL Glasgow online? IATEFL would like to know your views. And if you're looking for activities to try this week, we have an article and activity to help you with recycling vocabulary, and a lesson plan to help your young learners with natural pronunciation - try using and creating chants!     Enjoy!   Deb TeachingEnglish Team | British Council | BBC IATEFL Online survey   IATEFL Online is British Council / IATEFL partnership which provides online coverage of the Annual IATEFL Conference. Have you followed IATEFL Online? We would like your feedback. This is your chance to help us improve our coverage for IATEFL Liverpool Online in April 2013. Please complete the IATEFL Online  survey Language learning makes your brain grow    A recent study at Lund University in Sweden investigated the effect on the brains of students who were learning a new language intensively compared to other students who were studying intensively, but not languages. Remarkably, they discovered that parts of the language learners' brains had increased in size, while this was not the case for the non-language learning group. Read more Seminar - Who needs dictionaries?   Michael Rundell explores the future of dictionaries. In this seminar he discusses the idea that dictionaries are going the same way as encyclopedias. In just a few years most activity has moved from paper to electronic media and for pedagogical dictionaries, whose users are mostly young and therefore digital natives, the switch from old to new media is even more advanced. Is there any future for dictionaries? Watch seminar Activity - 'Wall dictionary'   This activity suggests a good way to help kids learn and review their vocabulary is to make a 'wall dictionary' . It really helps them with the alphabet and spelling. Find out more Skills circuits: recycling language      Skills circuits are a fun way to review language. They also provide a change to coursebook activities allowing learners to work together to recycle grammar or vocabulary and share knowledge. They require careful planning of both materials used in the circuit and attention to the timing of the activity itself. Read more  Mr Lazy - giving advice     Through the use of chants, grammar can be introduced in a young learner-friendly context with the added benefit of attention to natural pronunciation features such as rhythm and stress. This lesson is an attempt to introduce the use of 'should' and 'shouldn't' in a fun, engaging and meaningful way. However, it can easily be adapted to introduce a variety of structures by creating your own simple chants. Read more

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