TeachingEnglish newsletter 16 December 2015

TeachingEnglish - the global home for teachers 16 December 2015 Welcome to the latest newsletter from TeachingEnglish! If you are still looking for fun seasonal activities this week, why not try some fun games for learners of any age? And to help your teens keep up with their English skills over the holiday period, tell them about the special Christmas activities on LearnEnglish Teens. We also have a new blog of the month award, which goes to Mike Astbury for his post - Pronunciation game '-ed'; a new blog topic for December - Motivation; and a new blog post by Rachael Roberts on that theme. Early in the New Year, there are free training opportunities on offer via Electronic Village Online - don't miss out! And, finally, don't miss today's webinar with Gladys Focho Integrating global issues into the curriculum. The TE news will be taking a break over the festive period but we will be back with more great resources in 2016.   We hope you find these resources useful. Deb TeachingEnglish team Teaching kids If you are still teaching kids or teens this week, why not try out some games which we associate with parties and Christmas celebrations in UK schools. These games can be adapted for language learners of all all ages and levels.  Go to the Christmas games Teaching teens Give your teens some interesting activities to do over the holiday period - tell them about LearnEnglish Teens   Special Christmas activities include a video, vocabulary exercises, a photo caption activity and a video blog.   Teaching adults The blog topic for the month of  December, is motivation.  Blog topics Read Rachael Roberts' thoughts on what motivates her to see if any of that could be applied to teaching. Or post your own ideas on your motivation or the motivation of your students. Development For five weeks in January and February, TESOL experts and participants from around the world engage in collaborative online discussions or hands-on virtual workshops of professional and scholarly benefit. Sessions are free and open to anyone around the globe. Find out about free training opportunities offered through the Electronic Village Online in early 2016. Find out more Events Join us on Wednesday 16th December, 18.00 UK time, when Gladys Focho will look at the importance of global education and how to integrate it within the confines of a set curriculum. Global education is a multi-faceted concept and includes a number of topics. Cross-cultural awareness helps students to embrace other cultures and knowledge of global issues enables students to understand more about the world they live in.  Find out more Magazine Our latest blog of the month award goes to Mike Astbury and his post Pronunciation game '-ed'. A fun pronunciation game from Mike Astbury with printable cards to practise '-ed' endings. It's highly flexible and can be played with students of any level from elementary to advanced. Read more You have received this newsletter because you registered on our website or previously showed interest in British Council news. If you wish to opt out of future newsletters please unsubscribe here.

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TeachingEnglish newsletter 09 December 2015

TeachingEnglish - the global home for teachers 09 December 2015 Welcome to the latest newsletter from TeachingEnglish! This week we have lesson plans and activities around the theme of Christmas for learners of all ages. We also have a brand new blog of the month award - Most Common Pronunciation Mistakes Heard in Oral Exams. Registration is now open for the Primary Essentials course starting in January - why not update your skills in the New Year? And, finally, the EnglishAgenda webinar for December is 'Improving reading comprehension for learners with dyslexia'.   We hope you find these resources useful. Deb TeachingEnglish team Teaching kids This lesson uses the theme of Christmas to develop learners' vocabulary. It includes an introductory song, a focus on clothes words, a review of question and short answer forms using 'has got', and a labelling and colouring activity. There are suggestions for some other follow up Christmas activities. Go to the lesson plan Or try this lesson about Christmas presents and decorations Go to the lesson plan Teaching teens To keep your students busy over the holidays (if you have holidays in your teaching context, and if not you may just want to add a bit of seasonal fun to classes in December) and to practise some digital remix literacy, here's a little challenge - The Twelve Memes of Christmas : a seasonal homework challenge. Go to the activity Teaching adults In this lesson students read an extract from 'A Christmas Carol' and examine the characters in the text. They then discuss the theme of festivals as preparation for a writing task on the same topic. Go to the lesson plan Development Registration is now open for Primary Essentials and the course starts 18 January. Primary Essentials provides an introduction to teaching English to young learners aged 7 to 11. Using video, audio and community elements, you will learn the essentials to help you succeed in your teaching of young learners. Primary Essentials Events Improving reading comprehension for learners with dyslexia - Tuesday 15 December - 10am UK time. When faced with a text and expected to extract information, a learner with dyslexia may well see an impossible task. This webinar will explore some of the learner's difficulties and suggest practical strategies and techniques for teachers who want to support struggling readers and improve their reading comprehension.  Find out more Magazine Our latest blog of the month award goes to Cristina Cabal and her post Most Common Pronunciation Mistakes Heard in Oral Exams. Cristina has created a great interactive quiz on common pronunciation mistakes that both you and your students are bound to enjoy. You can also see the shortlist for blog of the month award here. Blog of the month You have received this newsletter because you registered on our website or previously showed interest in British Council news. If you wish to opt out of future newsletters please unsubscribe here.

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TeachingEnglish newsletter 02 December 2015

TeachingEnglish - the global home for teachers 02 December 2015 Welcome to the latest newsletter from TeachingEnglish! This week we have a brand new lesson plan for adults and teens on the theme of charities, and for kids - Miko the monkey. And if you have ever wondered what makes a great lesson, check out out this week's featured webinar - What makes a lesson GREAT? Our featured development resource this week is the British Council Directory of UK ELT Research - access the database for ELT research done over the last six years.  And our featured blog is The autonomous exam student by David Petrie, an interesting exploration into how to promote autonomy when preparing for exams. We have no new events to announce this week, but don't forget to check the '4C in ELT' calendar to find out what's happening in your region. And finally, don't forget the free continuing professional development webinar on 15 December with Bríd Ní Chatháin who will discuss how to improve reading comprehension for learners with dyslexia. We hope you find these resources useful. Deb TeachingEnglish team Teaching kids Miko the monkey is a lesson which uses a story and quiz to develop the reading and vocabulary of primary age young learners. One of the main aims of using stories at this level is the general development of reading skills. Using longer story texts develops a far wider range of skills than is usually included in texts in primary coursebooks. In this story lesson students are given the opportunity to hear and read an original narrative story and build their knowledge of how a story develops. Go to the lesson plan Teaching teens Every teacher - and every learner - can probably recognise a great lesson when they experience one, but what exactly are the qualities that, when added up, make an everyday experience into an extraordinary one? Taking this further, can teachers do anything deliberate to make GREAT lessons, or are they simply a matter of luck? In this webinar Anthony Gaughan suggests five characteristics of GREAT lessons that he thinks are not only central to lesson success, but are also things that teachers can develop with some simple strategies. Go to the webinar Teaching adults Every year as Christmas approaches, thousands of charities launch appeals, asking for donations. In this lesson learners will imagine the class has £100 to donate. They will work in groups to decide which of four charities they should give the money to. This lesson is suitable for adults and older teens at B1 level and above. Go to the lesson plan Development The British Council Directory of UK ELT Research was conceived in pursuit of three main aims: to disseminate and share information generally in the area of UK-based ELT research; to promote interchange among researchers in the UK and other countries; to publicise and make research available to the broader constituency of ELT professionals worldwide. Why not take a look at this database of ELT research done over the last six years. The British Council Directory of UK ELT Research Events Finding out about different conferences around the world can sometimes be difficult. We try and update our upcoming conferences as often as possible, but we will always miss some. But good news - 4C in ELT is a crowdsourced calendar of upcoming ELT conferences around the world. Check out what's happening in your region and don't miss out! 4C in ELT Magazine If you think that the terms autonomous and exam don't go together very well, read David Petrie's blog: The autonomous exam student. David focuses on content, objectives, evaluation and feedback to show how it is possible to develop personalised learning plans so that learners can address their specific needs in their own time and at their own pace.  Find out more You have received this newsletter because you registered on our website or previously showed interest in British Council news. If you wish to opt out of future newsletters please unsubscribe here.

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