Training your listening skills

When I was working on the seminar I gave last Friday in Santander, I came across a great recording on ted.com of Julian Treasure:  5 ways to listen better.

He makes some very valid points (you can hear him make them in the talk, and also/or read them in the transcript):

We spend roughly 60 percent of our communication time listening, but we're not very good at it. 

 we're losing our listening. Why did I say that? Well there are a lot of reasons for this. First of all, we invented ways of recording -- first writing, then audio recording and now video recording as well. The premium on accurate and careful listening has simply disappeared. 

Julian Treasure suggests 5 steps to improve our listening:

The first is to include 3 minutes of silence in our lives per day.

And I'll leave you to watch the video to find out the other four.....

Here's a wordcloud with the words Julian Treasure used in the talk.

https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiguZDNU8AKWDBC4evhUEEj-8bkttIC85B4p4E7aHn17Twk3AVqR897KKS5pmZsYH_Q3YHIsQlfU29lKMp1POXAqtXCRJ7MuulrzcOAZeIfhShrkOrzQqDLWV8iX7h-zfU3CPcNeaUT8fjO/s640/MyCloud.jpeg

Busy week - listening, listening........

This week, I've signed up for two webinars on the subject of listening.  

Today, I'll be connecting my computer at 3pm to watch:

Then, on Wednesday at 4, I'll be online again to take part in another webinar on Listening:

It's a shame that they are taking place this week because last Friday, I was in San Sebastian, giving 2 seminars on ...... Listening!  For Cambridge English: First and Cambridge English:  Advanced in my case!

Maybe some of you will also be connecting today or Wednesday :·))

I'll be uploading some activities that I prepared for the Cambridge English: Advanced Listening session in my next post!

Accessible learning resource - chocolate?

I am in clear-up mode at the moment.  I was going through a notebook I'd taken with me on a seminar trip a couple of years ago and came across a web address I'd jotted down.

I've just checked it out and I can see that it would be a useful resource for students to use at home.

The name of the site is attractive too!

Learning chocolate
' to make learning a new language as fun as enjoying a piece of chocolate!'

http://www.learningchocolate.com/

There are 5 pages of themes - there would seem to be 25 themes per page so.... 125 of them.

Each theme works the same - you see a set of pictures and words (Review).  Each word has a speaker icon next to it.  You click on the icon to hear the word.  The spelling and pronunciation is American English, so make sure students are aware of that if they're more used to British English or another type of English.
Next, there are 3 match up activities.  Then a fill in activity and a dictation of the words.  

The format is always the same so I doubt if your students would manage to do all 125, but I'd suggest that it would be a useful resource to share with students (and parents).

And Learning Chocolate isn't limited to English - you can also Chinese/Mandarin, German, Spanish and Japanese - I might try learning a bit of Chinese later.......

And - what about this lovely picture on the subject of learning and chocolate?  Great idea for working on writing and using interesting words from F is for First-grade Fun!

http://k-1badgerteacher.blogspot.com.es/2012/01/one-of-my-favorite-winter-writing.html

New look Teaching Resources Website

At seminars I have given, especially when using the great resources that I have found on the Cambridge English Teaching Resources Website, several teachers have commented that they found the Website difficult to navigate.

So, today I am delighted to pass on the news that the website has been revamped and reorganised.  Certainly, the start-up page is a lot less cluttered and more dynamic.

I would encourage you to visit the site if you haven't done so or haven't been there for a while.  There are some fantastic ideas and suggestions and materials. Like this one below, submitted by a teacher called Andy (a very active contributor to the Website)

Interesting Cambridge English webinar

I have just signed up to 'attend' another Cambridge English Language Assessment webinar.

On Monday, 15th or Wednesday 17th April, Jill Buggey will lead a webinar

Practice makes perfect: creating your own exam materials for the classroom

The webinar will begin by identifying the specific skills tested in different exam tasks, such as multiple choice, gap fill and sentence completion. The presenter will show how different types of task are constructed in order to test these skills effectively, using examples from Reading, Listening and Use of English papers.

The presenter will explain how distraction is used in reading and listening tasks, and there will also be examples from Use of English tasks. The strategies students are expected to use in exam tasks are real-life skills, and at this point the presenter will give some practical hints on the most effective strategies for students to use when approaching different types of exam task.

I'm sure the webinar will be enlightening and useful.  I've used materials prepared by Jill Buggey in seminars and they are always very practical.

To find out more, click here:

Webinars this week

I have signed up for two webinars this week.

The first, today, Monday.  I'll be connecting to the Cambridge English Language Assessment's site to attend the Webinar below:

The webinar will also take place on Wednesday morning.

From seminars, I know that correcting writing is a subject that raises a lot of discussion and interest, so I'm sure that a lot of people will be online like me.

If you can't make either of these dates or times, there is always the chance to watch a recording of the webinar and to download the slides too.

On Thursday, I'll be connecting to the Cambridge English Teacher website and the webinar by Johanna Stirling on Joined-up Listening.

See you online!  (Or in person in San Sebastian on Friday!)

New YLE Handbook

Great news!

As well as the new handbooks for other exams like Cambridge English: First or Cambridge English: Advanced, Cambridge ESOL has published a new set of Sample Papers for the Cambridge English: YLE Tests.
You can access these on the Cambridge English Teacher Support Website.

Here is the link to the Starters Sample Papers (Sample Paper B is the new one)

And the even better news is that on the same site, you can find the audio files for the listening tasks!


In addition to the new Sample Papers, there is also a new Handbook.

https://www.teachers.cambridgeesol.org/ts/digitalAssets/117422_Young_Learners_English_Handbook.pdf

I wanted to point out that there have been some adjustments and additions to the wordlists for the three different levels.

You can read about this topic in Issue 46 of the Cambridge ESOL Research Notes.  Some (but not all) of the modifications and additions are mentioned on page 20:

As usual, I found myself nodding in agreement at the changes and additions and the justification for making them.

While I write this post, I am listening to the news.  They have just said that today is apparently the most depressing day of the year because it's post-Christmas and the mornings are so dark at this time of the year (and it's Monday of course!)  They suggest going out for a walk - I won't be doing that just yet as we are in the middle of a storm here!

Have a great week!

If you've never failed, you've never tried anything new

I was looking at the latest posts on Facebook by friends and pages that I'm subscribed to.

I came across this and liked it (in both senses - I clicked to say I liked it and it struck a chord!)

http://www.facebook.com/HealingwithArt

Then, I clicked on a link on a friend's Facebook page and ended up on YouTube, watching a short video.

I think it would be a great video to use in class.  You could ask them what they know about some of the people mentioned in the video (Walt Disney, Michael Jordan, Albert Einstein, Eminem...).  Ask them what thing the people have in common, then they watch the video to find out.

For more information and material to use in class on this topic, you could try some of the activities on Famous People Lessons, for example, this text and activities about Albert Einstein.


Hope you feel inspired now!!!

Yesterday, I was along the coast in San Sebastian (for the second time in a week!).   Beautiful city (in fact, the first city I visited after I first came to Spain all those years ago to work in Madrid!)

Yesterday, I was there to give two seminars:  Teaching Cambridge English: Advanced for the First Time and Teaching Cambridge English: First for the first time.

Many of the participants attended both sessions.  I knew this was going to be the case, so I made sure that the sessions complemented each other and didn't repeat materials or ideas.  I also knew that 95% of the people who were coming WEREN'T new to either of these exams, but rather, had come along for advice and ideas for them to train teachers new to the exams.

Near the end of the second session, on First, I asked different groups to discuss their ideas, tips and advice for each of the five Papers of the Cambridge English: First exam, using this handout.  (I adapted this from a document for IELTS I downloaded from Usingenglish.com here.)  Precisely, I wanted to draw on their experience and expertise (there was a lot of this in the room, believe me!)

What I suggested to the people at the seminar was that I would share this document via the Teaching Together Blog.  Then, I will write up the suggestions that the groups in San Sebastian came up with and consider each of the five Papers in five separate blog posts.

It would be great if readers of this blog could also send in their ideas!  We can learn so much from each other!

Black Cat Online practice for Cambridge ESOL exams

This morning I received an email updating me about the resources available on the Black Cat Readers blog:  

Did you know that you can find hundreds of different kinds of interactive exercises on the Black Cat Readers blog?

Click on w.w.w.blackcatreaders.com/quizzes and discover a world of useful and interesting activities to practise your English: Grammar exercises, Vocabulary, Pronunciation and Listening activities, but also sections specifically designed to help you practise Cambridge ESOL exams.

Access is free! Hurry up!

 Given my obvious and known interest in any website or blog that claims to help students practise  and prepare for the Cambridge ESOL exams, I clicked on the link and checked out the materials there.

As you can see from the screenshot above, you can search for Exam skills for the different levels of the CEFR - for Cambridge English: Key, Preliminary, First and Advanced.

As the next seminar I will be giving (November 9th San Sebastian) is about Cambridge English: Preliminary for Schools, I selected the activities available for B1 and this list appeared:

It looks very useful.  I'll be recommending it to my students and colleagues to try out.  If you recommend it or use it, let me know what you think!

Have a great weekend!

Great source for examples of answering questions

I have spent most of the day looking at some different web tools and pages.  One of the things on my 'to do' list for this academic year is to start using some new tools and applications with my students.

I was revisiting a favourite of mine - Nik's Daily English Activities.

I mentioned Nik back in a post in January this year.  I had been watching a recording of a webinar Nik gave and had really enjoyed it.

Anyway, today, I clicked on Nik's link to VYou.  

First, I watched the questions asked by Oprah Winfrey, then I looked at some other questions and answers on the site.

I thought that it would be a great page to use with students preparing to take the Cambridge English: First, Advanced and Proficiency exams, in particular when preparing them for the first and final parts of the Speaking Tests.

For example, someone out there has set the following question:

If a book has been made into a movie, which do you prefer to do first, see the movie or read the book? Why?

http://www.odcpl.com/index.php?p=1_81_Books-into-Movies

As I write this post, 4 people have recorded their answer with a video camera.  You can watch them here.

I think that this and similar questions and answers could be a great source for discussion in (or outside) class.
Students could be asked to 'give marks' using the criteria that Speaking Examiners use:

- Grammar and Vocabulary
- Discourse Management
- Pronunciation

(It's a bit difficult to evaluate the answerers' interactive communication because they are monologues!!!)

And I also think that the site could provide us teachers with some interesting discussion and opinion questions to put to our students (or they could each choose a question to ask the teacher and/or their classmates!)

And if you're feeling brave, they could also record their own answers and share them!

(Note:  Some of the questions (and answers!) might not be suitable for sharing with your students, especially with teenagers, so I suggest you choose the ones you can use carefully! )

Several digital coincidences!

It's happened again.  Several things that I have discovered and accessed in the past 24 hours seem to be linked!

Yesterday, I received an email because Glyn Jones had posted a comment to my previous post on painting.

I had a quick look at the Five Card Stories recommended by Glyn and will write a blog post about it next week when I've had more time to look at it!  You all know how much I like using pictures and photos (I've talked about this several times in previous posts!), so I will definitely check this out!
Thanks for sharing Glyn!

Then, I clicked on a link in another email and completed a survey for Cambridge ESOL about my use of technology.

http://www.cambridgeesol.org/survey/digitaluse/

After that, I started checking out other things on the cogdogblog, 

Alan Levine’s (hey, thats me, writing about myself in third person!) place to bark about cool technology, web X.0 hype, weird web sites, photography, and other targets big and small- things that get under my fur or make me wag my tail.

and ended up on Michael Wesch's YouTube Channel.

I had seen the first video that appears on Michael's channel last year and was very impressed - both by the way the information was portrayed, as well as by the facts themselves.  You may well have seen the video too because it was uploaded to YouTube in 2007.

A Vision of Students Today

The facts are fascinating, and I suspect that some of the figures may have changed - with the time spent on Facebook, online, sending messages, talking on cellphones having increased since the video was made.

As a teacher, it certainly made me think about the way we teach and organise our classes and classrooms.  Since it was made, Cambridge ESOL has introduced Computer Based versions of many of its exams and judging by the Survey on 21st century teaching and learning I completed, Cambridge ESOL is also keen to keep up.

I will check out some of the other videos on Michael Wesch's Channel, more of the posts on the coddog blog and the Five Cards Stories.  I suspect that this will may well lead to more time spent online  as well as to more digital connections!

From one useful link to another ....

As so often happens, I clicked on the link in one of the emails I received last week and ended up discovering another useful site.

I received an email from the takeaphotoand blog about a new post on the blog:

Wave your flag

In this post, Sue Lyon Jones outlines a lesson plan to discuss patriotism and whether it is a positive or negative thing.  A slideshow with discussion questions and quotes is provided.  

Among the suggestions for follow-up activities for students to do at the end of the discussion is the idea of them creating a word cloud about patriotism.  Sue suggested a website that I was not familiar with, tagxedo) so I visited it and created the word cloud below by typing in the Teaching Together Blog address.  

At the end of Sue's post, there was a paragraph about Sue.

 Sue Lyon-Jones is a freelance ELT materials developer, ESOL tutor and teaching with ICT consultant based in the UK. She publishes and writes the content for the free English lessons and ELT resources site, ESOL Courses. Her current areas of interest include teaching with web based technologies, interactive materials development, educational games, mobile learning, and Dogme ELT.

I clicked on the link to ESOL Courses and was very impressed by the materials on the site.  Simple picture and word matches to work on lexical areas.  I liked the Listening activities that I took a quick look at: for example, butlering at Buckingham Palace or New York Tourist Attractions.

 

Check the website out for yourself and you're bound to find something to recommend or use.

Fun video for practising questions

A friend sent me a link to a video showing Charlotte in the bath a few weeks ago:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=7cSudpyEU9w

While I was watching it, my teacher's brain started ticking over and I thought it would be great (and fun!) to use it in class to practise questions at low levels.

It's short (it lasts 31 seconds!)  So, students could watch it without any viewing or listening task and just enjoy!

Next, they could be asked to count the number of questions Charlotte is asked.  (10)

Then, they could listen and say how many times the question 'Do you love .....?' is asked (6) and which other questions are asked (Do you want a million dollars?  Do you want to go night night?  Did you have a good Christmas?  Is there anything you like?)

You could discuss with students which question that Charlotte answers no to and they find most surprising.

Then, you could ask them to write questions that people would normally answer 'yes' to and then they roleplay  - one student is Charlotte and has to say 'no' convincingly to all the questions!

404

What does the number 'four 0 four' mean to you?  Four minutes past four?  Four hundred and four?  A room?

If you're on the computer, 404 is bad news!  It's an error page, where you get to when your search is unsuccessful, if you've mistyped an address or the webpage has a broken link.

I'm subscribed to TED talks (I've mentioned these before in my post about listening sites for Advanced students) and when I have time, I try and watch one or two (obviously depending on how long they last).  This morning, I clicked on the link in the email with the weekly update, and watched a short, amusing video (4.08 minutes!) of a talk by Renny Gleeson.

Renny Gleeson: 404, the story of a page not found

This led me to run a quick search on google images for some 404 pages.  Here is a small selection of the results. (Most taken from stunningmesh.com)

Preparing teenagers for the PET exam

I have met Emma Heyderman several times in San Sebastian and in Bilbao.

Photo:  http://ylandtsig.ning.com/profile/EmmaHeyderman

I have never been in the live audience at her seminars, but she has been part of my audiences at seminars, and I hold a lot of respect for her and her publications.

As so often happens these days, I was looking up something else (well, actually - I think I was preparing the previous post for this blog come to think of it!), when I came across a selection of videos featuring Emma on the Cambridge University Press ELT Youtube channel.

Take for example this one:
Preparing teenagers for the PET exam: Listening.

Emma demonstrates just how important it is for students to listen carefully to the whole of the listening texts and not to choose an answer too quickly.

As well as this video, you can find other clips looking at the other skills tested on Cambridge English: Preliminary.

So now, running up to the main examining period of the year and for us Cambridge ESOL presenters, coming to the end of our live sessions for 2011-2012, watch Emma's tips to gain some advice and ideas for your candidates.

Teaching English Radio

Today I wanted to mention a section of the Teaching English website.  (Another of the sites I'm subscribed to and visit regularly.


Teaching English Radio

There are 15 minute radio programmes on a particular theme.

9 themes have been covered so far:

1  Planning your lessons
2  Teachers supporting each other
3  Finding and creating worksheets
4  Using group work in larger classes
5  Pair and group work in practice
6  Developing teachers' language
7  Using English in the classroom
8  Teaching new language
9  Teaching reading

Then, they can download a worksheet which summarises the ideas discussed in the radio programme and also contains some ideas for thinking about/discussing.  For example, this is the Programme Summary from  Finding and creating worksheets:

Programme Summary: Using real-life materials is motivating for students. It provides a very real context for practising English. Our students are also a rich resource as we found out in this programme.

Teachers can use songs, humour, real objects and simple drawings and if we need to find colourful images for posters or flash cards we can cut them out of magazines. Newspapers are a very cheap resource and provide material for craft, as well as a variety of written texts. We hope you’ve heard some ideas to adapt for your teaching situation                                                                                                    .

These programmes would provide great material and stimulus for teacher training and development.  They would also provide useful language input for trainees.

Funny consular requests

In the past here in Cantabria, teachers at the school where I used to work and myself too were often asked to help out tourists in difficulty.

Incidents included putting up a couple who had missed their ferry till the next one because they had spent all their money and could not pay for a hotel room.

I was asked to interpret for a poor woman who had been involved in a tragic motorbike accident and she and her partner (and the doctor treating her) needed someone who could help them communicate and also help make the arrangements to get her back to the UK.

At the time, we had a British Consulate in Santander (no longer though), yet for some reason or another, people in need of help were directed towards us.  And none of us felt we could refuse to help in such situations of need.

I was reminded of all this when I watched William Hague talking about bizarre requests received by consulate staff around the world.

A fun video to use in class to introduce the theme of helping others or problems that can occur when on holiday?

Do you have any similar stories to share?

British Council Seminar on choosing and using resources

Yesterday, I received my weekly newsletter from British Council Teaching English.  (Another site I'm subscribed to).

If I have time, I look through the areas mentioned in the newsletter as soon as it arrives and click on the links to find out more about them.  (If not, the email gets transferred to my 'subscriptions' folder

and stays there till I have time to look at it properly!)

I decided to have a look at the email this morning when I switched on my computer and clicked on the link to

Choosing and using resources with ESOL learners Dot Powell, manager of the British Council's project to create a portal for ESOL teachers and learners, looks at criteria we use to make judgements about ESOL materials.

This took me to the Seminars section of the Teaching English website.  I clicked on:

I then watched Dot Powell, Project Manager for ESOL Nexus in a seminar with teachers discussing the criteria we need to apply when we are choosing and/or preparing resources for students.

Dot then provided examples of resources and applied the criteria with the teachers at the seminar.


The seminar lasts just under 20 minutes, but I found it so interesting and well-presented, that the time just flew by.

I then paid a quick visit to the ESOL Nexus website.

The site is targeted at a particular group of ESOL learners:

ESOL Nexus Welcome to the ESOL Nexus page for learners. The materials here have been specially designed and identified for learners who are working and making their home in the UK. We are sure you will find lots of interesting and motivating activities here which will help you to improve your English in lots of different ways, understand more about UK culture and learn more about UK society and work.

But I have just tried out a couple of activities from the site and I think that many of them would be useful and relevant to our students.
There are many listening activities and the Magazine articles seem interesting.
I liked the several of the poems in the Poems and Stories section.  I hadn't come across the No poem before!

I hope you will visit the Nexus site too and find it useful.  (Most of the stuff there is for higher level learners.

In a few minutes, I will look at the teachers section of the site - maybe for a future post......?


The British Council has lots more seminars on its website.  Here is the direct link to the start up page.

The Big Egg Hunt

Some of you have already started your Easter holidays.  In Cantabria, we start on Wednesday :·)

I was preparing a few suggestions for some friends who will be visiting London next weekend, when I came across the Big Egg Hunt.

Next weekend (Easter weekend), 209 giant Easter eggs will be on display in Covent Garden. Up until yesterday, they were 'hidden' around London and people went round hunting them.

Want to see more of these beauties?   Visit the Fabergé Big Hunt webpage.

Unfortunately (?) my favourite - the Egg Letter Box has already been sold!!!

And for a very usable video to use in class or to ask your students to watch at home, I suggest this one from  SightseerTV:

It has an interactive transcript so that students can choose to read and listen at the same time - or you could use it to design a listening/viewing task.

Happy Easter!!!!