British Council - Teaching English

In this final episode of series 2, we ask 19 experienced ELT professionals to give us their top tips for teaching English effectively. These tips cover five key areas, namely: the importance of personalisation and context; criticality; humanistic approaches to teaching language; using social media; and general pedagogy. These concise, focused suggestions will hopefully maximise the learning experiences and learning outcomes in your classes and make your own ELT journey more pleasurable.Download the show notes, transcript and activity booklet Are you enjoying the podcast?Please give us your feedback and tell us what you think.Link to the feedback survey: https://forms.office.com/e/3wDh6FRMaU

Looking at the world of ELT from the perspective of fairness, justice, and equity, there is much to admire. However, it is far from perfect, and in this episode we look at some of those areas in which significant improvement could be made. In our field report, we hear from three individuals whose organisations are trying to make ELT a better place in terms of fairness in working conditions, inclusion in the workplace, and gender balance. In our interview, we speak to Rachel Tsateri, who is a prominent advocate for the rights of ‘non-native speaking English teachers’, drawing on her own experience of being discriminated against.Download the show notes, transcript and activity booklet from the websiteAre you enjoying the podcast? Please give us your feedback and tell us what you think.Link to the feedback survey: https://forms.office.com/e/3wDh6FRMaU

Building on what we discussed in episode 4 about ‘Academic English’, we take a step back and look at the wider context within which it sits – English for Specific Purposes (ESP). At first, who better than Viviana Cortes – the editor-in-chief of the Journal of English for Specific Purposes – to share with us an overview of ESP, discussing its history, present and its future. In our field report, we investigate some of the particular areas in more detail, with practitioners of Medical English, Aviation English, and English for Islamic Studies telling us about their specialities. We learn about some of the specific lexical, grammatical and stylistic features of each of these specialisms.Are you enjoying the podcast? Please give us your feedback and tell us what you think Link to the feedback survey: https://forms.office.com/e/3wDh6FRMaUDownload the show notes, transcript and activity booklet

Teacher professional development is a crucial part of being a good teacher. However, we often think that ‘good training’ can only be obtained from ‘expert trainers’ at large conferences or through online workshops. And whilst these can definitely be hugely beneficial, many teachers forget that there is so much that they can learn from their own colleagues in their own contexts. In our interview, we hear from the EVE programme, a ground-breaking initiative which promotes gender equity in ELT conferences. After this, we journey to Romania, to hear from a very active group based in the town of Sibiu who promote peer-led teacher development workshops.

Many parts of the world are currently experiencing significant levels of violence and conflict. The role of education and language learning in these areas is very important, and can provide short and long term benefits for people in these situations. This episode is released on the first anniversary of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, and in recognition of this our field report focuses on a British Council programme entitled “Teaching and Learning in Difficult Times”. This programme has, to date, provided training in trauma-sensitive pedagogy to more than 1,000 Ukrainian English language teachers. In our interview, we talk to Diana Abu Zayed, a teacher in Gaza in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, who shares with us some of her practical experiences of teaching in a conflict area.Download the show notes, transcript in Arabic and English, and activity booklet

Wherever you are in the world, and whatever your context, story will almost certainly be an important part of the teaching and learning context. However, what is meant by the word’ story’ may differ from place to place, ranging from the type of traditional tale found in coursebooks, to oral narratives created by students themselves, to digital creations found online. To develop our understanding of these different contexts we first speak to Jamie Keddie, an expert in the way we can use different forms of ‘story’ to teach English. His passion and knowledge of the subject will be sure to stimulate your own classroom practice. After this, we visit the Oasis Centre in Cardiff to learn more about their novel approach to using storytelling to develop their students’ English language skills.Download the show notes, activity booklet and transcript in Arabic or English.

Just the phrase ‘academic English’ can sometimes make students – and teachers - feel nervous and afraid. In this episode, in the company of Tracey Costley from the University of Essex, we show that academic English doesn’t have to be quite as scary as it sounds, and that academic English can actually be accessible for everyone.In the field report, we find out about a fantastic initiative between the University of Leicester and the University of Leeds for refugee-background students, who receive online support to develop their academic English skills so that they can access degree programmes at UK universities.Download the show notes, activity booklet and transcript in English and Arabic

Teachers often ask to what extent they should be responsible for teaching challenging material in the classroom, for example topics such as sex, sexuality, racism, politics, religion and economic inequality. Given that in most teaching situations, teachers will have to teach difficult issues at some point, it is important to think about the best way to do this, in order to minimise any problems or embarrassment, and to maximise learning for the students. In our interview, we talk to Rose Aylett, who tells us all about PARSNIPs, and suggests many innovative ways in which these issues can be managed in the classroom. And in the field report, we go to Cardiff, in Wales, to hear about how the not-for-profit Oasis Centre discuss these issues with their refugee and asylum seeker clients.Download the practical activity booklet, show notes and transcript in English or Arabic

In recent times, the influence of virtual reality, artificial intelligence and the metaverse in our daily lives has increased. This influence has also been very noticeable in English language teaching in many parts of the world. In this episode, we talk to Nergiz Kern, a leading expert in this field, who talks to us about the past, present and future of these educational technologies. She shares with us advice about how we can get the most out of VR in the classroom with whatever resources we have, wherever in the world we may be. In our field report, we are invited into a VR lesson to see for ourselves how they work, and how they can make our teaching even more effective. Download the show notes, activity booklet and transcript from: https://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/article/british-council-teachingenglish-podcast-how-can-we-use-virtual-reality-teach-english

It’s the first episode of Series 2 of Teaching English with the British Council, and we’ve got world cup fever. We’re looking at how teachers can use football to teach English – as well as other languages – effectively. We interview the founders of Languagecaster and Multilingua FC, who provide a range of resources and materials to help students interested in football improve their English language skills. We also hear from the British Council’s own Premier Skills programme, which has used football as a way to promote social, language and skills development for over 15 years.You can download the show notes, the English transcript, Arabic transcript, and Activity Booklet from the TeachingEnglish website.