British Council - Teaching English

Welcome to episode 3 of series 3 of our podcast. In this episode, we ask the question: do I need to sound like a 'native speaker'? After discussing what we mean by native and non-native speakers of English, we have a conversation with Professor Jenny Jenkins, emeritus professor of Global Englishes. Jenny argues that 'native English' is a loaded and problematic term and she draws on her experience of ELF – English as a Lingua Franca – to provide a more useful understanding of English proficiency. Later in the episode, we hear from some of our TeachingEnglish Facebook community members, who give their opinions on the topic. Thanks to Maria Glazunova, Fajarudin Akbar, and Cristiana Osana for their contributions. Finally, we speak with Ana Jović, English language teacher and consultant, about native speakerism and its impact on language learning and teaching. Ana highlights the need for educating parents, students and teachers about the myths surrounding English speakers in ELT.

Download the show notes and transcripts in English and Arabic.

It's episode 2 of our new series, and this week we are discussing how to teach vocabulary and grammar more communicatively. We talk to Jo Cummins, freelance ELT teacher, trainer and materials writer. Jo shares some ideas for communicative activities in the classroom that can help students move from passive grammar and vocabulary knowledge to active use of language for communication. We also look at how classrooms can become a 'safe space' for students to make errors, so that they can become more confident speakers outside the classroom. Later, we are joined byLuis Carabantes from Queen Mary University in London, who talks to us about communicative language teaching (CLT). We also discuss the importance of providing learners with authentic language and tasks, and of questioning the reasons for teaching what we teach. 

Download the show notes and transcripts in English and Arabic.

The TeachingEnglish podcast is back! In episode 1, we're discussing how we can achieve gender equity in the classroom. We talk to Dr Aisling O'Boyle, Director of the Centre for Language Education Research at Queen's University, Belfast. We look at how discrimination against women in areas like education has deep historical roots, but we now have more useful language to discuss it. We talk about how inequalities persist in many areas today and how language and textbooks can reinforce gender stereotypes. We're later joined by Araceli Salas and Grazzia Mendoza, teacher educators from Latin America and editors of Empowered Women in ELT, a collection of worldwide stories. Together, we look at practical ways English teachers can tackle gender equity, including raising awareness, working together and adapting classroom materials to reflect local contexts. 

Download the show notes and transcripts in English and Arabic.

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.

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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 website

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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.

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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.

In our second series of this ten-part podcast series from the British Council, we try and provide solutions to some of the key questions being asked by English teachers around the world. Each episode explores a specific topic through interviews, a focus on recent developments and reports on British Council initiatives in English language teaching. Practical show notes and transcripts are available to download at the bottom of the page.

When working in a busy and stressful educational environment, it’s important that teachers support and help each other as much as possible. In this episode, we hear from several teacher networks around the world about how they support their members, the projects they are doing, and the impact which they are having. Following this, we speak to Pauline Blake-Johnston, who has a wide range of experience in participating in and managing teacher networks. Her experience ranges from being the chair of NATECLA Scotland (the National Association for Teaching English and other Community Languages to Adults), to vice-chair of the Glasgow ESOL forum, to being a board member for IATEFL’S ESOL special interest group.  

COVID-19 has affected so much of how we deliver education and language teaching. As schools (in some parts of the world) return to something approaching normality, it’s important to consider the mental health impact of the pandemic. Confronted with other challenging issues as well, such as climate anxiety, students are looking to teachers for mental health support more than ever before. In this episode, we’ll look at British Council set of activities created as part of its Connecting Classrooms programme. These materials help teachers promote wellbeing activities for both you and your students. In the second half of the episode, we speak to the teacher trainer, author and researcher Sarah Mercer and discuss how teachers can make their classrooms places where mental wellbeing is maintained, and even improved.

For show notes and transcript, visit the page on teachingEnglish

Students’ home languages should be seen assets in the English language classroom – but all too often they are viewed as problematic and detrimental. In this episode, the writers of the British Council publication Using multilingual approaches:

moving from theory to practice share activities you can use in your classroom that celebrate the languages your students speak. Following these practical suggestions, academic and researcher Tony Capstick shares his insights into the value and importance of a multilingual approach to learning.

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We are now into the last decade of the United Nations’ Sustainable Goals, and their emphasis on promoting education, improving health outcomes and eradicating poverty have never been more crucial. Despite their importance, many students around the world know little about them. In this podcast, we hear from three ELT writers who contributed articles to the British Council publication Integrating global issues in the creative English language classroom. We then speak to Margarita Kosior about how these ideas can be effectively contextualised in the classroom, showing that it is possible to meet language goals – and prepare students for examinations – by teaching about the Sustainable Development Goals.

Download the show notes and transcript from TeachingEnglish

For decades, the educational dial in northern Nigeria, had barely moved. Low levels of literacy and numeracy prevailed across the state of Kano. Since 2019, the British Council have worked with governmental and non-governmental partners to implement its Kano Literacy and Maths Accelerator (KaLMA) project, the aim of which is to build foundational Maths, Hausa and English literacy skills, using a TaRL (Teaching at the Right Level) approach. In our interview, Mohammed Wais, a coordinator of the NGO “Wave of Hope” at the Nea Kavala refugee camp in northern Greece, shares his experience of teaching English in this challenging context, providing ideas, initiatives and insights into how teachers can be as effective as possible.

Download the shownotes and transcript from www.teachingenglish.org.uk/podcast

The last two years have seen a rush to teaching online, driven largely by the COVID-19 pandemic. But whilst some teachers had considerable experience teaching remotely, for others it was a completely new experience. In episode 5, we learn from Plan Ceibal (Ceibal en Inglés), an innovative English teaching project which uses videoconferencing technology to reach 80,000 children in over 550 primary schools across Uruguay. In the second part, digital learning specialist and lecturer in English language teacher Raquel Ribeiro shares her insights into how you can teach online more effectively, whatever your own experience and personal context. 

Download the show notes, including practical advice for teachers, and the transcript from the British Council's TeachingEnglish website

There are in excess of 85 million displaced people in the world, with children under the age of 18 constituting around half this total. Whether a refugee, migrant or internally-displaced person, developing language skills can play a huge role for these individuals – and the host communities in which they live – to withstand challenges, recover from crisis and overcome barriers. We’ll explore the British Council work on Language for Resilience to understand this further. Following on from this, we’ll speak to teacher and trainer Brian Lally about his work and research in Lebanon with Syrian refugees, and identify some core principles which teachers working in these challenging situations can use.

Download the show notes and transcript from the TeachingEnglish website

All children have the right to learn, but often they are not given the opportunity to do so. Even when they are present in the classroom, they are not fully included in the learning. In this episode, teachers involved in the British Council’s innovative Teaching for Allprogramme in South Africa will share approaches which can promote inclusivity, particularly in diverse classrooms communities. Then leading inclusivity expert Anne Margaret Smith will then share her ideas about how these strategies can be adapted and adopted in your teaching context.

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Although classrooms are becoming increasingly gender fair, the educational impacts of COVID-19 have affected females more than males. Now, more than ever, teachers need to continue to make their classrooms gender-fair places. In the first part of Episode 2, we learn about a MOOC (Massive Open Online Course) recently created by the British Council, in which we explore its three modules, Gender representation in teaching materials,Understanding gender equality in teaching practice and Working with Gender equality in Education. In the second part, gender expert and educator Bhavna Gupta identifies simple ways in which all teachers, whatever their context, can ensure that all students are given equal opportunities.

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The 'Teaching English with the British Council' podcast launches as COP26, the crucial UN climate change conference, draws to an end. In our first episode, we explore how teachers can effectively integrate teaching global issues in the language classroom. Initially, we’ll examine this question from the perspective of one of the most pressing global issues of our time, namely the climate crisis, in particular the British Council’s podcast series The Climate Connection. We’ll then interview Fadidac Jules Champrien, a young and dynamic Cameroonian educator, about how teachers in any context and any situation can use language teaching as a way of raising global issues.

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A ten-part podcast series from the British Council. Each episode explores a key topic and provides classroom-based solutions through interviews, a focus on recent developments and reports on British Council initiatives in English language teaching. Practical show notes and transcripts are available to download.