TESOL Pop

Renewable English Founder Harry Waters shares three fun and simple activities we can use in our face-to-face classes to help raise students' awareness about Climate Change.

In this episode, Harry talks about:

How we can connect the activities to the UN's Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

Activity 1: A Climate Board Race to engage learners in reviewing language

Activity 2: A Snowball 'fight’ as a way to engage learners in writing and sharing Planet Pledges

Activity 3: A Two-Minute Tweet to help learners connect everyday topics to the environment.

To learn more about Harry's work, including useful teaching resources and lesson plans, go to Renewable English.

References

To explore the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals, go to https://www.undp.org/

You can support the work we do at TESOL Pop by: 

- Leaving a rating and review

- Sharing this episode with your teaching community 

- Buying us a coffee at https://ko-fi.com/tesolpop

Credits 

Podcaster & Producer Laura Wilkes 

Audio-Video Editor Haven Tsang 

With thanks to our superduper guest, Harry Waters.

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Author and teacher Adrian Bethune shares his experience with stress in his career and how this inspired him to find ways to support teacher self-care and wellbeing.

In this episode, Adrian talks about:

1. Normal versus chronic stress he has experienced in his career

2. The difference between passive and active stress management strategies

3. How to create a bank of wellbeing activities for better self-care

4. How to build new habits using the Easy, Attractive, Social, Timely (EAST) framework

To learn more about Adrian’s publications and work on teacher wellbeing, visit teachappy.

References

To explore Dr Tal Ben-Shahar's work on happiness, go to: https://talbenshahar.com/

Behavioural Insights Team (2023) EAST Four simple ways to apply behavioural insights. Available at: https://www.bi.team/here/east... (Accessed: 20 September 2023).

Hello teacher. If you are experiencing high levels of stress, then there are organisations that can support. The Samaritans is an example of a charity that listens without judgment. You can call them anytime, email, chat, write a letter or use their self-help app.

You can support the work we do at TESOL Pop by: 

- Leaving a rating and review

- Sharing this episode with your teaching community 

- Buying us a coffee at https://ko-fi.com/tesolpop

Credits 

Podcaster & Producer Laura Wilkes 

Audio-Video Editor Haven Tsang 

With thanks to our inspiring guest, Adrian Bethune.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This special episode features soundbites from the English Teachers Association Switzerland (ETAS) Professional Development (PD) Day in Bern on 2 September 2023. We interviewed attendees Elizabeth Hirst, Veronique Vouilloz, presenters Samvidha Srinath, Ian McMaster, and ETAS members Rumana Yasin and Yuval Shomron about their experience of the event.

In this episode you will hear:

- Lizzie describe how she will apply games to her role in EdTech

- Veronique share a collaborative creative writing task

- Samvidha reflect on her experience as a first-time presenter

- Ian summarise the connection between English for Specifc Purposes (ESP) and AI

- Rumana share tips on how we can the most of such events

- Yuval reflect on the role events like the ETAS PD day have on teacher development

To learn more about ETAS, including the online and face-to-face events they organise, go to https://www.e-tas.ch/ 

To watch the video version of this episode with closed captions, click here. Alternatively, you can listen along with a transcript here.

You can support the work we do at TESOL Pop by: 

- Leaving a rating and review

- Sharing this episode with your teaching community 

- Buying us a coffee at https://ko-fi.com/tesolpop

Credits 

Podcaster & Producer Laura Wilkes 

Audio-Video Editor Haven Tsang 

With thanks to all of our lovely guests and the fantastic ETAS team.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Teacher and Examiner Ruth Brewer shares how she uses TikTok to support her students’ English studies.

In this episode, Ruth talks about:

- What inspired her to start using TikTok to create bite-sized learning

- Examples of content she creates to help students review and prepare for exams

- The impact her TikTok account @steertosuccess has had on students

- What to keep in mind when creating educational content for social media

To see examples of Ruth’s videos, visit her TikTok page at @steertosuccess

To watch this interview on YouTube with closed captions, click here.

You can support the work we do at TESOL Pop by:

- Leaving a rating and review

- Sharing this episode with your community

- Buying us a coffee at https://ko-fi.com/tesolpop

Credits

Podcaster & Producer Laura Wilkes

Audio-Video Editor Haven Tsang

With thanks to our inspiring guest, Ruth Brewer.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

PhD candidate Blair Hongzhi Wang shares highlights from her studies on Mandarin English speakers’ pronunciation and teaching strategies that can help learners develop their intelligibility.

In this interview, Blair talks about:

1. Vowel sounds Mandarin English speakers find challenging and why

2. The meaning of intelligibility and its relevance to research and teaching

3. How similar sounds between learners’ L1 and English doesn't always make learning easier

4. How gestures and perception-based activities can support learners in tackling sounds they find challenging.

While Blair's research is focused on Mandarin English speakers, the tips and teaching strategies she shares can be adapted to other sounds and the needs of your learners.

To learn more about Blair's studies, contact her here or visit the City, University of London website here. To watch this episode with closed captions on YouTube, click here.

References
Flege, J. E. (1995). 'Second Language Speech Learning Theory, Findings, and Problems', in Strange, W. (ed.) Speech Perception and Linguistic Experience Issues in Cross-Language Research. Timonium: MD York Press, pp.233-277

Wang, H. (2023, April 20) A Systematic Review: The Identification of Segmental Mandarin-Accented English Features. IATEFL Harrogate, UK

Passy, J. (2010) Cued Articulation: Consonants and Vowels (Revised Edition). ACER Press

You can support the work we do at TESOL Pop by:

- Leaving a rating and review

- Sharing this episode with your community

- Buying us a coffee at https://ko-fi.com/tesolpop

Credits

Podcaster & Producer Laura Wilkes

Audio-Video Editor Haven Tsang

With thanks to our inspiring guest, Blair Hongzhi Wang.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Teacher Training Manager Jane Kaskova shares her best practices for giving feedback to teenage or adult language students to power their learning and motivate them.

In this episode, Jane shares tips on:

1. How to tailor feedback for lower-level versus higher-level students.

2. What to prioritise when facilitating error correction in class.

3. The different ways we can communicate feedback to our students.

4. How to organise our feedback to keep it balanced.

You can support the work we do at TESOL Pop by:

- Leaving a rating and review wherever you listen to the podcast

- Sharing today's episode with your teaching community

- Buying us a coffee at https://ko-fi.com/tesolpop

If you enjoyed this episode, you may want to listen to TESOL Pop Season 5 Episode 5, Using Technology to Provide Meaningful Feedback, with Vibbl founder Nihad Ćehić for more insights on the impact of feedback on students' progress.

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Event Design Consultant and Executive Zoom Producer Robbie Samuels shares best practices from his latest book 'Break Out of Boredom: Low-Tech Solutions for Highly Engaging Zoom Events'. In this episode, Robbie walks through how to set up, manage, and wrap up breakout room tasks to keep the lesson's pace moving forward.

To learn more about Robbie's work and latest publications, visit his website or connect with him on LinkedIn here.

References

Samuels, R. (2023) Break Out of Boredom: Low-Tech Solutions for Highly Engaging Zoom Events. Wordsworth Lane Press

You can support the work we do at TESOL Pop by:

- Leaving a rating and review wherever you listen to the podcast

- Sharing today's episode with your teaching community

- Buying us a coffee at https://ko-fi.com/tesolpop

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Director of Studies Jenny Galligan reflects on her recent experimentation with Task-Based Learning (TBL) with her teenage language students. Jenny summarises task-based learning, how she structured a lesson using this approach, and how her students responded to the lesson. Lastly, Jenny shares her teaching tips on using Task-Based Learning so you can experiment with this approach in your classes too.

You can support the work we do at TESOL Pop by:

- Leaving a rating and review wherever you listen to the podcast

- Sharing today's episode with your teaching community

- Buying us a coffee at https://ko-fi.com/tesolpop

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

ESL and EAL specialist Adrienn Szlapak shares her personal journey of discovering the benefits of using L1 as a supportive tool for English language learning. In this episode, Adrienn explores various scenarios where L1 can be celebrated and leveraged to enhance students' learning.

You can find out more about Adrienn's work by reading her blog EAL Diaries here or following her on LinkedIn here.

You can support the work we do at TESOL Pop by:

- Leaving a rating and review wherever you listen to the podcast

- Sharing today's episode with your teaching community

- Buying us a coffee at https://ko-fi.com/tesolpop

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In celebration of our fifth birthday here at TESOL Pop, we are revisiting and remastering episodes from the archives to make the audio clearer and easier to listen to. This episode is from our Season 1 archive, which was recorded back in 2018 in Hong Kong. In this episode, Teacher Trainer and Language Examiner Bryan reflects on his experience in finding LGBTQIA+ inclusive communities while travelling and teaching English all over the world over the last 15 years. While some things have changed since Laura and Eve recorded this interview, Bryan's story remains relevant today. We hope that sharing this remastered episode creates space for more teacher stories to be shared.

To listen along with close captions, visit our YouTube channel here.

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