What would you like to talk about on #ELTchat on 05/03/2014?
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If you have an idea for a topic for next Wednesday’s chat then leave it as a comment below this post and we will include it in the poll once voting starts on Monday 3 March. Since we now only have one chat a week, we will add unsuccessful topics from the previous week to the poll.
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Time of Next #ELTchat
The top choice in the poll will be discussed at 12.00 p.m. GMT on Wednesday 5 March.
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- Since we started #ELTchat in September 2010, we have discussed a wide number of topics, but with many new members joining our conversations every week, it is very natural that we will get requests for topics which we “have done”.
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Ideally you need to suggest a topic that:
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- is relevant to ELT teachers and teaching foreign languages
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The #ELTchat moderators reserve the right to edit or reword a topic or not to include in the poll if it does not follow the above guidelines.Before you propose a topic, do please check the summaries page on this blog or go to the #ELTchat wiki and click on the Transcripts or Summaries Links to see what has been covered so far.If you see your topic but would still like to discuss a different aspect or set of issues, do submit it and we will consider including it again!
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7 Responses
…Enterings & Exitings / Beginnings & Endings…
Coming: Do you like to get into your classroom before students come in? Why/why not? How to you ‘make your entrance’ each day? (How) does any of this affect your classes (your and/or your students, or general atmosphere)? Do ‘first impressions’ matter?
Going: Are you the last one out of your classroom? Do you hang out to interact with Sts/take questions, etc.? Why/why not? How do you make your exit? What’s the ‘texture’ of the disbanding of your classes? (How) does any of this affect your classes? Do ‘last impressions’ matter?
How do students break the threshold of the classroom in coming in and leaving? How is the classroom space defined and how does the character of movements across the threshold affect it?
*same considerations applied to class break times.
The Ethicality of Testing is a topic I would like to be discussed. Personally speaking, I don’t think I’m against testers; I’m against the uses or rather misuses of tests. Testers are not bad people;it’s that they are trained in a certain way, more in directions of how to find the most efficient way for testing and less about what is being tested and whether we always need tests at all, i.e., how tests are used. My view is that testing is one procedure of this whole thing that is language education, language learning and language use. Testing is the most powerful thing. It’s more powerful than the curriculum. I would like to see a world without tests but the reality is different;you need selection, you need to give diplomas because I wouldn’t like to have a doctor who doesn’t know the language;but what kind of language does one need? One can get along nicely with language which is far from being native-like. It would be good if people, especially in situations where we have many immigrants, are trained how to interact with people who are far from native-like proficiency. We have to re-think our practices-whether to use formal tests, whether to use linear scale as the CEFR, which is standardizing minds and brains. I think this is problematic. So I’m not against tests or testers;I’m against the use of tests in the way they are currently constructed, rated, practised, ocer-used. Why not test in dialects, indigenous languages, aboriginal languages? Lets think about that.
When it comes to Teacher Training, are there two schools, the old and the new? Or has the old embraced the new?
Gaming in the ELT classroom- can we design our own games. What gaming resources are available.
HI Vinita. You’ve missed the cut for this week’s topic suggestions, as voting is now underway. But please suggest it next time. There has been one chat on games and one on gamification before (according to the summaries index). Invites for new topic suggestions will be sent out this Friday. Look out for that.
I definitely think we should look at the validity of online CPD – if not this Wednesday then at some point- because there is plenty of development opportunities out there which don’t involve a F2F approach and are just as valuable and are easily validated with a few tricks. Given the number of bogus schools out there significantly outweighs the number of professional schools, it is to be expected a majority of ELT professionals will spend some part of their career, usually the beginning, in a school which does not provide development opportunities. They need to develop and can do this themselves very easily and successfully through online development opportunities.
Sounds like you really want this topic, Anthony. Suggest you re propose this on Friday/Saturday when the next call for topics goes out. Quite often topics are proposed more than once before they get chosen, via the vote.
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