More and more English language educators understand the importance of focusing not only on developing our learners’ linguistic competence, but also on helping them use English to connect with people who have different perspectives, beliefs and behavioural norms from their own. The push to help students develop global competence by the
Category: Teaching Adults
Confronting Climate Change Education in ELT
Our world faces a number of challenges, and for many people, the most serious global issue is climate change, driven by the unsustainable use of the planet’s resources. But what does climate change have to do with English language teaching (ELT)? At first glance, ELT might have little to do
Teaching Real-World Communication in the English Classroom
In the constantly evolving landscape of English language teaching, the necessity to focus on real-life communication over rote learning has gained much more prominence in recent years. Many researchers and practitioners have emphasized vocabulary acquisition and its role in fostering fluency and natural language use. This blog post explores the
Mediation: What Is It and Why Is It Important?
When you hear the term ‘mediation’, what words come to mind? Perhaps you might think of words such as negotiation, conflict, or resolution. In the common understanding of the term, the ‘mediator’ is a neutral third party in a situation of conflict who helps each party define the issues, see
Self-Directed Professional Development with National Geographic Learning Webinars
More and more is being written about self-directed professional development (SDPD) as teachers (and indeed all professionals) start taking their professional development into their own hands. SDPD garnered more interest during the pandemic, as teachers began turning to resources outside their institutes to help them rethink how they taught and
Doorways to Digital Literacy in Stand Out, 4th Edition
Recently, the National Skills Coalition did a study on the relationship between employability and digital literacy. Through analyzing a sample of job ads, they concluded that, across all industries, 92% of jobs require digital literacy skills. While that percentage is large, it’s possible that this statistic is still a bit
How do we improve listening outcomes?
Traditionally, ELT listening lessons often focused on micro-skills like using context and general knowledge to get the gist. More recently, there has been a reconsideration of listening and how we might improve it, based on four main processes. These can be described as: In this post, we define these four
Teaching Social Issues with the SDGs
I’d like to start this final post in this Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) blog series with an explanation. Despite the distinction we’re making between environmental SDGs, such as number 13 – Climate action – and social SDGs, like number 1 – No poverty – you will have realized that the
Four Ways to Address Workplace Skills in the Classroom
Beginning in 1992, the United States developed standards identifying workplace soft skills for workforce preparation. While these standards changed and new ones were introduced, the same underlying skills were always there: critical thinking, collaboration, communication, and technology skills. Below we discuss four ways to address workplace skills in the Adult
How to ‘go green’ in your classes with the SDGs
So far in this series, we’ve examined the connection between English teaching and the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals and how projects can be leveraged to let learners explore the SDGs for themselves. In this post, we focus on the SDGs that concern the climate and biodiversity crises, such as SDG 7