“Now is the time that we need to rethink what we mean by the word ‘literacy’.” – Professor Michael Wesch, Cultural Anthropologist and National Geographic Emerging Explorer What does “literacy” mean? Traditionally, it’s the ability to read and write, but in today’s interconnected and high-tech world that definition may no
Category: Teaching Adults
Two Frameworks for Teaching Creatively in the ELT Classroom
Welcome to the second post in this series. In the previous post we looked at definitions of creativity and talked about the importance of developing creative skills in our classrooms, not only for our learners but also for teachers! In this post I’ll be looking at a framework you can
Life around the World Contest
Welcome to the first post in the Life around the World Contest! Each month, we will release a photo from a cover of Life Second Edition on the In Focus Blog. We want you to submit your best guess of where in the world this photo was taken. Try to tell
Making learning last: Multisensory approaches
You may be asking why a whole post is devoted to the subject of multi-sensory learning when the other posts in this series have included two or three factors that influence memory. The answer is because multi-sensory learning really implies experiential learning, which accounts for much of what we learn
The Questions We Ask
Hugh Dellar and Andrew Walkley explore questions about vocabulary that give you more feedback from your learners. Perhaps the most common kind of question that many teachers learn to ask during initial training is Concept-Checking Questions (CCQs). The basic idea is that after explaining what something means, teachers need to
A Critical Look at Critical Thinking
Before taking a critical look at critical thinking, it may be useful to come up with a clear definition of the concept. One way to think about it is to focus on the type of thinking required: “Critical thinking is thinking that is clear, logical, open-minded, and based on evidence.”
Join National Geographic Learning at TESOL 2018!
We hope you can join us at TESOL 2018! Check out the videos below to hear National Geographic Learning TESOL presenters speak about their upcoming sessions at TESOL 2018 in Chicago. Make sure to sign up for email notifications for daily reminders from National Geographic Learning during TESOL and stop
What is creative thinking and why is it important
The idea that, as teachers, we need to foster learners’ creative thinking is something I’m sure you have heard before. So why is there so much attention in our current learning and teaching context on ‘being creative’ and developing thinking skills in the classroom? And are we only talking about
How to integrate critical thinking at lower levels
Critical thinking is often associated with teaching students at higher language levels. Perhaps it’s because the kinds of problem-solving tasks which are associated with critical thinking require a level of English at Intermediate or above. Maybe it’s also that the kind of language used to describe critical thinking skills includes
Motivation in your classroom: what’s in it for me?
Last time, we examined the psychological need to complete things and make them whole, and how that can be exploited to help students stay motivated. The word ‘need’ is a key term when we’re looking at students’ motivation, of course. At its most fundamental level, motivation is all about wants