Monthly Archives: June 2014

Fearing

June 27, 2014Uncategorizedblogging, efl, esl, esol, fear, growth, humility, knowledge, ma tesol, professional development, social media, tefl, tesl, tesol, twitternathanghall

Image courtesy of Saspotato

Social media can be so cruel. Before Twitter, Facebook and the like, I was content in thinking that I knew something. I felt like I was actually pretty knowledgeable and was able to connect the dots to apply that information in a meaningful way. But then I joined Twitter and started blogging. Now, I feel that I don’t really know that much really. When I read what others write and even the short snippets provided in Tweets, I feel, well, pretty dumb actually. I don’t say this to gain pity, I am admitting it because I am starting to realize that this is somewhat of a gift. Continue reading Fearing →

Researching

June 23, 2014Uncategorized#444ELT, action research, efl, elt, elt research, esl, esol, research, tefl, tesl, tesolnathanghall

Image Public Domain

Imagine yourself living in the middle of the 17th century suffering from a migraine headache. What would you do? Go see a physician of course! What was the cure? Bloodletting was the standard response since the body was made up various humours and by draining some of the blood from the body, you were putting the various humours in balance (Ali Parapia, 2008). Fast-forward to today and this has been proven to be a rather dangerous practice as any substantial blood loss affects every cell in the body and can cause anaemia, tissue damage, organ failure, and ultimately death if not restored (Garrioch, 2004).

Since I am not a doctor, nor play one on TV, my knowledge of this subject is based entirely on what I have read from experts in the field. Where did they get their knowledge from? Continue reading Researching →

Reading

June 21, 2014Uncategorized#444ELT, efl, elt, eltresearch, esl, esol, extensive reading, reading, research, tefl, tesl, tesol, vocabularynathanghall

Image courtesy of Phil Roeder

This is the final instalment of my first #444ELT project. To find out more about the project and to read the other three posts, here they are:

In this final week, I explored the concept of extensive reading. I have used extensive reading in my classes in the past, so I wanted to find out what the research says on the topic. Here is what I found. Continue reading Reading →

Commenting

June 16, 2014Uncategorized#444ELT, assessment, eap, efl, elt research, esl, esol, oral feedback, peer-commenting, peer-editing, peer-feedback, research, revision, tefl, tesl, tesol, writingnathanghall

Image courtesy of Jenny Kaczorowski

Welcome to week three of my #444ELT project! If you are interested in reading the summary from the first two weeks, here they are:

Week One: Vocabulary
Week Two: Portfolios

For week three, I focused on peer-review/assessment/commenting as my subject of study. I have found the use of a topic each week to be really helpful in comparing what is happening and getting a bigger picture on the subject. I think this week was even more so than in previous weeks. I hope it is helpful. Oh, and since we are on the subject of peer-commenting, feel free to leave your own. 🙂 Continue reading Commenting →

Collecting

June 7, 2014Uncategorized#444ELT, academic research, assessment, cdnelt, eap, elt, elt research, eportfolio, esl, esol, portfolio, reflection, tesl, tesolnathanghall

Image courtesy of Sean Winters

This is week two of my #444ELT personal challenge. Here is a link to week one.

This week I spent time digging through articles on the use of portfolios in the classroom. This is something I already do and have done for a while, but I wanted to see what others were doing and to see if there was anything I could do better. I learned a great deal this week and I may keep on reading about portfolios as I feel there is some real value to it beyond what I am doing at the moment.

I invite all comments, suggestions, and even criticisms. Share below in the comments section or on Twitter.

Continue reading Collecting →

ELT Reflections

Musings of a teacher always in training