E-merging forum 5 afterthoughts

I'm finally home and rested after E-merging Forum 5 in Moscow. A week after the end of the forum I sat down to think about it again. Being registered blogger definitely changed my experience of the conference and I'm not sure in which way. On the one hand I feel like I spent most of the forum head down in my tablet trying to type fast on the elusive keyboard. In some way I even feel that the conference kind of went past me :) Although it was tough the first day, I felt upbeat and even jotted down a post in the metro in the way to the conference building. I also have a very tangible proof of my presence there -  6 (!) posts, more than I write in a usual month.
I was trying to compare emf4 and emf5, but soon stopped trying. The first time is always super-exciting and new, I remember being really inspired by the ideas and people I saw a year ago. This time around I also left inspired not so much by the ideas (many didn't seem new), but by the people, teachers who continue to create, write, present, assess and improve.The final presentations left a big smile on my face and continued humming "If you are a stunning teacher.." (search for videos in instagram with #emf5) all the way to Saint-Petersburg. I wish I had had more time and courage to talk to my fellow teachers, but it is something I'll leave for next year...

I looked through my posts again and below you can find corrected versions with added links:
Herbert Puchta "Teaching Young Learners: What's hot and what not"
Catherine Walter "Learning grammar and pronunciation: what do we know and what can we do about it?"
Rimma Chaldymbaeva "10 reasons to use smartphones and tablets at efl classes"
Anna Loseva "Flashmob in elt"
Day 3 Plenary Talks
Day 3 Discussion Groups

Check out other registered bloggers' posts:
prolific Olya Sergeeva on ELT stories
Elena Matveeva on  Language Flame blog
Natalia Almaeva on Natalia's blog
Mura Nava on EFL Notes

and an official blog + interviews with speakers on TeachingEnglish website

Thank you, British Council, for organising this wonderful event and all the teachers that made it worth visiting! Till next year!

Catherine Walter "Learning Grammar and Pronunciation: what do we know, and what can we do about it?"

Catherine's talk started with the overview of popular grammar teaching approaches and their merits and drawbacks.  She pointed out that many of them neglect explicit grammar teaching (e.g. immersion). However, there are many definite advantages of this method: it is straightforward,  it helps to notice language features and gives negative feedback  (things that don't happen in the language ). There is also enough evidence to conclude that explicit grammar teaching does work (Norris&Ortega 2000; Gass&Selinker 2000).  The research found that it leads both to conscious and unconscious acquisition and has a lasting effect.
Some people think that the  best way to introduce grammar is when the need for it comes from a student. We can also create a situation for it artificially. On the other hand, in the  class setting it can be difficult to satisfy all the different needs different students have. It can also be challenging for the teacher to come up with the perfect explanation for a grammar point on the spot.
Catherine also shared her understanding of 3E system necessary for successful  explicit grammar teaching.

1. Explanation (or rules)  could be of different types. One - such as street signs and notices- are exposed by an authority. The other such as facts of nature are a result of observation of natural linguistic processes. The latter is the most desired one for teaching grammar. There are 6 criteria a teacher have to bear in mind while presenting a rule (both deductively and inductively). It should 
□be true
□demarcate (should clearly show the limits of the use of a given form).
□be clear
□ be simple
□be conceptually economical  (do not contain new and difficult concepts)
□ be relevant

2. EXAMPLES should be
☆prototypical
☆naturally sounding
☆ not contain irrelevant difficulties
☆there should be enough of them

3. EXERCISES give students opportunity to develop fluency

In the question of pronunciation, Katherine considers receptive skills to be more important than productive skills (for most learners). She also sees a strong link between grammar and pronunciation. Schwa is the most common sound in English language, it is often found in grammar words. So a teacher can incorporate pronunciation teaching (in form of decoding activities) into regular grammar lesson

Rimma Chaldymbaeva "10 reasons to use smartphones and tablets at efl classes"

Rimma has been using a tablet and a smartphone for three years now and she has 10 good reasons why you should do it too.

1. Personalization.
Idea: ask a student for a letter from an alphabet. Then search for the contact in your phone starting with this letter. Name him/her and ask students to ask you questions about this person. Then students can work in pairs 

2. Motivation
Idea: add some listening to a traditional running dictation. Record a story/text on your smartphone and make students transfer it to their notebook.
Tools: Kahoot.it for engaging quizzes

3. Organizing learning process. Ss can note down homework, a teacher can use digital notebooks like evernote to send students reminders and share the materials from the class

4. Economy. No paper involved!

5. Differentiation.
Idea: Ss choose podcasts or video they would like to watch and control the speed and number of times they will watch/listen to it. 

6. Facilitates special needs education.
Tools: Proloquo2go enables speech impaired learners communicate with a teacher in the class.

7. Evidence.
Idea: Ss can record an interview and evidence for their project/homework

8. Assessment and self assessment. In a big class with no time to spare try using the following
Tools: Socrative.com
Polleverywhere.com
Idea: ask Ss to record their voice in the lesson and check it after the lesson.

9. Reflection and self-reflection. Ss are able to record and document their progress
Tools: use whatsapp to give students feedback

10. Learning outside the classroom-> developing autonomy

Herbert Puchta "Teaching Very Young Learners - What's Hot and What Not"

The first plenary of #emf5 was devoted to something I have a very basic competence in - teaching young learners. I have to admit, I did start my teaching career with the interview for the pre-school English courses. Luckily, they didn't take me. Luckily because I later found out that it is almost a completely different area of esl, and I was more comfortable teaching teenagers and adults. However, I found Herbert Puchta's quite interesting and realised I was a true beliver in many myths that surround teaching YL and which the speaker tried to debunk.
The speaker started with the arguments against teaching YL. He claimed that there was no solid evidence for a Critical Period hypothesis. Moreover, small children do learn much slower than, say, adolescents. On the other hand, there is no scientific backing-up for the theory that learning second language will influence child's 1st language acquisition. Puchta himself admitted that he is in no way against teaching English to YL pointing out some distinct advantages of starting out early such as increased motivation, enhanced cognitive development and improved attitude to English in the future.

That said, he continued with what he thought should be necessarily at the core of teaching YL.

1. Quantity. Lessons should be regular and happen more often than, say, once a week.
2. Embedded interaction. Learning has to happen in the context and create classroom culture of participation. An old input-output system will just not work on its won with YL
3. Embodied interaction as in use of one's body. Quite often children can't express themselves in words even in their first language, so watching the body language of your students can be a valuable resource  in the classroom.
4.  Cognition. Hebert didn't put it in a separate category, but I felt a lot of words were said about it. The idea was traced back to Lev Vygotsky's theory of "shared cognition" that places a great importance of parent-child interaction. Thinking and speech in this situation go together and develop simultaneously. Another side of it is gently pushing learners beyond what they know and can do because learners will always have a need to express more than they can.
5. Stories.  Puchta reminded us that stories help children make sense of  and experience the world around them. Child's thinking is ultimately story thinking and their understanding of the world is  mythic understanding. So stories are a quick way into that reality. The speaker warned us against "fake-stories" often published in textbooks and reminded us 4 properties of a real story

• it has to have beginning-middle-end structure
• it has to involve some magic (like talking animals)
• something unexpected should happen
• there should be strong emotional contrasts

Herbert concluded with the hope that there are three competences teachers have to pass on their learners

communicative, linguistic and personal.

#emf5

E-merging forum 5 is almost here and I'm excited to attend it in a new role - I'm going to be a registered blogger! This means I'm going to write 1 or 2 posts a day through all three days of the conference! I've never done anything like that and I'm not sure I can think/write/proofread that fast but I hope it will be fun :)

source

What is E-merging forum? It's an annual conference for ELT professionals organised by British Council. It's held in Moscow and this year it will take place from 12th to 14th of March. Each day consists of several plenaries and about 15 meetings of 5 special interests groups. On the third day participants can join a discussion group of their interest and take part in the final presentation. If you can't come, a few of the sessions will be streamed online.
In my own experience, the forum is a great place for teachers to meet, talk, discuss, listen, get inspired and even relax. So if you still haven't made up your mind about it, I strongly recommend you to come or check out the live sessions.  Here you can read my impressions from the last forum.

See you there!