SEETA and Penny Ur

Today I took part in a very interesting forum discussion on the uses of L1 (mother tongue to those who are unfamiliar with EFL/ESL jargon) with Penny Ur, one of the biggest names in teaching English as a foreign language. Ur has challenged the prevailing wisdom that in the ideal language classroom everything should be in English.

"The only really valid argument, in my opinion, in favour of minimizing (not banishing) L1 use is that over-use of L1 lessens the time available for English use in the classroom. Obviously we want our students to have maximum exposure to English in our lessons. But this means limiting L1 use, not banishing it altogether. Insisting on keeping to English even when students don’t understand what is being said may lead to the message ‘it doesn’t matter if you don’t understand’, or the morale-lowering assumption by learners ‘I don’t understand English’."

It was also great to see EFL/ESL practitioners in Greece and the wider Eastern Mediterranean area embracing web 2.0 technologies such as moodles in order to come together and exchange ideas.

To take part in this debate and next Sunday's discussion click on the SEETA moodle. Register and enjoy.

Looking forward to summer

At long last the exam frenzy is over. The alphabet soup of FCE/CPE/CAE/ECCE and ECPE that we have every year has come to an end. My students have taken their exams all we can do is simply wait for the results over the summer. I was thinking about what to do over the next few months there are so many things I wanted to achieved over the winter but didn't have didn't have time. So here is my summer wish list. If I finish just one of them I'll be happy;

- Write a movie script. I know it's a crazy idea but going around the city photographing various weird and spooky places an idea came to mind which I'd love to develop.

- Learn how to Moodle. I'd love to develop a place where all my private students could come together and share ideas.

- Learn more about journalism. I've been writing stuff for NowPublic.com for a while and I'd like to do it better.

- Put on my own underground photography exhibition. I know I said I would a few months back but then I ran into all kinds of practical problems which meant I put the idea on the back burner.

- Write a Wikispace guide on how to use blogs to promote political causes and promote your particular cause. The idea came when somebody asked me for my help to let people know about a ecological disaster near Mount Olympus.

- Come up with some more weird and wonderful teaching ideas. It's been a while since I last posted stuff. Now that I have some time to think rather than act I hope to come up with some more interesting lesson plans.