Fill in the Gaps

Hello and welcome to Fill in the Gaps.

Join Alan, Fatma, Julia, and Semra as they navigate their way through various topics associated with teaching English as a foreign language.

In this episode we continue to answer questions about our journey in teaching ESL...

What do you currently find most challenging in your job? 

What do you do after a tricky class? 

Which methodologies or ESL personalities interest you the most?

What does the future hold for teachers?

Are there any other questions you'd like us to answer? Contact us at fillinthegaps2021@outlook.com

Some useful links...

Scott Thornbury poses numerous questions in his blog - questions which are answered in detail by his followers. A great way of building knowledge about key topics in language education

https://scottthornbury.wordpress.com/

David Crystal briefly talks about varieties of English in this short clip. Check out more of his videos to learn more about the topic.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2_q9b9YqGRY

What's Task Based Learning? Check out the Jane and Dave Willis website for information and lesson plans to help guide you through this topic:

http://www.willis-elt.co.uk/

Hello and welcome to Fill in the Gaps.

Join Alan, Fatma, Julia, and Semra as they navigate their way through various topics associated with teaching English as a foreign language.

In this episode we are answering some questions about us for example how we started teaching, what motivates us and what advice we would give new teachers.

Are there any other questions you'd like us to answer? Contact us at fillinthegaps2021@outlook.com

Hello and welcome to Fill in the Gaps.

Join Alan, Fatma, Julia, and Semra as they navigate their way through various topics associated with teaching English as a foreign language.

In this episode, we discuss what error correction and feedback are and when, how, how often we should provide feedback for it to be effective for students' language learning. If you want to learn more about the topic, check out the following information about the video we watched and parts from some books that we read on the topic. 

For the video:

ISTEK ELT 2013 Concurrent Keynote - Jeremy Harmer "Does Correction Work? It Depends Who You Ask!"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AlGc1ZDnxgA&list=PLAqtJXU_DTu5HjGrKzmjy71ArHJF4Fbmg

The books mentioned:

The practice of English Language Teaching by Harmer (Longman 1983)- Chapter 7

Learning Teaching by Jim Scrivener (MacMillan, 1994)- Chapter 12

Hello and welcome to Fill in the Gaps.

Join Alan, Fatma, Julia, and Semra as they navigate their way through various topics associated with teaching English as a foreign language.

In each podcast, the group discusses their experiences and thoughts related to their chosen discussion area, offering useful insights and suggestions to listeners that could help them in their work as teachers.

Episode 13 focuses on the role of homework in the modern classroom. We discussed ideas, problems and solutions for making homework more pleasant, engaging and less time-consuming.  

Contact us at  fillinthegaps2021@outlook.com

Hello and welcome to Fill in the Gaps.

Join Alan, Fatma, Julia, and Semra as they navigate their way through various topics associated with teaching English as a foreign language.

In each podcast, the group discusses their experiences and thoughts related to their chosen discussion area, offering useful insights and suggestions to listeners that could help them in their work as teachers.

Episode 12 focuses on the impact of emotions for both teachers and learners in the classroom.

For more information on this interesting topic, check out the following article:

“Exploring emotions in language teaching” by Jack C. Richards (2020), RELC Journal, 1 –15

Contact us at  fillinthegaps2021@outlook.com

Hello and welcome to Fill in the Gaps.

Join Alan, Fatma, Julia and Semra as they navigate their way through various topics associated with teaching English as a foreign language.

In each podcast, the group discuss their experiences and thoughts related to their chosen discussion area, offering useful insights and suggestions to listeners that could help them in their work as teachers.

Episode 11 focuses on collaborative learning in the ESL classroom.

The article we discussed in this episode was:

Active Learning Through Poster Presentations

Brian Cullen (Nagoya Institute of Technology) & Ben Backwell (Nagoya City University)

Contact us at  fillinthegaps2021@outlook.com

Hello and welcome to Fill in the Gaps.

Join Alan, Fatma, Julia and Semra as they navigate their way through various topics associated with teaching English as a foreign language.
In this episode, listen to us discussing what self-regulated learning is, the differences between self-regulated learners and others and strategies to promote SRL in the classroom.

Hello and welcome to Fill in the Gaps.

Join Alan, Fatma, Julia and Semra as they navigate their way through various topics associated with teaching English as a foreign language.

In each podcast, the group discuss their experiences and thoughts related to their chosen discussion area, offering useful insights and suggestions to listeners that could help them in their work as teachers.

Episode 9 Focuses on the use of course books and homemade materials in ESL classes.

For more in-depth discussion on this topic, check out the link below to see Lindsay Clandfield's take on this topic, as well as some useful insights in the comments section. 

https://scottthornbury.wordpress.com/2010/05/16/c-is-for-coursebook-by-lindsay-clandfield/

Contact us at  fillinthegaps2021@outlook.com

Hello and welcome to Fill in the Gaps.

Join Alan, Fatma, Julia and Semra as they navigate their way through various topics associated with teaching English as a foreign language.

In each podcast, the group discuss their experiences and thoughts related to their chosen discussion area, offering useful insights and suggestions to listeners that could help them in their work as teachers.

Episode 8 Focuses on Bilingualism in 21 century.

Check out the link below to read an article Bilingualism in the Early Years: What the Science Says https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6168212/

Contact us at  fillinthegaps2021@outlook.com

Hello and welcome to Fill in the Gaps.

Join Alan, Fatma, Julia and Semra as they navigate their way through various topics associated with teaching English as a foreign language.

In this episode, we talk about the moments which made us come to a realization about our teaching beliefs and methods. 

Hello and welcome to Fill in the Gaps.

Join Alan, Fatma, Julia and Semra as they navigate their way through various topics associated with teaching English as a foreign language.

In each podcast, the group discuss their experiences and thoughts related to their chosen discussion area, offering useful insights and suggestions to listeners that could help them in their work as teachers.

This episode focuses on benefits and drawbacks of online testing.

Contact us at  fillinthegaps2021@outlook.com

Hello and welcome to Fill in the Gaps.

Join Alan, Fatma, Julia and Semra as they navigate their way through various topics associated with teaching English as a foreign language.

In each podcast, the group discuss their experiences and thoughts related to their chosen discussion area, offering useful insights and suggestions to listeners that could help them in their work as teachers.

Episode 5 Focuses on the use of narration and storytelling in the ESL classroom with some of the problems regularly encountered by teachers.

The books discussed in this episode were:

Teachers Exploring Tasks in English Language Teaching Edited by Corony Edwards and Jane Willis, Macmillan 2005 (Chapter 1, 5 and 16)

Progressive Picture Compositions Donn Byrne, Longman 1994 (1st edition 1967 - a real classic!)

Check out edpuzzle.com for an interesting spin on creating your own video lessons for narration tasks.

Contact us at  fillinthegaps2021@outlook.com

Hello and welcome to Fill in the Gaps.

Join Alan, Fatma, Julia and Semra as they navigate their way through various topics associated with teaching English as a foreign language.

In each podcast, the group discuss their experiences and thoughts related to their chosen discussion area, offering useful insights and suggestions to listeners that could help them in their work as teachers.

Episode 4 focuses on testing, assessment and evaluation. 

Contact us at  fillinthegaps2021@outlook.com

Hello and welcome to Fill in the Gaps.

Join Alan, Fatma, Julia and Semra as they navigate their way through various topics associated with teaching English as a foreign language.

In each podcast, the group discuss their experiences and thoughts related to their chosen discussion area, offering useful insights and suggestions to listeners that could help them in their work as teachers.

Episode 3 Focuses on motivation problems experienced during the pandemic

Click on the following link to watch an inspiring TED Talk offering advice on how to become a better teacher (What makes a good teacher great? | Azul Terronez | TEDxSantoDomingo)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vrU6YJle6Q4&t=1s

Contact us at  fillinthegaps2021@outlook.com

Hello and welcome to Fill in the Gaps. 

Join Alan, Fatma, Julia and Semra as they navigate their way through various topics associated with teaching English as a foreign language. 

In each podcast, the group discuss their experiences and thoughts related to their chosen discussion area, offering useful insights and suggestions to listeners that could help them in their work as teachers.

Episode 1 focuses on some of the all too familiar problems associated with the world of delivering online classes.

The following link is for a great webinar (Teaching Grammar in the world of Covid, CUP) and offers plenty of good advice for managing online activities and has a strong focus on teacher wellbeing:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3E8YJUePNXw&t=182s

If you want more inspiration for planning engaging online activities, the following text is a great place to start and is full of easy to implement suggestions and lesson ideas:

Teaching Online Tools and Techniques, Options and Opportunities by Nicky Hockley and Lindsay Clandfield (DELTA Publishing 2010)

Contact us at  fillinthegaps2021@outlook.com

Hello and welcome to Fill in the Gaps.

Join Alan, Fatma, Julia and Semra as they navigate their way through various topics associated with teaching English as a foreign language.

In each podcast, the group discuss their experiences and thoughts related to their chosen discussion area, offering useful insights and suggestions to listeners that could help them in their work as teachers.

This episode focuses on some online tools that we use in our online classes.

Jamboard - for collaborative learning and online interaction  

Google Maps - for life-related tasks 

Canva - for bright and eye-catching  presentations

Quizlet - for online practice and vocabulary retention 

Google forms - for various tests and questionaires 

Contact us at  fillinthegaps2021@outlook.com