Diversity, Equity and Inclusion in ELT

At a recent Macmillan Day in Vietnam I gave a presentation on Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) in English Language Teaching (ELT). It’s an area I care greatly about having had experience of working in groups previously with the British Council and now with Macmillan Education to look at ways we can highlight the importance in our work.

What helps ELT learners develop positive attitudes to learning new language and to find the inner motivation they will need in order to learn?

I have asked, in the last five years, many teachers the following question; ‘What challenges do you have when teaching?’ Top of the list comes mixed ability classes. So with this blog I would like to address the challenge of mixed ability classes and also look at some of the positive aspects of teaching in such contexts.

Today’s world is a complex, interconnected world and in order to survive, learners need more than just language skills. As the world has become, and is becoming a smaller place, the requirement for us to engage, not just in our local communities but outside as well, has become more prominent. In this blog, I will examine some of the tools that we as teachers can employ in our ELT classrooms. I will show you how you can help your students understand the importance, provide them with support in how they can go about taking action and ultimately have fun learning Global Skills.

I like to think that my whole career has been a learning process and after 25 years in English language teaching I certainly don’t think I know everything. Meeting new teachers and discussing ideas always provides a freshness and food for thought and I am grateful I have a chance to do this. After 25 years I thought this would be a good time to reflect on where I have come and some professional development (PD) avenues I have been down. By doing so it will allow me to ask questions of you, in order for you to use some of the ideas for yourself.

I like to use this activity to promote the use of the superlative form. It utilises a well-known game that students find stimulating and fun to play.

Activating schemata, retrieving prior knowledge, accessing students’ background experience, whatever you want to call it, is a key element to a lesson’s success. For students, this allows them to open up their internal resources to engage with the lesson content or language and sets up the lesson in a way to encourage the use of English and a sense of collaboration from the get go.

Below are some simple but effective ideas for presenting vocabulary to children. I have used them throughout my career and revisit them pretty much every week. I hope they are as useful to you too

“Ok everyone. STOP! Let me explain once more what I want you to do. STOP, please. Everyone listen please!’

This was a frequent refrain in my teaching and one I have heard throughout my years of observing teachers. I also regularly collect feedback from teachers on their teaching challenges, and class management always features high on their lists. As a result, I decided to revisit class management and design and deliver training, with a particular focus on giving and checking instructions.

It’s nearly a year since I went to Indonesia to talk to some lovely teachers in Padang, West Sumatra about Bloom’s Taxonomy and storytelling. Since then I have tried to implement the learning into other workshops and in particular use a framework to develop thinking skills through questioning.

I had an interesting conversation recently with some teachers in Thailand. The topic of the discussion was error correction and more specifically should learners be corrected and if so what, when and how. The debate was diverse and there was lots of differing ideas.

Studies show creativity is linked to academic achievement and that creativity can be taught. This blog will explore the ‘what’ and the ‘why’ of creative writing. In addition, we will also examine three major components of creativity. I will then provide some practical activities for you to try with your students and present a simple case study from one of my own classes.

A few years ago I was tasked with teaching at a prestigious all-girls school in Bangkok, Thailand. My students were secondary students with varied levels of of motivation for learning. As a 45 year old male from the UK I had very little in common with my students but I was determined to make the class run successfully and engage the students as best I could.

In all the years I’ve been teaching I must have written thousands of reports for kids, teens, adults and corporate students. I’ve written both individual and class reports usually over a semester of no more than 6 months. In the past I have found myself with lots of work to do at the end of term and in recent years I have got smart to this and kept detailed notes throughout the term to feed into end of semester reports. In the centre I work in, the registers have a page to make individual student notes and I use this after each lesson to record anything salient that can be used in reports.

I have recently taught a class of teenagers aged between 14 and 16. They were of a good level (B1) and were motivated to learn English. I taught them once a week for two hours on Sunday mornings. I realised early on that although their spoken output was good and prolific their ability to write was lacking somewhat.

Homework is a contentious issue in the place and country where I work. I have lived and worked in Thailand for over 20 years and have had many conversations with parents, teachers, senior teachers and students about the issue. In Thailand, homework is expected by students and parents at all ages from Primary to Secondary. I have been party to occasions where parents have complained that teachers are not giving homework. Students generally hate homework and in my experience teachers give homework because they are required to and not because they feel the students will benefit.

This activity practises language of ordering food in a restaurant although this can be adapted for any scenario. It's a great way to consolidate the language and recycle the vocabulary.