27 November 2015

On Streamline

Streamline emerged as an exciting new course at the end of the 1970s, and still receives considerable appreciation from English language teachers.


The various components range from Beginner to Upper Intermediate and beyond.
A feature of particular interest is the manner in which one-off lessons can be delivered on particular areas of language – grammar, vocabulary, functional dialogues, etc.
And the Teacher Books provide robust lesson plans and guidance, so that each of the units can be delivered with minimal preparation time.
Many teachers recall Streamline fondly – ‘Willy The Kid’ has been cited more than once as the best-ever contextualization of the past simple of regular verbs. (Look for Unit 47 here.)


Peter Viney and his blog

On the power of words

 I look forward to your suggestions about options that may exist for exploiting this as part of an event in our meetups.



Over to you
Your thoughts on ways in which this, and similar clips, can be used EITHER at face to face meetups OR online will be appreciated.

On the Gunning Fog Index

www.gunning-fog-index.com

This is useful for assessing the readability of texts we can develop for use with our Learners.

Over to you
Select a text (either your own or written by AN Other) and use this resource to enhance your confidence in using such tools and techniques.

On CLASS for language school administration

I believe this is the market leader in English language school administration software.

 

On Follow Me

Follow Me was a major success in introducing many people in China to the English language in the 1980s.
 Let us consider how we may be able to make some use of it for Beginners.

On readability formulae

I have been looking for another one of my stories that might be suitable for use with the HAPANI Progressors at 38 Wellington Park.
This has reactivated my interest in the use of readability formulae and ways in which I can identify any key vocabulary that is likely to require a pre-teaching.
  • Robert Gunning's FOG index is useful for this
  • So too is Laurence Antony's AntConc
  • And of course the Flesch-Kincaid rating in Microsoft Word (Tools > Spelling and Grammar).

On Thinkers50 2015

These awards are the 'Oscars' of management: 'identifying and sharing the best management thinking in the world'.
Over to you
Can you identify any winners of particular interest to yourself?

On customer care

Dave Carroll had an unhappy experience; an airline damaged his Taylor guitar.
He described the event online.
This video has had 15 million hits on YouTube.



Over to you
Have you had any memorable experiences of good or bad customer service?

On the challenge of a new world

This was one of the most popular television series of the 1960s.


    

Over to you
What, in your opinion or experience, are the major challenges facing foreign nationals who have recently arrived in Belfast and beyond?
-  Social issues
-  Unfamiliar technology
-  Money
-  etc.
And is there any particular action that we may be able to take to help them?