ESL Blogs

I just returned from an excellent TESOL convention in Dallas, Texas. The annual convention provides professional development for English language teachers from all over the world. I always enjoy listening to the ideas of teachers, administrators, publishers, and writers. Like every year, I always come home feeling inspired. 

This year, I attended an excellent session on materials writing. In the English language teaching (ELT) industry, a materials writer is someone who writes materials (tests, lesson plans, teaching guides, etc.) for books or educational websites. These are used by English learners and teachers. The speakers in this session included writers, teachers, researchers, publishers, a marketing manager, and an agent. These speakers talked about the trends in ELT publishing, and what writers need to do to create materials that are engaging and effective. Nick Robinson, an agent for writers, asked us to think about this question when writing lesson plans:

"Would students skip lunch to do this lesson?" 

I loved that question, and I will think about it whenever I'm writing materials for English learners from now on.

I was surprised when a marketing specialist suggested in the same session that the net generation isn't using social media networks (and often technology) for "real learning". He suggested that teachers need to find ways to convert online spaces into educational spaces where real learning can take place. I think we should introduce this speaker to MyEC, don't you? Would you help me? 

A few months ago, I wrote a post called The Things We Do on MyEC. My goal was to introduce new members to some of the things teachers and learners do on this site. Today, I would like to extend this challenge to you. There have been so many great blog posts, videos, and challenges this month. These have been created by teachers and learners. Let's show people what YOU do on MyEC to learn and practise English. 

Your Task

1. Create a new blog post. Use the title: "Practising English Online". (If you use MyEC to teach English, you can change the title to Teaching English Online.)

2. In your blog post, write a list of ways that you use EnglishClub and MyEC to learn and practise English (or teach English). Write a short paragraph beside each item. 

3. Share at least one link to a MyEC blog post, challenge, forum discussion, group, or EC web page that you have used to practise and learn English. This may include learning new words, practising writing, practising pronunciation, etc. 

4. Share a link to your post in the comments below. 

This month I will not write an example to go with the challenge, because I want to see your ideas! Have fun! 

BTW - Would you skip lunch to hang out on MyEC with your English friends? Just wondering....