Big Questions in ELT
Scott Thornbury
For two years now I’ve been regularly blogging about ELT-related issues that have caught my attention. The topics have been loosely organized around the format of an encyclopaedic dictionary I’d published previously, called An A-Z of ELT. Like many things online, the blog has started to become a little unwieldy, especially for new visitors, so I figured it was time to condense some of the issues and some of the questions into a friendlier format, taking a handful of the original entries as my starting point, re-working them a little to take into account the conversations that evolved online, and presenting them in the form of Big Questions. Each Big Question, therefore, has been generated from one of the original blog posts (and I’ve thrown in a couple of new ones for good measure) and each entry is rounded off by a number of subsidiary questions – the offspring, if you like, of the Big Questions. These questions are designed as an aid to reflection (for the individual reader), or, in a training context, as a way of framing a discussion or workshop. In a sense, they are a means of re-activating, and continuing, the online conversations that the original blog posts triggered. And, if you want to see how those conversations evolved, I’ve provided links to the original articles.
Duration - 3h 8m.
Author - Scott Thornbury.
Narrator - Scott Thornbury.
Published Date - Sunday, 01 January 2023.
Copyright - © 2014 Scott Thornbury ©.
Location:
United States
Description:
For two years now I’ve been regularly blogging about ELT-related issues that have caught my attention. The topics have been loosely organized around the format of an encyclopaedic dictionary I’d published previously, called An A-Z of ELT. Like many things online, the blog has started to become a little unwieldy, especially for new visitors, so I figured it was time to condense some of the issues and some of the questions into a friendlier format, taking a handful of the original entries as my starting point, re-working them a little to take into account the conversations that evolved online, and presenting them in the form of Big Questions. Each Big Question, therefore, has been generated from one of the original blog posts (and I’ve thrown in a couple of new ones for good measure) and each entry is rounded off by a number of subsidiary questions – the offspring, if you like, of the Big Questions. These questions are designed as an aid to reflection (for the individual reader), or, in a training context, as a way of framing a discussion or workshop. In a sense, they are a means of re-activating, and continuing, the online conversations that the original blog posts triggered. And, if you want to see how those conversations evolved, I’ve provided links to the original articles. Duration - 3h 8m. Author - Scott Thornbury. Narrator - Scott Thornbury. Published Date - Sunday, 01 January 2023. Copyright - © 2014 Scott Thornbury ©.
Language:
English
Opening Credits
Duration:00:00:16
Introduction
Duration:00:02:53
1 How many words do learners need to know?
Duration:00:09:34
2 Why are some learners unwilling to communicate?
Duration:00:09:46
3 Are there different learning styles
Duration:00:08:35
4 Is the use of the learners' mother tongue a good idea?
Duration:00:08:16
5 Where do errors come from?
Duration:00:08:47
6 Is language learning all in the mind?
Duration:00:09:26
7 What is the best age to start?
Duration:00:07:16
8 What is fluency and how do you teach it?
Duration:00:09:52
9 Should we push our learners?
Duration:00:08:10
10 Why focus on form?
Duration:00:08:29
11 What is scaffolding and how do you do it?
Duration:00:08:24
12 Is there a best method?
Duration:00:09:46
13 Is there anything wrong with rote learning?
Duration:00:08:34
14 What makes an activity communicative?
Duration:00:08:31
15 How do you achieve flow in your teaching?
Duration:00:06:47
16 How does identity impact on language learning?
Duration:00:09:51
17 How do you get a feel for a second language?
Duration:00:10:04
18 Can you learn a language if your'e not paying attention?
Duration:00:11:35
19 Do rules help you learn a language?
Duration:00:06:44
20 How do you teach reactively?
Duration:00:08:51
21 Is practice good and what is good practice?
Duration:00:07:55
Ending Credits
Duration:00:00:27