Challenge, Create, İnnovate Voices of ELT Professionals from the Virtual Classroom

This book brings together renowned scholars and new voices to challenge current practices in ELT materials design in order to work towards optimal learning conditions. It proposes ideas and principles to improve second language task design through novel resources such as drama, poetry, literature and online resources; and it maps out a number of unusual connections between theory and practice in the field of ELT materials development. The first section of the book discusses how innovative task-writing ideas can stretch materials beyond the current quality to make them more original and inspiring; the second part examines how different arts and technologies can drive innovation in coursebooks; the third section describes how teachers and learners can participate in materials writing and negotiate ways to personalize learning.

This book collection of 45 chapters draws on the diverse insights of the Post Covid-19 challenges and opportunities to look ahead and across a broad range of issues – education, trade, governance, health, labour, technology to name a few – and consider where the balance of risk and opportunity may come out. It offers decision-makers a comprehensive picture of expected long term changes, and inspiration to leverage the opportunities this crisis offers to improve the state of the world. Academicians must find and establish a new equilibrium and a new normal for learning amidst the present challenges.

In today’s digital era, increasing numbers of youth around the world learn English outside classrooms, frequently with the use of technology. This timely book brings together research and theory on the increasingly common phenomenon of Informal Digital Learning of English (IDLE) among students of all ages and across a wide range of contexts globally. By examining the positive impact of IDLE on students’ reading, writing, listening, and speaking abilities, as well as the unique challenges that result, Lee synthesizes research in one accessible and comprehensive volume in this rapidly developing domain. This book addresses key concepts, including Computer Assisted Language Learning, the impact on standardized assessment, and the role of classroom learning. Lee offers empirically tested activities, pedagogical recommendations, and lesson plans to engage ESL/EFL students. The research overview and practical offerings make this an ideal text for courses in TESOL on online education, language teaching online, digital learning, community and language, and applied linguistics.

The concept of "funds of knowledge" is based on a simple premise: people are competent and have knowledge, and their life experiences have given them that knowledge. The claim in this book is that first-hand research experiences with families allow one to document this competence and knowledge, and that such engagement provides many possibilities for positive pedagogical actions. Drawing from both Vygotskian and neo-sociocultural perspectives in designing a methodology that views the everyday practices of language and action as constructing knowledge, the funds of knowledge approach facilitates a systematic and powerful way to represent communities in terms of the resources they possess and how to harness them for classroom teaching. This book accomplishes three objectives: It gives readers the basic methodology and techniques followed in the contributors' funds of knowledge research; it extends the boundaries of what these researchers have done; and it explores the applications to classroom practice that can result from teachers knowing the communities in which they work. In a time when national educational discourses focus on system reform and wholesale replicability across school sites, this book offers a counter-perspective stating that instruction must be linked to students' lives, and that details of effective pedagogy should be linked to local histories and community contexts. This approach should not be confused with parent participation programs, although that is often a fortuitous consequence of the work described. It is also not an attempt to teach parents "how to do school" although that could certainly be an outcome if the parents so desired. Instead, the funds of knowledge approach attempts to accomplish something that may be even more challenging: to alter the perceptions of working-class or poor communities by viewing their households primarily in terms of their strengths and resources, their defining pedagogical characteristics. Funds of Knowledge: Theorizing Practices in Households, Communities, and Classrooms is a critically important volume for all teachers and teachers-to-be, and for researchers and graduate students of language, culture, and education.

This important resource introduces a framework for 21st Century learning that maps out the skills needed to survive and thrive in a complex and connected world. 21st Century content includes the basic core subjects of reading, writing, and arithmetic-but also emphasizes global awareness, financial/economic literacy, and health issues. The skills fall into three categories: learning and innovations skills; digital literacy skills; and life and career skills. This book is filled with vignettes, international examples, and classroom samples that help illustrate the framework and provide an exciting view of twenty-first century teaching and learning. Explores the three main categories of 21st Century Skills: learning and innovations skills; digital literacy skills; and life and career skills Addresses timely issues such as the rapid advance of technology and increased economic competition Based on a framework developed by the Partnership for 21st Century Skills (P21) The book contains a video with clips of classroom teaching. For more information on the book visit www.21stcenturyskillsbook.com.

Explains how good language teachers work, drawing on teacher training theory as well as many examples and case studies.