SPONGE ELT - Bridge the Gap

If you're a true fan of Sponge ELT and Sponge Chats, you'll have seen Lara's name before! She recently co-authored a book with Alison Mackey called the Art and Science of Language Teaching, and she has been on before to talk about task-based language teaching from the teacher education side of things. In short, she was the right person to ask about what we know about corrective feedback and how we should be going about it in our classrooms. You can find more about Lara on her site here, and whole list of things she's been involved in here.

Dyslexia (and other Specific Learning Difficulties) is something that a large percentage of the population deals with, and this is something that I really wanted to explore from a language education perspective. Dr. Martin Bloomfield is an expert within the area of Dyslexia, and has a huge presence online, disseminating information about the what of Dyslexia, and how we can make certain accommodations when working with learners with dyslexia. I had a great time with this one, and I learnt a lot. You can find Martin and loads of his videos and resources at Dyslexia Bytes.

The next guest is one who probably needs no introduction - Geoff Jordan. Geoff is a polarising figure within ELT, but his perspectives on how ELT is moving forward, and the importance of SLA findings (and how teachers and trainers are not working with these) are important to consider, in my opinion. In this chat, I was lucky enough to have Geoff explain the difference between explicit and implicit knowledge (as well as teaching), and he also identified how both of these link to modern day language teaching - and identified where we might be going wrong! Geoff, along with Mike Long, wrote and recently published one of the must-reads for teachers, trainers and researchers with ELT - English Language Teaching Now and How It Could Be. You can also find Geoff on his blog Applying TESOL.

We kick off Bridge the Gap, with Masatoshi Sato, who has actually done quite a bit of research into the what and why of the research-practice gap, and has also written extensively about how the research community could move forward in a more collaborative manner. For those of you interested, Masatoshi is also the co-founder of TESOL Graphics, a brilliant site that summarises research using infographics (among other things!). Highly recommended :) Also, Masatoshi has just co-authored a book with Shawn Loewen called A Practical Guide to Second Language Teaching and Learning - cannot wait to get my hands on this!

In the latest Sponge Chat, I had the pleasure to sit down and chat with the business mindset queen, Rachael Roberts. I look forward to hearing your thoughts!

I have the great pleasure to speak with TBLT researcher and teacher educator Lara Bryfonski. We went into detail about teacher education considerations, working with individual differences, TBLT and young learners, and many other cool stuff. 00:00 Introduction 03:00 Sponge Chats 04:00 Who is Lara? 08:00 How and why did Lara move into research? 11:00 Why should teachers be aware of TBLT? 14:30 How do we bring TBLT to teachers? 17:45 Assessment 20:00 TBLT or tblt? 24:00 Individual teacher differences 28:00 TBLT observation schemes 34:00 The impact of courses on teachers' implementation of TBLT 37:00 Tasks and young learners 45:00 A return to assessment 48:00 Lara's recent projects! 55:00 Lara's piece of advice for TBLT teacher educators 59:00 Book recommendations (and Lara's upcoming book!)

In this Sponge Chat, I had the pleasure to sit down with renown teacher training and author, Peter Lucantoni. Peter was kind enough to share his thoughts on teacher training, with a specific focus on early-career teacher trainers. We spoke about how one might move into teacher training, how trainers can develop, and also the importance of being proactive as a teacher who wants to be a teacher training position. 00:00 Introduction 03:00 Sponge Chats 03:55 Who is Peter? 06:00 Teacher training qualifications 13:20 Difficulties early-career teacher trainers face 17:15 How do trainers develop? 20:30 Is training 'giving ideas'? 25:00 Peter's preference: INSET or PRESET or Train the Trainer? 29:30 The importance of breadth and depth as a trainer 33:30 The importance of context 37:00 Peter's advice for those looking to move into teacher training 42:00 Peter's book recommendations (and an overview of From Teacher to Trainer!)

In the latest Sponge Chat, I had the pleasure to talk with EdTech specialist, Joe Dale. We talked tech, predictions for the future and, of course, Chat GPT.

In this Sponge Chat, I had the pleasure to sit down with Daniel O. Jackson so discuss his views on TBLT. We spoke about the 'what' of TBLT, the role of implicit and explicit learning, teacher noticing and many other good things. 00:00 Introduction 02:30 Hi Daniel! 05:30 Sponge Chats 06:00 Who is Daniel? 11:15 Daniel's PhD journey 17:30 Where did Daniel's interest in TBLT start? 27:00 What is TBLT? 35:00 TBLT and needs analyses 42:00 Implicit learning 53:30 Teacher's role in TBLT and Teacher noticing 01:06:00 TBLT and critical pedagogy 01:15:00 Advice to teacher educators 01:18:00 Daniel's recommended reading

In this Sponge Chat, I was lucky enough to sit down with assessment expert, Fatime Losonci. We discussed the what and the why of assessment, looked at some important concepts, and even spoke about test item writing. As usual, I hope you enjoy this Sponge Chat!      00:00 Introduction   03:05 Sponge Chats   05:15 Who is Fatime?   10:25 What is assessment?  18:00 The learner's perspective   25:00 Item writing   32:00 Teaching vs. Testing skills   36:00 What are sub-skills?  41:00 Fatime's Masterclass   44:30 Test-taking strategies   51:30 Fatime's book recommendations