Lesson Planning

There are numberless online resources for planning an English lesson. An exhaustive research on the net provides us with lots of ideas and ways of carrying out an entire lesson plan, using imagination and bearing in mind motivation. Motivation, by the way, needs to come from the part of the learners and from that of the teacher, too.
The teacher's willingness to teach is proportional to the learner's willingness to learn.

On the British Council Teaching English's site we have at our our disposal several examples of lesson plans, such as the one entitled Literature is Great!, devoted to the teaching of British Literature (downloading is available).

How poverty affects girls

Recently I have known about a few campaigns devoted to defend girls' rights in under-developed countries. The causes, lead by different non-profit organisations such as The Girl Effect or UNICEF, are aimed at rising awareness on how poverty destroys young girls' will: they are forced to get married at the age of twelve; they get pregnant at the age of fifteen, and many of them die while giving birth. Apart from that, they have high chances of becoming infected with HIV, as their bodies become tools for supporting their families. Most probably, their daughter's fate will not be much different.

Due to all that, teenager girls have to be empowered to fight for ending poverty; for themselves, for their daughters, for their families, and for their communities. As we all know, EDUCATION will be essential for their succeeding in this struggle. Let's help them by simply spreading these two videos to let the world know their story:

The Girl Effect: The Clock is Ticking

UNICEF | #ENDChildMarriageNow 

Efficient Bilingualism

A scientific study accomplished by the Universitat Jaume I de Castelló (UJI) has shown that 'bilingualism is associated with a brain reorganization that involves a better efficiency in executive functions'. It seems this is one of the many benefits of speaking two (or more) languages.

It is generally agreed that the more languages we know, the easier it is to learn a new one. However, the advantages of being bilingual go far beyond language learning itself. It also contributes to our brain's development as well as to our ability to think. Some scholars have even dared to state that 'bilinguals are smarter'. Apart from that, there is a considerable amount of literature devoted to analysing the cross-linguistic interactions that take place in the brains of bilingual people; for instance, the study carried out by the Basque Center on Cognition, Brain and Language.

In any case, speaking languages is an open window that allows us to look at the world around us!

Read the details about the UJI research here.

Transformative Learning

The TED-Ed team has launched a question in their forum to reflect over 'The Power of Transformative Learning': What is learning to you? Is learning isolated to acquiring a specific set of skills or information? Or does it transcend the rigid prescriptions of academic studies?

If you wish to contribute to the debate, or to know what other people think of it, visit their webpage.

Learning with all the senses

Gestures and pictures 'boost foreign language learning'

Scientists from the Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences in Leipzig have accomplished a research which demonstrates that movements and images facilitate vocabulary learning.

Learning methods that involve several senses, and in particular those that use gestures, are therefore superior to those based only on listening or reading. A picture facilitates learning: our brain remembers words in a foreign language more easily.

Source: Max Planck Institute

Useful Resources

BBC Learning English: inspiring language learning

TED-Ed: Lessons Worth Sharing

English Central: learning through videos

English in Levels: making English easy for students at all level

One Stop English: for English language teachers

Macmillan Inspiration: CLIL lesson plans

Busy Teacher: free printable worksheets

English Club: free website for learners&teachers of English

DIDACTICS: Innovando en la Educación

The Guardian Teaching Network