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Creative ideas for using images in class. Written by Katherine Bilsborough.

Probably the most important part of any conference is quality learning, delivered well. English UK’s Conference Producer, Tom Weatherley, says: ‘With almost all speakers having an English language teaching (ELT) background, ensuring engagement and learning is second nature, and that can be across many, many sessions. Bring a pen (or two) and be ready to take a lot of notes.’.

In our October article on the topic of Critical Thinking in ELT, my co-author Paul Dummett suggested that critical thinking in English language teaching should involve more than simply identifying fact from misinformation or searching texts for supporting evidence. We argue instead that critical thinking is more encompassing and should be viewed as a ‘critical disposition’ (Davis and Barnett, 2015) or as an enquiring mindset towards learning.

‘To be or not to be…’ This famous Shakespeare quote may be familiar to your students even if they haven’t read or seen Hamlet. In fact, given much of our everyday language contains expressions and idioms from Shakespeare, your students might recognise more words from his plays than they think. Consequently, it is worth tapping into his plays to enrich your language classroom.

After years of talking and writing about critical thinking (CT) and of reading and listening to others do the same, John Hughes and I decided that we should codify our thoughts on the subject. We knew what constituted a critical thinking activity and what did not, but we were less clear about how to define CT’s place in ELT materials. What did it mean in relation to the teaching of the four skills and to grammar and vocabulary?

Nowadays many teachers heavily rely on using real-world videos – such as new reports, trailers, clips from TV programmes, etc – as a language teaching resource. Using these types of videos can lead to student growth and progress, and greater confidence in using their language skills in real life. Read on to discover some advantages of using real-world videos as a tool for teaching a language.

Imagine introducing a language point in class, or getting learners to read a dialogue in pairs or even a part of a lesson where you are working on word stress with your class… these are all familiar scenarios that can happen face to face or live online. And, in each one, you and/or learners are, in a sense, performers, using storytelling, role-play and voice exercises, with the classroom acting as your rehearsal space.

How important is it for young learners to have a love of stories? Should teachers be responsible for encouraging their students to think critically from a young age? These are the questions that inspire and define The Thinking Train series from Helbling Languages.

Paul Dummett presents a few examples of what implicit and explicit critical thinking activities look like.