Segment: Teens and Adults
Hosted by: National Geographic Learning Global
Category: Product Session
Presenter: John Hughes
Category – Academic Skills, College and Career Readiness, Critical Thinking
Segment: Academic
Hosted by: National Geographic Learning Global
Category: Academic Skills, College and Career Readiness, Critical Thinking
Presenter: John Hughes
AUTHOR
OVERVIEW
The primary goal of many English language students is to be able to communicate in English in the real world. They need to be effective communicators in their professional, academic and social lives. However, even learners with an intermediate or advanced level of English can sometimes struggle to get their message across in public – not because they don’t have the English they need, but because they lack the inward and outward confidence. In this webinar we’ll begin by exploring what communication is and then we’ll consider the ways in which you can boost your learners inward and outward confidence so they become confident communicators. The session will include plenty of practical advice and classroom activities, including extracts taken from the new fourth edition of World Link.
ABOUT THE SPEAKER
OVERVIEW
Join Development Editor Lewis Thompson and author John Hughes to learn about what’s new in the fourth edition of World Link, National Geographic Learning’s best-selling integrated-skills program from young adults and adults. Lewis will describe the research-based engagement that informed the revision: what has made previous editions of World Link so popular with teachers and learners world-wide and what they wanted more in the new edition. John will then introduce some exciting new updates like the new ‘Global Voices’ video program, the ‘Active English’ sections that build student confidence when communicating, and World Link’s greater focus on achieving ‘Can do’ language goals to increase learner motivation. Audience questions and participation are encouraged.
ABOUT THE SPEAKERS
John Hughes is an award-winning ELT author with thirty years’ experience of teaching and teacher training. He has worked with learners and teachers from all over the world and is a well-known conference presenter. For National Geographic Learning, he is an author on the course series Life, World English, Third Edition World Link, Fourth Edition, Success with Business, and Total Business. He’s also the author of the methodology title, Critical Thinking in ELT. His website is www.johnhugheselt.com.
Lewis Thompson is a Senior Development Editor with National Geographic Learning and is based in Boston, MA. Lewis works directly with authors to develop content for General English courses. Away from his role as a content developer, Lewis has a personal interest in language-learner identity from a sociocultural perspective.
AUTHOR
OVERVIEW
Over 6,000 teachers took part in a recent National Geographic Learning survey looking into English language teaching online. When asked about key challenges, many teachers mentioned the problem of maintaining motivation levels early on in a course, fully exploiting synchronous and asynchronous tools such as Zoom and Moodle, and designing engaging interactive activities.
In this session, we’ll explore these issues and I’ll emphasise the need to design courses and lessons which make the students’ early experiences of online learning more positive and therefore more motivating. I’ll suggest some practical ways to fully exploit the online tools available to us for greater engagement. And finally, we’ll try out some online interactive activities which focus on personalization of the course material.
ABOUT THE SPEAKER
WEBINAR LIBRARY
WHAT'S NEW IN WORLD ENGLISH THIRD EDITION
AUTHOR
SENIOR DEVELOPMENT EDITOR
OVERVIEW
Join author John Hughes and Development Editor Brenden Layte to discuss what’s new in the third edition of World English. The webinar will begin with an author’s perspective on the program, followed by an editor’s exploration of the key features of the new edition that make it come to life in the classroom like visible learning Goal Checks, ‘My World’ personalization activities, specially created video content from TED speakers, and the new extended Writing and Communication lessons. We’ll also share the experiences of real World English teachers, saving time for a question and answer session at the end.
ABOUT THE SPEAKERS
John Hughes is a teacher, teacher trainer and course book author. He has worked in ELT since 1992 and managed departments of Business English and Teacher Training. He currently combines a variety roles including part-time teaching, running online training courses, and lecturing on ELT methodology at Oxford University in the summer. He has written many books with National Geographic Learning including Spotlight on First, Practical Grammar (three levels), Total Business 2, Success with BEC Vantage, Aspire, and the six-level general English course series called Life. He lives near Oxford and writes the blog www.elteachertrainer.com and is a contributor to the National Geographic Learning In Focus blog.
Brenden Layte is a Senior Development Editor on the Adult General English list at National Geographic Learning. He has an MA in Applied Linguistics from Boston University and a TEFL diploma, and he has also participated in numerous TESOL-approved training courses. Brenden has worked in educational publishing for 12 years and also has teaching experience in the U.S. and Thailand. He also serves on the board of the Barrio Planta Project, an organization that brings free supplemental education to students in Mexico and Nicaragua.
WEBINAR LIBRARY
7 Steps Towards Creativity in the Language Classroom
JOHN HUGHES
AUTHOR
OVERVIEW
Most teachers agree that creativity in the language classroom is a positive thing. However, many of us don’t always agree on what creativity means or how we might achieve it. In this webinar I’d like to explore our definitions of creativity and the reasons behind them. In particular, I’ll challenge the belief that effective creativity is only about thinking ‘outside the box’ when in fact effective creative thinking often occurs ‘inside the box’. By providing learners with frameworks and templates to work within, your students can use language more creatively, resulting in relevant, authentic and motivating communication. The webinar will include seven steps towards making your teaching more creative with plenty of practical ideas which you can use with your students tomorrow.
ABOUT THE SPEAKER
John Hughes is a teacher, teacher trainer and course book author. He has worked in ELT since 1992 and managed departments of Business English and Teacher Training. He currently combines a variety roles including part-time teaching, running online training courses, and lecturing on ELT methodology at Oxford University in the summer. He has written many books with National Geographic Learning including Spotlight on First, Practical Grammar (three levels), Total Business 2, Success with BEC Vantage, Aspire, and the six-level general English course series called Life. He lives near Oxford and writes the blog www.elteachertrainer.com and is a contributor to the National Geographic Learning In Focus blog.
WEBINAR LIBRARY
HOW TO MOTIVATE LEARNERS WITH VISIBLE GOALS
JOHN HUGHES
AUTHOR
OVERVIEW
Motivation in language learning can be achieved by helping learners to create goals and mini-goals. But goal-setting is notoriously challenging: how do we balance the need for planning goals with the need for flexible approaches to teaching and learning? How do we create goals that are accessible and relevant to learners? And how can we create classroom activities that reflect those goals? In this webinar, we’ll look at practical techniques for setting ‘visible’ goals and ways of encouraging students to participate in goal-setting. The session includes references to the goal-based, confidence-boosting approach in the new edition of World English.
ABOUT THE SPEAKER
John Hughes is a teacher, teacher trainer and course book author. He has worked in ELT since 1992 and managed departments of Business English and Teacher Training. He currently combines a variety of roles including part-time teaching, running online training courses, and lecturing on ELT methodology at Oxford University in the summer. He has written many books with National Geographic Learning including the six-level general English course series called Life and World English Third Edition. He lives near Oxford and is a contributor to the National Geographic Learning In Focus Blog. His website is www.johnhugheselt.com.
WEBINAR LIBRARY
10 WAYS TO MAKE YOUR VIDEO
LESSONS HOT
JOHN HUGHES
AUTHOR
OVERVIEW
Video is a natural way to engage the 21st century ‘screenage’ language learners. However, there’s often the danger that we only use LOT (lower order thinking) exercises which check basic comprehension and that we don’t exploit the full potential of video. In this webinar, we’ll consider how to develop HOT (higher order thinking) activities with video. Using a variety of video extracts taken from the National Geographic Learning Life series, I’ll suggest ways to integrate critical and creative thinking into your lessons. The session aims to be very practical with ten ready-to-use ideas.
ABOUT THE SPEAKER
John Hughes is a teacher, teacher trainer and course book author. He has worked in ELT since 1992 and managed departments of Business English and Teacher Training. He currently combines a variety of roles including part-time teaching, running online training courses, and lecturing on ELT methodology at Oxford University in the summer. He has written many books with National Geographic Learning including the six-level general English course series called Life and World English Third Edition. He lives near Oxford and is a contributor to the National Geographic Learning In Focus Blog. His website is www.johnhugheselt.com
WEBINAR LIBRARY
KEY CRITICAL THINKING SKILLS FOR ADVANCED LEARNERS
JOHN HUGHES
AUTHOR
OVERVIEW
Critical thinking is one of the key 21st century skills, but is it the role of the teacher to develop those skills alongside English language learning? In my talk I’ll address this question by considering how teachers might use higher order thinking activities to enhance their lesson planning and materials design. We’ll also see how critical thinking in the language classroom demands more from the learner but in doing so makes their language learning a much more rewarding experience.
ABOUT THE SPEAKER
John Hughes is a teacher, teacher trainer and course book author. He has worked in ELT since 1992 and managed departments of Business English and Teacher Training. He currently combines a variety of roles including part-time teaching, running online training courses, and lecturing on ELT methodology at Oxford University in the summer. He has written many books with National Geographic Learning including the six-level general English course series called Life and World English Third Edition. He lives near Oxford and is a contributor to the National Geographic Learning In Focus Blog. His website is www.johnhugheselt.com
WEBINAR LIBRARY
HOW TO INTEGRATE CRITICAL THINKING
AT LOWER LEVELS
JOHN HUGHES
AUTHOR
OVERVIEW
Critical thinking often features in higher level language teaching materials but what is its place in lessons for beginner, elementary and pre-intermediate students? In this webinar, we’ll explore the role of higher level thinking in lower level classes and find out how – even with basic language aims – critical thinking can add motivation, develop student-independence, and improve learning outcomes.
ABOUT THE SPEAKER
John Hughes is a teacher, teacher trainer and course book author. He has worked in ELT since 1992 and managed departments of Business English and Teacher Training. He currently combines a variety of roles including part-time teaching, running online training courses, and lecturing on ELT methodology at Oxford University in the summer. He has written many books with National Geographic Learning including the six-level general English course series called Life and World English Third Edition. He lives near Oxford and is a contributor to the National Geographic Learning In Focus Blog. His website is www.johnhugheselt.com.
WEBINAR LIBRARY
PERSONALIZATION IN AN IMPERSONAL WORLD
JOHN HUGHES
AUTHOR
OVERVIEW
Personalization in the classroom is always considered desirable but in reality it’s often hard to achieve. As teachers, we try to personalize the language but this can be challenging in larger classes. There is also a delicate balance between asking students to personalize language and asking them to say too much about their real lives. Finally, if we want to use texts, videos and images which bring real-life topics into the classroom, we need to find personal connections between the individual student and global issues. In this presentation, I’ll explore these issues and share a variety of practical techniques and activities which bridge the gaps between the individual, the language and the wider world.
ABOUT THE SPEAKER
John Hughes is a teacher, teacher trainer and course book author. He has worked in ELT since 1992 and managed departments of Business English and Teacher Training. He currently combines a variety of roles including part-time teaching, running online training courses, and lecturing on ELT methodology at Oxford University in the summer. He has written many books with National Geographic Learning including the six-level General English course series called Life and World English Third Edition. He lives near Oxford and writes the blog www.elteachertrainer.com and is a contributor to the National Geographic Learning InFocus Blog.
