April 7, 2025

teaching and learning

Ross Thorburn

How Languages Are (And Aren't) Learned (With ...

Second language acquisition researcher, Patsy Lightbown, joins us to discuss how languages are learned, and also, how they aren’t. We hear about problems of training teachers, how learners overcome challenges and aspects of language teaching which still lag years behind research.

December 23, 2024

Ross Thorburn

End of Year Special: What's The Best Way To ...

If you regularly listen to this podcast, the chances are you listen because you want to be a better teacher. But what is the best way to become a better teacher? Is it attending training? Is it being observed by your boss? Is it watching your peers teach? In a special end of year double length episode, Professor Thomas Guskey, author of Evaluating Professional Development talks to us about the best way to help teachers learn and the evidence for workshops, peer observations and what the best teachers do that the rest of us don’t.

June 3, 2024

Ross Thorburn

8th Anniversary: Changes to Teacher Training

We speak with friends and experts about teacher training and what needs to change. Our guests are David Nunan, Kathleen Bailey, Thomas Guskey, Steve Walsh, Mark Hancock, Marek Kiczkowiak, and Chris Rolland.

May 6, 2024

Ross Thorburn

PPP vs Task Cycles (with Jane Willis)

Jane Willis joins us to discuss the drawbacks of PPP and the benefits and challenges of using task cycles for language lessons.

April 1, 2024

teaching and learning

Ross Thorburn

The Downsides to Speaking (with Professor ...

Students need to speak to learn a language and the more students talk, the more they learn. Not according to Professor Stephen Krashen. For 40 years he has championed the concept that what students should be doing in class is reading (and listening), not speaking. In this episode, Stephen tells Ross some of the arguments against forcing students to speak, something which might not just be inefficient, but in some cases counterproductive.

native speakerism

Ross Thorburn

December 21, 2020

Xmas Special: What Kind of English Should Be in Our Coursebooks? (with Jack Richards)

Ross Thorburn

December 21, 2020

Xmas Special: What Kind of English Should Be in Our Coursebooks? (with Jack Richards)

Since it’s Christmas, we bring you a double length episode with Professor Jack Richards. We discuss a range of issues related to English and coursebooks: how has curriculum design changed? What influence has the CEFR had on coursebooks? How does English as a Lingua Franca affect what we should teach? What effect does all the English available outside the classroom on the internet have on students and teachers inside the classroom?

Ross Thorburn

November 30, 2020

Decentering in English Language Teaching (with Amol Padwad)

Ross Thorburn

November 30, 2020

Decentering in English Language Teaching (with Amol Padwad)

Amol Padwad joins us to explain “decentering” in ELT. Amol tells us about the problem with language teaching having a “center” and how this can cause voices and ideas to be suppressed.

Ross Thorburn

October 26, 2020

Haloween Special: Zombies of TEFL (with Diederik Van Gorp and Allan Crocker)

Ross Thorburn

October 26, 2020

Haloween Special: Zombies of TEFL (with Diederik Van Gorp and Allan Crocker)

I talk to regular guests Diedrick Van Gorp and Allan Crocker about the Zombies of language teaching: what are the ‘bad’ activities, ideas and practices in TEFL that just won’t die?

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