Jane Turner
Always looking to deepen my knowledge of ELT classroom practice, materials writing, and curriculum & assessment!
Location UK
Activity
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Jane Turner made a comment
stuck at level 9 but not bad for a complete beginner :)
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Jane Turner made a comment
Very interesting! I suppose the first things to come to mind are applications at a supermarket (e.g. using self-service checkout - weighing items, or detecting things in the bagging area). Then there are things like motion sensor lighting/escalators/travellators?
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Jane Turner made a comment
These are key learning points and actually, I can see the overlap with my own in sector: teaching, teacher training, and writing ELT materials / tests.
We have to ensure the instructions we give to learners (or in test rubrics / learning materials) are clear and unambiguous.
It's really surprising how what you might assume is an obvious instruction can...
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Jane Turner made a comment
In my context, a project is "signed off" when the client has received the materials we have written, edited, and vetted, etc. and we have completed post-project review. However, our reflections on the project can always be revisited, especially if there are learning points for future work.
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Jane Turner made a comment
1. Start by filling a kettle with enough water to fill three quarters of a cup.
2. Turn on the kettle.
3. Add a tea bag to the empty cup.
4. Wait until the kettle has boiled the water.
5. Pour the boiling water into the cup.
6. Allow the teabag to sit in the water for 2-3 mins.
7. Remove the teabag from the water using a teaspoon.
8. IF you like to add... -
Nice but would the end user know what is meant by "sweet" and how much?
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Jane Turner made a comment
Internet is the obvious thing to come to mind. But from a communication perspective, texting really changed the formality of how we communicate and brought in a new lexicon.
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Jane Turner made a comment
I'm a child of the 80s - a time where the home tech / home computing was starting to take off, I'd say.
The advent of portable storage such as USB is perhaps notable - it's incredible how quickly memory capacity has grown!
Not exactly a milestone in computing perhaps, but the launch of Amazon (and Ebay) revolutionised retail - e-commerce.
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Jane Turner made a comment
Hi everyone, I'm Jane, an educational consultant and English teacher based in Cambridge, UK. Complete novice but looking forward to what is sure to be a steep learning curve!
I'm taking this course as part of my commitment to learning more about digital learning and materials development.
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Agree - but it's a scary prospect!
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Jane Turner made a comment
I feel I am at the beginning of my PM journey - many of the 29 competencies are areas I feel I have very little knowledge of. That said, the ones that I feel suit / interest me the most would be resource management and risk/issue management.
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Jane Turner made a comment
Building trust within the team is important - as is being clear about expectations. Both of these come down to communication!
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Jane Turner replied to Clementine Almond
Interesting point about the scarcity of knowledge - in my context (educational publishing), we try our best to allocate a more experienced editor with newer writers to hopefully ensure the project stays on track in terms of meeting quality requirements. This also helps to raise the knowledge level of the newer writer (because otherwise, the writer will never...
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Jane Turner made a comment
Given the info in the audio, open-heart surgery and a factory manufacturing 100 of the same item a day are best considered as processes as they routine operations intended to be done in the same way each time. The others seem to be projects. However, I did wonder whether construction of a new aquapark in a city could be a process (i.e. if a company is simply...
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Jane Turner made a comment
In my PM role, I help to oversee the production of educational materials (usually tests or test practice materials) per the specifications and brief set by a client. This involves understanding the client's needs, agreeing a budget and timeframe, recruiting writers/editors/vetters/proofreaders, ensuring all members of the team produce the materials according...
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Jane Turner made a comment
Hello everyone, I'm Jane and probably like many people, I'm juggling several different strands in my career: teacher/lecturer at a university, freelance writer/editor in the ELT field and most recently, I've agreed to take on a PM role - something completely new! While I work alongside a brilliant team, I feel like I'm not contributing much so I'm hoping this...
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Jane Turner made a comment
Looking forward to this.
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Jane Turner replied to Nicola York
Yep!
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Jane Turner made a comment
I'd like to know how the principles of UX design can be applied in educational contexts - I work as a lecturer in HE where we're pivoting more to online courses.
I also work in language assessment where online testing is becoming increasingly common, and I am hired on a freelance basis to write test items (or practice materials) for online assessment...
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Jane Turner made a comment
Is anyone else getting a 403 Forbidden error message for the Design kit link?
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@AdarshBelwariar Cambridge, UK
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Jane Turner made a comment
Continual improvement signals to a consumer that the company is innovative and / or constantly trying to evolve based on feedback. I suppose that's why as consumers, we often get "You asked, we listened" types of communications.
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Jane Turner made a comment
I'm actually struggling to think of a website or app whose UX design actually stands out as being particularly good - only because the really good ones are seamless, I suppose! By contrast, I've just started using a fitness app by one of my favourite fitness influencers/trainers and as much I love the content, I'm finding the app itself blinking annoying to...
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Jane Turner made a comment
Good reminders!
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Jane Turner made a comment
Eeek - feeling very out of my comfort zone but hoping to get a lot out of this course :)
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Jane Turner made a comment
This has been an extremely positive experience - well worth signing up for!
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@JohnMaher So hopefully by using only CC sources and official sites, I'm covered. Phew! That's a relief - making my own mats based around authentic sources is what I love doing most of all.
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@LyndaStar I think so - that would be the best option from a teaching perspective. After all, it's perfectly reasonable to tell a student to watch X clip from TedTalk or YouTube as homework.
But from a materials design perspective, I'm still unclear as to whether I could embed such a link into the worksheet that I've created for my students (people who...
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@DylanBurton how do we calculate the discrimination index? (or will we see in a subsequent lesson of this course?!)
It's interesting because sometimes I feel like stronger students can actually be disadvantaged - their wider range of lexis (or at least greater exposure to lexis) might make them confuse words that they've come across before, whereas...
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2/2 The point made by Neus Figueras is vital - portfolio/alternative assessment has to be planned extremely carefully, and it must be carried out in a principled way - not just as an afterthought or as a way of avoiding exams or to keep learners working hard and attending classes. I want to see institutions adopt alternative assessment for pedagogical motives,...
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1/2 OK, apologies in advance for this rambling post but the issues raised in this unit are really interesting, but I'm having difficulty clarifying my thoughts! I'm definitely in favour of alternative forms of assessment (I've used them in several EAP programmes - and they've been a collection of written tasks, extended research projects and oral tasks like...
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Jane Turner made a comment
In the EAP institution I've been working at most recently, the papers are divided into the four skills, which would imply the skills are tested discretely. In reality, it's virtually impossible to have pure separation of the skills, and it's actually a bit of a mish-mash.
To complete the essay task in the writing paper, there's still reading to be done,...
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Jane Turner made a comment
Same time as course planning - BUT some parts left slightly open to be tweaked/finalised once we know more about learners.
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@JohnMaher great analogy!
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Jane Turner made a comment
The AWL highlighter and gapfill is a new resource for me - extremely useful! I would use it to make practice cloze tests.
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Jane Turner made a comment
I personally enjoy cloze tests as a language learner and maybe that's why I have a bit of a bias towards them when creating tests/quizzes for my learners.
The point about the multiple answers is a valid one (especially for high-stakes exams of when liaising across classes and/or with multiple makers), but for classroom purposes, that's something I like...
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Jane Turner made a comment
The main advantage is that they're so flexible - lots of different ways they can be done.
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Jane Turner replied to Mariana Burka
@JonathanDixon Yes - that's my thought!
I completely agree with the point raised in the article - I'm often concerned that my 4th option (i.e. the third distractor) is very weak and will be disregarded by most candidates!Good MCQs are surprisingly hard to write - I'm hoping to learn more about the nuts and bolts of writing MCQs in January because I've...
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Jane Turner made a comment
Providing choice (as per Aptis) is an interesting concept - I think in some cases it puts test-takers at ease, or at least in control to a certain extent.
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Jane Turner made a comment
Really pleased to find that there's a Fitness English List - this will come in really handy as I'm about to start working with a new client who's a sports massage therapist!
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True, but what about testing?
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Jane Turner replied to Becky G.
@DylanBurton Like that suggestion a lot - encourages personalisation of the education experience.
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Jane Turner made a comment
Agree with most of the comments already made. I think the wording of the item ("organisation") is odd/challenging = I thought school is arguably a correct answer. Item could be simplified to "name of school", but it seems odd to test such a long name - issues with spelling and problems with possessive S could make it hard.
It seems more realistic to test sth... -
Jane Turner made a comment
It's possible to test all 5 skills no matter the language level of the learner, but of course, the lower the level, the less we might ask the learner to produce. It's not easy to test inference or attitude at the lower levels, but it's possible.
For instance, I suppose we could display different facial expressions and ask learners to choose the correct one...
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Jane Turner made a comment
A problem I've encountered working in EAP contexts is the "stamina" factor! We want to test our learners' ability to listen to a lecture (as well as other types of communication such as dialogues), and then complete tasks such as take notes and then use these notes to answer Qs or write write something. This might be valid in the sense that it's authentic for...
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Jane Turner made a comment
A real-life task/scenario such as listening to the weather forecast involves lower order skills (e.g. decoding the sounds and identifying key words that match with my home town/region), plus higher-order skills such as drawing inferences/making decisions based on that info - should I wear a coat?
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@ElenaB thanks so much - I appreciate it!
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@JonathanDixon
I suppose IELTS (and other high-stakes exams) have a somewhat predictable range of topics. The texts won't include PARSNIPS of course, and they'll be aimed at a somewhat academic ("well-read") but general audience. It's certainly not a bad thing to encourage learners to read extensively (e.g. The Guardian, BBC, National Geographic, The... -
@NathalieC thanks for such kind comments!
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Jane Turner made a comment
As the article suggests, it's one thing introducing unfamiliar topics onto the classroom as a teaching aid - here we can provide scaffolding and introduce real-life skills based around prediction strategies, etc. But as the article points out, language assessment can't rely on that.
I can see that the dinner lady text is relatively clear - the woman's...
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Jane Turner made a comment
I'm familiar with several of the tools mentioned in the article. The one I use the most is EVP. I also use a similar tool = Pearson Teacher Toolkit - I find it gives more explanation and searching options are very user-friendly. It's interesting to note how both tools sometimes yield quite different results! The Toolikit is particularly useful because it gives...
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Jane Turner made a comment
The general consensus in the comments seems to be that depending on the task, any authentic text can be used - providing the task reflects the specific skill you're hoping to target. What I'd add is that we also have to mindful of learners' context (background knowledge). The financial report isn't linguistically challenging for people in that context - I'd...
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@DylanBurton Is this because (and I'm saying this as an item writer) sometimes it's a real stretch to get a decent 4th option? I often feel like I'm happy with 3 of my options but the 4th is just a makeweight that doesn't really bring anything to the party!
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@MandiM I don't know whether you're on LinkedIn but if you are (or indeed Facebook), there are lots of free webinars, workshops and one-day conferences shared on there - some of them by the big publishers (e.g. Pearson, Macmillan, Cambridge University Press), some by colleges and training bodies (e.g. Trinity College), and many more by smaller companies or...
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Great resource - thanks for sharing!
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Jane Turner replied to Jane Turner
Cambridge United for me (postponed this weekend), West Ham, Chelsea, Norwich and Newcastle for family reasons!
Come to think of it, the number of teams I look up, it's possibly more like skimming to figure out whether folks will be in a good mood or not! There's usually at least one disgruntled relative! -
Jane Turner made a comment
Intensive reading: work-related docs (work contract and writing brief), a recipe for a relative (wanted to make sure she had all the ingredients and could follow all the steps easily as she has limited mobility and cannot stand for any length of time)
Scanning - what were the footie results?
Extensive reading - reading the football reports of the games that... -
Jane Turner made a comment
To my mind, the difference between hearing cf. listening (or seeing cf. reading) is quite substantial. When we hear something, it does involve a complex set of processes going on as signals are sent between the ears and brain, but it's at the level of "receiving" sounds.
By contrast, listening involves a concerted effort and a range of cognitive processes...
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Jane Turner replied to Jane Turner
@JonathanDixon Probably little - which is why I think the CEFR makes more sense to me! Labelling a learner as intermediate (or whatever) on the basis that they have attained a level of mastery of particular language points is in itself quite meaningless unless you caan demonstrate how these pertain to communication.
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Jane Turner made a comment
What I like about "Can do" statements cf. using terms such as "intermediate", or referring to grammatical functions is that it's learner-centred.
Does using the CEFR get around the problem that some linguistic functions in a particular language are more complex than their counterparts in other languages? What I mean is that knowing how articles work in...
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Jane Turner made a comment
Hi everyone, Jane Turner from Cambridge, UK.
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@LeeMead Lack of interactivity is a potential drawback, it's true! But then again, I suppose in a "traditional" classroom setting, writing feedback is also delivered in a similar vein (e.g. handing back marked papers with teacher comments for learners to look at in their own time).
I see this tool as being a more in-depth way to give feedback for learners...
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@JohnMaher That's a really valid point about the quality of video editing. I suspect my learners' knowledge base is rather higher than my own - perhaps I need to get them to teach me (a bit of loop learning!)
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@NickCarpenter - good point - definitely transferable skills!
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Jane Turner made a comment
1) Fill a kettle with water from a tap.
2) Turn on the kettle.
3) When the kettle has boiled, turn off kettle.
4) Put a tea bag into a mug.
5) Fill the mug 2/3 full with the hot water from the kettle. (put kettle back).
6) Wait 5 mins,
7) If the taste of the tea is optimal, remove the teabag from the cup with a metal spoon.
8) If preferred, add milk,... -
Jane Turner made a comment
Hi, I'm Jane from Cambridge in the UK. Very curious about this course because it's sooooooo completely different to anything I've studied before.
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@JoannaWilliams - you're welcome!
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Jane Turner made a comment
Really exceeded my expectations - thank you so much!
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Great - I hope you're finding it as useful as I have!
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@JohnMaher - thanks! Other useful resources discussing these issues:
https://www.emoderationskills.com/copyright-creative-commons-and-fair-use-a-short-video-guide/
http://www.vickihollett.com/can-i-legally-show-this-video-to-my-class/ - the point she makes about provenance is interesting. And of course, it's definitely worth searching for Creative...
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@JohnMaher yes - the more I read about this, the more murky it gets with all the caveats. I definitely agree with your point about recording and commercial gain. Frustrating though, because from what I gather, you could actually show/play the same clip in class (even embedded in a PowerPoint slide) for educational purposes. Will definitely proceed with caution!
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Jane Turner made a comment
I've just started following some blogs. Next up - I'll focus on Twitter :)
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Jane Turner made a comment
Great suggestions, and it's easy to neglect PD when you're working online. I've recently returned to blogging after a loooooooong break (more than a decade!), and I've found it's been useful for me. It helps me clarify my thoughts about teaching, and it's been useful also as a place to share what I've learnt on webinars, etc. It's still very much in its early...
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Jane Turner made a comment
As someone who loves creating their own materials based on authentic sources (e.g. TedTalks, YouTube clips, BBC radio), I'm finding this a minefield. For instance, I've just had an idea for a lesson based around a BBC Radio 4 show. I've found a clipI want to use and was planning to embed the link into my slides and worksheet, and then do a listening activity....
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Jane Turner made a comment
Really useful tips! I suppose the other thing to point out is that you can't expect every online teaching experience to work out the way you'd hoped - don't take it personally! And the flip side of that is as Oliver pointed out in the video, don't feel obliged to take on every single student!
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Jane Turner made a comment
Social media is a great way to market yourself, but I think for the people I tend to work with, nothing can beat word of mouth.
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I've used Quizlet and Kahoot before - they work well. A similar tool to Quizlet is Menti/Mentimeter - it combines the polling/quiz element of Kahoot with presentations - pretty good. What I like about most of the resources shared here is the collaborative / sharing element.
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Completely agree about discovery learning. I suppose one workaround could be to present the story, and ask learners to listen out (and note down) examples of language used to ______ . Then present story again and then highlight the example language explicitly.
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Jane Turner made a comment
I have a one-to-one learner who has to book in appointments with her clients regularly. Message generator would be useful to teach phrases for making excuses or requests (e..g Sorry, I'm running late. Could we move the appointment, etc)
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Jane Turner made a comment
The third approach is certainly useful when it comes to one-to-one teaching scenarios. Often learners come to the session with a particular point that has cropped up for them during the week, perhaps something they've heard or seen, or maybe a situation arose and they didn't have the language at hand to respond. Learner-generated language lessons are very...
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Jane Turner made a comment
In the face-to-face classrooom, we all know that boardwork can be so important in helping us clarify learning points. Similarly, this will be improtant when setting language work online. So it's important to ensure that what we share on a screen is a) extremely clear (not cramming too much in) b) visible (careful about colours we use).
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Jane Turner made a comment
Definitely need the content covered in week 4!
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Jane Turner made a comment
Regarding Write and Improve, I'd have to agree with some of the reservations voiced by @JohnMaher
I think my learners might indeed want to try it, and I'll definitely investigate it further, but I'd approach with caution - my concern is that learners might internalise the idea that there's only one particular way to write, and therefore, they need to...
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As others have commented, I think the way Lindsay has demoed using Screencast-o-Matic is extremely effective - will certainly investigate further. It's good because you can go into as much detail as you want, and highlight/draw attention visually at the same time.
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Jane Turner made a comment
Apologies in advance if this seems a bit off-topic but bear with me - it does tie in with online learning! Something I've been thinking about a lot recently is essay writing - and the extent to which we actually need to focus on it. What I mean is that in my main teaching context (EAP - university prep classes, and IELTS prep classes), there's a focus so much...
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@JohnMaher Hmmm - that would be a fun class activity to try - have each learner find a random object from their home, and they have 2 mins to demo it in front of the camera and try to "sell" it in a pitch :)
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Which ones would you recommend?
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Jane Turner made a comment
Nice resources - as I mentioned in my Padlet recording, my EAP learners weren't keen on Flipgrid but I really like it! In fact, over time, they got used to it, and they saw the value in it.
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Jane Turner made a comment
I always thought I was a fast typist - but I'm not so sure now! I'd even set up my chart beforehand with columns ready to go, but that didn't help much. I think on reflection, I'd prefer to simply write notes then summarise them quickly in the chat box. I'm not sure why that seems more efficient to me, but it does!
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Yes, I found it hard too!
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Jane Turner replied to Teresa Velasquez
Yes, and I suppose the thing to point out is that while it's fine for learners to have their cameras switched off, they'll need to explain who is talking each time because it's difficult to discern just by voices. If they have to do that each time, they might just get decided that it's less hassle to switch on their camera for a while! And another thing which...
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Jane Turner made a comment
sending individual notes with useful phrases in the chat box. Scaffolding like this can help weaker students.
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Jane Turner made a comment
As well as the suggestions described by other participants, the other thing would be to ask students to comment on their peers' turns by asking them to report back, or to simply say whether they have the same idea.
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If the chat box allows, share an image with a student (e.g. someone jogging in a park). That student then has to describe the image while everyone listens and draws.
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Jane Turner made a comment
Definitely looking forward to getting to help with pron teaching tips :)
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Jane Turner made a comment
Brillliant - good to see some extra resources!
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Jane Turner made a comment
Nice example of a live listening! The possibilities are pretty much endless! You could easily prepare some kind of info gap exercise for while-listening (e.g. filling in a table, sentence completion). You could set some gist questions (e.g. "What was the problem with the hotel, and how was it solved?"). Dictations work for careful listening. Language focus:...
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Jane Turner made a comment
Yes, connectivity and technical issues seem to be the main issue! One thing I've done with my learners (for a face-to-face university group, but I can see that it would be useful for online contexts) is use Whatsapp to make video/audio files. Of course, sharing your phone number with students might not be desirable, so it would depend on the teaching context -...
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Jane Turner made a comment
From teaching in an EAP context, I'm often dealing with longer texts which don't necessarily lend themselves to being read on a screen (without scrolling up and down). As Helen says in the clip, this makes it difficult to share. Purely for that reason, I'd prefer to share as PDF so that students have their own copy to refer to. Where this gets tricky is then I...
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Interesting points raised. The immediate thing that jumps to mind for me is that speed reading online is a great way to prep my exam-takers. And controlling that time limit will really help that.
