Editorial
Dear HLT Readers,
Welcome to the October issue of HLT. First some Pilgrims news. We have had a wonderful teacher training summer at the University of Kent in Canterbury, UK, and now we all treasure the memories and implement new ideas like for example Hajnalka Fruttus (A Course I Won in the 2019 Bonnie Tsai Scholarship Competition ). We are also making plans for next year and thinking of new developments. You will find out more in Pilgrims News: Hi from Pilgrims Teacher Training Family HQ! by Jim Wright, Principal of Pilgrims. We hope to welcome you on one of our TT courses next year.
Pilgrims trainers will be attending a number of conferences so we might meet at The Image Conference or Spontaneity – One Day Event: The Empty Space in Teacher Development.
In this issue there are a lot of fantastic contributions and I am sure everyone will find something of interest.
Some of the articles reflect the moment in time we are in: Brexit (Testing Times; ALICE in Blunderland by Geoff Trantner), burning Amazon forests and drastic climate change (Canto [After Ezra Pound], by George Patterson, and Letter 1 in the To the Editor section), and approaching annual Halloween celebrations (Halloween Horror Story by Jamie Keddie).
Teachers of primary learners may want to start reading this issue of HLT with Understanding Reading Challenges Faced by Arab ELLs in U.S Schools: A Miscue Analysis Study by Ahmed Fahad, Fostering Literacy Development in Early Graders with Immigrant Background with Story Telling - Observations and Reflections by Shiauping Tian, Injecting Values Education into the English Curriculum of Young Learners by Eugenia P. Iskos, Ellyze Francisco, Sophia E. Gegiou, and Strategies of Teaching Critical Thinking in the Young Learner Classroom by Hajni Fruttus.
Those interested in story telling will surely like Storytelling With my Students: My Journey into Storytelling and Conversation with the Storyteller David Heathfield by Nicholas Emery and The Craft of Storytelling by Andrew Wright. Having read about story telling, which often involves a lot of drama techniques) you may want to move onto drama in Improvisation for the Language Classroom by Peter Dyer.
The theme of 21st Century Skills is very well covered in this issue among others in: Navigating Digital Information: Developing 21st Century Skills to Evaluate Online Information by Michael Okamoto, Web-conferencing: New Ways to Teach (English) in Hospital Schools by Tjaša Funa Štamfelj, and Students’ Perceptions of Completing Practice and Production Tasks via a Learning Management System by Mary Jane Özkurkudis.
There are a number of articles raising general issues in language teaching such as error correction (Delayed Error Correction: A Springboard for Teaching by Ethan Mansur), the role of silence in class (Do I Hear Silence? by James Thomas), using the mother tongue (L1-Integrated Participatory (LIP) Second Language Classrooms: A Framework for L1 Use in the L2 Classroom by Sajit M Mathews, seating plans (Seating Arrangements in Korean University ELT Classrooms: What Teachers are Doing and How Students Feel About It by Chris Kobylinski), theories of education versus knowledge construction (From Hierarchical to Lateral Knowledge Flows: Teaching-Learning Relationships by S. Joseph Arul Jayraj) and desired and expected results in teaching and learning (Student Perspectives on English Language Teaching Efficacy: Evolution of Confidence by Colin Velez and Shelbee Nguyen Voges).
The Publications section as usual features reviews of books (Short Book Reviews by Hanna Kryszewska, and Out of Your Seats by James Thomas and Anette Igel) and information about new titles (New Books from Crown House Publishing).
Don’t miss the voices section which features: Teaching Off the Books by Giovanna Gullì, Thank You Japan by Mario Rinvolucri, A Foreign Professor's Perspective of Teaching English in South Korea by Christopher Irvin, and Quotes by Rushan Ziatdinov. You may want to voice your opinions in one of the next issues of HLT.
Remember I am always waiting for your contributions to HLT and I will be ever so happy to help you share and publish your ideas. I look forward to hearing from you. In the meantime enjoy this issue of HLT.
Hania Kryszewska
HLT Editor
hania.kryszewska@pilgrims.co.uk
