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After a little more than two years of the sudden shift to online teaching, our department decided that we adopt a hybrid approach to teaching, which meant that part of the program is taught face-to-face. I was a little hesitant before I went to my first on campus class. I had to dress appropriately, ensure that I had all I needed for my class: laptop, HDMI adapter, white board marker, coffee mug… I felt a little awkward at the beginning of the lesson, I only knew the names of  those students who usually had a picture on their Zoom profile. It wasn’t appropriate on my sixth week of teaching not to be able to call students by their names. In distance learning, I was more in command; I could see each student’s full name on my screen. 

I decided against group work in that first face-to-face session. I didn’t feel comfortable breaking students into groups. I thought of how malleable it was to assign students into breakout rooms where I could decide if they choose their own groups or I assign them to random groups. Definitely in the coming sessions, I will have group work, but not now. Projecting my carefully prepared PowerPoint was another issue. Where is the cable? The remote control? The screen to project my laptop on was too high. I had to ask a student to pull it down because by no means could  I reach it. I made the joke asking students if, seeing their instructors through Zoom only, they thought they were taller than they were in reality. I lost many of the PowerPoint controls I usually saw on my screen. It took me a while to find them by hovering the mouse over the lower part of the screen. A student asked me if I could enlarge the print so that it could be seen easily. Again, I had to figure out how to do something I usually did automatically. Navigating among webpages, videos, and different documents was so easy in my online class. Now I had to configure the wi-fi settings on my computer to access the internet. Umm. I forgot to do that before entering class. A student offered  wi-fi hotspot so that I could connect to the Internet as mine would not work on my laptop. That took quite a few minutes.

The class time went well. Students were interactive and responsive. I wonder if it was fairer in the online setting where students were called on according to the order they raised their hands. It was easy to tell who raised their hands first and call on them to talk. 

To take attendance, I had been taking it in the online class through a Google Form Exit Ticket where students were considered attending after responding to a question that summarized the lesson and another where the students assessed their learning on a scale from 1 to 5. No matter how large the class was, attendance was taken in no time as all the students completed the Google Form simultaneously. Now I had to do it manually and call the names of the students one by one. It was a little time-consuming. 

This was how I compared distance teaching to face-to-face teaching. But the students’ story was different. I asked them to reflect on both experiences. They had positive perceptions of in-person classes. I could see the excitement on their faces and feel it in their voices. They were all smiley  and happy. Very appreciative. Very interactive. Very attentive to every word said in class as though expressing their gratitude to be in class again. We had a short reflective talk comparing online classes to face-to-face classes. The majority affirmed that they benefited more from face-to-face classroom discussions and that they were more focused on what was going on in (the) class. Although it was more comfortable for them to be at home, the home environment had many distractors. In a face-to-face lesson, they were better able to take cues on when it was appropriate to ask a question or participate in a discussion. In addition, some expressed that they could no longer bear the isolation from friends. They did not want to graduate not knowing how being in the physical learning environment felt like. 

Still there were very few who were happy to have had the opportunity to continue their education online because otherwise they would have had to stop their education. Among those were students who had a full-time job or a job that did not allow flexible timing. Mothers and those who were out of the country were also at a disadvantage when it came to pursuing their degrees. Moreover, as many countries are struggling financially and inflation has been at unprecedented rates, commuting to schools and universities is costly especially for those living in remote areas. 

Students’ experience during their learning matters a lot. Often, as educators, we focus on our experiences as teachers when assessing the success of a new method or technique. We need to keep in mind that teaching is not about a show that we display in the presence of our students, rather we need to be aware of what students experience and how they learn. The experiences learners go through impact not only their learning but also their mental well-being. Having experienced distance learning for a little more than two years now, and not being far from teaching fully in-person, this is the ideal time to think of a teaching/learning model that combines the merits of distance learning and face-to-face learning. A model that brings out the best of teachers and accommodates to the students needs and learning styles.

About Amal Farhat

Amal is an assistant professor at Lebanese International University, an educational counselor at the Lebanese Ministry of Education and Higher Education, and the educational consultant at Rawafid School.

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Vicky: First of all, I would like to thank you for agreeing to give this interview and I would also like to welcome you!

Aleksandra: Thank you for the invitation, Vicky.

Vicky: Aleksandra, you are the new Vice President. Would you like to introduce yourself to the IATEFL members who do not know you?

Aleksandra: Well, I’m Aleksandra but most of my friends and those who know me call me Alex. I’m from Bosnia and Herzegovina currently living in North Macedonia. I’m a teacher of English with a BA in English Language and Literature and MA in Professional Development for Language Education. I’ve been teaching for a long time, 25 years this year. I’m also a teacher trainer training on various teacher training courses and projects. 

Vicky: Can you talk to us about your working life routine? Can you tell us what you are doing currently?

Aleksandra: One of the perks of being my own boss is that I can start my day whenever I want. It’s very difficult to control myself and not sit in front of my computer as soon as I wake up. I made a very conscious decision about three years ago not to turn on my computer before 9 am. 

My day usually starts quite early, 6 am with a walk with my dog by the lake. I live on a beautiful lake, Ohrid Lake which has the most amazing scenery. Then the usual things : breakfast, coffee before I sit down at my computer and join the virtual world of work. Mornings are for administrative work for my two companies, translations, writing, sending and replying to emails, IATEFL and IATEFL MaWSIG related work. I need to finish all that by 2 pm to prepare and have lunch because afternoons and evenings are for teaching. I usually have lessons until 9.30 pm. After that, the only thing I can manage is some reading and my day ends around 11 pm.

I am currently working on several projects writing materials for teacher training courses, a course of my own and a coursebook.

Vicky: Tell us about your experience as the Coordinator of our Materials Writing Special Interest Group.

Aleksandra: MaWSIG came unexpectedly. I joined MaWSIG because of my interest in writing materials (my MA dissertation is on materials development). I wanted to learn more about materials writing, meet other writers, and just be a part of that community. However, when I saw a vacancy for a joint events coordinator, I thought why not go for it and that’s how I became a member of the MaWSIG Committee. Rachael Roberts was the coordinator at the time, and she was really welcoming, extremely supportive and helpful as were the other committee members. After some time, Tania Pattison became the joint coordinator and then in 2018 both Rachael and Tania decided to step down. No one on the committee wanted to take over and once again I decided to challenge myself and put myself forward for the position. I’ve been the SIG coordinator since June 2018 and I’m stepping down in May in Belfast. It will be difficult to leave MaWSIG because the committee members are an amazing group of people and professionals (Clare, Jen, Penny, Ceri, Nick, Sandy, Heather, Niki) who finally got used to my Balkan humour (at least I hope they did).

Vicky: CPD has changed significantly and considering the new world conditions, how do you believe  IATEFL can address this new challenge?

Aleksandra: I think that IATEFL adapted to the challenges of the brave new world of CPD quite quickly. We have seen great flexibility and adaptability from the HO staff, the Trustees, the CEO and Deputy CEO. Yes, there have been a few hiccups along the way, but we have all been working hard to make sure that our members and non-members have the best possible CPD. The decision to defer the conference in 2020 was not an easy one, but it had to be done. The safety and health of the delegates were and are a priority for IATEFL. I’m glad that the SIGs and IATEFL have been able to offer various online events with a very steep learning curve. AND we had our very first online IATEFL Annual Conference. I believe that IATEFL has the capacity to deal with all current and future challenges because of the volunteers behind it.

Vicky: What are your vision and philosophy? What do you aim to achieve from your new position?

Aleksandra: My vision – IATEFL becoming bigger and stronger, fulfilling its mission of linking, developing, and supporting ELT professionals worldwide. I know it sounds like a cliché, but I truly believe in the power of the professional community, teachers’ associations. I’ve been involved in TAs for over 20 years, and I wouldn’t have achieved most of my professional goals without the support of other teachers and the associations I belong to, such as ELTAM MK, IATEFL, and TESOL International.

What do I aim to achieve? My statement for the position of VP of IATEFL says that I would like to connect IATEFL SIGs and Associates. I would like them to organize joint professional development events and create resources that will be accessible to members and non-members alike. We have over 100 associates and 16 SIGs, but you will rarely see joint events. I think the reason for this is that the associates do not know what they could do together with the SIGs. I strongly encourage our associates to get in touch with the SIG Coordinators to see how they could work together.

Another part of my statement is that I am and will always be fully committed to the betterment of teachers’ professional lives by making the connection between IATEFL and teachers of English stronger through cooperation, collaboration, and support. This is true. It’s not a cliché. I am genuinely committed to this because I am a teacher who understands the importance of working together with others. We work together, we grow together, and we become better together.

Vicky: How can you effectively lead an international association such as IATEFL?

Aleksandra: How can anyone? After my experience with our national association, ELTAM MK (I stepped down as president of ELTAM MK in March 2022), I understand and know that it takes all my knowledge and experience to lead an association. For me an association, any association, be it a national or international one, is all about the people, members, teachers. I am a team player who can collaborate with others easily and learn from them at the same time. I don’t know everything about running an international association such as IATEFL and I don’t want to know it because then it wouldn’t t be fun and challenging. I look forward to learning.

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About Aleksandra Popovski 

Aleksandra Popovski is the incoming Vice President of IATEFL. She holds an MA from the University of Chichester, UK. She is a teacher and teacher trainer with over 20 years of teaching experience. She is an invited speaker at national and international conferences. Aleksandra was also Coordinator of IATEFL MaWSIG and President of ELTAM MK, N. Macedonia.

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Members who attended the IATEFL Virtual Conference in June 2021 will remember Kieran Donaghy and his plenary session ‘Embedding a culture of empathy in English language teaching’ at the beginning of the second day of the Conference. Syke Annamma Kumaran has interviewed him for Views. 

Syke: Hi Kieran Donaghy, it’s my pleasure to interview you! You taught English for over 30 years and now you are training teachers. Could you tell us about the hard nuts in teacher training?

Kieran: I think that any teacher training course has to give teachers the training to meet their students’ needs and promote positive change in the classroom and beyond. I feel that teachers need to learn to think deeply, critically and creatively about teaching and learning, and that can be done through classes that are varied, practical and hands-on, but with reference to relevant theory. When teachers have this thorough background in theory and practice, they are better prepared to intelligently and compassionately serve their students.

Syke: It was really great to watch your plenary session at the IATEFL Virtual Conference.  Please tell us about the necessity of empathy in ELT in this time of the pandemic.

Kieran: In my opinion, during the pandemic teachers have thought first about compassion and empathy, and then about technology. Teachers have shown incredible compassion and empathy for their students and have supported them and generously given their time. 

I would argue that the EdTech experiment during the pandemic has been a stark reminder of the vital importance of schools not just as places of learning but also of socialisation, community and caring. As we move from pandemic education to post-pandemic education, teachers will have to care for students who may have suffered COVID, whose relatives may have had COVID or even died from the virus, who may have mental health issues, and whose learning may have been negatively affected by the pandemic. This is a huge challenge which requires an enormous amount of empathy. With the support of profoundly empathic teachers, post-traumatic growth and wisdom among our students may be possible, but teachers need the right conditions to be able to help their students, and face-to-face classes, where the constant human dialogue necessary for caring and learning best take place, are an essential part of this. Teachers may also need training in social and emotional learning of which empathy is a key component and trauma-informed practice. When the inevitable reimagining of post-pandemic education comes, we should reimagine how we can optimise language learning and, as an integral part of that, we should also reimagine inclusivity, entrenched underfunding, and teachers’ pay and conditions.

Syke: Thanks, Kieran! I know that you wrote a brilliant book on film and video activities. Do teachers accept this idea in their lessons?

Kieran: Thank you for your kind words about Film in Action. It’s always difficult to know if the ideas and activities in a resource book have been accepted by teachers. I have received lots of positive feedback on the activities from teachers around and the publisher of the book has told me that in its first year, the book was the best-selling book in the history of the DELTA Teacher Development Series. The book was also shortlisted in the prestigious English-Speaking Union English Language Awards in the Resources for Teacher category.

Syke: As the founder of Image Conference, could you share the strategies you employed at the beginning of this venture?

Kieran: The Image Conference seeks to explore the possibilities which visual texts and visual multimodal texts such as film, video, photographs, paintings and video games offer to both language teachers and language learners. The rationale behind the conference is that today we are saturated with visual stimulation and that the visual image has become the primary mode of communication. In the twenty-first century, the ability to interpret, analyse and create images is an integral part of literacy. The aim of The Image Conference is to put images at the centre of the language learning agenda and offer guidance on using images critically and creatively in language teaching in the age of the Internet. The Image Conference brings together leading experts and practitioners in the use of images in language learning who share their experiences, insights and know-how and provides participants with an excellent opportunity to enhance their competence in the innovative and creative use of images. IATEFL has played a key role in the conference as the first edition of the conference was held in conjunction with the IATEFL Learning Technologies Special Interest Group.

Syke: Thanks again, Kieran! Could you share your insights on “English Language Learning in the time of pandemic” to teachers all over the world?

Kieran: First of all, I would say that teachers have done an incredible job adapting their teaching during the pandemic. They have now experienced remote teaching and learned new digital skills. They have seen that an online environment can still allow language students to engage actively with each other and appreciate the positive impact learning technologies might have on language learning. So, I can recognise the potential that technology might have in post-COVID English language education and I believe we should listen to the advice of digital pedagogy experts such as Sophia Mavridi, Graham Stanley and Nicky Hockley who have been proposing a principled approach to online teaching and learning for many years. I have two master’s degrees specialised in digital technology and consider myself fairly tech-savvy. We should certainly consider what teachers like about teaching online and what works best online, but we should also consider what language teachers like about teaching in physical classrooms and what works best in face-to-face classes. One of the things teachers would seem to miss about the physical classroom is the social interaction with students. Physical classrooms allow this social interaction, the constant human dialogue essential for language learning to take place which is much more difficult to achieve online. Nonetheless, the edtech industry would seem to see the current crisis as an opportunity to demonstrate the benefits of online learning not just in this current emergency but as a normal mode of education into the future. While there are obvious benefits to EdTech providing teachers and learners with access to digital content, these benefits work best in harmony with – not as a replacement for – face-to-face learning. The technology industry, supported by international organisations such as the World Bank and the World Economic Forum, consultancy firms and investment banks may well argue that online classes have been extremely successful during the pandemic and that this mode of learning should become the new normal. However, I think we should be critical and question this hype, and consider that it is possible that they will attempt to use the pandemic as a pretext to increase privatisation of education and reduce the number of physical classrooms and this will undoubtedly be to the detriment of effective language learning. 

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About Kieran Donaghy

Kieran Donaghy is a freelance award-winning writer, international conference speaker and trainer. He is the author of books for students and teachers of English as a foreign language. His publications include Film in Action (Delta Publishing), Writing Activities for Film (ELT Teacher2Writer) and Video, The Image in ELT (ELT Council) and Language Hub (Macmillan). He trains teachers in Barcelona and online at his specialist teacher development institute, The School for Training. His website Film English has won a British Council ELTons Award, an English Speaking Union Award and the MEDEA Award. He is the founder of The Image Conference and co-founder of the Visual Arts Circle. You can find out more about Kieran at his author website http://kierandonaghy.com/

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I am kind of a nomad, travelling from conference to conference, talk to talk, from one country to another. Pre-COVID19, of course. Those were the days…

I joined IATEFL some years ago, first as a conference attendee. I loved the buzz, the talks, the big names, the networking, the new names, the inspiration, the shared ideas, the atmosphere. Then I went again as a presenter. And it felt good. A room full of colleagues, important people, asking me questions about this and that, joining forces, reaching out, connecting. I felt like a tiny dot that, among other dots, we were finally connected with lines to make a shape that made sense: we were looking for a better world in language education. I was asked to write an article for the Testing SIG, then I gave a webinar, and I could see the lines between the dots become clearer and bolder, so I felt stronger; I bonded. I felt that my IATEFL-ing journey, be it physical or digital, was meaningful. 

Is it almost a skill? An action? Or an identity?

IATEFL-ing, therefore, is one of the skills a teacher should have. As a teacher educator, I often ask teachers what they need to be the best they can be. The number one answer I have been getting in my 20 years of teacher-training is…’time’!

Since I cannot help with making ‘time’ using my witchy wand and craft, below are some very simple tips on how language teacher, can improve (or even become the best). Among these tips, there is IATEFL-ing. And inside all these tips, there is IATEFL-ing; because through IATEFL-ing all of them can be learned or confirmed.

1) Tell yourself often ‘I am not sure’

The first step to becoming better is admitting and feeling deep inside our lack of perfect knowledge. Check if what you think is right is actually right. Be ready to unlearn, relearn, question what you know and to become open to everything you might not know.

2) Study

Read articles, blogs and books. Attend seminars, workshops, webinars. Go to conferences and take courses. Develop both academically and professionally. Embrace change and be a constant learner. Go to IATEFL, ask questions and listen carefully. Get books. Network and ask more questions. Take notes, then go back to your notes. Go IATEFL-ing. 

3) Know your SLA and your Pedagogy

How are languages learned? How is language stored and retrieved? How do memory and learning work together? What conditions optimize learning? What impedes learning? Explore such questions relentlessly. Ask yourself, read about them, get updated with cutting edge research findings.

4) Know your CEFR

What does each level mean? What should the language user be able to do at each level? How do we need to filter our expectations for our learners? Do we expect too much? Do we penalize for developmental errors? Do we care about the learners’ learning curve? What does B2 really mean? (No, it’s not just the ‘Lower’.)

5) Know your learners

There’s no successful teaching without successful bonding. Get to know these people, what they like, what inspires them, what they feel, what they need. Try to find out how they like your lesson, what changes you need to make, how you can engage them. Connect, share, walk hand in hand with them. And let them teach you too. Language is exchange, it goes both ways.

6) It’s not just the language

We don’t just teach English (or any language). We teach people. We teach values. We teach social models. We teach power relationships (hopefully not power games). We teach justice. We teach to and how-to make the world a better place. Teaching is the most optimistic job in the world! It means by definition, faith in a better world. Teaching is a political choice. Don’t take this beauty out of the job by neutralizing it and making a dry language lesson.

On a final note, make sure you know why you decided to become a language teacher. It’s not a side job, it’s not a hobby and no, it’s not a vocation either. It is (or should be) a conscious professional choice, leading to a successful career, requiring hard work, a solid academic background, lots of inspiration and an insatiable hunger not primarily to teach but to Learn.

PS. Don’t forget to be kind, loving, caring. Don’t forget to be a good human being.

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About Maria Davou

Maria is a teacher, teacher trainer, researcher and school owner. She has a BA in Philosophy, Cambridge DELTA, an MA in TESOL (St Michael’s College, Vermont) and has studied for a PhD in Applied Linguistics at Lancaster University, UK. She is now completing her Doctorate degree in Athens. She held an ESRC research award. She has more than twenty-five years’ experience in teaching, teacher training and syllabus design in Greece, the UK and the US. She is a language school owner in Athens, promoting alternative and experiential models of teaching. She is an international trainer and academic consultant for publishing companies, private schools and Ministries of Education. She is an adjunct professor for the Hellenic American University (HAEC), where she teaches TESOL Management and for the MA in Creative Writing at the University of Western Macedonia. 

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If you are a member of IATEFL and would like to contribute to the blog, we’d love to hear from you at [email protected]. We’re looking for stories from our members, news about projects you’ve been involved in, and anything else you think those connected to English language teaching would be interested in reading. We look forward to hearing from you! If you’re not a member, why not join us?

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