CPD Opportunities Autumn 2023

 Innovate ELT 2021

This year's Innovate ELT conference once again took place online, with more than 40 speakers on a wide range of topics, and opportunities to socialise with other attendees in small groups during the coffee breaks.

Four EIM teachers attended this year. Lisa has summarised a talk by Diana Bauducco, an ELT materials writer and an ELT and ELE teacher based in London.

Diana Bauducco

Brain-Friendly ELT

In her session, Diana focused on ‘Brain Basics’ (without going into complicated neurobiological explanations) – for example how the creation of neural connections through neuromodulators such as dopamine affect neuroplasticity and can enhance learning, energy, and motivation in the classroom, as well as enriching our teaching experience.

She presented the acronym ‘LEARNS’ as a brain-friendly checklist to follow to help students increase their levels of alertness, motivation and interaction to promote a rich learning environment in the classroom. 

L represents ‘linking’ - pre-exposure or priming students so that they can link their learning experience to previous knowledge.

E is for ‘emotions’ – try to reduce students feeling threatened and use positive emotion boosters.

A stands for ‘Activity’ (physical) – when students move around in the classroom the brain gets more oxygen and nutrients, which raises alertness and enhances memory.

R is for ‘repetition’ – repetition is necessary to consolidate learning.

N represents ‘novelty’ – surprise and novelty are stimulating and therefore more memorable.

S is ‘social learning’ – social interactions stimulate the brain and enhance learning and relationships.

Diana then went on to outline some practical advice on how to directly integrate these elements into the classroom.  

One example of an activity that I’ve used, which incorporates almost all elements of the checklist, is a ‘speed’ job interview role-play, in which half of the students are interviewers and the other half are candidates. (Linking) Each student receives a role card and has 5 minutes to prepare either questions or answers depending on their role. (Emotion and Activity) The interviewers remain at stationary desks, while the candidates circulate every 3 minutes (Repetition) and continue until each candidate has been interview for all the jobs. Finally, interviewers say which candidate they would hire and why, and the candidates decide if they will take the job and their give reasons (Social learning).

The talk was very straightforward and informative, while also giving some practical brain-friendly strategies and advice to apply in the classroom to stimulate learning.

It’s reassuring that neuroscience has finally validated the educational tools many of us have been implementing in our classrooms for years! 

Lisa McConnell is an EFL teacher at the EIM. She holds a BA from U.N.M. and the Cambridge Delta. She’s from Alaska and has lived and taught English for many years in France and Spain. She is interested in neuroplasticity in language acquisition.