Language learner types
If we think about our students, overall, we would all recognise that they go about the business of learning and using the language in different ways. Certainly, they achieve different levels of success,...
A lesson learned
This a 'guest blog'. It was written by Rebecca Greenway (Ecole Bilingue Jeannine Manuel in Lille), as a "reflection" on how we should be approaching education in the current state of the world. It seemed...
A charm of bloopers
To start with, the term 'blooper' is not that commonly used, so here's Oxford Languages' definition: blooper So there we are - foot-in-mouth syndrome. Now that we've got our terminology sorted out......
About being a teacher #2
Another happy discovery in my back-files, as part of my on-going house-moving clear-out (scenario...might as well make the phrase really clunky!). Again, I have no idea where this came from, except that...
About being a teacher
At an English B workshop many years ago now, someone in the group cheerfully circulated this graphic. It caused much amusement, as well as wry recognition, and I recently came across it in my files (which...
Why Language Acquisition?
What is the purpose of a Group 2 Language Acquisition course? This question is on my mind at present because I am a member of an IB working party tasked with brain-storming ideas about the design and...
Truth & War
Reactions to the conflict in Ukraine have included the well-known quote “The first casualty of War is Truth” – but it would seem that Truth has been seriously endangered in the Peace of our interconnected...
Text types & Themes
Feedback concerning the November 2021 exams has raised a couple of interesting issues, specifically about the English B HL Paper 1, but with more general application. The first concerns the area of text...
Inclusive language
In a working party gathered to explore and discuss ideas for inclusion in the next Group 2 Subject Guides (due for introduction around 2026), the issue of ‘inclusive' and/or ‘non-binary’ language was...
Kazuo Ishiguro
I have just finished reading Kazuo Ishiguro’s latest novel Klara and the Sun. I find it a brilliant novel, absorbing and moving, and emblematic of Ishiguri’s superb skills as a novelist. I recommend Klara...