Tour around the ELT conference circuit as our team shares conference highlights and session reviews.

Conferences

When organizing a conference, it is crucial to nail down a conference theme in the early stages of the planning process. In the first year of hosting our own virtual conference (ESVC 2021), our theme was Empowering Teachers in the Digital Age. Though it may sound generic now, this theme was significant to us then as so many teachers were just starting to rely on our platform for our digital tools rather than just our PDFs. We (then ESL Library) were transitioning into an EdTech company. It was the perfect time to try hosting our own conference to help&nbsp;foster&nbsp;connections in our ELT community.

<blockquote>
&quot;Omg, it was better than Cats. Thanks!&quot;

&mdash;2021 conference attendee
</blockquote>

<img alt="Empowering Teachers in the Digital Age ESVC" src="https://esllibrary.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/ckeditor/pictures/3344/content_Screen_Shot_2023-08-22_at_12.35.21_PM.png" />

In 2022 (now Ellii), our post-pandemic conference theme was Simplicity in #ELT. Teachers worldwide were struggling with burnout, and we wanted to do our part to help everyone (including our own team) take a breather and reflect on the basic essentials of language learning and teaching. Our staff and attendees embraced this theme, and the conference was a great success. <a href="https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLP0N5nuiA3aMqdcebjNOfZUGdOEGRmrms" rel="noopener" target="_blank">ElliiCon2022</a> was just what we all needed to kick off last year&#39;s school year. It also helped inspire some of the simple features we created this year.

<blockquote>
&quot;ElliiCon was one of the best PDs I&#39;ve attended in a while. It was helpful and FUN, and I&#39;m already using things I learned from the conference in my classroom. Great job, guys.&quot;

&mdash;ElliiCon2022 attendee
</blockquote>

When our team gathered to choose a theme for ElliiCon2023&nbsp;back in January,&nbsp;ChatGPT was the only thing teachers were talking about. Our content creators, engineers, and designers began soaking up everything we could about this fast-moving technology. Like you, we began thinking about the future of language learning in a whole new way.

What did generative AI mean for the #ELT industry and what did it mean for our teachers, their students, and our own team? 

Incorporating AI into our 2023 conference theme was a no-brainer, but we also wanted to keep Ellii&#39;s mission (improving communication around the world) in plain view. We looked at countless reviews and reflected on what teachers loved about ElliiCon2022. Did we consult ChatGPT to help brainstorm a theme that could inspire a similar feel? Yes, we did. But in the end, it was Ellii humans for the win!&nbsp;

<h1 style="text-align: center;">Humanity &amp; Technology in ELT: Striking a Balance in the Age of AI</h1>

<blockquote>
&quot;There is such vibrancy in the air on Ellii! I feel people who work for your company thoroughly enjoy their work and passing knowledge to us! Way to go!!!&quot;

&mdash;ElliiCon2022 attendee
</blockquote>

Like our new name, this year&#39;s theme feels just right for ElliiCon2023. We hope you&#39;ll join us September 14&ndash;15 for this year&#39;s free two-day virtual conference to explore the intersection of technology and traditional teaching. Connect with attendees, speakers, and the makers of Ellii as we unpack what this new technology means for our classrooms and careers.&nbsp;

<img alt="ESL Library becomes Ellii" src="https://esllibrary.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/ckeditor/pictures/3346/content_Ben_Buckwold_day_1_final.jpg" />

At ElliiCon2023, you will&nbsp;participate in informal chats on first impressions of generative AI and watch expert sessions on tried and tested AI tools. You&#39;ll get ideas for using AI for storytelling, pair work, and gamified vocabulary review and explore everything from the dangers and limitations of AI to easy-to-use integrations. You&#39;ll also learn essential strategies for teaching meaningful conversations and life skills. Finally, Ellii staff will demo some of our new,&nbsp;simple tools and share how we&#39;re cautiously experimenting with AI behind the scenes.&nbsp;

<blockquote>
&quot;I loved getting to know the staff members, hearing their voices, and learning about their personalities.&quot;

&mdash;ElliiCon2022 attendee
</blockquote>

<img alt="Coffee Talk ElliiCon2022" src="https://esllibrary.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/ckeditor/pictures/3347/content_Screen_Shot_2023-08-22_at_12.12.54_PM.png" />

<a href="https://ellii.com/conference/2023" rel="noopener" target="_blank" title="ElliiCon2023 registration page">Register now</a> to reserve your spot and visit our <a href="https://ellii.com/blog" rel="noopener" target="_blank">blog</a> for spotlights on this year&#39;s speakers: <a href="https://ellii.com/blog/elliicon2023-speaker-spotlight-nik-peachey" target="_blank">Nik Peachey</a>, <a href="https://ellii.com/blog/elliicon2023-speaker-spotlight-angela-tribus-ramos">Angela Tribus Ramos</a>, <a href="https://ellii.com/blog/elliicon2023-speaker-spotlight-jamie-keddie" target="_blank">Jamie Keddie</a>, <a href="https://ellii.com/blog/elliicon2023-speaker-spotlight-russell-stannard" target="_blank">Russell Stannard</a>, <a href="https://ellii.com/blog/elliicon2023-speaker-spotlight-charles-browne" target="_blank">Dr. Charles Browne</a>, and <a href="https://ellii.com/blog/elliicon2023-speaker-spotlight-dr-amin-davoodi" target="_blank">Dr. Amin Davoodi</a>.

We look forward to seeing you there!

Tara, VP of Publishing at Ellii

Behind the Scenes: Choosing the Theme for ElliiCon2023

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These posts are written for learners of English themselves. Find learning tips and ideas for learning English.

For Students

Do you know the expression &quot;one in a million&quot;? It means someone or something is rare or special. Ali is one of these people.

We learned about Ali from her father, an English language teacher named Harry Waters. He shared this video of Ali on his LinkedIn page. One in a million, right?

<iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/opRvOjhliRc" title="YouTube video player" width="560"></iframe>

<a href="https://www.kidsagainstplastic.co.uk/1millionlitterpick" target="_blank">Ali has a huge goal</a>. She wants to pick up one million pieces of litter before her next birthday. She also wants to raise awareness about plastic consumption.

How can you help Ali? Here are two simple ways:

<h3>1. Learn about the dangers of plastic consumption</h3>

Watch Ali&#39;s video above and discuss it with your class. Then read about Ali&#39;s&nbsp;<a href="https://www.kidsagainstplastic.co.uk/1millionlitterpick">campaign</a>. Why would you describe Ali as one in a million? 
 
Ellii has a few lessons you can use to learn more about this environmental issue. You can ask your teacher to share one of these lessons with you.

<ul>
	<li><a href="https://app.ellii.com/lesson/1285-ocean-garbage">Ocean Garbage</a>&nbsp;</li>
	<li><a href="https://app.ellii.com/lesson/4031-un-plastics-treaty">UN Plastics Treaty</a></li>
	<li><a href="https://app.ellii.com/lesson/4380-trashion-show" target="_blank">Trashion Show</a></li>
	<li><a href="https://app.ellii.com/lesson/1212-garbage-solutions" target="_blank">Garbage Solutions</a></li>
</ul>

In our Famous Things section, we also have a lesson on <a href="https://app.ellii.com/lesson/1462-plastic">Plastic</a>. In this lesson, you can learn about the history of this material and find out when&nbsp;the plastic craze&nbsp;began. At the end of the lesson, you can share a personal response using the speaking task.

 
<a href="https://app.ellii.com/lesson/1462-plastic"><img alt="speaking task, plastic consumption" src="https://esllibrary.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/ckeditor/pictures/3252/content_content_Screen_Shot_2023-06-08_at_11.33.20_AM.png" /></a>

Ali also cares about the <a href="https://ellii.com/collections/global-issues/sustainable-development-goals">Sustainable Development Goals</a>. You can watch <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f4Wdt37YWyU&amp;list=PLuqJWaXJtKo_kd5lJk0yb2GRd1GKR3Faf" target="_blank">Ali&#39;s videos and tips </a>about these goals on&nbsp;YouTube.

<h3>2. Pick up litter (&amp; log it)</h3>

Ali needs your help to carefully dispose of litter (especially dangerous plastics) in your area. Your class can join this challenge together, or you can do your part individually.

<ol>
	<li><a href="https://www.kidsagainstplastic.co.uk/apphelp">Download the Litter Logging App</a></li>
	<li><a href="https://www.kidsagainstplastic.co.uk/alismap">Log your litter clean-up and get on Ali&#39;s&nbsp;Map</a></li>
</ol>

<h2>Glossary</h2>

<ul>
	<li>one in a million: a very special person or thing</li>
	<li>campaign: an organized plan to complete a goal</li>
	<li>consumption: the usage of a resource</li>
	<li>dispose: to throw out</li>
	<li>litter: garbage</li>
	<li>log: to record (write down) an action or item on a form</li>
</ul>

<blockquote>
Do you know someone who could be described as &quot;one in a million&quot;? Tell us about this special person in the comments!&nbsp;
</blockquote>

One in a Million: Plastic Litter Challenge

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We&#39;re back! This year&#39;s TESOL team included (from left)&nbsp;Lei (Director of Accounts), Michelle (Accounts Manager),&nbsp;Tara (VP of Publishing, me), Tanya (Head of Video Production), Ann (Editor), Lise (Video Content Creator &amp; Producer),&nbsp;and Ben (CEO &amp;&nbsp;Founder of Ellii).

<img alt="Team TESOL 2023 in Ellii shirts" src="https://esllibrary.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/ckeditor/pictures/3108/content_Team-TESOL-shirts-2023.jpg" />

In addition to the team above, we also had Ashley (Outreach Coordinator)&nbsp;working remotely with us all day, every day in &quot;Mission Control.&quot; From hotel and restaurant reservations&nbsp;to session rooms and booth maintenance, Ashley ensured that everything ran smoothly from beginning to end. (Ben describes Ellii&#39;s work ethic in this heartwarming,&nbsp;pre-conference post: <a href="https://ellii.com/blog/all-hands-on-deck-all-the-time">All Hands on Deck, All the Time</a>.)

If <a href="https://ellii.com/blog/takeaways-from-tesol-2022-7-points-to-unpack" target="_blank">last year&#39;s TESOL convention</a> was about sharing and caring about feelings&nbsp;in the midst of a&nbsp;pandemic (with a focus on the pros and cons of <a href="https://ellii.com/collections/academic-subjects/social-emotional-learning" target="_blank">SEL</a>), this year&nbsp;was more about putting out the feelers to see how&nbsp;the #ELT industry is responding in a time where education and technology seem to be changing at lightning speed.

Here are some of the questions we headed into TESOL with (and some buzzwords we heard this year):

1. What are English language teachers worrying about in 2023?

<ul>
	<li><a href="https://app.ellii.com/lesson/2465-how-to-paraphrase" target="_blank">plagiarism</a></li>
	<li>equity</li>
	<li>community</li>
	<li>testing</li>
</ul>

2. What are some <a href="https://ellii.com/blog/6-english-language-teaching-trends-in-2023" target="_blank">important trends and targets in ELT</a>?

<ul>
	<li>ChatGPT</li>
	<li>digital &amp; media literacy</li>
	<li>critical thinking</li>
	<li>differentiation</li>
	<li>gamification</li>
	<li>translanguaging</li>
	<li>collaborative teaching</li>
	<li>virtual excursions</li>
</ul>

3. Where is the ELT industry&nbsp;heading next?

<ul>
	<li><a href="https://app.ellii.com/lesson/4468-ai-generated-content">AI-generated content</a>&nbsp;</li>
	<li>prompt engineering&nbsp;</li>
	<li>student-focused apps</li>
	<li>paid subscriptions&nbsp;(with reduced freemium features)</li>
</ul>

If you take a look at the #TESOL2023 chatter on <a href="https://twitter.com/ElliiLearning" target="_blank">Twitter</a>&nbsp;or <a href="https://www.instagram.com/esllibrary/">Instagram</a>,&nbsp;you&#39;ll notice one thing that is differed from last year. Everyone was thrilled&nbsp;to be face-to-face in community, sharing moments, ideas, and even food together. &nbsp;

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
It&#39;s all about the people. From teachers from my <a href="https://twitter.com/ELPrograms?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@elprograms</a> fellowship in Armenia and Ukraine to <a href="https://twitter.com/thinkaloud_pod?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@thinkaloud_pod</a> guests to grad school mates to old friends at ETS and many more, <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/TESOL2023?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#TESOL2023</a> has reconnected me with so many beautiful and talented humans. My heart is full. 💙💜 <a href="https://t.co/FV4WUu4Pfm">pic.twitter.com/FV4WUu4Pfm</a>
&mdash; Anna Ciriani-Dean ESL (she/her) (@acd_esl) <a href="https://twitter.com/acd_esl/status/1639677032710942721?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 25, 2023</a></blockquote>

<h2>Session Topics</h2>

With so many sessions to pick from, Ellii&#39;s Publishing team&nbsp;typically heads to TESOL with a clear mission on which types of sessions we want to focus on. This year, we walked in with&nbsp;more of an open mind. Rather than choosing specific topics to research, our goal was to get a feel for&nbsp;what&#39;s important to English language teachers today&nbsp;and where the industry is heading.

While Lei, Michelle, and Lise&nbsp;held demos and chats with&nbsp;teachers at the Ellii booth and Ben focused on giving&nbsp;<a href="https://ellii.com/blog/where-to-find-ellii-at-tesol-2023">Ellii presentations</a>, Tanya, Ann, and I&nbsp;attended dozens of sessions and gained inspiration and insight on the following topics:&nbsp;

<ul>
	<li>Plagiarism&nbsp;</li>
	<li>Differentiation</li>
	<li>Critical Thinking</li>
	<li>Storytelling</li>
	<li>Vocabulary Strategies</li>
	<li>Using Controversial Topics</li>
	<li>Academic Reading Strategies</li>
	<li>The New Academic Word List</li>
	<li>ChatGPT and AI Tutors</li>
	<li>Diversity</li>
	<li>Gamification</li>
	<li><a href="https://ellii.com/blog/tesol-2023-takeaways-on-teaching-pronunciation">Teaching Pronunciation</a></li>
	<li><a href="https://ellii.com/blog/tesol-2023-in-portland-top-takeaway">Correcting Listening &amp; Speaking Mistakes</a></li>
	<li>Assessment</li>
</ul>

<img alt="Supporting ELs in Content-Specific Classrooms" src="https://esllibrary.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/ckeditor/pictures/3115/content_supporting-ELs-content-specific.png" />

TESOL 2023 Presentation by Sarah Levitt: Strategies for Supporting ELs in Content-Specific Classrooms

Watch for upcoming session highlights as well as content updates and additions born out of our research and reflection at TESOL 2023!&nbsp;

<h2>At the Ellii Booth</h2>

For many years, showing off ESL Library at TESOL was pretty simple. Teachers asked to see the PDF content, and we showed everything we had. Many loved our offerings and subscription-based service and signed up on the spot.

Last year in <a href="https://ellii.com/blog/takeaways-from-tesol-2022-7-points-to-unpack">Pittsburgh</a>&nbsp;(our first year as <a href="https://ellii.com/blog/introducing-our-new-name-ellii">Ellii</a>), we focused more on sharing our new features. Teachers (especially those still teaching fully online) were very excited about tools like our <a href="https://ellii.com/blog/how-to-use-microsoft-immersive-reader-on-ellii">Immersive Reader</a> integration and digital&nbsp;<a href="https://help.ellii.com/article/241-speaking">Speaking task</a>. However, it became clear to us in recent months that while our tools and digital features are&nbsp;nice to have (or even a must-have), most teachers are still&nbsp;more interested in the content itself.&nbsp;

<img alt="Video team at TESOL 2023" src="https://esllibrary.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/ckeditor/pictures/3113/content_team-vid-ellii.JPG" /> 
 
From Ellii&#39;s booth backdrop to our brochures and demos, we let our content drive our conversations&nbsp;at TESOL this year. Though we were&nbsp;thrilled to show off our new <a href="https://ellii.com/blog/introducing-elliis-lesson-planner" target="_blank">Lesson Planner</a> and <a href="https://ellii.com/blog/introducing-grade-feed" target="_blank">Grade Feed</a>&nbsp;(released just in time for TESOL), we recognized that what English language teachers really want and need from Ellii is ready-made, high-quality, relevant content for every age, level, and need.&nbsp;

Guess what else teachers wanted&nbsp;at our TESOL booth this year?&nbsp;T-shirts! Chocolate! Coffee! Stickers! (And photos&nbsp;with the team!)&nbsp;

<img alt="I love Ellii T-shirts" src="https://esllibrary.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/ckeditor/pictures/3112/content_i-love-ellii-t-shirts.JPG" />

<h2>The City of Portland&nbsp;</h2>

It had been nine years since Ellii (formerly ESL Library) had been to Portland. We had fond memories of Portland being colorful, liberal, and welcoming, and we were not disappointed.&nbsp; 
 
Here are some local businesses and products we enjoyed:

<ul>
	<li><a href="https://q-portland.com/" target="_blank">Q Restaurant &amp; Bar</a> (our top pick, highly recommended by AC Hotel)</li>
	<li>Luc Lac Vietnamese Kitchen (huge portions)</li>
	<li>Mother&#39;s Bistro &amp; Bar (great service)</li>
	<li>Portland Mama Mia Trattoria (good appys)</li>
	<li>Portland City Grill (amazing view from 30th floor)</li>
	<li>Urban Farmer (cozy brunch spot where&nbsp;basketball players were signing autographs)</li>
	<li>40 LBS (trendy coffee shop)</li>
	<li>Voodoo Doughnut (tourist trap we had to check out and enjoy)</li>
	<li><a href="https://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/B09XZ33FTW/ref=ox_sc_act_title_1?smid=A3DWYIK6Y9EEQB&amp;psc=1" target="_blank">&quot;I&quot;-Lignment</a> (a self-help book written by our Uber driver&mdash;ordered)</li>
	<li>Punchbowl Social (where we bowled with some locals)</li>
	<li>Powell&#39;s City of Books (where I found some local <a href="https://ellii.com/blog/4-delicious-reasons-to-learn-english-with-poetry" target="_blank">poetry</a>)</li>
	<li>Majita Wine Co. (featured at the women-owned Woodlark Artisan&nbsp;Market)</li>
	<li>Portland Farmers Market (every Saturday, across from Portland State University)&nbsp;</li>
	<li>Steel Bridge and waterfront (where we enjoyed&nbsp;the <a href="https://app.ellii.com/lesson/4064-cherry-blossom-festivals">cherry blossoms</a>)&nbsp;</li>
</ul>

<img alt="Voodoo Doughnut Portland" src="https://esllibrary.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/ckeditor/pictures/3110/content_Voodoo.jpg" />

Having shared these positive Portland experiences and eateries, it cannot go unsaid that Portland is different now than it was when we visisted for&nbsp;<a href="https://ellii.com/blog/tesol-portland" target="_blank">TESOL 14</a>.&nbsp;There is a major homelessness problem in this city, and we understood&nbsp;the need to take a bit more care getting around than we enjoyed almost a decade ago.&nbsp;During our week in Portland, we had several interesting conversations with drivers and hospitality staff&nbsp;in order to stay both safe and informed. 
 
During one of our seven&nbsp;presentations, Ben shared our Discussion Starters lesson on <a href="https://app.ellii.com/lesson/2820-homelessness" target="_blank">Homelessness</a>, which we think is a relevant conversation to be having with language&nbsp;learners all around the world, including the Canadian cities many of us work from (Vancouver, Winnipeg, Toronto, and Windsor, where I&#39;m blogging from today).&nbsp;

<img alt="Using Controversial Topics in the Classroom TESOL 2023" src="https://esllibrary.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/ckeditor/pictures/3116/content_IMG_7227.jpg" />

US State Department TESOL 2023 session on using controversial topics in class.

<h2>Thank You, TESOL &amp; Team</h2>

As Ben mentioned in his opening remarks at TESOL, it is a great feeling to be able to give back to the ELT community by sponsoring this important event each year.

<img alt="Ben Buckwold, CEO of Ellii (TESOL 2023 diamond sponsor) giving opening remarks before keynote " src="https://esllibrary.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/ckeditor/pictures/3117/content_IMG_7202.jpg" />

Ben Buckwold, CEO of Ellii, giving opening remarks before TESOL 2023 keynote on March 22. Ellii was a Diamond sponsor at TESOL this year.

Working remotely has its perks, but heading home after spending a week together laughing&nbsp;and making memories is always bittersweet. A big thank you to Ben for bringing us along for this year&#39;s TESOL adventure. We love Ellii!

<img alt="Ellii team in welcome sign when TESOL 2023 was over" src="https://esllibrary.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/ckeditor/pictures/3109/content_welcome-TESOL-2023.jpg" />

Ellii&#39;s 2023 TESOL team finally got a chance to pose in the Welcome sign after we took down our booth and got ready to say our final goodbyes.

Hope to see some of you next year for TESOL 2024 in Tampa!

~ Tara

<h2>Related Posts</h2>

<ul class="resources">
	<li class="blog-post"><a href="https://ellii.com/blog/all-hands-on-deck-all-the-time" target="_blank">All Hands on Deck, All the Time</a></li>
	<li class="blog-post"><a href="https://ellii.com/blog/tesol-2023-in-portland-top-takeaway" target="_blank">Takeaways from TESOL 2023: The Error-Friendly Classroom</a></li>
	<li class="blog-post"><a href="https://ellii.com/blog/tesol-2023-takeaways-on-teaching-pronunciation" target="_blank">TESOL 2023 Takeaways on Pronunciation</a></li>
	<li class="blog-post"><a href="https://ellii.com/blog/how-to-get-the-most-out-of-an-elt-conference" target="_blank">How to Get the Most Out of an ELT Conference</a></li>
</ul>

<iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/7ZBufKMlhJg" title="YouTube video player" width="560"></iframe>

TESOL 2023 in Portland: Feeling the #ELT Pulse

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This post is in our For Students category and was written for English learners. If you are an English teacher, you can share a link and invite students to take Ellii&#39;s Grammar Day challenge.

<div class="ckeditor-html5-audio" style="text-align: center;">
<audio controls="controls" controlslist="nodownload" src="https://esllibrary.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/ckeditor/attachments/3077/grammar-day-2023-T.mp3">&nbsp;</audio>
</div>

National Grammar Day is on March 4 (pronounced March fourth). Ellii&#39;s (formerly ESL Library&#39;s) writers and editors have been celebrating National&nbsp;Grammar Day for several years!&nbsp;

On Grammar Day, we&nbsp;honor English learners like you who work hard to improve your communication skills, one grammar target at a time!&nbsp;Understanding the rules of grammar will help you speak and write more clearly and effectively.

<blockquote>
&ldquo;Language is something to be celebrated, and March 4 is the perfect day to do it. It&rsquo;s not only a date, it&rsquo;s an imperative: March forth on March 4 to speak well, write well, and help others do the same!&rdquo;

&mdash;National Grammar Day website
</blockquote>

<h2>6 Common English Errors</h2>

<div class="ckeditor-html5-audio" style="text-align: center;">
<audio controls="controls" controlslist="nodownload" src="https://esllibrary.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/ckeditor/attachments/3076/grammar-day-2023-2.mp3">&nbsp;</audio>
</div>

March 4* was chosen for National Grammar Day because the words &quot;forth&quot; (forward) and &quot;fourth&quot; (the number four in a series) are often confused.

March forth on the fourth (4th) of March.

*When using ordinal numbers (e.g., 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th) as part of a&nbsp;date in a&nbsp;sentence, most grammar gurus&nbsp;recommend leaving the short forms out and just writing the number after the calendar month. For example: March 4, National Grammar Day, is on&nbsp;Saturday.&nbsp;

To celebrate National Grammar Day this year, we&#39;ve collected six more sets of words&nbsp;that are often confused (even&nbsp;writers and speakers whose first language is English confuse&nbsp;these). Do you know the difference between the words in this list? Click on the links for Tanya&#39;s&nbsp;tips on getting these right.

<ul class="resources">
	<li class="correct"><a href="https://ellii.com/blog/so-vs-too">So Vs. Too</a></li>
	<li class="correct"><a href="https://ellii.com/blog/look-like-vs-like">Look Like Vs. Like</a></li>
	<li class="correct"><a href="https://ellii.com/blog/affect-vs-effect">Affect Vs. Effect</a></li>
	<li class="correct"><a href="https://ellii.com/blog/make-vs-do">Make Vs. Do</a></li>
	<li class="correct"><a href="https://ellii.com/blog/aw-vs-awe">Aw Vs. Awe</a></li>
	<li class="correct"><a href="https://ellii.com/blog/teaching-tips-on-its-and-its">Its Vs. It&#39;s</a></li>
</ul>

Speaking of grammar...Did you know that <a href="https://www.youtube.com/@ellii">Ellii&#39;s YouTube</a> channel has free grammar videos for English learners to review the most common grammar targets? Here is just one example of a video from this playlist.&nbsp;

<iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/-s1gu725tA4" title="YouTube video player" width="560"></iframe>

<blockquote>
Grammar Day Challenge: Choose one of the word pairs above and write an example sentence that contains both words. Or, if you really want a challenge, write a paragraph or dialogue using all 12 words! As a bonus, try using &quot;forth&quot; and &quot;fourth&quot; too.
</blockquote>

6 Common English Errors to Review for National Grammar Day

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Do you like poetry? Personally, I have never had much interest in it. But as a writer and lover of words, I knew that one day I would need to give poetry a chance. And that day has arrived!

Every year, instead of making a New Year&#39;s resolution, I choose one word to focus on for the entire year.&nbsp;I encourage friends and family (and Ellii staff) to choose a <a href="https://ellii.com/blog/word-of-the-year-2022">Word of the Year</a> too. This year, my Word of the Year is poetry.&nbsp;

<img alt="word of the year 2023 on Tara's office wall" src="https://esllibrary.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/ckeditor/pictures/2996/content_Tara-Benwell-poetry-words-2023_Ellii.jpg" />

Tara&#39;s Word of the Year wall for 2023, featuring her word (poetry) as well as words chosen by&nbsp;those who accepted her challenge. In case you&#39;re wondering if the word <a href="https://theconversation.com/five-life-affirming-words-we-should-bring-back-into-use-174848" target="_blank">respair</a>&nbsp;is a mistake, it&#39;s not!&nbsp;

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Though we&#39;re&nbsp;only a few weeks into 2023,&nbsp;I&rsquo;m embracing poetry like I never thought I would!&nbsp; 
&nbsp;

<blockquote>
Did you know? The word poetry&nbsp;comes from the Greek word poiein,&nbsp;meaning &quot;to make.&quot;
</blockquote>

<h2>4 delicious reasons poetry is good for language learning</h2>

As the head of the Publishing team here at Ellii, one thing I&#39;ve been thinking about a lot&nbsp;is how poetry could&nbsp;be used for language learning. 
 
As a teacher, it would be&nbsp;easy for me to try to convince you that when you study poetry, you use the four&nbsp;macro skills (Reading, Writing, Listening, and Speaking) as well as the three&nbsp;micro skills (Vocabulary, Grammar, and Pronunciation), but that&rsquo;s not very poetic! Instead, let&#39;s think about the deliciousness of a poem.

<h3>1. Poetry is digestible</h3>

Unlike an article, a short story, or a novel, most poems can be read in a minute or two. You can enjoy the surface level of a poem or you can choose to go deeper and study it more fully.&nbsp;Think of a poem as just a moment in time. After you read or listen to a poem (and I hope you do both), try to have just one takeaway.

<blockquote>
Challenge: How did the poem make you feel?
</blockquote>

<h3>2. Poetry is full of delectable words</h3>

Poets are word lovers! They find the best words to describe exactly how they are thinking or feeling in a moment. When you start studying poetry, you&rsquo;ll recognize many words, but you&rsquo;ll also find delicious words you don&rsquo;t know.

<blockquote>
Challenge: Try to learn at least one new word from every poem you read. Make a list. (I do this myself!)
</blockquote>

<h3>3. Poetry comes in every flavor</h3>

You might think you don&rsquo;t like poetry because you associate poems with love. But there&rsquo;s so much more to poetry than sappy sonnets! There are poems about growing up, being in nature, leaving home, and getting a new job. Poems come in all shapes and sizes and can be about anything&nbsp;and everything (including AI).

<img alt="Chat GPT Limerick" src="https://esllibrary.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/ckeditor/pictures/2997/content_Blog-ChatGPTLimerick.jpg" />

Screenshot from <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/chatgpt-bot-passes-law-school-exam/" target="_blank">CBC video ChatGPT Bot Passes Law Exam</a>

<blockquote>
Challenge: Search the internet for &ldquo;a poem about&nbsp;(word of your choice).&quot; You could also search for&nbsp;lyrics, which can be a form of poetry.&nbsp;
</blockquote>

<h3>4. Poetry can make you hungry for more</h3>

When you&rsquo;re learning a new language (or anything new), it is easy to get sidetracked (in other words, you&nbsp;fall off the wagon). At times, language&nbsp;learning feels&nbsp;like just another thing on your to-do list. But what if you felt a hunger for learning English? If you give it a chance, poetry can actually entice you to keep learning.&nbsp;Instead of feeling like a chore, you&#39;ll start to&nbsp;crave a new poem!

<blockquote>
Challenge: Try reading a poem a day for a week. I hope you&nbsp;find 365 poems you love this year! (That&#39;s my goal.)
</blockquote>

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<h2>4 things to do with a poem</h2>

If you aren&#39;t sure what to do with a poem, here are four things to try:

<ol>
	<li>Listen to the poem. (This is my favorite part of studying poetry so far.)</li>
	<li>Read the poem silently to your self. (Circle words you don&rsquo;t know and add at least one to your notebook.)</li>
	<li>Write a few lines in a notebook. (How was the poet feeling in this moment? How does the poem make me feel?)</li>
	<li>Recite the poem. (Look up words you don&rsquo;t know how to pronounce.)</li>
</ol>

Did you notice&nbsp;all the skills you used?

<h2>4 places to find poetry</h2>

Here are some places I&#39;ve been going to find poetry.&nbsp;

<ol>
	<li><a href="https://onbeing.org/series/poetry-unbound/">Poetry Unbound</a> (a delicious podcast hosted by Irish poet P&aacute;draig &Oacute; Tuama)</li>
	<li><a href="https://poets.org/">Poets.org</a></li>
	<li><a href="https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/poem-of-the-day">Poetry Foundation&#39;s Poem of the Day</a></li>
	<li>The Poetry section of my local library and&nbsp;bookstore</li>
</ol>

Please share a tip if you have some suggestions of your own!

<h3>Glossary</h3>

<ul>
	<li>macro: large, main</li>
	<li>micro: small, minor</li>
	<li>digestable: easy to consume</li>
	<li>surface level: just the basics</li>
	<li>takeaway: an important thing or detail&nbsp;that you liked or learned</li>
	<li>delectable: delicious, attractive</li>
	<li>sappy: overly emotional&nbsp;</li>
	<li>lyrics: words in songs</li>
	<li>crave: to feel like you really want to eat (or have)</li>
	<li>recite: to&nbsp;say out loud, especially from memory</li>
</ul>

<blockquote>
Will you give poetry a chance? Share your thoughts in the comments.
</blockquote>

<h2>Related tips for English learners</h2>

<ul class="resources">
	<li class="blog-post"><a href="https://ellii.com/blog/4-goals-to-help-you-focus" target="_blank">Struggling to Focus? 4 Types of Goals to Get Your Language Learning Back on Track</a></li>
	<li class="blog-post"><a href="https://ellii.com/blog/improve-your-listening-with-true-stories" target="_blank">Improve Your Listening Skills with True Stories</a></li>
</ul>

<div class="whiteBox">
<img src="https://esllibrary.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/ckeditor/pictures/2907/content_lightbulb.png" />

<h2>Looking for more language learning fun?</h2>

Subscribe to <a href="https://www.youtube.com/@Ellii">Ellii&#39;s YouTube channel</a>&nbsp;and enjoy free video content, including grammar videos and more!
</div>

4 Delicious Reasons to Learn English with Poetry

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We were thrilled to sponsor, attend, and present at&nbsp;TESL Ontario&#39;s 50th annual conference this fall! Like every year, there were a ton of takeaways at this landmark event.

Here&nbsp;are 10 tips Ellii&#39;s Publishing team&nbsp;collected and wanted to share with our ELT community.&nbsp;

<h2>1. Set multi-year goals&nbsp;</h2>

In his keynote, Make the Impossible Possible: Lessons from an Improbable Olympic Journey,&nbsp;Canadian rower Jeremiah Brown captivated the audience with his story-telling.

He also&nbsp;shared&nbsp;practical&nbsp;tips about <a href="https://ellii.com/resources/assessment-tools/2127-my-language-goals" target="_blank">goal-setting</a> that can be modeled or passed on to students.

Jeremiah recommended&nbsp;elongating our goals. Ask the question:&nbsp;Where do you want to be in 4 years? The Olympian recommended setting a multi-year overarching goal first&nbsp;and then breaking it down into <a href="https://ellii.com/resources/assessment-tools/2224-goal-setting-can-do" target="_blank">milestones</a>.

Jeremiah believes&nbsp;that daily execution is needed to see real progress, even if you can&#39;t see results&nbsp;for a few months. He also reminded goal-setters to always be flexible and to continue making adjustments.&nbsp;

<img alt="4-year Olympic rower Jeremiah Brown at TESL Ontario 2022." src="https://esllibrary.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/ckeditor/pictures/2821/content_Jeremiah-Brown.jpg" />

Canadian rower and Olympic silver medalist&nbsp;Jeremiah Brown at TESL Ontario&nbsp;2022.

<h2>2. Identify the use case or purpose when&nbsp;validating an assessment&nbsp;</h2>

Throughout the conference, we learned lots of great tips about <a href="https://ellii.com/resources/assessment-tools" target="_blank">assessments</a> that we can apply at Ellii.

We thought this practical assessment tip (heard in a session titled: A Classroom-Based Validation Study of an English Listening Test) was worth repeating for teachers who create and administer assessments. As Jeanne Sinclair pointed out, teachers&nbsp;should always be able to answer whether an assessment is meant for admission, placement, achievement, or certification.

<img alt="Purpose of language assessments" src="https://esllibrary.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/ckeditor/pictures/2822/content_Purpose-of-language-assessments.jpg" />

Language assessments presentation slide from Jeanne Sinclair and Karam Noel&#39;s TESL Ontario 2022 session: A Classroom-Based Validation Study of an English Listening Test.

<h2>3. Pause for twice as long as it takes to say a word&nbsp;in a Listen &amp; Repeat task&nbsp;</h2>

This&nbsp;simple but helpful tip, heard at a MOSAIC session titled, Instructional Design to Engage the Literacy Learner,&nbsp;is useful for publishers&nbsp;like Ellii&nbsp;as well as teachers who regularly model the <a href="https://ellii.com/lessons/pronunciation" target="_blank">pronunciation</a> of sounds, words, and expressions and ask students to listen and repeat.&nbsp;

<h2>4. Practice&nbsp;answering the 5 Wh-&nbsp;questions when listening to dialogues&nbsp;</h2>

At an excellent session about CELPIP, Canada&#39;s general English test for <a href="https://ellii.com/lessons/living-in-english/2268-canadian-citizenship" target="_blank">citizenship</a>, Brandi Robb encouraged teachers to get their students used to answering the 5 Wh-questions&nbsp;about any conversation they hear. They&nbsp;should also <a href="https://ellii.com/lessons/everyday-dialogues" target="_blank">practice listening to dialogues</a> with two or three people to better prepare for listening&nbsp;tests like CELPIP.

Beyond the test, this will&nbsp;help learners&nbsp;comprehend and engage&nbsp;in&nbsp;real-world encounters.

<img alt="asking questions about speakers in a dialogue" src="https://esllibrary.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/ckeditor/pictures/2880/content_Screen_Shot_2022-11-18_at_2.48.04_PM.png" />

Brandi Robb describes how to prepare students for the listening portion of a CELPIP exam.

<h2>5. Create needs assessments that specify real-life situations&nbsp;</h2>

This important reminder was repeated at a few different sessions. Instead of focusing on just the theme of health or even going to the doctor, a needs assessment worksheet should specify the real-world tasks (describing an illness or injury) that students come across in real-life situations.&nbsp;

At their <a href="https://issbc.org/" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">ISSofBC</a>&nbsp;session,&nbsp;Sandra Carignan and Claire Pinkett gave attendees a chance&nbsp;to workshop improvements to a needs assessment resource.

<img alt="Needs Assessment presentation slide from TESL Ontario" src="https://esllibrary.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/ckeditor/pictures/2823/content_Needs-Assessment.jpg" />

ISSofBC&#39;s Needs Assessment Workshop at TESL Ontario&nbsp;2022.

<h2>6. Include students when testing the validity of learning content</h2>

At <a href="https://mosaicbc.org/" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">MOSAIC BC</a>&#39;s session on Core Principles for Coherent Online Curriculum,&nbsp;Dr. Noureddine Elouazizi, who conducted an evaluation of MOSAIC&#39;s curriculum, pointed out the importance of doing student surveys and not just relying on teachers, administrators, or&nbsp;AI&nbsp;to validate a program&#39;s coherence.

<h2>7. Utilize multi-modal tasks&nbsp;for deeper learning</h2>

Later in MOSAIC BC&#39;s session, Matthew Levan and Astrid van der Pol suggested that one simple way to&nbsp;improve a curriculum is to <a href="http://ellii.com/media/videos" target="_blank">bring in more video content</a>. This was just one of their tips about making system-wide improvements.

They&nbsp;highlighted the fact&nbsp;that LINC teachers trained in Portfolio-Based Language Assessment (PBLA) are used to systems and system-thinking&mdash;checking in and reflecting on what works and doesn&#39;t work. They also recommended this <a href="https://www.ted.com/talks/manu_kapur_productive_failure" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">TED Talk on Productive Failure</a>.

<img alt="Multi-modal learning MOSAIC slide at TESL Ontario 2022" src="https://esllibrary.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/ckeditor/pictures/2824/content_Multi-Modal-Learning.jpg" />

Multi-Modal Learning presentation slide from MOSAIC BC at TESL Ontario&nbsp;2022.

<h2>8. Select&nbsp;one linguistical error at a time when giving interactional (person-to-person)&nbsp;feedback</h2>

At the Research Symposium: 50 Years of Reflexivity in TESL,&nbsp;Hossein Nassaji, Nina Spada, and Ron Thomson shared important research about feedback, including being selective about when and what you correct.&nbsp;On this note, the Ellii team also received lots of requests for an audio feedback tool!

<h2>9. Reduce student anxiety with clarity about the&nbsp;format of a test or task&nbsp;</h2>

As emphasized in Ken Beatty&#39;s session&nbsp;My Robot Teacher? Digital Futures for Language Learning, students perform better when there is&nbsp;clarity on how to do tasks, what the expectations are, and how much tasks are worth.

Students often admit&nbsp;to being more anxious about the format and expectations of an assessment than about the content itself.

<h2>10. Don&#39;t be tempted to show or tell everything you know</h2>

This advice, which we noted while&nbsp;attending Lisa Hererra&#39;s session on digital learning, is useful for&nbsp;teachers, students, and even bloggers!

We took pages of notes and learned&nbsp;so much at the TESL Ontario Conference. That said,&nbsp;we&#39;ve found that&nbsp;working with a small list of actionables based on some of our top takeaways is the best way to get the most out of our professional development.&nbsp;

As Jeremiah reminded us in his keynote,&nbsp;resilience&nbsp;can be defined as &quot;taking the smallest step forward when things feel hard.&quot;

<img alt="ISSofBC TESL Ontario 2022 session." src="https://esllibrary.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/ckeditor/pictures/2825/content_Strategies-for-ensuring-successful-digital-skill-learning.jpg" />

Lisa Herrera&#39;s&nbsp;TESL Ontario 2022 session: How to Teach Digital Skills to Newcomers.

<div class="white-box">
<h5>Did you attend TESL Ontario 2022?</h5>

Please leave us a comment and share&nbsp;the best tip you learned at the conference. What&#39;s one actionable step you plan&nbsp;on taking to improve your teaching or program?&nbsp;
</div>

10 Tips from TESL Ontario's 50th English Language Teaching Conference

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Learn how to make the most of your Ellii subscription with tips from our publishing team.

Teaching with Ellii

There&#39;s more to communicating than using words...

Writers and speakers often communicate by leaving some things&nbsp;left&nbsp;unsaid. Readers learn a lot by&nbsp;reading between the lines. Similarly, when listening&nbsp;we make inferences by analyzing&nbsp;the tone and emotion in a person&#39;s voice.&nbsp;

And then&nbsp;there&#39;s body language.

Body language can mean different things in different situations. Though some gestures are more or less&nbsp;universal (e.g., a smile or frown meaning happy and sad), some gestures&nbsp;also have cultural or even generational differences. A multicultural English language class is an ideal place for&nbsp;sharing what gestures and body language mean&nbsp;in different cultures and regions around the&nbsp;world.

Discuss these and other examples with the students in your class. Then try some of the suggested activities with the&nbsp;<a href="https://ellii.com/media/videos/silent-clips/body-language" target="_blank">Silent Clips</a>&nbsp;from Ellii&#39;s <a href="https://ellii.com/media/videos" target="_blank">Media&nbsp;Gallery</a>.

<h2>Common body language examples and their meaning</h2>

<h3>Facial expressions</h3>

<ul>
	<li>eyes suddenly closed tight&nbsp;= I don&#39;t want to see that</li>
	<li>eyes and mouth wide open = I&#39;m so surprised</li>
	<li>rolling eyes = I&#39;m annoyed by you</li>
	<li>teeth&nbsp;clenched and head shaking quickly = Brr, it&#39;s cold</li>
	<li>looking away and shaking one&#39;s&nbsp;head = I don&#39;t want to know any more</li>
	<li>wrinkled brow = I&#39;m confused</li>
</ul>

<h3>Hand gestures</h3>

<ul>
	<li>thumbs up = Sounds good / Yes</li>
	<li>fist bump = Nice to see you /&nbsp;We did it</li>
	<li>high-five = Congratulations</li>
	<li>palm held out&nbsp;= Nice to meet you</li>
	<li>palm cupped&nbsp;= Please give me some money</li>
	<li>fingers crossed =&nbsp; Wish me luck</li>
</ul>

<h3>Other body language</h3>

<ul>
	<li>shoulder shrug = I don&#39;t know</li>
	<li>arms crossed = I&#39;m not pleased</li>
	<li>foot tapping = I need to move / Hurry up</li>
	<li>hand to forehead (facepalm) = Oops, I messed up</li>
</ul>

<h2>5 body language activities to try with your students</h2>

The video clips in Ellii&#39;s&nbsp;<a href="https://ellii.com/media/videos/silent-clips/body-language" target="_blank">Body Language</a> category are silent. Each video includes a word and an expression (e.g.,&nbsp;<a href="https://ellii.com/video/interested" target="_blank">interested / Not bad</a>). Here are five&nbsp;ways to use this category:&nbsp;

<h3>1. Review the vocabulary and expressions</h3>

Teach the vocabulary from&nbsp;the video title and ask students to make a sentence describing what they see.

<blockquote>
<iframe allow="autoplay; fullscreen" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="360" src="https://player.vimeo.com/video/746872096" width="640"></iframe>

Video not playing? Your school might be blocking Vimeo, our video hosting platform. Please ask your administrator to whitelist <a href="https://vimeo.com/" nofollow="" noreferrer="" rel="&quot;noopener" target="&quot;_blank&quot;">vimeo.com</a>.

&nbsp;

He is interested in someone on his dating app.
</blockquote>

Now ask students to pretend they are the person in the video. Repeat the expression from the video&#39;s subtitle&nbsp;(e.g., Not bad).

Work on&nbsp;the correct intonation and body language to express this emotion or&nbsp;meaning.

<h3>2. Practice making&nbsp;predictions and inferences</h3>

Have students guess what happened or what will happen next.

<a href="https://ellii.com/video/pleading" target="_blank">Who is she pleading to?</a>

<blockquote>
<iframe allow="autoplay; fullscreen" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="360" src="https://player.vimeo.com/video/746871736" width="640"></iframe>

Video not playing? Your school might be blocking Vimeo, our video hosting platform. Please ask your administrator to whitelist <a href="https://vimeo.com/" nofollow="" noreferrer="" rel="&quot;noopener" target="&quot;_blank&quot;">vimeo.com</a>.

She is begging her parents to use the car.
</blockquote>

Discuss some related&nbsp;questions:&nbsp;What happened? What might happen next? Has this ever happened to you? You can even vote on whose prediction is most&nbsp;probable.

Encourage your students to think of at least three open-ended&nbsp;questions that go with the video. They can then work with a partner to answer the&nbsp;questions.

<h3>3. Extend the language</h3>

Though body language can say a lot on its own, we often add language to our gestures. You&#39;ll notice that in some of the videos, the people mouth&nbsp;something that you can&#39;t hear. What do your students think is being said?&nbsp;

Is &quot;irritated&quot; the best word to describe <a href="https://ellii.com/video/irritated" target="_blank">this silent clip</a>?&nbsp;What do you think he&#39;s saying?

<blockquote>
<div class="videoWrapper"><iframe allow="autoplay; fullscreen" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="360" src="https://player.vimeo.com/video/746917722" width="640"></iframe></div>

Video not playing? Your school might be blocking Vimeo, our video hosting platform. Please ask your administrator to whitelist <a href="https://vimeo.com/" nofollow="" noreferrer="" rel="&quot;noopener" target="&quot;_blank&quot;">vimeo.com</a>.

You didn&#39;t pick up after your dog. I was watching out the window. How would you like it if I brought my dog to your front&nbsp;lawn?
</blockquote>

Can your students think of another word or a better expression that goes with&nbsp;this emotion or gesture? (E.g., He is really upset.)

<h3>4. Role-play</h3>

After watching some of the videos, invite&nbsp;students to go on camera or go to the front of the room and act out one of the gestures. (You may need two students in some cases.) The other students or you, the&nbsp;teacher,&nbsp;can shout out the word or expression. Your online students who never turn their cameras on may even want to participate.

<h4>Example</h4>

<table>
	<tbody>
		<tr>
			<td>Student&nbsp;A:</td>
			<td>[Walks up to the front of the room to act out some body language from the category. Crosses her fingers and holds them up near closed&nbsp;eyes.]</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Student&nbsp;B:</td>
			<td>[Shouts] <a href="https://ellii.com/video/thrilled" target="_blank">thrilled / We did this!</a></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Student&nbsp;A:</td>
			<td>[Shakes head no.]</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Student&nbsp;C:</td>
			<td>[Shouts] <a href="https://ellii.com/video/hopeful" target="_blank">hopeful /&nbsp;Please let this work out!</a></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Student&nbsp;A:</td>
			<td>Yes!</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Student&nbsp;C:</td>
			<td>[Chooses a new body gesture/expression to act out.]</td>
		</tr>
	</tbody>
</table>

<h3>5. Observe and suggest new additions</h3>

As you and your students start to&nbsp;think about body language, you will naturally begin to notice it more often.&nbsp;You&#39;ll see people&nbsp;slumping in their seats, staring out the window, and fidgeting.

Start a list of body language on chart paper or the board&nbsp;and add to it every time you notice a new example.

Get your students to think of one word to describe the emotion or meaning&nbsp;and give them one expression that goes with it.&nbsp;

For the expression, think of&nbsp;something a person would say out loud (e.g., [looking at the clock or a watch]&nbsp;Can we go now?) or something a person might only say in their head&nbsp;(e.g.,&nbsp;This is so boring!). This activity will encourage your students to start&nbsp;thinking in English. 
 
You can use the comments to share some ideas with Ellii for <a href="https://ellii.com/media/videos/silent-clips/body-language" target="_blank">other&nbsp;Silent&nbsp;Clips</a> (body language/gestures) to add to this video&nbsp;category.

<div class="white-box">
<h5>Now it&#39;s your turn!</h5>

Use the comments to share&nbsp;an example of a gesture that&#39;s not mentioned in this list. Describe the body language and provide a word and&nbsp;expression for it in English.&nbsp;Can you or your students think of any gestures that are unique to a certain&nbsp;culture, age group, or region?
</div>

Let's Teach about Body Language

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Our second annual virtual conference, held on September 15 and 16,&nbsp;was a huge success thanks to all of the organizers, speakers, and attendees.

After attending any <a href="https://ellii.com/blog/categories/conferences" target="_blank">conference</a>, I love to jot down my top takeaways so that I can look back and see how far we&#39;ve come.&nbsp;

The theme for this year&#39;s conference was Simplicity in ELT, so here is my simple summary of ElliiCon2022!

<h2>S is for speaking activities</h2>

We were thrilled to have <a href="https://ellii.com/blog/elliicon2022-shelly-terrell" target="_blank">Shelly Terrell</a>, a friend and former ESL Library blogger, join us at ElliiCon2022. Shelly has always shared the top digital tools with our community.

At ElliiCon, Shelly had&nbsp;<a href="https://www.shellyterrell.com/speaking.html" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">plenty of fun ideas</a> for getting students to speak up. I especially loved her idea of using avatar apps&nbsp;with shy students as well as this Show-n-Tell with a Cell activity.

<img alt="show and tell with a cell" src="https://esllibrary.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/ckeditor/pictures/2746/content_Show_and_tell_cell_.jpg" />

Shelly Terrell presents her &quot;Show-n-Tell with a Cell&quot; activity at ElliiCon2022.

<a href="https://ellii.com/blog/elliicon2022-karina-zew" target="_blank">Karina Zew</a> from <a href="https://bridge.edu/" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">Bridge</a>&nbsp;also shared a fun speaking task where students practice intonation and body language using the simple word &quot;hey.&quot;

<img alt="Drawing that demonstrates two people using different intonation and body language with the word hey." src="https://esllibrary.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/ckeditor/pictures/2747/content_Hey.jpg" />

Karina Zew shows teachers how students can practice intonation using the word &quot;hey.&quot;

<h2>I is for inspiring ideas for assessment</h2>

<a href="https://ellii.com/blog/elliicon2022-dr-ken-beatty" target="_blank">Dr. Ken Beatty</a> kept things simple by helping teachers rethink assessment. His ideas included having students create their own assessments and asking them to predict&nbsp;what would be on a test.&nbsp;

<img alt="Dr. Ken Beatty's assessment idea." src="https://esllibrary.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/ckeditor/pictures/2748/content_Student_Tests.jpg" />

Dr. Ken Beatty talks about agile assessment at ElliiCon2022.

<a href="https://ellii.com/blog/elliicon2022-keishia-thorpe" target="_blank">Keishia Thorpe</a> also talked about assessment and the importance of helping newcomer students feel safe and welcome in order to maximize their potential.&nbsp;

<img alt="Famous quote by Reyes et al 2012 on assessment." src="https://esllibrary.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/ckeditor/pictures/2749/content_Assessment.jpg" />

Keishia Thorpe talks about a famous quote by Reyes et al. on assessment during her session at ElliiCon2022.

<h2>M is for more than just bubble baths&nbsp;</h2>

<a href="https://ellii.com/blog/elliicon2022-dr-katie-welch" target="_blank">Dr. Katie Welch</a> returned to ElliiCon2022 to talk more about social-emotional health.&nbsp;Dr. Welch shared practical tips for teachers&nbsp;including setting boundaries, streamlining with templates, and celebrating why we do what we do.&nbsp;

She got a lot of love for her&nbsp;Circle of Influence tip, where teachers focus on what they can do (vote, mentor, advocate for change) rather than what is out of their control.

<img alt="Presenter showing her Why I Teach Binder on screen." src="https://esllibrary.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/ckeditor/pictures/2750/content_Why-I-teach-Binder.jpg" />

Dr. Katie Welch presents her Why I Teach binder as an example of how teachers can celebrate why they do what they do.

<h2>P is for prizes and prizewinners</h2>

There were fun prizes auctioned off after every ElliiCon session, including Ellii mugs, water bottles, hats, T-shirts, and most importantly, free subscriptions! All of the speakers also received the same swag that they were giving away, which was&nbsp;a fun way to model the prizes.&nbsp;

<h1><img alt="a list of the prize winners" src="https://esllibrary.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/ckeditor/pictures/2756/content_Winners.jpg" /></h1>

List of ElliiCon2022 winners.

Congrats to all winners! Be sure to complete our Post-Event Survey (sent via email) before September 26 for a chance to win the grand prize: an Apple Watch! Two runner-up winners will receive a 1-year subscription to Ellii. Registrants of ElliiCon2022, keep an eye on your inbox to enter.

<h2>L is for laughter and light-hearted learning</h2>

I&#39;m sure all attendees would agree that our lovely host (and <a href="https://www.instagram.com/esllibrary/?hl=en" target="_blank">Instagram</a>&nbsp;star)&nbsp;<a href="https://ellii.com/blog/authors/lise-papineau" target="_blank">Lise</a>&nbsp;helped set the mood for a light-hearted learning event.&nbsp;

<img alt="Ellii Staff at ElliiCon2022." src="https://esllibrary.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/ckeditor/pictures/2752/content_Team.jpg" />

Lise (bottom left corner) and the Ellii team at ElliiCon2022.

At Ellii, we love telling and hearing stories and often start meetings with jokes or tales. Our&nbsp;CEO, Ben, kept things simple this year by shining a spotlight on our CTO, Eduardo.

Eduardo works tirelessly behind the scenes&nbsp;and is responsible for keeping Ellii running&nbsp;24/7 for teachers and students around the world. We hope you all got a chance to meet him at the Presenter Q&amp;A Table.

<img alt="Ben and Eduardo laughing at ElliiCon2022." src="https://esllibrary.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/ckeditor/pictures/2753/content_Laughter.jpg" />

CEO Ben Buckwold (left) and CTO Eduardo Prauze (right) having a good time at ElliiCon2022.

<h2>I is for intensive listening activities&nbsp;</h2>

We were thrilled and honored to have <a href="https://ellii.com/blog/elliicon2022-nik-peachey" target="_blank">Nik Peachey</a> speaking at ElliiCon this year. Nik shared simple, yet effective ideas and activities for listening practice,&nbsp;such as asking more questions that we don&#39;t know the answer to and having students convert closed questions (Yes/No)&nbsp;into open-ended ones.

The Publishing team was madly taking notes throughout Nik&#39;s session, inspired to continue improving our&nbsp;NEW&nbsp;<a href="https://ellii.com/resource_categories/139/resources" target="_blank">Photo Prompts</a> section and <a href="https://ellii.com/media/videos/silent-clips" target="_blank">Silent Clips</a>&nbsp;video category.&nbsp;

<img alt="Nik Peachy talks about listening comprehension at ElliiCon2022." src="https://esllibrary.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/ckeditor/pictures/2754/content_Open-ended-photo-prompts.jpg" />

Nik Peachey talks about listening comprehension at ElliiCon2022.

<h2>C is for Coffee Talks</h2>

A few members of Ellii&#39;s&nbsp;Publishing team (Jen, Ann, Tanya, and I) kicked ElliiCon off each morning with an informal Coffee Talk.

On Thursday we chatted about simplicity and shared some of our favorite simplicity hacks. (You all ran out and bought a pay-attention-rubber-chicken, right?)&nbsp;We also shared some improvements&nbsp;Ellii has made this year to make teaching easier (<a href="https://ellii.com/collections" target="_blank">Collections</a>, <a href="https://ellii.com/media/videos" target="_blank">Video gallery</a>, <a href="https://ellii.com/blog/research-behind-ellii-auto-scoring-ai-feature" target="_blank">Ellii Bot</a>, and<a href="https://ellii.com/blog/feature-releases-platform-updates-2022" target="_blank">&nbsp;improved task designs</a>).&nbsp;

On Friday we focused on creativity and&nbsp;shared our <a href="https://ellii.com/blog/word-of-the-year-2022" target="_blank">Word of the Year</a> wall as well as other creative projects we&#39;ve done at Ellii, including our&nbsp;<a href="https://ellii.com/blog/wordless-lessons-project" target="_blank">Wordless Lessons</a>.&nbsp;We talked about what we do to incorporate creativity into our own lives and <a href="https://theimportantsite.com/10-reasons-why-creativity-is-important/" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">why creativity is important</a>&nbsp;for teachers and students.

<h3>Watch Recorded Coffee Talk Sessions</h3>

<ul>
	<li><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y_2RrMPK5WU&amp;list=PL0MvnNQjMzmYCMFFM_d_pbeEyoPqmVNQ3&amp;index=2" target="_blank">Coffee Talk 1: S is for Simplicity</a></li>
	<li><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dzwmlFk7eW8&amp;list=PL0MvnNQjMzmYCMFFM_d_pbeEyoPqmVNQ3&amp;index=7" target="_blank">Coffee Talk 2: Create &amp; Innovate</a></li>
</ul>

<h2>I is for innovative flashcard activities</h2>

Ellii&#39;s&nbsp;very own Jen took attendees on an adventure through the <a href="https://ellii.com/media/flashcards" target="_blank">Flashcard gallery</a>, sharing innovative ways to use images in the classroom while also highlighting lots of features Ellii subscribers may be unfamiliar with, such as the ability to edit text, play audio,&nbsp;and make changes on the fly.

I hope you&#39;ll all try Jen&#39;s <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Dl7D2WCzc4">What are you doing this weekend?</a> activity.&nbsp;

<h2>T is for talking at tables with teachers</h2>

Between ElliiCon sessions, attendees could either take a break or stay online for speed networking or table talk!&nbsp;

At the Publishing Team Table, members of the Publishing team (including Alison, Lula, and Lara who weren&#39;t in the Coffee Talks)&nbsp;enjoyed meeting new teachers after every session. We took down some excellent requests for new <a href="https://ellii.com/lessons" target="_blank">lessons</a>, <a href="https://ellii.com/blog/feature-releases-platform-updates-2022" target="_blank">features</a>, and <a href="https://ellii.com/media/flashcards" target="_blank">flashcard</a> categories and also enjoyed some small talk.

<h2>Y is for &quot;You can draw too!&quot;</h2>

One of my favorite parts of the conference was the invitation to doodle along!&nbsp;

ELT graphic facilitator <a href="https://ellii.com/blog/elliicon2022-emily-bryson" target="_blank">Emily Bryson</a>&#39;s interactive drawing workshop showed how simple&nbsp;illustrations&nbsp;reduce&nbsp;the processing load on our learners.&nbsp;From roadmaps and visual rubrics to the Feedback Fairy, I think we can all agree that graphic facilitation is a superpower we can find a use for!

<img alt="Drawings of common icons used in graphic facilitation like a drawing of an ear for listening and a drawing of speech bubbles for speaking." src="https://esllibrary.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/ckeditor/pictures/2755/content_Graphic-facilitation.jpg" />

Emily Bryson shows how drawing simple icons can help students learn and retain new vocabulary.

PS. I had fun <a href="https://twitter.com/tarabenwell/status/1570818308504702977" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">sketchnoting Emily&#39;s session</a>&nbsp;while she&nbsp;created sketchnotes&nbsp;of all the other sessions. (Emily&#39;s summaries will be available soon!)

If you registered for ElliiCon2022 and missed out on the event or would like to relive the magic, you can watch a replay of the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nvm-WZozaTw&amp;list=PL0MvnNQjMzmYCMFFM_d_pbeEyoPqmVNQ3">ElliiCon sessions on YouTube</a>!

<div class="white-box">
<h5>What did you think of ElliiCon2022?</h5>

If you joined us at ElliiCon2022, please share your top takeaway!&nbsp;&nbsp;
</div>

ElliiCon2022: Highlights & Takeaways

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Stay up-to-date with ELT trends and ideas with articles from experts and teachers in the field.

Articles

Are you looking for a new teaching job? Will you be asked to deliver a demo lesson?

Many schools and organizations require job candidates to teach a demo lesson as a final part of the interview process. During your demo lesson, managers or administrators will observe your teaching skills and determine whether you will be a good fit for the students and&nbsp;school.&nbsp;

To help you get ready, we&#39;ve put together this&nbsp;comprehensive guide on how to prep and deliver a top-notch demo lesson with&nbsp;confidence.&nbsp;

We&#39;ll go over...

<ul>
	<li><a href="#8questions">8 questions to ask before your demo&nbsp;lesson</a></li>
	<li><a href="#6tips">6 tips for delivering a successful demo&nbsp;lesson</a></li>
	<li><a href="#5ways">5 ways Ellii can help you prepare for and&nbsp;present a demo&nbsp;lesson</a></li>
	<li><a href="#5topics">5 recommended topics and targets for demo&nbsp;lessons</a></li>
	<li><a href="#5resources">5 suggested Ellii resources for demo&nbsp;lessons</a></li>
</ul>

<h2><a id="8questions"></a>8 questions to ask before your demo lesson</h2>

Before you rush into making plans for this part of the interview, it&#39;s a good idea to do a bit of homework by asking yourself the following&nbsp;questions:&nbsp;

<ol>
	<li>Will the students be real learners or staff pretending to be&nbsp;students?</li>
	<li>Are the students young learners, teens, or adults?</li>
	<li>What&nbsp;level will the students be? (See <a href="https://ellii.com/equivalencies" target="_blank">Equivalency&nbsp;Scale</a>)</li>
	<li>Approximately how many students will there be? (Bring extra handouts&nbsp;and share with the interviewer(s)&nbsp;too.)</li>
	<li>Is there a set grammar&nbsp;target&nbsp;or function&nbsp;to cover?&nbsp;</li>
	<li>How long should your demo lesson&nbsp;be?</li>
	<li>Will the lesson be delivered in person or online?&nbsp;</li>
	<li>What tech and tools will be available? (Find out if there&#39;s Wi-Fi, speakers, a whiteboard, markets,&nbsp;etc.)</li>
</ol>

<h2><a id="6tips"></a>6 tips for delivering a successful demo lesson</h2>

At a recent panel discussion&nbsp;on demo lessons with <a href="https://ellii.com/blog/professional-development-with-bridge-education-group" target="_blank">Bridge&nbsp;Education&nbsp;Group</a>, presenters shared these six&nbsp;tips:&nbsp;

<ol>
	<li>If you&#39;re not given a specific target to teach, choose&nbsp;a low-intermediate (A2) target. It&#39;s easier to level up than&nbsp;down.</li>
	<li>If you&#39;re not given a specific topic, grammar is a safe target. Try to find a way to make it fun or memorable. Include&nbsp;visuals!</li>
	<li>Be mindful of the&nbsp;time you have. You may only have 20 minutes. Cut out any parts of a lesson that aren&#39;t needed&nbsp;and focus on the essential parts of a lesson that you learned in your teacher training&nbsp;(warm-up, presentation, production, and&nbsp;practice).</li>
	<li>Find a way to showcase your strengths as a&nbsp;teacher.&nbsp;</li>
	<li>Use&nbsp;class time wisely. Make sure to use activities that get students talking but also highlight your ability to teach a concept.&nbsp;(Give feedback&nbsp;too.)</li>
	<li>Keep your lesson low-tech. If you&#39;re planning on using audio or video, make sure&nbsp;you have a backup plan if something goes&nbsp;wrong. If you&#39;re teaching online, make sure that you understand the platform&nbsp;fully.</li>
</ol>

<h2><a id="5ways"></a>5 ways Ellii can help you prepare for and&nbsp;present a demo lesson</h2>

A comprehensive materials provider like Ellii is a must-have for new teachers. But Ellii&nbsp;can help you even before you get your first teaching&nbsp;job.

<h3>1. Ellii&nbsp;helps teachers gain confidence teaching tricky grammar&nbsp;targets&nbsp;</h3>

New teachers often struggle with confidence, especially when it comes to teaching grammar. If you&#39;re going to teach grammar in your demo lesson (a&nbsp;safe choice for a language target), be sure that you understand how to teach&nbsp;it.

Ellii&#39;s <a href="https://ellii.com/blog/categories/grammar-usage" target="_blank">grammar posts</a> offer lots of tips on how to teach different grammar points. You could even choose a target to teach in your demo lesson based on one of Ellii&#39;s blog posts.&nbsp;In the comments, you&#39;ll find lots of commonly asked questions that teachers and learners have. Make sure you&#39;re ready to answer a few questions about the target. Find a corresponding lesson in Ellii&#39;s <a href="https://ellii.com/collections/grammar" target="_blank">Grammar&nbsp;collection</a>.

If you&#39;ve never taught the target before, try&nbsp;teaching it to some friends or family members before you step into the classroom. And you can always reach out to the Ellii team via our blog posts if you have a specific grammar&nbsp;question.&nbsp;

<h3>2. Ellii has ready-made visuals and charts that teachers can use in an in-class or in-person&nbsp;demo class (and&nbsp;beyond!)</h3>

<img alt="simple past vs. past progressive chart" src="https://esllibrary.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/ckeditor/pictures/2566/content_Ellii_Visual.jpg" />

Simple past vs. past progressive chart

You don&#39;t have a lot of time to prove yourself in&nbsp;a demo lesson. You may also not have a lot of teaching experience.&nbsp;

Don&rsquo;t waste time writing out a lot of long explanations or grammar charts. Find some ready-made visuals and talk your students through them or project them in the classroom and encourage&nbsp;students to take notes or&nbsp;annotate.&nbsp;

Here are some places to find&nbsp;visuals:

<ul>
	<li><a href="https://ellii.com/flashcards" target="_blank">Flashcards</a></li>
	<li><a href="https://ellii.com/resource_categories/103/resources" target="_blank">Grammar Charts</a>&nbsp;(Not a subscriber yet? Visit our blog&#39;s <a href="https://ellii.com/blog/categories/grammar-usage" target="_blank">Grammar&nbsp;&amp;&nbsp;Usage</a>&nbsp;section&nbsp;for lots of free tips.)</li>
	<li><a href="https://ellii.com/media/videos/grammar" target="_blank">Grammar Videos</a>&nbsp;(Not a subscriber yet? Visit our <a href="https://www.youtube.com/user/ESLlibrary" target="_blank">YouTube channel</a>.)</li>
	<li><a href="https://ellii.com/resource_categories/124/resources" target="_blank">Sentence Stems</a></li>
	<li><a href="https://ellii.com/resource_categories/107/resources" target="_blank">Visual Learning&nbsp;</a></li>
</ul>

<h3>3. Ellii offers multi-level lessons on a wide variety of topics and&nbsp;targets</h3>

Show that you&#39;re prepared for students who are at different levels. Think of ways to&nbsp;make your lesson easier or more difficult or find similar lessons that are at different levels. Keep in mind that it&#39;s easier to make a lesson more difficult than it is to make it&nbsp;easier.

Look at&nbsp;a <a href="https://ellii.com/courses/123/lessons" target="_blank">Super Simple Grammar</a>&nbsp;lesson compared to a <a href="https://ellii.com/courses/88/lessons" target="_blank">Grammar&nbsp;Practice&nbsp;Worksheet</a> lesson or&nbsp;<a href="https://ellii.com/courses/116/lessons" target="_blank">Fun Grammar Lesson</a>&nbsp;on the same target. Then look at a <a href="https://ellii.com/courses/90/lessons" target="_blank">Grammar Stories</a> lesson or <a href="https://ellii.com/courses/89/lessons" target="_blank">Basic&nbsp;Grammar&nbsp;Sentences</a>&nbsp;lesson to learn about teaching grammar in&nbsp;context.

<h3>4. Ellii has a wide variety&nbsp;to choose from, allowing teachers to showcase the importance of needs&nbsp;assessment&nbsp;</h3>

An important part of teaching&nbsp;is finding out what students&#39;&nbsp;needs and interests&nbsp;are.

With Ellii, you can offer a little choice to the learners in a demo lesson. Do they want to learn about <a href="https://ellii.com/courses/113/lessons/2399" target="_blank">fruit</a> or <a href="https://ellii.com/courses/113/lessons/2396" target="_blank">vegetables</a>? Would they like to&nbsp;practice <a href="https://ellii.com/collections/grammar/simple-verb-tenses/present-progressive" target="_blank">present progressive</a> while going on a&nbsp;<a href="https://ellii.com/resource_categories/125/resources/2870" target="_blank">picnic</a> or to the <a href="https://ellii.com/resource_categories/125/resources/2865" target="_blank">park</a>? Do they want to learn how to&nbsp;<a href="https://ellii.com/resource_categories/107/resources/3555" target="_blank">follow&nbsp;instructions at the doctor&#39;s</a> or <a href="https://ellii.com/resource_categories/107/resources/2482" target="_blank">at the pool</a>?&nbsp;

<h3>5. Ellii has activities, assessments, and reflections to help you close your demo lesson in an impactful&nbsp;way</h3>

Showcase your understanding of assessment and reflection by leaving time for a short review or&nbsp;reflection.

You can play a fun game like <a href="https://ellii.com/blog/4-activities-for-reviewing-vocabulary" target="_blank">Hot Seat</a> to review some vocabulary or share an <a href="https://ellii.com/resource_categories/104/resources/2228" target="_blank">exit slip</a> or short <a href="https://ellii.com/resource_categories/104/resources/2557" target="_blank">reflection</a> to gauge how you did in your demo&nbsp;lesson.

<h2><a id="5topics"></a>5 recommended topics and&nbsp;targets for demo lessons</h2>

<ol>
	<li>Vocabulary (All Ages):&nbsp;<a href="https://ellii.com/courses/113/lessons/2399" target="_blank">Fruit</a> or <a href="https://ellii.com/courses/113/lessons/2396" target="_blank">Vegetables</a>&nbsp;(could pair with <a href="https://ellii.com/flashcards/grammar-punctuation/like-don-t-like" target="_blank">&quot;like&quot;&nbsp;and&nbsp;&quot;don&#39;t like&quot;</a>)</li>
	<li>Grammar (Young Learners):&nbsp;<a href="https://ellii.com/courses/132/lessons/3174" target="_blank">Morning</a> or <a href="https://ellii.com/courses/132/lessons/3195" target="_blank">Evening&nbsp;Routine</a>&nbsp;(simple&nbsp;present)</li>
	<li>Grammar (Teens &amp; Adults): <a href="https://ellii.com/blog/adjectives" target="_blank">Adjectives</a>&nbsp;(See <a href="https://ellii.com/courses/88/lessons/2093" target="_blank">full lesson</a>.)</li>
	<li>Function (Adult Newcomers): <a href="https://ellii.com/courses/76/lessons/1712" target="_blank">Going to the Supermarket</a>&nbsp;or <a href="https://ellii.com/courses/76/lessons/3716" target="_blank">Going&nbsp;to&nbsp;the&nbsp;Bank</a>&nbsp;</li>
	<li>Function (Business English):&nbsp;<a href="https://ellii.com/courses/135/lessons/3757" target="_blank">Making Introductions at Work</a>&nbsp;or&nbsp;<a href="https://ellii.com/courses/92/lessons/1749" target="_blank">Making&nbsp;Small&nbsp;Talk</a></li>
</ol>

<h2><a id="5resources"></a>5 suggested Ellii resources for demo lessons</h2>

<ol>
	<li><a href="https://ellii.com/blog/categories/grammar-usage" target="_blank">Grammar &amp; Usage</a>: Choose or review a target from Ellii&#39;s most popular blog section.</li>
	<li><a href="https://ellii.com/media/videos/grammar" target="_blank">Grammar Videos</a>: These videos can help you understand the target before you teach it.&nbsp;Visit our&nbsp;<a href="https://www.youtube.com/user/ESLlibrary" target="_blank">YouTube</a>&nbsp;channel if you aren&#39;t an Ellii subscriber&nbsp;yet.</li>
	<li><a href="https://ellii.com/resource_categories/125/resources" target="_blank">Language Scenes</a>: See&nbsp;<a href="https://ellii.com/resource_categories/125/resources/2872" target="_blank">Teachers&#39; Notes</a>&nbsp;for ideas on how to use&nbsp;these. Digital versions are in color and&nbsp;useful for online demos.</li>
	<li><a href="https://ellii.com/flashcards" target="_blank">Flashcards</a>: Bring visuals to class! Review&nbsp;<a href="https://help.ellii.com/article/63-how-to-create-flashcard-sets" target="_blank">How to Create &amp; Save Flashcard&nbsp;Sets</a>.</li>
	<li><a href="https://ellii.com/resource_categories/104/resources/2228" target="_blank">Exit Slips</a>&nbsp;or&nbsp;<a href="https://ellii.com/resource_categories/104/resources/2557" target="_blank">3-2-1 Reflection</a>: Impress your interviewers by getting feedback from students, especially if the students seemed&nbsp;engaged.</li>
</ol>

Want to learn more about Ellii&#39;s content and courseware platform and how it can help you teach a better class? <a href="https://app.livestorm.co/ellii" target="_blank">Register for a free webinar today</a>.

Ellii's Comprehensive Guide to Nailing Your Demo Lesson

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Are you struggling to focus?

I&#39;ve noticed many people complaining that they can&#39;t focus like they used to. They struggle to finish a book, pay attention during&nbsp;a meeting, or watch&nbsp;a full movie (without checking their news&nbsp;feed). 
 
I attended an online writing class this week, and the teacher started by asking us&nbsp;to eliminate all distractions. She reminded us that we&#39;d learn a lot more if we focused on the one thing we were supposed to be doing: watching her class (and maybe taking a few notes). It&nbsp;worked!

<blockquote>
Tip: Good ol&#39; note-taking&nbsp;(by hand) can help you&nbsp;maintain&nbsp;focus during class because you aren&#39;t just sitting still. If&nbsp;you prefer to use a device&nbsp;to take notes, turn off your notifications and&nbsp;go offline (or on airplane mode).&nbsp;
</blockquote>

<h2>Improve your focus one goal at a time</h2>

I listened to&nbsp;<a href="http://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/johann-hari-stolen-focus-pt-1/id1264843400?i=1000555669267" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">Oprah&#39;s Super Soul&nbsp;podcast</a> last weekend where&nbsp;Johann Hari summarized his research on distractions from&nbsp;his book Stolen Focus: Why You Can&#39;t Pay Attention and How to Think Deeply&nbsp;Again.

He reminded us of something important too: &quot;Your attention didn&#39;t collapse. Your attention has been stolen from you by some really big and powerful&nbsp;forces.&quot;

In the podcast, Hari recommended&nbsp;focusing on one goal at a time. In addition to being&nbsp;meaningful, a&nbsp;goal should be set&nbsp;just&nbsp;outside of your comfort&nbsp;zone.

<blockquote>
Did you know? The average college student switches tasks every&nbsp;65&nbsp;seconds.&nbsp;&nbsp;

&mdash;Johann Hari,&nbsp;Stolen Focus
</blockquote>

<h2>4 types of goals to help language learners regain focus</h2>

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Johann Hari described&nbsp;four&nbsp;types of goals. (You can use these as inspiration to get your language learning back on track.)

<h3>1. Spotlight goals</h3>

A spotlight goal is an immediate goal. You want to get something done right now (e.g., writing or reading this blog post). If we don&#39;t put a task like this into the spotlight, we&#39;ll undoubtedly&nbsp;get distracted by another shiny thing (or&nbsp;ping). 
 
For example, last week, my daughter asked me to print something for her. I went upstairs to my office, turned on my computer, and noticed a message from a colleague. I answered the message&nbsp;and then&nbsp;checked my LinkedIn updates. Then I turned off my computer and grabbed some dirty laundry and went back&nbsp;downstairs. 
 
&quot;Did you print my essay, Mom?&quot; 
&quot;No. I&#39;ll do that. Can you bring down your laundry?&quot;&nbsp;

Clearly, I need to work on eliminating&nbsp;distractions when it comes to immediate tasks. I could also work on not&nbsp;distracting others who have an immediate task of their own to&nbsp;complete.&nbsp;

Challenge yourself: Your immediate language learning goal is to listen to and read this post without getting distracted. (Let&#39;s see if you can get all the way to the&nbsp;end.)

<h3>2. Daylight goals</h3>

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Hari described&nbsp;a daylight goal as the ability to simply know what your goals&nbsp;are.

One of my favorite ways to prioritize my&nbsp;goals is&nbsp;with Jennifer Louden&#39;s <a href="https://medium.com/@jenlouden/how-one-metaphor-can-change-everything-85a480b120be" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">Pots on the Stove metaphor</a>.

<img alt="Drawing of burners on a stove with goals written in each burner" src="https://esllibrary.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/ckeditor/pictures/2371/content_Tara_daylight-goals-pots-on-a-stove.jpg" />

Once a week, I draw a stovetop in my journal&mdash;five circles of various sizes (some burners are bigger than others).&nbsp;Inside the circles, I write my main&nbsp;goals for the week, making sure to note which ones will require more attention. These&nbsp;may include work goals, personal goals, and other&nbsp;things&nbsp;that just need&nbsp;to get&nbsp;done.

Challenge yourself: What are your language learning goals for this week? (Try the pots on the stove exercise above.)&nbsp;

<h3>3. Starlight goals</h3>

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A starlight goal is&nbsp;a long-term goal. If we allow ourselves to be constantly distracted, we won&#39;t achieve any of&nbsp;these.

Every year, I encourage my family, friends, and colleagues to choose a <a href="https://ellii.com/blog/word-of-the-year-2022" target="_blank">Word of the Year</a>. Unlike a New Year&#39;s resolution, the word you choose&nbsp;acts as a guiding&nbsp;light.&nbsp; 
 
Challenge yourself: What&#39;s one long-term language learning goal that you have? (Make it meaningful and just outside your comfort&nbsp;zone.)

<h3>4. Stadium light goals</h3>

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A stadium light goal&nbsp;is a collective or group goal. This type of goal requires us to pay attention to each&nbsp;other.

For example, at work, we use roadmaps, objectives and key results (OKRs), and check-ins&nbsp;to keep us on track with annual and quarterly&nbsp;goals.&nbsp;

I share collective goals with some of my&nbsp;exercise club, such as meeting every week for a workout and meeting quarterly for a neighborhood fun&nbsp;run.

One goal I&#39;d like to set with my family is for everyone to remain at the dinner table until everyone else is finished eating. This time is important to me because it&#39;s when everyone shares a <a href="https://ellii.com/blog/improve-your-listening-with-true-stories" target="_blank">story</a> from their&nbsp;day.

Challenge yourself: What&#39;s one collective goal you could set with your language class? (If you aren&#39;t in a class, you could find&nbsp;a learning&nbsp;partner.)

<h2>Glossary</h2>

<ul>
	<li>switch: to quickly&nbsp;go from one thing or position to another</li>
	<li>feed: a constant stream of information or updates</li>
	<li>eliminate: to fully remove</li>
	<li>meaningful: having a real purpose</li>
	<li>outside one&#39;s comfort zone: in a place or situation where one feels a bit challenged or&nbsp;uncomfortable</li>
	<li>burner: the element on a stovetop where the heat comes&nbsp;through</li>
	<li>OKRs: objectives and key results, a goal-setting system for setting ambitious, measurable goals&nbsp;</li>
</ul>

<div class="white-box">
<h5>Complete your first spotlight goal in the comments</h5>

You made it to the end! Now, complete your spotlight&nbsp;goal.

Step outside your comfort zone and answer&nbsp;the following question in the comments: What distractions do you need to eliminate to achieve your long-term language learning&nbsp;goal?
</div>

Struggling to Focus? 4 Types of Goals to Get Your Language Learning Back on Track

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I&#39;ve just returned from <a href="https://www.tesol.org/home" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">TESOL 2022</a> in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania,&nbsp;and it&#39;s time for my annual TESOL conference takeaways.

Though attending the convention&nbsp;in person was an option this year (most attended virtually), I could not bear to miss our 20th anniversary&mdash;the year we rolled out the white carpet as a Platinum Sponsor and <a href="https://ellii.com/blog/introducing-our-new-name-ellii" target="_blank">officially became&nbsp;Ellii</a>!&nbsp;

<img alt="Ellii at TESOL 2022" src="https://esllibrary.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/ckeditor/pictures/2271/content_Ellii-team-photo-TESOL-2022-booth.jpg" />

The TESOL 2022 Ellii Team (left to right): Ben Buckwold&nbsp;(Founder/CEO), Tammy Wik (Director of Outreach), Lei Kayanuma (Group Accounts Specialist), Mari Lasnetski&nbsp;(Chief Impact Officer), Tara Benwell&nbsp;(VP of Publishing), Ken Volcjak (Director of Partnerships) on the comfy, white carpet that we became famous for at this year&#39;s event.

In the spirit of less is more this year, I&#39;ve lightened the load from my traditional 10 TESOL takeaways to just seven&nbsp;points to unpack!&nbsp;

<ol>
	<li><a href="#hybrid">Hybrid Hurts</a></li>
	<li><a href="#coffee">Coffee Chats Are Inclusive</a></li>
	<li><a href="#SEL">SEL Is on Overload</a></li>
	<li><a href="#thesimplest">The Simplest Tools Are the Best</a></li>
	<li><a href="#cell">Cell Phones Are <s>Welcome</s> Mandatory</a></li>
	<li><a href="#teachers">Teachers Are Advocates</a></li>
	<li><a href="#theworld">The World Needs More Stories</a></li>
</ol>

&nbsp;

<h2><a id="hybrid"></a>1. Hybrid Hurts&nbsp;&nbsp;</h2>

If there was one common pain point shared by teachers&nbsp;this year, it was a thumbs down for hybrid learning.

While the hybrid approach gave students the option of learning at home or in person&nbsp;during the pandemic, teachers at TESOL described&nbsp;the frustration of feeling like&nbsp;they couldn&#39;t service either group effectively, especially at the lowest levels.

In contrast, many teachers described significant gains their students had during periods of fully&nbsp;remote learning.

One teacher suggested that one week of virtual class before moving to in-class should be kept as a permanent solution. This allows everyone to get set up on a learning management system (LMS) with a&nbsp;Zoom link that can be reused during lockdowns or bad weather days.

The TESOL conference itself was hybrid this year, and many speakers and attendees expressed similar&nbsp;concerns about the experience. People at home felt left out of&nbsp;the conversation, while speakers had difficulty engaging with both a live and remote audience.

This year, the Ellii team tried&nbsp;to accommodate both groups by hosting <a href="https://ellii.com/blog/where-to-find-at-ellii-tesol-2022" target="_blank">in-person and virtual sessions</a>. While many of the sessions were successful, we still&nbsp;learned a few tricks that would help improve&nbsp;the experience for&nbsp;virtual attendees next time around.&nbsp;&nbsp;

<h2><a id="coffee"></a>2. Coffee Chats Are Inclusive</h2>

TESOL is well-known now for its informal Coffee Chats, and Ellii was&nbsp;pleased to be invited to one&nbsp;this year.

It was refreshing to hear our host, Diego, encourage everyone to use plain language. In an industry full of acronyms and academics with teachers from a wide range of&nbsp;programs and nations, a discussion&nbsp;about teaching can sometimes&nbsp;feel like a&nbsp;foreign language itself.

<img alt="TESOL Coffee Chat with Ellii" src="https://esllibrary.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/ckeditor/pictures/2270/content_Screen_Shot_2022-03-29_at_9.34.30_AM.png" />

TESOL Coffee Chat with Ellii session.

During this hybrid session, we talked about 5 must-haves for English language teaching (ELT) materials. The remote audience felt included as they&nbsp;pinned themselves on a map, participated in surveys, and shared ideas in the chat about the importance of relevancy, design, and inclusivity in materials.

A speaker from the live audience came to the podium to ask a question, and&nbsp;a&nbsp;speaker from the chat went on video. We also had follow-up discussions after the chat.

Hybrid isn&#39;t so bad after all (if you have your own host and tech team)!&nbsp;

<h2><a id="SEL"></a>3. SEL Is on Overload</h2>

<a href="https://ellii.com/collections/academic-subjects/social-emotional-learning" target="_blank">Social-emotional learning (SEL)</a>&nbsp;was another common topic&nbsp;of discussion&nbsp;at TESOL this year.

From wordless books to mindfulness and meditation, ideas for emotional wellness and self-care were shared in almost every session.&nbsp;

However, one couldn&#39;t help but notice the whispers from the audience (or tweets from the virtual attendees).&nbsp;

Many&nbsp;teachers feel that SEL is just one more thing to carry in their overloaded backpacks. Do they care about their students&#39; well-being and emotional health? Of course! Do they want to record how many affirmations they hand out each week or which SEL standards they meet? Not if it&#39;s for a free doughnut or permission to wear jeans.&nbsp;

<img alt="Gabriela Kleckova, TESOL President" src="https://esllibrary.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/ckeditor/pictures/2286/content_Gabriela-Kleckova-TESOL-President-screenshot-Ellii.jpg" />

Gabriela Kleckova, TESOL President.

<h2><a id="thesimplest"></a>4. The Simplest Tools Are the Best</h2>

Teaching conferences and exhibit halls are always full of exciting trends and tech (at the booth, we were excited to show off Immersive Reader, which is coming soon to Ellii). But teachers themselves often get the most delight in learning about&nbsp;the simplest tools.

In their session,&nbsp;&quot;Practice More, Prep Less: Quick Ideas that Generate Life-Long Skills,&quot; Cheryl Bucholtz-Magallon and Esther Lee shared&nbsp;<a href="http://Spinnerwheel.com" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">the&nbsp;spinning wheel</a> they use to&nbsp;randomize&nbsp;topics or student selection. They also shared a simple&nbsp;<a href="http://ccg.buzz/host" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">online buzzer</a> for their most competitive practice activities.

In her teaching tip session, &quot;The Power of Practice: Systematized Fluency Activities Which Build Community,&quot; Elka Kristonagy,&nbsp;English Language Program Lector at Yale University, described some basic, yet powerful ways to&nbsp;use&nbsp;Google Docs in hybrid classes for those who don&#39;t have an LMS, including using Google Forms for formative assessment and comments for collaborative work.

Meanwhile, keynote speaker Helaine W. Marshall shared how a colleague taught an entire Level 1 class using WhatsApp.&nbsp;

<img alt="" src="https://esllibrary.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/ckeditor/pictures/2275/content_Ellii-team-art-TESOL-2022.jpg" />

The Ellii team taking a break to strike a pose with art by Pittsburgh artist Andy Warhol.

<h2><a id="cell"></a>5. Cell Phones Are <s>Welcome</s>&nbsp;Mandatory</h2>

One big change I noticed at TESOL this year was a shift in cell phone use&nbsp;in the classroom.

Instead of policing their use, teachers are embracing and even relying on cell phones.

During the session &quot;Should it Stay or Should it Go? Post-Pandemic Takeaways,&quot; a&nbsp;group of teachers from New York&#39;s Nassau Community College talked about this cultural shift.

They now rely&nbsp;on students to use their own data when the Wi-Fi goes down.

Students use cell phones for all sorts of resources, from looking up words&nbsp;to taking quizzes&nbsp;and accessing interactive activities with QR codes (not to mention confirming they don&#39;t have COVID-19 or requesting a washroom pass).

Personally, I didn&#39;t bother dragging my laptop around at TESOL this year. I took all my session notes&nbsp;on my phone (and brought home an empty paper notebook). Next year, I may lighten my load even more and not bother bringing a computer.

<h2><a id="teachers"></a>6. Teachers Are Advocates</h2>

In that same post-pandemic takeaways session, the speakers described how they advocated for&nbsp;6 out of 20 of their in-class hours to be switched to asynchronous learning.&nbsp;

This resulted in students becoming more independent learners (with the help of Ellii, I was happy to hear).

The most popular session I attended at this year&#39;s conference was &quot;6&nbsp;Strategies for Serving SLIFE&quot; (Students with Limited or Interrupted Formal Education).

During this session, Beth Evans (<a href="https://twitter.com/tofubeth/" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">@TofuBeth</a>) described how a 12-year-old SLIFE student&nbsp;did not qualify for a bus pass because he didn&#39;t live 1.6 miles from school. When she learned that her Level 1 youngster&nbsp;had to cross several busy lanes of traffic and&nbsp;railroad tracks to reach the school, she knew she had to advocate for special arrangements to be made.

<blockquote>
&quot;I don&rsquo;t have all the answers but I have a big voice.&quot;

&mdash;Beth Evans
</blockquote>

To advocate for our students, we need to get to know them on a personal level. And even more importantly, SLIFE especially must know and trust their teachers in order to learn from them.

As one teacher mentioned, bringing Zoom into the room has actually helped humanize the teacher who has real-life interruptions like pets, and children, and mail deliveries.

<h2><a id="theworld"></a>7. The World&nbsp;Needs More Stories&nbsp;</h2>

After sharing a tear about the&nbsp;boy and the bus pass, we shared a giggle about a group of SLIFE students in Ohio who threw their winter coats in the trash after their first winter,&nbsp;thinking &quot;phew, that&#39;s over!&quot;

The thing I love most in life is <a href="https://ellii.com/blog/improve-your-listening-with-true-stories" target="_blank">stories</a>. So,&nbsp;naturally what I love most about TESOL is the stories we hear and tell in a setting that&#39;s new every year. (Not to mention the characters we meet!)&nbsp;

At the beginning of the final keynote this year, Helaine W. Marshall showed a picture of her kitchen. She explained that&nbsp;she didn&#39;t want an island in her kitchen when she renovated it because she loves to dance. An&nbsp;island would have stunted her creativity.

After she told us three stories of teachers who were creating fertile spaces in their work lives, she asked us all to think about what islands might be standing in our way. It&#39;s stories&nbsp;like these that inspire us to create new chapters in our lives and in the lives of our students. Get plotting!

<img alt="Ellii at TESOL 2022" src="https://esllibrary.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/ckeditor/pictures/2274/content_Ellii-team-TESOL-2022-booth.jpg" />

What&#39;s the story here? See Emly Bryson&#39;s post about&nbsp;<a href="https://ellii.com/blog/how-one-image-can-develop-visual-literacy-and-critical-thinking" target="_blank">how one image can develop visual literacy and&nbsp;critical thinking skills</a>.

See you next year in Portland, Oregon (home of the&nbsp;<a href="https://ellii.com/blog/tesol-portland" target="_blank">best bookstore</a> I&#39;ve ever explored)!&nbsp;

<div class="white-box">
<h5>Share Your Thoughts</h5>

What was your top takeaway from TESOL 2022? And if you didn&#39;t attend, what are your thoughts about hybrid teaching and learning? Let me know in the comments below. I&#39;d love to hear your thoughts!
</div>

<h2>Presentation Links</h2>

If you registered for TESOL, you can watch some of the recorded sessions mentioned in this post:

<ul>
	<li><a href="https://tesolconvention.evareg.com/full-schedule/recording/TESOL22_973%208876%202605_2278.mp4" target="_blank">Embracing the Balancing Act: ELT Professionals Empowering Themselves</a>:&nbsp;Gabriela Kleckova&nbsp;</li>
	<li><a href="https://tesolconvention.evareg.com/full-schedule/recording/TESOL22_96660302009_CC1.mp4" target="_blank">Coffee Chat with Ellii: What Are 5 Must-Haves for ESL Materials?</a>: Diego Boada, Ben Buckwold, Tara Benwell&nbsp;</li>
	<li><a href="https://tesolconvention.evareg.com/full-schedule/recording/ID%202272%20Social-Emotional%20Learning%20with%20ESL%20Library.mp4" target="_blank">SEL with Ellii</a>: Tammy Wik</li>
	<li><a href="https://tesolconvention.evareg.com/full-schedule/recording/TESOL22_97407350634_2314.mp4" target="_blank">Creating Fertile Spaces for Instructional Innovation in a Digital Age</a>:&nbsp;Helaine W. Marshall&nbsp;</li>
	<li><a href="https://tesolconvention.evareg.com/full-schedule/recording/TESOL22_93977902219_2279.mp4" target="_blank">Invisible Immigrant to Advocate</a>:&nbsp;Gisele Barreto Fetterman&nbsp;</li>
	<li><a href="http://drive.google.com/file/d/1IjLcYekXLqpq8XDgSBdc9Uzu31Wg_Rfq/view" target="_blank">6 Strategies for Serving SLIFE</a>&nbsp;(presentation slides)</li>
</ul>

&nbsp;

Takeaways from TESOL 2022: 7 Points to Unpack from Pittsburgh 

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Do you want to improve your listening skills?

Listening to true stories is a great way to improve your listening skills. Storytellers are everywhere, but today&nbsp;I want to tell you about my favorite place to find them.

<h1>The Moth Radio Hour</h1>

<a href="https://themoth.org/radio-hour" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">The Moth Radio Hour</a> is a free storytelling radio show&nbsp;that you can listen to as a podcast. I listen to <a href="https://open.spotify.com/show/5UKrcYdaGbq10z97yqi81N" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">The Moth on Spotify</a>, but there are lots of other places to find it.

The stories on The Moth are all true. Some stories make me laugh out loud. Others make me cry. I&#39;ve never been disappointed by a true story from The Moth.

Each week there are new true stories to listen to. Most episodes have three&nbsp;stories. Each story is about 15 minutes long. The stories in one episode&nbsp;all follow a certain theme.&nbsp;This week&#39;s theme was shoes.&nbsp;The theme is in the title of the episode, which is&nbsp;called &quot;If the Shoe Fits.&quot;&nbsp;If a theme&nbsp;doesn&#39;t appeal to you, you can always listen to past episodes. Some recent story themes at The Moth were&nbsp;siblings, love, and surprises.&nbsp;

<blockquote>
&quot;The Moth&nbsp;was founded by the novelist George Dawes Green, who wanted to recreate in New York the feeling of sultry summer evenings in his native Georgia, when moths were attracted to the light on the porch where he and his friends would gather to spin spellbinding tales.&quot;

&mdash;themoth.org
</blockquote>

<h1>How to Improve Your Listening Skills with The Moth</h1>

<h2>Make Listening a Habit&nbsp;</h2>

I listen to true stories from The Moth whenever I&#39;m&nbsp;preparing&nbsp;dinner. I can usually fit in&nbsp;at least two stories when I&#39;m prepping and cooking. Sometimes my teenagers hear a story playing in the kitchen and join me.&nbsp;

Try making a habit of&nbsp;listening to stories&nbsp;(e.g., listening on the train, listening on Sunday mornings, listening in the car).&nbsp;

<h2>Learn Some Idiomatic Language</h2>

The Moth&#39;s episode titles and descriptions often include everyday language and <a href="https://ellii.com/courses/88/lessons/2800" target="_blank">collocations</a> that you may find useful to learn, such as&nbsp;&quot;divine intervention,&quot; &quot;a loss for words,&quot;&nbsp;or &quot;letting go.&quot;

The true stories you listen to will&nbsp;help you remember these&nbsp;expressions.

If you don&#39;t understand some of the everyday&nbsp;expressions the storytellers use,&nbsp;you can always ask about them in English class or leave a question right at the bottom of this post!&nbsp;

<h2>Share the Stories&nbsp;</h2>

A friend told me about The Moth a few years ago, and I&#39;m so happy that she shared it.&nbsp;

I often retell bits of the stories I hear on The Moth to a friend or family member. Retelling stories is a great way to practice your speaking and vocabulary. You can practice important skills, such as <a href="https://ellii.com/courses/74/lessons/2465" target="_blank">paraphrasing</a>, <a href="https://ellii.com/courses/74/lessons/2718" target="_blank">summarizing</a>, and <a href="https://ellii.com/resource_categories/124/resources/2873" target="_blank">recounting</a>. <a href="https://ellii.com/courses/88/lessons/1618" target="_blank">Reported speech</a> is another important, yet tricky, language structure you can practice.&nbsp;

Unlike TED Talks or celebrity podcasts, the&nbsp;storytellers at The Moth are often just regular people like you and me. You can&#39;t help wanting to tell a related story after hearing their stories.

I hope The Moth inspires you to tell your stories too!

By the way, if you hear a great story on The Moth, be sure to stop by this post again and recommend an episode!&nbsp;I recommend <a href="https://themoth.org/radio-hour/put-to-the-test" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">&quot;Put to the Test&quot;</a> and&nbsp;<a href="https://themoth.org/radio-hour/where-we-belong" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">&quot;Where We Belong.&quot;</a>

<h2>Glossary</h2>

<ul>
	<li>podcast: a series of audio files that you can listen to online</li>
	<li>episode: one part in a series, such as a&nbsp;TV or film series</li>
	<li>theme: the main subject or topic&nbsp;</li>
	<li>appeal: to&nbsp;like the look, sound, or appearance of something</li>
	<li>sultry: hot and humid</li>
	<li>moth: an insect with feathery wings&nbsp;</li>
	<li>porch: an enclosed outdoor seating area</li>
	<li>spellbinding: holding one&#39;s attention, very interesting</li>
</ul>

<div class="white-box">
<h5>Question of the Month</h5>

Who is the best storyteller you know? What makes this person a good storyteller? Share your comments with me below!
</div>

VIEWING POSTS BY

Tara Benwell