Beyond Words

Can skills you learn in one context be successfully transferred to another? Now, more than ever, having an attractive professional profile is key. Whether you need to refresh your LinkedIn profile and your CV, make sure you showcase your skills. During Covid, many took online courses to explore new horizons or simply to stay active. The question is: When choosing a course, do you consider how transferable are the skills that you will learn?   First of all, what are transferable skills? “Transferable skills are exactly what they sound like: the skills that you use in every job, no matter the title or the field. Some transferable skills are “hard,” like coding or data analysis, and some are “soft,” skills like communication and relationship building. [1] ” The most common transferable skills that employers find desirable are:     Let us consider what skills people who attend a teacher training course leave with. For example, during a TAFL course (Teaching Arabic ...

Intercultural differences encompass the diverse ways that people from various backgrounds perceive, communicate, and interact. These distinctions are shaped by language, religion, customs, values, social norms, and historical experiences, reflecting each culture's unique history, geography, and belief systems. In a world that is more interconnected than ever, understanding these differences is key to fostering positive cross-cultural relationships.  Key Areas of Intercultural Differences Here’s a look at some of the most common ways intercultural differences show up in everyday interactions: 1. Communication Styles Cultures have unique norms around communication—whether verbal or nonverbal. This includes the use of directness, gestures, eye contact, and appropriate levels of formality. For example, while some cultures value directness, others might see it as impolite, leading to potential misunderstandings. 2. Social Norms Behavior considered appropriate in one culture can be inter...

  Why Differentiation?  I came across this term for the first time, several years ago during an inspection; the suggestion to include differentiation in my lessons left me feeling overwhelmed with lots of questions and few answers: does it mean that I have to prepare several different tasks for each stage of the lesson? How do I monitor students’ progress if they are doing different things? What about my preparation time? So, what is it? The main aim of differentiation is to create an environment in which all learners reach their full potential: this means students increase their mastery of content and skills. This happens when teachers build trust, ensure learning tasks fit learners, strengthen students’ voice, and develop awareness.  What is differentiation? Differentiation is more of a mind set than a technique but please don’t be put off! Differentiation can be super simplified in 2 stages: Building your students’ profiles: it all starts by looking at...

  Are they any good? Can you really become fluent using just an app? What are the best features of these apps? These apps are very easy to use, most of them offer a free service, and they all have courses for complete beginners. The exercises are easy to understand and they are all based on a simple formula to help you memorise words. Some are supported by visuals, which make understanding easier; some instead, are supported by translation in English. Do they offer a sense of achievement? Most of them have cute ways to celebrate completion of activities or levels: for example a growing plant in a pot or a little character celebrating your new level. Do these gimmicks work? Actually, they do! Being celebrated for completing a level is very nice and it energises you, you feel you want to do more. Positive reinforcement is very powerful.   What are their common pitfalls? The most common pitfalls, in the free versions, are linked to gaps in grammar clarificat...

  8 classroom activities to teach your students how to approach challenge and pressure with positivity In this article I will explain how these 8 simple activities, if included in your lessons, can help your students develop long-term strategies to cope with challenge and pressure. Let’s see how we can develop positivity and a proactive approach to pressure in our students.   The past 2 years forced educators to look further afield for different tools to engage and support students. I took inspiration from Terry Orlick’s work “In Pursuit of Excellence”: Terry Orlick is an internationally acclaimed sport psychologist, who helped hundreds of Olympic and professional athletes maximise their performances and achieve their goals. Why is mindset for learning important? Mental skills help students when facing challenges like learning new things or performing under pressure during an exam. All students are required to learn a set of knowledge during their studies; including ...