Past Issues of English Teaching Forum | American English

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English Teaching Forum 2022, Volume 60, Number 4

Niagara Falls is an oil painting by American landscape artist George Inness, who lived from 1825 to 1894. This work, created in 1885, depicts one of the most popular tourist attractions in North America; the Falls are located in the U.S. state of New York and the Canadian province of Ontario. The painting is part of the Smithsonian American Art Museum collection, which features more works by Inness and by thousands of other artists.

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Questionnaires as a Tool for Teaching English Language through Learner-Create Knowledge

Christopher Strelluf and Eric Ekembe

Christopher Strelluf and Eric Ekembe explain potential benefits of learner-created knowledge which can be particularly valuable in low-resource contexts, and present a detailed, adaptable approach for using questionnaires to create knowledge, inspire critical thinking, and develop language skills.

Managing Volunteers in Language Teacher Associations

Nikki Ashcraft

Author Nikki Ashcraft gives background information about language teacher associations (LTAs), then presents a detailed guide for managing volunteers, including analyzing needs, recruiting, matching volunteers with tasks, orienting and training, supervising and evaluating, and acknowledging volunteer contributions.

Advocacy for Language Teacher Associations

Luis Javier Pentón Herrera

Using a case study and inviting reader reflection, Luis Javier Pentón Herrera presents four types of advocacy used by language teacher associations (LTAs) and demonstrates how those types play out in proactive by giving real-world examples; the author also proposes and explains three steps LTAs can take to become advocacy-centered organizations.

Reader’s Guide

This guide is designed to enrich your reading of the articles in this issue. You may choose to read them on your own, taking notes or jotting down answers to the discussion questions below. Or you may use the guide to explore the articles with colleagues.

The Art of Discussion: Prompting Discussions with the Work of Norman Rockwell

Piero Carlini

Author Piero Carlini demonstrates how teachers can use specific works of art by Norman Rockwell, in addition to recurring themes in the artist’s work, to spur critical thinking and productive discussion beyond the artwork itself. The article gives suggestions for using the art with learners who have different levels of English language ability.

Reflections: In Appreciation

Tom Glass

This is the fourth of four articles examining various aspects of Forum as the journal moves through its 60th year of publication. This article expresses appreciation for the ingenuity of authors who have written articles for Forum, the teachers who read the articles, and the learners who benefit from the ideas that are shared in those articles.

Turning Logic-Grid Puzzles into a Communicative Activity

Gavin Young

The author, Gavin Young, offers a detailed guide showing how to create custom-made logic-grid puzzles and how to present and use them in class to promote learners’ speaking, listening, and thinking skills. The author uses an original puzzle he created as a working example throughout the article.

The Lighter Side: "An English Class Logic-Grid Puzzle

In this puzzle, your job is to solve a logic-grid puzzle that is based on elements of sentences that three students have written. After you have solved the puzzle, you must determine the sentence that each student wrote from a list of choices.

English Teaching Forum 2022, Volume 60, Number 3

Find strategies for helping students read with a purpose by creating books based on texts they have just read … using podcasts to support your language instruction … creating a comfortable, communicative classroom atmosphere … integrating various tech tools to support specific language-learning objectives … playing a group-based vocabulary review game … and much more.

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Motivating Student Reading through Post-Reading Book Creation

Nicole Brun-Mercer and Catherine Moore

The authors explain the importance of reading with a purpose—in this case, learners create a new book based on a text they have just read (or listened to).

Utilizing Podcasts in Virtual EFL Instruction

Elizabeth Hanks

The author, Elizabeth Hanks, is the creator and host of her own English-learning podcast, and in this article she shares ideas for using pre-made EFL podcasts, creating your own podcasts, and using general audience podcasts to give students of various levels opportunities to practice all skills and “advance on their English-learning journey.”

Getting Students to Speak Up: Classroom Atmosphere Is Key

Amanda C. Bradford

The author describes a challenge that is familiar to many language teachers: trying to get students to speak up independently, share thoughts, and participate authentically in the target language. The article includes general and specific tips for creating a comfortable, communicative classroom environment.

Reader's Guide

This guide is designed to enrich your reading of the articles in this issue. You may choose to read them on your own, taking notes or jotting down answers to the discussion questions below. Or you may use the guide to explore the articles with colleagues.

Integrating Tech Tools to Support Various Modalities of Second Language Development

Natalia Ward and Betty Thomason

The authors highlight tech tools that they have found particularly useful in supporting the language-learning objectives they set in their classroom. The article includes examples from a unit of study to illustrate how the tools can be linked to specific instructional goals and tasks.

Reflections: Forum in 2022

Tom Glass

This is the third of four articles looking at various aspects of Forum as the journal moves through its 60th year of publication. This article gives background on how the current sections of Forum were developed and explains the purposes that each section serves.

My Classroom: Mauritius

English Teaching Forum Staff

Danielle Zélin runs her own school, the Language Mood English Club, and incorporates the surroundings (beach, forest, community) on the island of Mauritius in her teaching. The article describes Danielle’s approach to teaching, the many projects she oversees and takes part in, and the island’s lively, multi-lingual environment.

Vocabulary Jigsaw Review

Cara M. Schroeder and Edgar Miguel Grajeda

The authors present a step-by-step guide to playing this group-based, interactive game in which learners use clues to find previously studied vocabulary. The game can be played with advanced-beginner learners and can be adapted for more-advanced learners.

The Lighter Side: "Vanilla Rice Stream"

In this puzzle, two words in each sentence don’t make sense. Your job is to replace them with words that rhyme with the original words and make the sentence make sense.

English Teaching Forum, Volume 60, Number 2

Find strategies for selecting and adapting open educational resources (OERs) ... responding to emergencies and student crises … using double-communication lines when teaching online … conducting peer collaboration and correction in writing with Big Paper … using group progress charts with young learners … and much more.

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"The Potential of Open Educational Resources for English Language Teaching and Learning: From Selection to Adaptation"

Katie Mitchell Burrows, Kendra Staley, and Matthew Burrows

The article outlines how to find and adapt open educational resources (OERs) and presents a specific example of remixing OERs for the language classroom; the authors’ goal is to inspire other educators to create and adapt OERs and incorporate the materials into their own teaching contexts.

"Teaching in Emergencies: Building Resilient Practices as Language-Learning Teachers"

Mia Sasaki with Sara Levi

The authors present specific steps and suggest sources that teachers can use to support students’ socio-emotional and language learning, with a particular focus on teaching in emergencies and responding to student crises.

Reader's Guide

This guide is designed to enrich your reading of the articles in this issue. You may choose to read them on your own, taking notes or jotting down answers to the discussion questions below. Or you may use the guide to explore the articles with colleagues.

Online Double-Communication Lines to Enhance Student Interaction

Beatriz Erazo

The author describes ways to bring a popular classroom technique to online environments, showing how to have students form virtual “lines” and then move from partner to partner via a sequence of changing breakout rooms.

Better Writing with Big Paper: Peer Correction in Collaborative Learning Teams

Aida Koçi McLeod

The author explains how to use “Big Paper” as the basis of a hands-on, collaborative, student-driven activity that helps learners focus on form, grammar, spelling, and punctuation in a unique and engaging approach to peer review.

A Forum Retrospective: 60 Years of English Language Teaching

Jamila Barton

This is the second of four articles looking at various aspects of Forum as the journal moves into its 60th year of publication. This article reviews decade-by-decade trends in English language teaching, as reflected in articles published in Forum.

My Classroom: Seattle, Washington

Nguyen Doan Hanh Nguyen

Learn how Irene Thanh Pham, who teaches in a dual language program at an elementary school in Seattle, helps her students learn both language (English and Vietnamese) and culture (primarily American and Vietnamese) while stressing identity awareness and educational equity.

Group Progress Charts for Young Learners

Malka N. Wickramasinghe

Malka N. Wickramasinghe, a teacher in Sri Lanka, shares a step-by-step guide to motivating young learners to collaborate on group tasks through the use of roles and creative, goal-oriented progress charts.

The Lighter Side: "Two-Part Titles: Can You Match Them?"

Many Forum article titles have two parts (as the name of this puzzle does). Your job in this puzzle is to match the first part of an article title with its second part. How many can you match correctly? (How many of the articles have you read?)

English Teaching Forum, Volume 60, Number 1

Find strategies for combining multimodal materials with modes of communication to create authentic online communicative activities … incorporating digital multimodal composition into English language classes … adding innovative, instructive twists to mingles … creating a narrative flipbook … and much more.

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Considering Multimodal Materials and Modes of Communication for Authentic Communication in Online Classes

Jonathan Maiullo

The author, Jonathan Maiullo, proposes ideas for considering the use of multimodal materials and different ways of communicating in order to offer students a rich, authentic learning experience; the article includes five example activities that “illustrate the ways that multimodal materials combine with modes of communication to create authentic online communicative activities.”

Digital Multimodal Composition in the Second Language Classroom

Jimalee Sowell

The author, Jimalee Sowell, explains benefits of incorporating digital multimodal composition (DMC) into the English language classroom and carefully describes five types of DMCs, complete with multiple assignment suggestions, analysis questions, and other considerations for each type.

Reader’s Guide

This guide is designed to enrich your reading of the articles in this issue. You may choose to read them on your own, taking notes or jotting down answers to the discussion questions below. Or you may use the guide to explore the articles with colleagues.

"Mix It Up! Mingle Away!"

Laura Loder Buechel

Laura Loder Buechel presents innovative twists on the familiar technique of “mingling,” suggesting creative ways that you can use mingles to have students tell and listen to jokes, find partners, give compliments, and more—with additional tips for getting the most out of the mingles you use.

Reflections: Forum at 60

Tom Glass

This is the first of four articles looking at various aspects of Forum as the journal moves into its 60th year of publication. This article reviews milestones and major changes that Forum has undergone over the last six decades.

My Classroom: Lebanon

Sandra Story

Learn how Sara Kassab uses her passion for English and her talents as a teacher to serve refugee children in Baalbek, Lebanon, as she, her colleagues, and the families they serve deal with challenges related to the pandemic.

An Interactive Project for Online Language Practice: Creating a Narrative Flipbook

Navinder K. D. Singh

Navinder K.D. Singh provides a step-by-step guide to helping students work collaboratively to create a narrative and turn it into a digital flipbook.

The Lighter Side: Sixty Years

Can you unscramble the words associated with events that have taken place in the six decades since Forum was first published? And can you put those events in the order in which they occurred?