Dear Teacher,
Some of you may be aware that my first experience with Italian state schools was in the mid-1990’s, when I became an ELT Consultant for an English publisher. One of an ELT Consultant’s principal activities is to present the company’s books through Teacher Training sessions, and I have collected 15 of these workshops in a 95-page e-book. Notes from an ELT Consultant, which includes the first ever Tune Into English talk, is available to download for supporters of the site (you decide how much!) – remember, however, www.tuneintoenglish.com is free and always be! Thank you for your support.
This month’s three additions to the Downloadable Worksheets section of the Teachers’ Area of the site are all based on activities and ideas used in those workshops. The first, written by regular contributor Mena Bianco from Naples, is a phonetic activity based on Just Like A Woman by Bob Dylan.
The worksheet for Chuck Berry’s You Never Can Tell is based on misheard words and was written over 20 years ago by James Ratcliff, based in St. Etienne de Montluc, Nantes, France.
The third addition is a post-listening activity for the song Bohemian Like You by The Dandy Warhols.
I was saddened to hear of the death of Lou Reed – I saw him perform many times and met him in a museum in Naples some years ago. There is now a worksheet online for Walk On The Wild Side – this will be “officially” published in the December newsletter.
The Tune Into English Roadshow began its tour last month – you can see comments on the new show here (thanks for the positive feedback!) and see photos on the Tune facebook page. I would be delighted to come to your school, and this month am particularly looking forward to the Comenius meeting Mission Into The Future in Calvizzano (NA), where the Roadshow will be part of the closing ceremony.
You can sing along with the UK Top 10 Charts on the Speak Up site – updated weekly, there is a link on the Tune Home page too.
The Karaoke page of Tune Into English now features over 8,700 songs.
Tune Into English also works with schools in the UK and Ireland to promote study tours and teacher refresher courses there. Further details are here – note that these can be funded through the Comenius/Grundtvig scheme.
I look forward to meeting you and your students in the coming months. If you are at TESOL’s 32th Annual National Convention in Paris on the 23rd November come along and say hello!
I’ll leave you with a video from the 1990’s, when I was oh-so-much-younger…
Best wishes,
Fergal Kavanagh
Tune Into English
www.tuneintoenglish.com
