Teaching English podcast: How can I use different languages in my teaching?

Download the eighth episode, show notes and transcript from series 1 of our podcast 'British Council Teaching English'.

British Council: TeachingEnglish - series overview

In this ten-part podcast series from the British Council, we try and provide solutions to some of the key questions being asked by English teachers around the world. Each episode explores a specific topic through interviews, a focus on recent developments and reports on British Council initiatives in English language teaching. Practical show notes and transcripts are available to download at the bottom of the page.

Episode 8: How can I use different languages in my teaching?

Students’ home languages should be seen assets in the English language classroom – but all too often they are viewed as problematic and detrimental. In this episode, the writers of the British Council publication 'Using multilingual approaches: moving from theory to practice' share activities you can use in your classroom that celebrate the languages your students speak. Following these practical suggestions, academic and researcher Tony Capstick shares his insights into the value and importance of a multilingual approach to learning.

Show notes

Each episode contains downloadable show notes. These include the following:

  • Ideas for how you could use the podcast in your teaching
  • Detailed notes with extra information about the contents of the episode
  • Useful links
  • A lexical glossary of words and phrases from the episode, mapped to the CEFR 

How to listen or subscribe to the podcast

You can listen and subscribe to the podcast in the following ways:

Downloads

  • Episode 8 audio file
  • Episode 8 Show notes
  • Epsiode 8 Transcript

This episode is produced for the British Council by Chris Sowton and Kris Dyer

Comments

Submitted by Rahma_Indonesia on Sat, 09/09/2023 - 15:57

"The languages they (students) speak are a strength and a potential aid, rather than a barrier to learning." (Sue Ollerhead)
This podcast is really mind-blowing. The conversation set me free of any guilts, due to the belief many people had that "Being monolingual in Target Language only is the best method".
I'm Rahma from Indonesia, a country with hundreds of local languages. Thank you so much!

Submitted by Cath McLellan on Mon, 09/11/2023 - 08:15

In reply to by Rahma_Indonesia

Hi Rahma

It's great that you found the podcast so helpful - and yes, it's always good to examine some of these beliefs about good language teaching!

Cath

TeachingEnglish team

Submitted by Belkis Mohammed Omar on Mon, 08/28/2023 - 21:32

very interesting study . I enjoyed it .

Submitted by Chigbu Lois On… on Mon, 08/14/2023 - 12:31

An interesting module this udy

Submitted by Mamadou Lamara… on Wed, 03/16/2022 - 12:20

It's really important to help prudents pronounce Well there english.I always use broker french To adapt them pronouncing Well.like the Word "take" i can tell m'y students to pronounce l'île this (teike).

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