Adrian Tennant

Many people will have seen the video advert for a well-known language school that features a supposedly German coastguard responding to a Mayday message where a ship’s captain says: ‘We are sinking’ and the coastguard responds by saying ‘What are you sinking about?’ (Mojo Yachting Club, 2025). The problem is that this is just another demonstration of why what causes misunderstandings is, well . . . misunderstood. Just think for a minute, surely the context makes the message clear. Are we really to believe that the coastguard is so stupid he doesn’t understand what the captain of the ship...

One issue often encountered when dealing with a global issue in the classroom is that often students have been swamped with certain topics and are fed up with talking about it. How many lessons are there on issues such as climate change, recycling, water and the carbon footprint? Another issue is that it is almost always a top-down approach, i.e. information in the Student Book (often in the form of a reading text) followed up by activities focusing on the vocabulary and grammar and culminating in a speaking activity, often a discussion. Such an approach often leads to disengagement...

The article argues that the natural extension of learner-centred classes is for the students to take on aspects of the class management.

The author shows that an article generated by AI requires precise specifications and might lack the human touch or the authentic author voice.

A number of useful activities including memory training, translation and dictation could be added to our current approaches.