Chiara Bruzzano

48 POSTS

Chiara Bruzzano (BA, MA, DELTA M1, PhD) is an experienced EFL teacher, teacher trainer and instructional designer. She started blogging for English Teaching professional back in December 2019, and is now blogging for the new look Modern English Teacher following its launch in January 2022 where she continues to write about teaching and teaching training issues, impacts of research on teaching/teacher training and a lot more besides. Chiara teaches at the University of Milan, the University of Leeds and the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya. She also designs and delivers teacher education programmes and is the founder of LanguagEd, a professional development company. Chiara holds a doctorate in language education and her interests include listening pedagogy, teacher and learner cognition and migration. She is currently conducting research funded by the British Council on the consequential validity of IELTS.

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Five lessons I have learned from writing materials

2024-06-20

Many teachers want to make the transition from teaching to materials writing. Recently, Chiara Bruzzano was asked to co-write a textbook: read her latest post to find out about the five main lessons she has learned from her experience.

Authentic but engaging or graded… but dull? Silent videos: the third way

2023-12-12

As language teachers, we are often faced with a dilemma: should we choose materials that are authentic but challenging for students, or graded materials that are unengaging? Chiara Bruzzano suggests that the answer may be an unorthodox one: doing away with words in the input by choosing silent videos.

Now I get it!

2023-10-06

Do you ever think back to the way you learnt a foreign language and how it was taught? What about if you are learning one now? Is there anything you can gleam for your own teaching? Read about Chiara Bruzzano’s journey of her own language learning and how she now understands it through the lens of Second Language Acquisition, to see why such language learning can help teaching.

Keeping up with CPD over the holidays

2023-08-15

As many teachers around the world start their summer holidays, what are some ways to keep up with professional development over the ‘break’? Can we unwind and learn at the same time? Chiara looks at five easy ways to do this: from podcasts to journals like MET, YouTube channels and reflective practice.

English as a Medium of Instruction: all that glitters may not be gold

2023-06-15

How much does EMI feature in your teaching? Do you know much about the present and the future of EMI around the world? And why should it matter? Read on to find out more from recent British Council and the European Commission reports and learn about the challenges of CLIL in schools and EMI in universities.

Listening difficulties: going beyond ‘They speak too fast!’

2023-05-19

If your students struggle with listening, you might have to consider facing the source of their problems head on: their listening difficulties. Chiara lifts the lid on what the research and students say about the main listening difficulties, and how you can leverage them in your classroom.

Writing an online self-study course – Part 2

2023-04-14

Many teachers are pivoting towards making language teaching a business. This includes designing online self-study courses. In the second part of this series, we look at some decisions to make when designing an online self-study course: whether to make it interactive, how to introduce reflection tasks and check learning, and how to pilot the course.

Writing an online self-study course – Part 1

2023-03-13

Many teachers are pivoting towards making language teaching a business. This includes designing online self-study courses. In the first article of this two-part series, Chiara Bruzzano looks at why designing a self-study course is a good idea and how to take the first steps.

Upping your (English) game: lessons learnt

2023-02-13

What do the words ‘translation’ and ‘translanguaging’ mean to you? Do they have a place in teaching in your view? Read on to discover where they fitted in an English for football course, what type of language was the focus on the course, how teacher and student co-created knowledge, and how a sense of progress was established.

Upping your (English) game

2023-01-18

What ways do your learners use their English? How can it enhance their job or education? In the first article of a two-part series, read about an interview with women’s Serie A football coach and his English teacher to understand how the coach learns English to use it in his job and reflect on what you can learn from it.

How to run a successful online CPD event

2022-12-05

Have you ever considered organising an online CPD event? Learn how Chiara Bruzzano organised a one-day event, from defining her audience to choosing speakers and topics, making a schedule and reaching her audience, and her top tips to make your event a roaring success.

The ins and outs of teacher research

2022-11-03

How often do you reflect on why things are working in your classroom, and what makes them effective? Do you just go on instinct, or think there is space for research? We lift the lid on teacher research and explores how it is defined, then investigates the different forms of teacher research, why you may want to try it and some barriers to it.

Vivid memories: using critical incidents for professional development

2022-10-07

Do you have memories of incidents in the classroom that prompted you to ask why and make changes to your practice? Read how the technique of critical incident analysis can be used as a tool for reflective practice, what the research says and how you can go about it.

Five mistakes I made and five mistakes I make

2022-09-08

Reflection is an integral part of evolving as a teacher so here’s Chiara Bruzzano reflecting on the mistakes she used to make as a novice teacher, the ones she makes now as a teacher and a teacher trainer, and how she has gone about improving on them.

Pronunciation: what we think and what we do

2022-08-12

What is pronunciation instruction and how do teachers do it? What ways can pronunciation be taught? Let’s look at common methods and what the research says about teachers’ beliefs and practices, as well as the impact of teacher education.