ELT has the WRONG input: Learners can't understand REAL people - Sheila Thorn
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ELT provides the wrong input: language as it should be spoken not as it is spoken. This is wrong and Sheila Thorn gives us another way.
Sheila Thorn is a teacher, teacher trainer and materials writer whose niche focuses on teaching listening. She founded The Listening Business in 1998 and is the author of countless seminal books that have moved our industry forward. She has recently embarked on a new career as an artist, specialising in portraits of people and animals.
Her latest publication, "Integrating Authentic Listening into the Language Classroom" is a must-read.
In this episode, Sheila discusses:
ELT having the wrong input
coursebooks as impoverished language
learners being scared of real language
how teacher training fails teachers as much as coursebooks fail students
the 5 listening goals every learner should have
a 3-pronged approach to teaching listening
the problem she is trying to solve in ELT
For more from Sheila:
Watch the Video Version of our Podcast
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About Sheila Thorne - in her words
My name is Sheila Thorn and I am the founder of The Listening Business. The name reflects my fascination with listening, both in terms of English language teaching and testing and in qualitative research in social care settings.
I founded The Listening Business in 1998. As a linguist and a teacher specializing in ELT (English Language Teaching), I knew from my own experience how quickly students can make progress when exposed to recordings of authentic speech accompanied by suitable tasks. I was also aware that most teachers are simply too busy to prepare labor-intensive authentic listening materials.
At first I specialized in writing intensive listening practice exercises to accompany BBC radio programmes. These were used by language schools, FE colleges and universities throughout the UK and Europe until 2012. In 2004 I began working on my unique Real Lives, Real Listening series, published by Collins in the UK and Klett in Germany. The focus of these books is on listening training and decoding authentic spoken English rather than traditional listening comprehension, that is the process of listening rather than the product of listening.
Since 2012 I have been working as a writer and copy editor of ELT teaching and testing materials, specializing in listening skills. I also regularly make audio recordings and provide transcripts of interviews with native and non-native English speakers.
In addition, I am closely involved with Barts Health NHS Trust, carrying out qualitative research and inspections, as well as editing patient information leaflets. I also work as a research consultant and editor for Healthwatch Waltham Forest. In addition I regularly write profiles of world-leading neurologists for The Lancet Neurology.
Further information about my books and my services is available on this website If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to get in touch. I would genuinely be delighted to hear from you
Podcast Creation:
This episode was created with support from Skool & Podbean. If you're looking to launch a course or start a podcast, we highly recommend them - and use them ourselves.
As always, thank you for listening. Your support has been overwhelming and we couldn't do what we do without you. We hope this podcast serves as an effective CPD tool for you.
If you have a comment or question about today's show, we'd love to hear from you: info@learnyourenglish.com
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