Last Monday I had the honour of being invited to give a paper to open an event at the University Institute of Technology of Montpellier-Sète, dedicated to the exchange of teaching practices between English language teachers at the University of Montpellier, including teachers and researchers from Montpellier management school, law school, medical school, the faculty…
Summer is well and truly upon us. With thermometers registering 44 degrees here in the Hérault department, that is something of an understatement. In the still-cool morning, thinking about colour. A kitchen window left ajar. Between fly-splattered panes, a burnt green and pink geranium on the exterior window-sill. High above mushroom-coloured rendered façades topped with…
I, like every other (language) teacher the world over, am always thinking about the best way to assess. What do I mean by ‘best’? The most cost-effective, the most useful, the fairest…? And ‘best’ for who? Students, teachers, employers, educational institutions…? As I’ve explained in previous posts, in an attempt to find a practical answer…
Glug glug glug. Blog May 2018. The following post is sent from out of the dark and lonely, endless depths of evaluating and examining, that are seemingly synonymous with the month of May (and June?) in the French university system and into which I have sunk and am muckily enmired in. Coming up for air.…
Obituary writing, a very particular form of creative writing, whilst based on facts, is as far from a straightforward biography, even a potted one, as Perrier is from Dom Pérignon. There is no pretence of comprehensiveness. Rather, facts and dates, rumours and stories are cunningly chosen and woven together to create a portrait of the…