What's happening in January 2024?
Whether you are a teacher or a teacher educator, this page gives you an overview of all the activity happening across our TeachingEnglish channels in January 2024.
For teachers this month, we'll be focusing on the theme of 'Integrating ICT'. For teacher educators, the focus is 'Knowing the subject'. Below you'll find free online training courses, live webinars and other online events, podcast episodes and research - all related to these central themes.
In addition to our themed events and content, we also have hundreds of lesson plans and classroom resources. Below we've selected some lesson plans to help you engage students with topical issues and special United Nations days this month.
Online training courses
Our tutored courses for the month are 'Key digital skills' and 'How to teach grammar'. Live events and discussions related to these courses are hosted in our Courses for teachers community on Facebook. Find out about 'Key digital skills' and all other courses open in January below.
- Key digital skills - enrol before 29 January
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Develop beginner digital skills and learn how to use documents, worksheets, search, presentations and videoconferencing to enhance your teaching.
In this free online course, you will learn about the following:
-Using word processors
-Using slideshows
-Using spreadsheets and search
-Videoconferencing
Find out more and enrol on this free course - How to teach grammar - enrol before 25 March
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Discover how to help your learners notice, make sense of, and become more confident using grammar with engaging, meaning-focused teaching. Learn about deductive and inductive approaches to grammar teaching, how to evaluate the best approach for your learners and identify contexts and tasks which encourage 'noticing'.
In this free online course, you will learn about the following:
-Understanding methods and approaches
-Engaging with grammar - noticing and restructuring
-Engaging with grammar - different approaches
Find out more and enrol on this free course - How to teach vocabulary - enrol before 24 March
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Help your learners notice, record, recycle and use new vocabulary more confidently with engaging, classroom activities.
In this free online course, you will learn about the following:
-Understanding vocabulary
-Engaging with vocabulary - recording and recycling
-Engaging with vocabulary teaching
Find out more and enrol on this free course
Online events and webinars
See our free online events and webinars for teachers and teacher educators below.
- Different approaches to technology in the classroom - mini-event (18 January)
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This event will feature a webinar exploring the British Council's latest report on AI in ELT, followed by three webinars with ELT teachers and experts from around the world. All webinars will help English teachers think about how they use technology in the classroom. The webinars are for teachers of primary, secondary and young adult English language learners.
Schedule and speakers
11.45am - 12.45pm (UK time): Artificial Intelligence and ELT: Findings from the British Council report (Neenaz Ichaporia, India)
13pm - 14pm (UK time): Communicative activities using AI (Raquel Ribeiro, Brazil)
14:15pm - 15:15pm (UK time): Maximising interaction in the online classroom (Lauren Perkins, UK)
15:30pm - 16:30pm (UK time): Plan B (for when technology fails) (Silvie Rasikova, Spain)
11.45am - 16.30pm (UK time)
Find out more and register for this online event. - How can teacher educators enhance learning and teaching in English-medium education? (23 January)
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Please note the content of this webinar is not aimed at teachers, and is specifically for teacher educators who have a role in supporting the professional development of English language teachers.
How can English language teachers and teacher educators work together with academic subject teachers who use English as a language of learning and teaching to create environments in which learners develop both their English language skills and their subject knowledge? Ann Veitch, English in a Multilingual World lead at the British Council, discusses how collaborative approaches in English as a language of learning and teaching contexts can help to improve student learning outcomes.
12.00 - 13.00 (UK time).
Find out more and register for this online event. - Facebook and Instagram Live events in January 2024
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Join our online community of more than 4 million teachers worldwide. We will be hosting weekly events throughout January via our Facebook and Instagram channels.
These 30-minute 'live' sessions are a great opportunity for you to join teachers from around the world.
Engage with English language teaching experts and community members on a range of topics and themes to help you develop your teaching skills, and share ideas and questions with a vibrant global online community.
See what's happening in our community on Facebook
See what's happening in our community on Instagram
For the classroom
See a selection of lesson plans below that you can use to focus on United Nation Special Days in January in your language teaching classrooms.
- World Braille Day (4 January)
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Title of lesson plan: The Very Busy Spider
Age group: Primary
Level: A1 and above
This is a series of activities and related worksheets for you to download and use with the storybook The Very Busy Spider. Learners will make a touchy feely book and give a presentation of the story. It forms part of the Promoting diversity through children's literature series, produced by the British Council Teaching Centre in Paris. - International Day of Education (24 January)
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Title of lesson plan: My ideal teacher
Age group: Primary
Level: A2 and above
In this lesson primary learners do a series of simple and supported vocabulary and grammar activities which lead to them writing about their ideal teacher. At the end of the lesson they draw pictures of their ideal teacher and they make a classroom display of their texts and pictures
Podcast episodes
See all our podcast episodes connected to January's themes below.
- Teaching English podcast: How can I teach online effectively?
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The last few years have seen a rush towards teaching online, accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic. But whilst some teachers had considerable experience teaching remotely, for others it was a completely new experience. In episode 5, we learn from Plan Ceibal (Ceibal en Inglés), an innovative English teaching project which uses videoconferencing technology to reach 80,000 children in over 550 primary schools across Uruguay. In the second part, digital learning specialist and lecturer in English language teacher Raquel Ribeiro shares her insights into how you can teach online more effectively, whatever your own experience and personal context.
Listen to the episode and download the show notes
Publications, research, and insight
See all of our publications related to January's themes below.
- Integrating ICT self-study booklet
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This self-study guide for teachers and teacher educators looks at integrating ICT. It forms part of a series of self-study booklets, in which teachers will find useful theory and practice for teaching English effectively, including short case studies and professional development activities to do individually and with colleagues.
Using inclusive practices self-study booklet - Technology for teachers
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This series of 18 easy-to-use guides explores a variety of tools, resources and applications to help you integrate digital elements into your practice. From finding classroom resources online to using social media for professional development, this series supports you in becoming more digitally proficient.
Technology for teachers - Technology for teachers: practical tools
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This series of 10 easy-to-use guides explores a variety of digital resources to help you integrate digital elements into your classroom practice and for your professional development. Each guide focuses on a specific skill and introduces a digital tool to help you develop specific skills among your students. The guides also list practical steps you can take for your own professional development. The ‘Try other resources’ section leaves you with other related resources to explore and further strengthen your practice.
Technology for teachers: practical tools - Using action research to explore technology in language teaching: international perspectives
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This study provides an investigation of the processes and practices involved in conducting action research on the use of ICT and new technologies in the classroom as experienced by 12 teachers located across different international contexts, from Europe, the Middle East and Asia.
Using action research to explore technology in language teaching: international perspectives - Innovations in learning technologies for English language teaching
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Innovations in Learning Technologies for English Language Teaching starts by considering the following contexts of language learning: primary, secondary and adult learners, then different specialist areas: Business English, English for Specific Purposes and English for Academic Purposes, and finally the assessment of language using technology. Each chapter embeds a number of real-life case studies into a framework of research. The chapters show some of the development of the field, and a wide range of technologies is covered.
Innovations in learning technologies for English language teaching - B-MELTT: Blending MOOCs for English Language Teacher Training
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This paper explores how the integration of an existing MOOC (Massive Open Online Course) into ELT university programmes can affect students' beliefs, while at the same time providing them with the opportunity to engage in reflection with a global community of practice.
B-MELTT: Blending MOOCs for English Language Teacher Training
Excellent for all contents for the teachers, I hope to enjoy it. Thanks.