This session presented by James Hall at Compass Teacher's Day in Brazil in July of 2018. The session looks at two amazing courses, Blueprint and Interact, which help adult learners to develop their language competencies within the context of the 21st Century. The session looks at the changing needs of language learners away from just traditional forms of input and output into the 4cs of 21c learning and the growing need for practical and useful contexts for a real and dynamic world. (c) 2018 James Hall- please use citations with references.

1. Learning in the 21st Century
Practical Tips for Adults
Compass Teacher’s Day 2018
James Hall

2. A world of possibilities.

3. Interact in the 21st Century

5. Fixed Mindset
Growth Mindset
Victim Mindset

6. This is not a good sign…

7. Neither is this…

8. How can we create
meaningful learning
experiences
for students?

9. Enthusiasm (or lack of it) is contagious.

10. Why is this
important to me?
Help students understand…

11. Useful
Connected
Emotional
Interesting
Importance can mean…
“I can understand how this could help
me.” (ex., survival skills)
“There is something inherently enjoyable
about this.” (ex., sports statistics)
“I am emotionally invested in this.” (ex.,
wedding anniversary)
“This relates closely to other things that
are important to me.” (ex., new
vocabulary)

13. Transforming
education

14. Success is no longer about knowing more
than another person.
Movement away from rote learning and
accumulation of knowledge
Movement to learning skills
(21C skills)

15. Apply and Assess
• creativity
• critical thinking
Meaningful context
• communication
• collaboration

16. Communication
skills with an open mindset

17. Communication
Our ability to
• persuade
• share information, thoughts, and
opinions clearly
• motivate others
• instruct others
• listen effectively

18. We learn language to communicate!

19. But… culture can get in the way and confuse us
even after we develop the language skills

21. Communication Activity:
Eavesdropping
Objective: The exercise puts students in a real-world listening situation where
they must report information overheard. Most likely, they have an opinion of the
topic, and a class discussion could follow, using the target language, about their
experiences and viewpoints.
Directions:
Listen to a conversation somewhere in a public place and be prepared to answer,
in the target language, some general questions about what was said.
1. Who was talking?
2. About how old were they?
3. Where were they when you eavesdropped?
4. What were they talking about?
5. What did they say?
Learning Outcomes
Communicative exercises such as this motivate the students by treating topics of
their choice, at an appropriately challenging level.

23. The main point of language through communication
is taking down walls… not putting them up

24. 21C communication means
Learners need:
• exposure to information about other cultures
• explicit instruction about cultural differences
and similarities
• exposure to different varieties of English
(vocabulary and accents)

25. Accountable Talk
• Teacher prepares a set of “stems” (sentence
starters)
– More advanced expressions that will push
students to communicate more elaborately and
respectfully
• Students have a dialog, taking turns using
the stems
• Examples:
– I think (that)…
– I (dis)agree because…

26. 1 point 2 points 3 points
I think (that)… I don’t think
(that)…
I (sort of) agree
with …. because
….
It’s surprising
(that)…
It’s interesting
(that)…
So, what you’re
saying is…
I don’t
understand why…
I wonder why… Couldn’t it also be
true that…

27. They have no need of our help
So do not tell me
These haggard faces could belong to you or me
Should life have dealt a different hand
We need to see them for who they really are
Chancers and scroungers
Layabouts and loungers
With bombs up their sleeves
Cut-throats and thieves
They are not
Welcome here
We should make them
Go back to where they came from
They cannot
Share our food
Share our homes
Share our countries
Instead let us
Build a wall to keep them out
It is not okay to say
These are people just like us
A place should only belong to those who are born there
Do not be so stupid to think that
The world can be looked at another way
Refugees
a poem by Brian Bilston

28. Collaboration
in a real and diverse world

30. Collaboration
Students’ ability to…
• work with others to accomplish a goal
• show mutual respect
• compromise and be flexible
• share group responsibility
• build consensus

33. What are some greeting styles you are more c
omfortable with?

35. Learning to speak English means
learning to INTERACT
with people in other cultures

37. Collaborative Communication Activity
1. Describe the picture
(using specific language structures or vocabulary)
2. Put students into small groups of 4-5
3. Give students 1 minute to brainstorm all the
words/phrases they can think of related to a unit title
4. Discuss pre-reading questions (from the book or have
students generate their own ideas)
5. Have students work in groups to predict what they think
they will be reading about (general or specific)

40. Creativity
to broaden our minds

42. Creativity
Involves…
• ideation (brainstorming)
• elaboration
• risk-taking
• refining ideas
• cycling of build-learn
• being responsive to new ideas from others
• making ideas tangible and useful to others
• building, mistakes, learning new ways

43. “If you're not prepared to be
wrong, you'll never come up
with anything original.”
Sir Ken Robinson

48. Abstract Meaningless
Inauthentic
Emotional
Detachment
Systematic
Forgetting
Context Meaningful
Authentic
Emotional
Commitment
“Deep” learning
experience
Creativity
Rote Learning Contextual Learning

49. Critical Thinking
to break down barriers

50. Critical Thinking
Involves learners ability to
• draw conclusions
• analyse and synthesize
• interpret and make connections
• reflect critically and evaluate
• solve problems

51. Why teach Critical Thinking?
• Use different reasoning (inductive/deductive)
• Make good judgments and decisions based
on information and sound arguments
• Solve problems; identify and ask important
questions to clarify other’s view and lead to
better solutions

53. The Critical Thinking Paradigm

54. Improving our critical thinking

56. #TheDress

59. Tap-In Debate
1. Choose a controversial topic and divide students into two groups: those who agree and
those who disagree
2. Students prepare their argument
3. Arrange chairs, so that there are two hot seats facing each other and place chairs
behind the hot seats
4. When you say “start”, the first two students sitting in the hot seats start the debate,
trying to defend their group’s point of view
5. After a few minutes tap two students, one in the hot seat and one that is not.
6. Once the student in the hot seat is tapped, s/he must stop the conversation. The new
student takes that place.
7. The new student must resume the conversation exactly where the other left it, even if
it is in mid-sentence. S/he must make their argument coherent and follow the previous
opinions and statements.
Critical Thinking Activity

60. From ON POINT, Compass Publishing

62. Here’s to
the crazy
ones

63. http://www.thecrazyones.it/spot-en.html

64. Communicate.
Collaborate.
Create.
Critically think.

65. Questions?

66. facebook.com/compasspublishing
@CompassELT
jameshall@wjcompass.com
compasspublishing
slideshare.net/compasspublishing
Thank You!