From Professional Development to Playful Activities: Lessons from the 31st P.A.R.K. Conference

Attending a conference is always a refreshing way to step back from the daily routine and reflect on our teaching practices. And the organizers of the P.A.R.K. Conference really know what they’re doing. They’ve mastered the art of keeping teachers engaged from start to finish. This year, they set the tone right from the beginning with a light-hearted welcome from the owner and manager of the P.A.R.K. School. He greeted us—“ladies and a few gentlemen”—a playful reference to the fact that, in the Czech Republic, teaching is still a predominantly female profession, with only a few male teachers present at such events. He thanked us for showing up on a Saturday morning and encouraged us to “enjoy the café and the rest of the conference.” The in-joke landed perfectly, especially since the catering at P.A.R.K. is famously top-notch and often gets rave reviews from participants.

The choice of the plenary speaker was absolutely spot on. It set the tone for the rest of the conference perfectly. Peter Lucantoni, who travelled all the way from Cyprus, brought a burst of energy and enthusiasm as he spoke about the importance of professional development. He posed some thought-provoking questions—like “What are we aiming for in teacher learning?”—that really got me thinking.

What resonated most with me was the idea that learning can’t be forced. Also, true teacher development needs to be sustained over time. Peter emphasized the importance of a positive and supportive learning environment—one with order and structure, strong peer collaboration, leadership that actually leads, and a culture built on trust, respect, and openness. As he spoke, I found myself reflecting on my own context, quietly asking, “How much of this applies to me?” It was the kind of talk that lingers in your mind long after it’s over.

Peter then moved on to discuss the steps involved in professional development. As teachers, we need access to the right kind of input—something that’s not just professional, but also practical and personal. He shared a short video clip featuring Scott Thornbury, who highlighted a key takeaway: talking to other teachers and sharing experiences is absolutely essential for meaningful professional growth. That simple reminder hit home—sometimes it’s the informal chats over coffee that lead to the biggest insights. Other key steps in the process include planning, implementation, and evaluation.

To sum up Peter’s plenary: the ultimate goal of teacher learning is better student learning. For that to happen, we need to prepare the ground thoughtfully, check for impact along the way, and give ourselves the time and space for improvements to take root and grow.

Throughout Peter’s plenary, there were a lot of thought-provoking moments, but one that really stood out to me happened when he mentioned Scott Thornbury. As many of us know, Scott is a highly respected figure in the ELT world, known for his contributions to the field. But what surprised me was that only a few participants raised their hands when Peter asked if anyone knew Scott Thornbury—the guru of ELT. Peter seemed a bit taken aback, and I was too, especially after he had shown a video clip featuring Scott. It made me realize how much times have shifted in this regard. I couldn’t help but ponder the reasons behind this. Has the landscape of ELT changed so much that newer generations of teachers are less familiar with the older pioneers? It was a thought-provoking moment that made me reflect on how the field is evolving.

I went to see Peter Lucantoni again in the afternoon for his workshop on collaboration. It turned out to be another thought-provoking session, packed with great questions: What are collaboration skills? Why do students need them? Why should we focus on developing them in the first place?

One key point that stood out was the definition itself—collaboration means working with someone to achieve a shared goal that students wouldn’t be able to accomplish on their own. Simple, but powerful. As Peter spoke, I couldn’t help but think back to our recent Erasmus+ project—that was a perfect example of what he meant by genuine collaboration. It felt great to see that kind of meaningful work validated in such a clear way. I also appreciated hearing Peter mention jigsaw activities—something I use quite a lot in my lessons. It was reassuring to hear them described as a genuinely collaborative technique because I’ve always had a gut feeling that they really work that way. It’s nice when your teaching instincts get a bit of expert backing!

The most practical takeaway from this session was the idea of assigning specific roles for collaborative tasks, such as editor, designer, manager, time-keeper, presenter, researcher, etc. It reminded me that I should be doing this more often—students need to feel they have personal responsibilities, not just shared group ones. When everyone has a clear role, the collaboration becomes more purposeful and effective.

Fiona Mauchline is another person who really knows how to lift the mood. She came on stage with a warm, funny intro, telling us how she’d had to redo all her slides the night before because her presentation had been corrupted. Totally relatable!

Her talk focused on teaching teens—something I’ll always be interested in, since teens are all I teach. Fiona shared eight practical principles that really stuck with me:

1. A safe, rich learning environment – no teasing or bullying, just a space where students feel secure.
2. Active, interactive learning – or as she put it, “the best AI in the world.”
3. Students as teachers – she referred us to the learning pyramid to highlight how powerful this can be.
4. Transferable skills – things like writing a CV, doing drama, or working with poetry.
5. The learning tree – starting from what students already know (the roots) and growing from there.
6. Authenticity – in both tasks and the teacher. Make it real, make it useful.
7. Collaboration – she mentioned “contagion,” the idea that students often follow the example of their peers, which we can use to our advantage.
8. Multiple focuses – engaging the senses and different modes of learning.

One point that really resonated with me was her take on Duolingo. She’s not a fan—and I found myself nodding along. Fiona argued that while a sense of reward is important for motivation, we shouldn’t over-trigger it. Duolingo, in her view, does just that. She also touched on emotions. In the classroom, students are already navigating negative emotions like anxiety and fear of failure. Our job is to balance that out by triggering positive emotions—curiosity, confidence, and joy in learning.

The closing plenary by Phil Warwick was the cherry on top—a playful cherry, I should add. Phil shared a bunch of fun, tried-and-tested activities that work well with his students. This is exactly the kind of practical stuff that many conference participants really look forward to. I’m usually not one of them, to be honest—but I still found it enjoyable and appreciated the energy he brought to the room. Some of the activities he demonstrated included definition race, eights, word auction, word associations, Stop!, two letters, Taboo, affix race, Venusian vocabulary, and article race. A proper toolbox of games to liven up a lesson!

Overall, the 31st P.A.R.K. Conference was a fantastic opportunity to reflect on my own teaching practices while gaining fresh perspectives from experts and fellow educators. From Peter Lucantoni’s insights on professional development to Fiona Mauchline’s practical tips on teaching teens, and Phil Warwick’s playful activities, every session offered something valuable. What stood out the most, though, was the sense of community—being surrounded by like-minded teachers, sharing experiences, and learning from each other. As I left Brno, I felt re-energized and ready to put new ideas into action. Conferences like this remind me that, no matter how much we know, there’s always something new to learn—and that’s what keeps teaching so exciting.

Lessons from Erasmus+: How Feedback Shapes Our Experiences

This past week was a whirlwind! After a five-year break, we hosted another Erasmus+ exchange. And it was an incredible experience. As the organizing team, things were pretty hectic and a bit stressful at times, but like all such intense experiences, eventually, it turned out to be deeply rewarding.

The program blended team-building activities with hands-on workshops where Czech and Belgian students collaborated on Easter-themed projects while discovering Czech traditions. Having been part of Erasmus+ exchanges for quite some time, I have to say this one truly felt like what an exchange should be—at least, that’s my overall impression. And based on the final feedback, most people felt the same way.

This leads me to the topic of today’s post: feedback. As tradition has it, the last day of an exchange is about closure. It’s time to say those final goodbyes and move forward. From my experience with other events—like agency-organized trips to the UK—I’ve learned that the way you design a feedback form is absolutely key.

Typically, agencies break it down, asking for feedback on each day and every activity separately. They also ask about the guide, the bus drivers, and the hosting families. Students are usually asked to complete these forms on the way home, often during the bus ride. As supervising teachers, we’re allowed to review the forms to check if there’s anything we should be aware of. The feedback is usually a mixed bag, with some students being surprisingly harsh. In the past, there have been instances where a guide felt quite disappointed after reading some of the comments. We knew she had done her best, which always made me reflect on the nature of feedback in general.

During a hectic week like the one we just had, with over thirty people participating in activities across different locations, mishaps are bound to happen. Life isn’t perfect, and no matter how carefully you plan, you can’t avoid everything. Some hiccups can be fun, while others might feel chaotic or frustrating. The question then becomes: should we really ask participants to rate every single activity when we know this exact setting is unlikely to happen again, given that it was probably a one-off exchange?

I understand why a travel agency needs to know if the guides are doing a good job or if the hosting families are a good fit. But in our case, it was different. We did most of the work voluntarily, in our own free time—planning, leading afternoon activities, hosting, or even being there on a Sunday. Do we really need to hear that something was “boring”? I don’t think so. What we and the hosting students need is a bit of praise and encouragement. We need to hear what they appreciated and what they learned from the experience.

I also believe it’s important to ask for feedback at the right time—not immediately after a hiccup has occurred or when participants are exhausted. Feedback should be instant and lighthearted, especially with teenagers, and not overly serious. It should also be in a format that suits the age group, preferably online. In this case, I used mentimeter.com to ask for the students’ final messages, and the timing was just right. They submitted their feedback right after sharing their heartfelt videos, which summarized the week’s experience. And they could see their messages instantly, projected on the screen.

Final feedback can provide valuable insights, helping you avoid future mishaps. But most importantly, it’s a final opportunity to seal the experience and bring all the participants even closer together. So, there shouldn’t be space for negativity. We should teach students how to express their dissatisfaction diplomatically, without hurting anybody. We should encourage them to appreciate rather than criticize, especially when criticism isn’t really necessary. Sometimes, it’s better to look past mistakes rather than point them out—so that we can move on happily, with gratitude, without looking back with bitterness or regret. 🙂

We need to talk about AI in the classroom, don’t we?

It’s been a while since I last posted about using AI in the classroom. Rereading that post—and the comments—I can’t help but smile. Back then, I was a complete newbie, just dipping my toes in. I didn’t know much, but I was fascinated by AI’s potential. It reminded me of the thrill I felt discovering language corpora during my MA days at Masaryk University. And, boy, have I written a lot about that! 🙂

There was the same sense of anticipation—the idea that this tool could do things I’d never manage on my own. I imagine it’s similar to the excitement people felt when they first picked up a calculator: dive in, play around, and it delivers amazing results almost instantly. Thinking back, I realize I fell in love with language corpora because they seemed like they could transform how I learned and taught. It was, indeed, an amazing feeling.

Now, after working with AI for a while, I have to say it’s been even more impactful than corpora were back then. Corpora are fantastic for academics studying language, but tools like ChatGPT? They’re for practitioners—ready to help right when you need them. Need a lesson plan in 5 minutes? Just turn to your favorite AI app.

In my experience, however, a slow and cautious approach works best. A reminder to myself: Don’t overdo it—students can get overwhelmed by too much AI content. Take it step by step, and learn as you go. Workshops on using AI in the classroom can be helpful, but trying to absorb everything at once can backfire. You risk either doing nothing with it or attempting to do it all at once. By exploring the tool bit by bit, testing its capabilities, and finding where it fits naturally into your teaching, you start seeing real results.

Personally, I began using AI to brainstorm questions and prompts for my speaking classes, and before long, I was generating feedback for written assignments. I was amazed—what used to take ages now took just a couple of hours. And I’m learning too—learning to turn my impressions of a student’s work into clear, meaningful feedback.

Recently, I gave ChatGPT a tough challenge, though: evaluating students’ translations from English to Czech and selecting the top three out of 11 pairs of texts. Unfortunately, it didn’t quite hit the mark. It seems this is still an area where AI falls short—or maybe I haven’t cracked the code yet. 🙂

But overall, working with AI has been a real pleasure. What I love most about this tool is how it pushes you to ask the right questions and give clear instructions—something we teachers already excel at, right?

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Sure, there are some big challenges ahead. Some of my colleagues have already had to deal with plagiarism, which makes me wonder: are we giving assignments that practically invite students to copy and paste? And how do we change those assignments—or even the whole school system—to help students do their best, knowing they’re going to use AI anyway? That’s the big question right now.

What about you? How are you tackling these challenges—or embracing the opportunities—with AI in your classroom?

You have what I want

I suppose every teacher has their favourite type of activity. I’m really into information gap activities, i.e. activities which require students to speak and work with their classmates to obtain the missing information. And once they’ve acquired the information from their classmates, they can fill the “gap” and complete the task or activity. During these activities, students need to communicate clearly in order to successfully complete the given task.

Most of my classes work best if you get them to work in pairs or groups. An otherwise reticent group will turn into a chatterbox once I ask them to discuss, compare and share in pairs. Some coursebooks have ready-made information gap activities. To give an example, Student A must read a text on page x, while Student B turns to a different page to read another text on the same/related topic. Then they share what they’ve learned. But I mostly design these activities myself. The good news is that practically any exercise or task can be transformed into an information-gap activity.

Below are just a few examples I’ve recently used.

Pictures: I ask Student A to look at a picture for 30 seconds. Student B looks at a different picture on a different page. They close books and describe the pictures from memory. Then they can contrast both pictures without actually looking at them. Students look for the common theme and other similarities, as well as for differences. This can be a springboard for the topic you’d like to focus on in the lesson.

Gap-fills: I like to create two versions of a gap-fill, i.e. I use the same text but omit different words for Student A and different words for Student B. They work individually first and then they share their answers. If they are unsure about an answer, their partner helps them by describing the missing word.

Student A: They work 1 _____________ first and then they share their answers.

Student B: They work individually first and then they 1 _____________ their answers.

Keys: Students complete two run-of-the-mill exercises. When they finish, I give Student A the key to Student B’s exercise and vice versa. They check answers by sharing the keys. This is a time-saver and it’s much more interactive than sharing it as a whole class. Your only task is to monitor.

Half-a-crossword: This is by far the most favourite activity of mine. As the title suggests, you create a crossword where Student A has some words while the others are missing and Student B has the ones Student A needs. The task is to complete the whole crossword by exchanging the information.

A variation on running dictation: Each student picks a certain number of words from a list/text. They write them on a piece of paper. Alternatively, you can ask them to choose a longer sentence, e.g. from a coursebook text, or you can dictate one. Student A stands opposite their partner, a few meters apart. Student A remembers the first word from the list/sentence and runs to their partner. They describe the word and when Student B guesses it, they write it down. Student A runs for another word. When they are done with their list/sentence, they swap roles. The task is complete when both students have written the whole list/sentence. This could be done with pictures as well (see Activity 1).

Drawing: Find some suitable paintings/visuals on the internet. For example, like me, you can google the most famous paintings of all time (our topic was ART). Show one of them on the screen. Student A faces the screen and describes the picture to their partner who can’t see it. After a certain amount of time, they stop, look and compare their drawing to the original painting. Then they change roles. To make it more interesting and fun, before they can look at the original, they compare their drawings with other students’ creations. You can later set up an art exhibition (if students don’t mind displaying their products).

These are only a few examples of information-gap activities. The list is endless. And as I mentioned above, any task can be designed as an activity where students simply need to make a little bit more effort than usual to complete it, which, I believe, is something we should always strive for.

English as a foreign language and its connection to L1/L2 culture

A few weeks ago, I attended another great conference here in the Czech Republic. From the plethora of great workshops the 29th P.A.R.K. conference had to offer, I’d like to mention two. I specifically picked these two because I found the topics very close in essence; it seemed to me as if they almost mirrored and complemented each other, which was probably strengthened by the fact that the presenters occasionally referred to each other throughout their speeches. The interesting thing is that both presenters, Simon Gill and Mark Andrews, have first-hand experience with my native culture – they both used to work here at Palacky University in Olomouc and Simon actually lives nearby with his Czech wife and two kids (if I remember correctly). So it won’t come as a surprise that the underlying theme (at least the way I saw it) was English as a foreign language and its connection to the L1/L2 culture.

Mark Andrew’s topic was Czenglish. I can’t help mentioning that many, many years ago, Mark was my BA thesis supervisor, which he probably doesn’t even remember given the fact that he’s such a globe trotter. Now, it might seem like tooting my own horn when I say I have been in direct contact with quite a few ELT gurus throughout my career, but it’s definitely not an exaggeration. And so it was a great honour that at some point, all of a sudden, Mark mentioned my blog and one specific post I had written a long time before – yes, the one about Czenglish. He kindly asked me to stand up and say hello to the audience, which I childishly refused. 🙂 #humblebragging

Simon Gill raised a few interesting questions. The one that comes to mind first is What are the reasons for English these days? He introduced an acronym – TENOR (teaching English for no obvious reason), which I found really amusing. I immediately remembered the dichotomy of intrinsic vs. extrinsic motivation; sometimes people JUST do something because they want to. And there is no obvious motivation behind it, i.e. there are no external goals or objectives they feel pressured to meet. If I asked my students, most of them would probably state two reasons from the list below and that would be that English is the language of the internet and that potentially, it’s a passport to a better future. Or they simply have to do it since it’s part of the school curriculum. But many of them don’t even think about the whys and they just do what is asked of them without consciously realizing that they are actually doing it to have more options in the future.

The last slide below shows a list of Czech expressions which are hard or impossible to translate into English with word-to-word equivalents. These are culture-loaded expressions which have a typical meaning in a particular culture, i.e. Czech culture. So, for the sake of accuracy, you usually need to provide some additional context and/or explanation. This proved to be an interesting exercise for me and my students. I think there should be more practice like this because, after all, we often need to verbalize our own cultural experience when talking to foreigners.

So, the overall message I got from Simon’s talk was this: it’s not always important to strive for native-like perfection when learning/teaching English; it’s more important to stay true to ourselves and our cultural backgrounds. On the other hand, the takeaway from Mark’s presentation was that we should be mindful since some elements of Czenglish may cause a little bit of confusion but are eventually understood by a native speaker. All in all, he encouraged us teachers to introduce the concept of Czenglish in class. I’m definitely for and I’d add this should be pursued without putting too much focus on native-like accuracy. In other words, we should occasionally point out some of the more ‘tricky’ errors – particularly those that may lead to all sorts of embarrassing situations. We definitely want to avoid major cross-cultural misunderstandings, but primarily, we want to train our students to get their message across fluently.

Listen and grab the card: a set of no-prep activities

I really liked this simple, low-prep activity I learned about in a workshop delivered by Ben Herbert at the ILC International House Brno Brilliant Conference earlier this month. I have since tried it with most of my classes and, regardless of their level or age, it has always worked well. It’s definitely good for students who tend to be restless and who like to move and touch things. Plus there’s nothing more blissful for the teacher than watching the most serious students smile during an activity.  🙂

From the perspective of your lesson objectives, the activity can serve multiple purposes. You can use it to pre-teach vocabulary or to practise the vocabulary you covered in previous lessons. It can be used as a springboard for a speaking activity and it also involves a listening practice element.

I’m going to present the no-prep version.

·      Get students to form pairs.

·      Give each pair a sheet of blank paper and ask them to cut it up into 16 pieces (this number is easy to manage, even without scissors).

·      Choose a text you want to work with (plus the recording of it). Ideally, it should be a longer text, such as a story or an article.

·      Select 16 vocabulary items you want to focus on (this is the number I usually work with but it can be different in your context). These can be difficult words you want to pre-teach, keywords you’d like students to use to retell the story, etc.

·      Dictate the words. Students write them on the slips of paper. If the expressions are new, write them on the board first and ask students to copy them.

·      Do the pre-teaching, if necessary.

·      Get students to shuffle the cards and spread them on the desk face up so they can all see them well.

·      Play the recording. When a student hears one of the words, they grab the corresponding card.

·      The student with more words is the winner.

To make it a little bit more challenging and fun, ask students to place their hands on their shoulders. This will make the competition a bit fairer, especially if there are only a few words left.

The good thing about this type of activity is that it makes students focus – even the most easily distracted ones will sit tight and alert. From a linguistic point of view, it encourages learners to predict, i.e. by hearing the context, they can guess what vocabulary items might potentially come next, which is a useful skill to practise. 

Since I like to recycle my teaching materials, I always use the cards multiple times in the same lesson (and in the subsequent lessons as well). For example, I ask the students to put the words into categories or to add collocates. As I mentioned above, at some stage, I get them to retell the story using the words. Later on, they can play a describe-and-guess activity in groups. Another option is to collect the cards from all the pairs and place them on the floor. This time, the students are sitting in a circle with the words in the middle. Play the recording again (or ask somebody to read the text). You can encourage the students to get hold of the same word more than once. Alternatively, you can place the cards around the classroom and students have to look for them. Finally, you can use the sets to play Pelmanism (a memory card game in which a pack of cards is spread out face down and players try to turn up pairs with the same number). This is called killing many birds with one stone, right? 😀

Try and enjoy! 🙂

The 13 questions

Well, 2022 is coming to an end. It has been a good year but it’s also been unusual in many ways. And as I think it’s always useful to pause and reflect, I’ve decided to ask myself the following 13 questions, which I had come across on Melli O’Brien‘s FB page.

1.    What was the best decision you made? Not to quit blogging. I’ve learned that you don’t always have to irrecoverably say goodbye to things in your life. Just hit the metaphorical pause button and resume whenever you feel the need to. 

2.    How are you different from a year ago? I am different in many ways. At some point in 2022, my ego was shattered to pieces and I had to put them back together again. This, I believe, made me a bit stronger. 

3.    What have you learned from the hard times? Let go of things but don’t burn bridges completely. Instead, burn what’s useless in you and go on. 

4.    What did you enjoy the most this year? I enjoyed being in the classroom full-time again and travelling a bit. 

5.    What are you most proud of this year? I’m proud of my ability to trip over, fall and get up again without doing too much harm to myself or the people around me. 

6.    What did you learn about yourself? I learned that listening to friends who can be brutally honest can be very helpful but, on the other hand, appreciating those who quietly and compassionately support me through my struggles without interfering is equally valuable. 

7.    What energised you? What drained you? Travelling to places I had never been before and meeting new friends energized me a great deal. Having to handle the egoic conditioning of my mind and some of my destructive thoughts robbed me of a lot of my energy supplies. 

8.    What advice would you have given to your last-year self if you could go back and start the year again? Accept things as they are. Change what you can and let go of the rest. Sometimes things will look after themselves. Also, remember that not everybody feels the same way you do so listen and observe patiently and do not jump to conclusions – you’ll finally come to understand the other person’s point of view. 

9.    What matters most to you in the next year? My inner peace. 

10.  What are you going to continue doing? Shedding light on some of the most vulnerable and fragile aspects of my personality. 

11.  What do you want to change completely? The way I perceive reality. Fewer assumptions, and/or (unrealistic) expectations. I’d like to become more patient, too. 

12.  How do you intend to be different at the end of next year? I want to become someone who focuses on the present moment and makes the most out of it. I’d like to be someone who appreciates the little things they have and happily welcomes the ones that are about to come.  

13.  What is your highest intention for the next year? To stay calm in difficult situations. 

PS.: I believe that this can also be a very good classroom activity. I’m definitely going to try it out with my older students. 😉 

AI in the classroom?

If you happen to follow Philip Kerr’s blog, you will know that he has recently published this post called AI and Teacher Training where he talks about ChatGPT. In short, ChatGPT is a new AI chatbot that is trained using machine-learning algorithms and can understand open-ended queries. Not only does it comprehend orders, but it also understands the language – even Czech (my native language).

Well, it probably doesn’t come as a surprise that I, as an English teacher, find this tool truly fascinating. Not only can ChatGPT answer questions, but it can also write essays. This could come in handy in many situations in the classroom. For example, we can use the tool to train our students to give detailed answers when answering questions during exams. Also, ChatGPT could be used as a research tool for the students to find suitable material for their essays and presentations. And finally, it may be very useful for the teachers themselves if, for instance, they need another source to prepare for their lectures, conferences, webinars, etc.

What I also like about ChatGPT is that it remembers what the user said earlier in the conversation but most importantly, it is trained to decline inappropriate requests, so it should be relatively safe in the classroom.

Plus, it can definitely be fun to use. Alternatively, you can teach students how to diplomatically avoid answering odd questions, how to be polite when answering sensitive questions, etc. Here’s an example.

I’m not saying that this is something you can’t do with a simple Google search, but the fact that you can actually see the bot typing the answers in real time, so to speak, is fascinating indeed. Also, if you type How old am I into the Google search box, you’ll never get a genuine-like answer, such as the one from the bot. Well, I admit it may even appear scary to some, especially if you’re a fan of sci-fi movies related to the topic of AI. 🙂

One way or another, we should be careful and warn our students about ChatGPT’s limitations. Some argue that the biggest problem with ChatGPT is it often fails at accuracy. It sometimes writes plausible-sounding but incorrect or nonsensical answers. Users have discovered that ChatGPT makes up historical and biographical data. Also, it can generate discriminatory results. So, we teachers need to constantly encourage our students to verify their search results. This, in fact, can be a useful skill to learn and practise anyway. Our students should be aware of the fact that these days, they should not trust anything they come across on the internet unless they check different sources and look at the information from various angles.

All in all, if nothing else, ChatGPT can be a great tool for students to practise asking good questions. I’m deliberately not saying ‘correct’ questions because the bot will provide answers to wrongly formed questions as well, which may not detrimental after all, especially if our aim is to focus on the content and some sort of ‘communication’ instead of grammatical accuracy.

Anyway, below are some of the questions I asked when I first played with ChatGPT and the answers I received. You can see for yourselves how useful or ‘accurate’ they are. 😉

What is the meaning of life?

The meaning of life is a question that has puzzled people for centuries, and there are many different answers to this question depending on one’s beliefs, values, and personal experiences. Some people believe that the meaning of life is to seek happiness, fulfilment, or purpose, while others believe that the meaning of life is subjective and can vary from person to person. Others may believe that the meaning of life is to serve a higher power or to contribute to the greater good of society. Ultimately, the meaning of life is a deeply personal and philosophical question, and the answer will likely be different for everyone.

What is love?

Love is a complex mix of emotions, behaviours, and beliefs associated with strong feelings of affection, protectiveness, warmth, and respect for another person. It can also include deep romantic or sexual attraction. Love can be experienced in many different forms, such as the love between family members, friends, and romantic partners. It can also be described as an action or a choice to care for and support another person. Some people believe that love is an important part of a happy and fulfilling life and that it is a fundamental human need. Others may view love as a mysterious or elusive concept. Ultimately, the meaning and experience of love can vary greatly from person to person.

Is there life after death?

The concept of life after death is a belief that has been held by many different cultures and belief systems throughout history. Some people believe that the soul or spirit lives on after the body dies, while others do not believe in an afterlife. There is no scientific evidence that proves or disproves the existence of an afterlife, and it is ultimately a matter of belief and faith. Beliefs about the afterlife can vary greatly from person to person and can be influenced by cultural, religious, and personal experiences. It is important to respect the beliefs of others and to recognize that people have the right to hold their own beliefs and opinions on this topic.

How to find the deeper meaning

The other day, I came across the concept of logotherapy. At first, I was rather confused by the fact that it was mentioned in the context of education – since it’s a term mainly used in psychotherapy – but as I further explored it, it started to make perfect sense.

So, logotherapy is a therapeutic approach that helps people find personal meaning in life. It’s a form of psychotherapy that is focused on the future and on our ability to endure hardship and suffering through a search for purpose. Logotherapy was developed by neurologist and psychiatrist Viktor Frank and is based on the premise that the primary motivational force of an individual is to find meaning in life. In other words, Frankl believed that humans are motivated by something called a ‘will to meaning’ – a desire to find meaning in life. Also, he believed that life can have meaning even in the most miserable of circumstances and that the motivation for living comes from finding that meaning. 

Frankl believed in three core properties on which his theory and therapy were based:

• Each person has a healthy core.
• One’s primary focus is to enlighten others about their internal resources and provide them with tools to use their inner core.
• Life offers purpose and meaning but does not promise fulfilment or happiness.

Logotherapy proposes that meaning in life can be discovered in three distinct ways:

• By creating a work or doing a deed.
• By experiencing something or encountering someone.
• By the attitude that we take toward unavoidable suffering.

So, what does all this have to do with teaching, ELT, education, etc.? First of all, I strongly believe that apart from teaching English, our primary goal is to enlighten our students about their internal resources and to provide them with tools to use their inner core. We, teachers, can help our students to find meaning through creativity and creation. Also, we can offer opportunities for them to experience something meaningful in the classroom as well as outside of it. Finally, we can dig deep through all the layers of what we see on the outside and find the healthy core each student has.

Second of all, logotherapy, or the realization of its basic premise of it, can help us start the healing process aimed at ourselves. We teachers also have healthy cores and we definitely have the power to realize that even though life (or our job) does not automatically promise fulfilment or happiness, it definitely offers purpose, so the only challenge is to discover it – through creativity and work. And even though we may suffer now and then, or feel unfulfilled or dissatisfied, it’s the attitude we take towards this sort of ‘hardship’.

Thirdly, there’s the question of motivation – a concept so often debated in the context of ELT and education in general. Once you find a purpose in doing something, for example learning a language, things become easier for everybody involved – for the student as well as the teacher.

From the above, it seems that having a meaning or purpose in life correlates with one’s overall health, happiness, and life satisfaction. So, through logotherapy, we teachers could kill several proverbial birds with one stone. We could simply make the classroom a happier place and our work even more meaningful. After all, once the teacher is happy, the students are too (and vice versa).

The 5 out of 10 speaking activity

Here’s a quick post in which I’d like to share a simple speaking/vocabulary practice activity. No preparation is needed.

Get each student to write down 10 words on a separate piece of paper. These can either be from a specific section of the unit you need to revise, or they can create their own sets based on their hobbies and interests. So, if a student is interested in music, he or she writes down words such as conductor, orchestra, stage, etc. While the first option is probably more practical syllabus-wise, the second alternative is far more personalized and student-focused, and your students will probably like it more because they are in the role of experts and can showcase what they like and/or are good at. Tell our students you will collect their lists.

Before you collect them, though, make sure they sign them. Shuffle the lists and draw one randomly. Call out the author of the list and ask them to come to the front of the class (I asked them to sit on my chair while I sat at the back of the classroom). The rest of the class should grab a blank piece of paper. The student in the front chooses 5 of the 10 words from their list and defines them one by one. His classmates try to guess and write down the words, but they must not say them out loud. After the student describes all five words, they reveal the answers. For each correct word, each student gets a point. The speaker then draws another list from the pile. This goes on until everybody has spoken.

I was surprised by how enjoyable the activity was. Also, it was simple yet very effective. Apparently, my students liked both describing as well as guessing the words.