7 Days 7 Ways: Continued Professional Development – 3) ELT Magazines & Journals

This is post number 3 in my series “7 Days 7 Ways: Continued Professional Development” in which I’m sharing ideas on how to integrate CPD easily into your teaching-packed lives! So far I’ve talked about 1) Blogs, and 2) Reflection Groups & Learning Networks. 

Today’s Way is…

• ELT Magazines & Journals

To further develop as a professional teacher beyond your immediate context, you’ll need to be finding out what’s going on in the ELT world beyond your institution’s doors! This might mean looking at some of the latest research into langauge acquisition and teaching, adapting/adopting teaching ideas and materials, or gaining an understanding of key debates and current issues in the profession. An easy way to do this is to read an ELT magazine or journal, or other publications such as newsletters. 

Some of the best-known magazines that I like to read are:

English Teaching Professional: see their website here.

Modern English Teacher – a magazine that “keeps you up-to-date with the latest developments and trends in ELT theory and thinking” see here.

Humanising Language Teaching Magazine (HLT) – a magazine on the web for English “teachers looking for ideas and interested in teacher development.” see here.

And there’s also EL Gazette , which is a free “newspaper for English language and international education”, which can be found here. 

If you’d like to know more about the theoretical side of things and get in touch with some of the latest research, some of the go-to journals for ELT include:

ELT Journal, which “links the everyday concerns of practitioners with insights gained from relevant academic disciplines such as applied linguistics, education, psychology, and sociology [and] aims to provide a medium for informed discussion of the principles and practice which determine the ways in which English is taught and learnt around the world. It also provides a forum for the exchange of information and ideas among members of the profession worldwide.” See here.

TESOL Quarterly, which “fosters inquiry into English language teaching and learning by providing a forum for TESOL professionals to share their research findings and explore ideas and relationships in the field.” See here.

There are also a high number of more specific journals, and subscribing to all of them would obviously be expensive and probably mean you don’t have time to read all of them! Maybe the instution you work for subscribes to the most relevant ones for your teaching context, so you could read a copy there. Or they might like to subscribe to a couple of journals if you suggest it. Otherwise, you can use Google Scholar to find articles, many of which are for free, on any specific aspect of ELT that interests you.

If you would really like to engage with a wider network of teachers and researchers through magazines and journals, you might also want to write your own article. I’d suggest writing for a magazine or journal that you actually read, since you’ll then be able to pitch your text at the right kind of tone and level, and also always contact the editor in advance with your idea, and make sure you follow the guidelines for contributors that you can usually find on the publications’ websites. 

So, that was day three -introducing some of the magazines and journals I would recommend for you to take a look at as one part of your CPD journey! If there are any other magazines or journals you think I, and other readers, should know about, please post the titles/links/etc. in the comments below! And for any more tips or advice about getting started publishling, feel free to get in touch!

 

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