So… How Could We Teach Reading? (Part 2) Last week, I wrote about the podcast Sold a Story and the idea that reading is not as “natural” as we sometimes assume. If you haven’t read that post yet, this is very much a continuation of those tho...

How should (could) we teach kids to read?
A follow-up to last week's post

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Phonics in Teaching Children to Read Recently, my brother, who is a primary school principal in Australia, recommended a podcast to me called Sold a Story. He simply said, “You should listen to this.” That was enough to get my attention.

This week, I take a look at a podcast I've been listening to and the benefits of using phonics in teaching children how to read.

sielpabooks.com/blog/f/phoni...

Thanks! Very happy with the new
editions

The updated Dictogloss in Action textbooks look fabulous in full color, if I do say so myself.
New explainer videos, too:
English: youtu.be/_uzKL5_gt2E?...
Japanese: youtu.be/sa7j4OuexQI?...

A Look Inside the Latest Volume of JACET Journal I may have mentioned this before, but in addition to all the other projects I seem to get myself involved in, I am currently the editor-in-chief of JACET Journal and JACET Selected Papers. These are t...

A bit of an overview of JACET Journal 70 in this week's post

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We welcome guest contributor, Alan Granada this week, as he shares his experiences using the TPPT model in his classes.

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The Winter Olympics This week brought the Winter Olympics to a close. Two years ago, I wrote about the Summer Olympics, so it seemed fitting to turn my attention to the winter edition this time.

Looking back at the Winter
Olympics

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Five Oh Well, this week’s blog post brings together two major milestones for yours truly:

Five Oh

sielpabooks.com/blog/f/five-oh

Celebrating one year of Dictogloss in
Action.

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Is predictability the spice of life in the classroom? Reflectilng on Q&A from my presentation in Okinawa.

sielpabooks.com/blog/f/the-p...

Test Week: Paper or Online? This week, I have my final classes for the academic year with my students. For five of my classes, I have spent around 30 lessons with the same group of learners. As always at this time of year, it fe...

Final tests: Paper or Online?

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The stories behind what's in my office.

sielpabooks.com/blog/f/what%...

The Pink Test When I was younger, I played a lot of cricket. I was very passionate about the sport, probably too passionate, and it took up time that I could have spent doing other things. I played at an okay level...

A bit about care in this week's blog

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Looking Ahead to 2026 First of all, I would like to wish everyone a very Happy New Year. In particular, I want to extend my thanks and New Year wishes to the teachers and students using the Dictogloss in Action textbooks. ...

Happy New Year everyone! Here's a bit of a look ahead to 2026.

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Looking Back on 2025 As the year comes to an end, I’ve been taking some time to reflect on 2025: a year that was busy, sometimes demanding, but ultimately very clarifying.

Last blog post for 2025. Reflections on the past 12 months.

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What is happening with English Education in Japan? I recently read an interesting, yet somewhat sobering, article regarding the declining level of English communication proficiency in Japan. According to the EF English Proficiency Index, while Japan’s...

Website fixed and we're good to go with this week's post on the current state of English education in Japan (it's a little worrying, but I'm not "bashing" okay?)

sielpabooks.com/blog/f/what-...

Super Simple Stats This week, we moved into Week 10 of my class on motivation research. Last week, the students did poster sessions where they presented their research themes. They covered previous research, gaps they h...

A bit about stats😳

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Keeping Healthy in Winter As the weather gets colder, I have noticed a sharp rise in sneezing, coughing, and red noses in my classes. Many of my students have caught colds or the flu, and even those who are still healthy look ...

Taking a break from English education and motivation today to discuss health as we move into winter.

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Teaching Mindsets in Shiojiri Next Monday, I’ll be heading off to Shiojiri, a small town in Nagano Prefecture, to give a workshop for local high school teachers. This will actually be the fourth year in a row that the Nagano Board...

A preview to next week's workshop in Shiojiri

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Thanks, Sara! It still needs a little twisting, but it certainly helped create a relaxed environment for students to speak more freely.

Drawing Motivation: Exploring Demotivation Through Color I’ve mentioned a few times that I’m currently leading a course on motivation. This week, we looked at the final theory of motivation covered in the course: demotivation. I won’t go into the theory its...

A novel approach to studying demotivation? In this week's blog, I take a look at using coloring in for qualitative research.

sielpabooks.com/blog/f/drawi...

NotebookLM….Wow! About a year ago, I was chatting with my friend Gary Ross at a conference. Gary’s an expert in AI; he seems to know absolutely everything that’s happening in the field. Honestly, he’s the most talente...

Talking a bit about AI in this week's blog post.

sielpabooks.com/blog/f/noteb...

Mixed Programming This week, I was honored to host Martha Ramirez from Universidad de Los Andes in Colombia, who came to my university to give two lectures. One, on Wednesday afternoon, was for students and focused on ...

In this week's blog post, I take a look at mixed programming. Absolutely nothing to do with computer programmin, but something much more important.

sielpabooks.com/blog/f/mixed...

Publication Day for Screen Media in Language Education I mentioned this on my private social media channels earlier this week, but today—October 10—is the official publication date for a new book I’ve been involved in: Screen Media in Language Education.

This week, I take a look at our new book published with Candlin & Mynard. Many thanks to my co-editor, Matt Wilson, for always keeping it positive, all the authors for their amazing patience, and Jo Mynard for her support in the publication process.

sielpabooks.com/blog/f/publi...

New book coming out this Friday! Many thanks to Jo Mynard and her team at Candlin & Mynard for their amazing support and guidance. Huge congratulations also to all the authors for their incredible patience and brilliant writing. More about this book in this week's blog post．

Teaching 課題探究演習: A New Adventure This semester I’ll be leading a course called 課題探究演習 (Kadai Tankyū Enshū, perhaps translated as "Project-Based Research Workshop"). The idea of the class is to give first- and second-year students a t...

This week's blog post looks at a new course I'm teaching and the first theory of motivation we'll be discussing.

sielpabooks.com/blog/f/teach...

Growth Mindset: The Game This weekend, I’ll be heading to Kobe to give a workshop on the growth mindset to university students. Thank you, Ai-sensei, for the invitation! I’m really looking forward to sharing some ideas about ...

This week, I take a look at a boardgame about the growth mindset I created for tomorrow's talk in Kobe.

sielpabooks.com/blog/f/growt...

First Findings: TBLT, Self-Worth, and Student Motivation Earlier this year, together with colleagues from Iran and China, I put out a call for papers for an edited volume tentatively titled Intervention Studies in Motivating Language Learners. As the name suggests, the book br...

This week's blog post takes a sneak preview to an upcoming chapter on TBLT and student motivation.

sielpabooks.com/blog/f/first...

Introducing A Running Start As many of you know, SielpA Books is still a young publisher, and at the moment we have only three textbooks. That is about to change. Over the past year, together with my university colleagues, I hav...

In this week's blog, I take a look at
a new book that will be published by SielpA Books this coming November.

sielpabooks.com/blog/f/intro...

Reflections on JACET 2025 August is always a busy time of year. Classes finish at the end of July or in the first week of August, so there’s marking and grading to do. It’s also the season for two of the biggest conferences fo...

Reflections on JACET2025.

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