This is an All Ears English podcast, episode 258 three resources to be an inspired English learner in 2015.
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Today you'll meet our guest Thaddeus, who believes that you can move to the next level if you find compelling, interesting content to use.
And he'll give you three awesome resources that you can use today.
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Hey guys, welcome to All Ears English.
Thank you for joining us today.
We have a special guest today.
Our guest today is an English teacher from Arkansas, USA.
He has a master's in TESOL and he studied international business.
He offers English conversation lessons, including a very unique TED Talk discussion class, in addition to test prep lessons on italki.
He also runs his own website to help English learners called English Upgrade.
Today's guest is Thaddeus.
Welcome, Thaddeus.
How are you?
I'm doing great.
Thank you.
It's a pleasure to be on.
Hey, thanks for joining us today, Thaddeus.
So you are tuning in today from Arkansas, is that right?
That's right.
Yeah, the name of my city is Fayetteville.
Fayetteville, okay.
A beautiful location in Arkansas.
Have you been there for a long time?
Did you grow up in Arkansas?
I grew up in this region, generally, but I haven't been here for too long, about two years.
Very nice.
Very nice.
So I hear that you have a ton of students.
So you must be a really motivating English teacher, I would imagine.
Well, I would like to say that my students are the most motivated.
You know, I think a lot of them have specific interests and specific subjects they want to discuss.
And it really makes for an interesting lesson.
Very cool.
Very cool.
So today I want to ask you, Thaddeus, what your idea is in terms of this question.
What is your philosophy on how our listeners can stay motivated?
Because our listeners, you know they're upper intermediate learners and they want to move to that advanced level.
But sometimes we just plateau out and it's hard to stay motivated to stay in it.
So how can they do that?
Well, I think I follow a researcher with the idea of compelling input, meaning you need to find some sources of information that really compel you to continue, the ones that really motivate you to keep on going.
And I think there are a lot of good ones out there.
Great.
So compelling, again, means motivating.
Is that right?
Right.
It's something that motivates you to continue.
Well, that's awesome.
So I guess the next question that our listeners are going to have is what are those resources?
I mean, let's throw out three of them Thaddeus, and let's discuss them and why they're motivating and how our listeners can go and find them to use them themselves.
So what's the first motivating, compelling input resource that you know of?
I would say definitely TEDx.
TED.com.
TED.com.
What does TED stand for?
Do you know?
Yes.
It means technology, education, and design.
Good.
I love TED Talks.
I was just listening to one the other night, the talk by Brene Brown on vulnerability.
Have you heard that one?
I haven't.
And I hope that I have some students who request such an interesting talk in the future, because I definitely love, enjoy and really look forward to discussing those with students.
Yeah, it's really one of the top.
So interesting.
This is a great choice.
And so how?
So that's interesting that I saw on your website, and probably also on italki you offer this special kind of class that's centered around a TED talk discussion.
And how do you structure that conversation lesson?
Well, I think it begins with some good preparation.
You know, the TED.com website gives an amazing video presentation.
And also it gives a transcript for the presentation.
So if some students want some reading practice or just to check, just make sure that they understood, they can take a look at the transcript.
Beyond that, I give some notes and some additional discussion questions for students to prepare before class.
That way they feel really comfortable and we can use our time the most efficiently.
Okay, very nice.
And are there certain specific TED videos that you can recommend to our listeners right now if they want to go check out this resource?
Do you have a few favorites?
I do.
Oh, there are so many.
On my website, English Upgrade, I give some good examples.
One recently that I talked with a student was about body language.
The presenter was Amy Cuddy.
It was called Your Body Language Shapes Who You Are.
Yes, we've talked about that one on the show a couple of times here.
That's a fantastic talk.
I love that.
Absolutely.
Any others?
Yes, there was another one called I Am the Son of a Terrorist, Here's How I Chose Peace.
The presenter's name is Zach Ibrahim, and Ted actually published his book last year.
Interesting.
That sounds powerful, doesn't it?
Yes, yes.
It's a very interesting and moving presentation.
Okay.
And so do you shape your lessons, your TED lessons, in terms of outcomes, based on what the student wants to improve, for example vocabulary or pronunciation, or is it more just the general conversation as the target of the lesson?
Well, I find, with these TED discussions, that a lot of students who are planning to take the TOEFL exam like to use these because they have academic language, academic English.
And it kind of prepares them for, you know, something similar to a university lecture, a university course.
Yeah, I like that.
I like that.
And is this something that our listeners can do on their own also?
If they're not necessarily working with a teacher right now, would you recommend that they listen on their own and try to discuss it with a native conversation partner?
Oh, absolutely.
Yeah, I think people have been using TED presentations, you know, on their own, throughout the world just to discuss, not only, of course, in English, but in their own languages, to discuss these big ideas.
So I guess the idea is that it's compelling.
It's compelling not only for English studying, but just for being a human and wanting to know about the world.
That's it.
That's it right there.
And I think on this show we love to talk about that, about being human, about how to live a better life.
So I think that if you guys haven't seen a TED Talk yet, you're going to love them.
You're going to love these talks.
So go over to TED.com.
Is that where they could find the TED Talk?
That's right.
Just TED.com.
Perfect.
So definitely check that out, guys.
Great.
So let's move on to your second resource, Thaddeus.
What would you say would be the second way that our listeners can find compelling, motivating input?
Well, to go off of what you just said about being human, I want to suggest StoryCorps.
StoryCorps.org.
Now that StoryCorps, that cor there is an interesting word.
It's actually spelled C-O-R-P-S.
Yeah, so storycore.org.
And it's a wonderful site with real conversations between people who are often friends or family, even strangers, who shared a unique experience.
Oh, wow.
I've never heard of this, Thaddeus.
This is so interesting.
So what kind of things do they talk about then in these conversations?
Well, you'll find common themes are love friendship education, role models, very human and very uplifting positive conversations.
Love it.
Love it.
Yeah, absolutely.
I think this is also something that our listeners would be interested in, and I want to check it out too.
What should our listeners do if they're learning on their own?
Because a lot of our listeners are independent learners.
What should they do when they go to StoryCorps and start listening to these conversations in order to maximize the learning experience?
Should they first just sit and absorb the English, or should they be taking notes and writing down vocabulary that they don't know?
Well, I think when you choose a particular conversation, they give you some general information about the subject.
The conversation is usually just two or three minutes long.
Great.
So I really recommend that students just sit and try to listen, try to understand at least the key topic.
And there's also a transcript.
So after they listen, they can go back and read the transcript, you know, to get a second look to make sure that they fully understood what was going on.
I like that.
That's very helpful.
And the one thing we want to make sure we don't do is get paralyzed by perfectionism.
Right.
So that's something we talk about a lot on this show.
We go for connection, not perfection.
And we want to try to understand most of the conversation, but not all of it.
Right, Thaddeus?
Oh, that's exactly right.
It's important just to get the key message, you know, the key subject.
Yeah, absolutely.
I love it.
Wow, StoryCorps.
Thanks for recommending that.
I'm going to go check that out as soon as we finish this interview.
Very cool.
So what's your third recommendation, Thaddeus?
Well, I know that a lot of students want to build reading skills, and this is something you can really do independently.
And there's a good website called Newsela, spelled N-E-W-S-E-L-A, and it's .com, Newsela.com.
And what this site does is present common news stories, and you can adjust the difficulty of the story by just a click.
And after you read, there are also some quiz questions that help make sure that you understood what you read.
Oh, fantastic.
So this resource is specifically for English learners.
Is that right?
Well, actually, it's geared towards students, even that are native speakers of English.
It's a way to build literacy and confidence with nonfiction, you know, with normal true stories, usually coming from news.
Wow.
It's amazing how many resources there are out there.
It's just incredible, isn't it?
Oh, it's a good time to be a human.
It's a good time to be and a self-guided learner, right?
This is I think this is where learning is going now, not just for English, but for Even within academia.
We're turning to our own resources and our own self-discipline, but we're finding really cool ways to do it.
Wow.
So it's called NewZella.com.
And we would encourage you guys to challenge yourselves with this.
So put it on a notch that's slightly higher than what you think you can handle, right?
So push yourself a little bit if you can control the difficulty.
Right?
That's right.
You know, a rule that I tell students is when you read a paragraph, if you come across between five or ten words you really don't know, then I really recommend going for a more simple level.
You know, there's this comic recently about a man who's just starting learning a new language and he gets a newspaper in that language.
He says, I'm going to work my way through this newspaper.
It takes him all day, you know.
At the end, his friend asks him, you know, what is the news story about?
And he says, oh, I think it's about President Obama, but I'm not sure.
So don't challenge yourself too much.
Too much.
Yeah, I know you're right, Thaddeus.
We need to find that magic balance between challenging ourselves and also staying motivated by being able to understand a good portion of what we're reading.
So I think we all know that for ourselves, what that balance is.
So that's a good point.
Thank you for mentioning that.
I like that.
Find the balance.
Yeah, great.
Well, okay.
So just to recap today what we've said, the three ways to find compelling, or three of the many ways, but the ones that we mentioned today are TED Talks.
StoryCorps.org and NewZella.com.
Those are three great ways for you guys to maintain and get your language to the next level with interesting and compelling input.
I love it.
Thaddeus, do you have any closing comments?
Any final message you want to send to our listeners?
Yes, definitely.
I would say that studying independently is a great way to build motivation and, as a teacher and I know many other teachers we love motivated students.
It's so easy to help a student who already has a clear plan.
You know who already has resources they love.
And so I really recommend find something music movies, a book find something that will compel you not only to study a language, but just to enjoy life.
Love it.
Love it.
I'm not going to touch that.
That's great, Thaddeus.
Thank you for that message for our listeners.
I think you're going to really motivate and inspire our listeners today with your message the idea of not settling for less right.
We don't settle for material that's boring because there is so much out there for us.
It's just a matter of digging in and searching a little bit for it.
Isn't that right?
That's right.
Almost.
The internet is a good thing and can be a very difficult thing because there's just so much out there.
There's so much out there.
It's incredible.
And so you do some of these lessons on italki.
Is that right?
That's right.
Oh, I love italki because you communicate directly with your teacher and you can negotiate and discuss your goals so clearly, rather than working through a company or a school.
Yeah, so you have direct contact with your students.
You arrange the lessons for them.
And so guys, if you want to be able to work with Thaddeus, you can actually go ahead and See if you can get into his schedule.
I know his schedule is tight, right?
Thaddeus, you said you already have quite a few students, but you're opening up a couple of new slots this month in January.
Is that what you what you told me earlier?
That's right.
And I would encourage anyone to make contact with me and I'll see if I can make room.
You know, I definitely enjoy talking to motivated students.
And I look forward to hearing from some new ones.
Great.
So if you guys are motivated and if you've maybe found a couple of resources that you want to focus on with Thaddeus, then go to allearsenglishcom slash italki and you need to register through that webpage in order to get 10 off your second lesson with Thaddeus.
So go ahead and register at allearsenglishcom, slash italki, and then search for Thaddeus' username after you've registered.
And if you do it that way, you'll get 10 off your second lesson for being an All Ears English listener.
So Thaddeus, after our listeners register at allearsenglish.com slash italki, how can they find you?
What's your username?
My username is English Upgrade.
It's also the name of my website, English Upgrade.
Okay.
And there's a space between English and Upgrade, right?
That's right.
Two words.
English space upgrade.
Perfect.
So we want to recommend that for you guys.
And Thaddeus, I just want to say thank you.
And thank you for searching for better resources for our listeners.
You know, it sounds like you're really wholehearted about teaching and about learning.
And it's very inspiring.
So thank you for what you're doing in our field.
Thank you for inviting me here.
It's a pleasure to speak with you.
Absolutely.
Great meeting you today, Thaddeus.
Have a nice day.
You too.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Bye.
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