About
A bit about the guy whose head this stuff comes from:
Father of the most wonderful two children in the world, husband to the best wife in the world, British, Master’s (distinction) in TEFL/TESL, Apple iMac lover, Arsenal Football Club supporter, gardener, visitor to 45 countries, early riser, long-distance swimmer, kayaker and cyclist.
Also… Newbie blogger, keen tryer-outerer of Web 2.0 in the EFL classroom, keen on using Twitter as a PLN (Personal Learning Network), trying to keep up with my students’ knowledge & awareness of social media, trying to keep up with my kids, trying to keep up with my diet and exercise schedule, trying to keep up with cool, new stuff on the web…
The story of how I got here is here: Part I, Part II and Part III.
Plus…
Webmaster of the sites you see on the right. There are lots more to come.
(But not the ones in the Blogroll – that’s real cool stuff from real cool bloggers.
Plus…
ISTEK 2010 – Istanbul, Turkey
Here are my Powerpoint presentations on “What’s News? Current Events in the Classroom” and “Making Recordings to Help You and Your Students in the Classroom“.
(Thank you to everyone who attended these sessions)
Plus…
My Dissertation (From a real long time ago, way back in 2003)
If you are interested in communicative language teaching and pronunciation, you might like to take a look at my dissertation (downloadable as PDF):
“What is meant by communicativeness in EFL teaching? An evaluation of the pronunciation component in a sample of elementary level course materials, with proposals for improvement incorporating a Discourse Intonation approach.” – 2003, The University of Birmingham, U.K.
Plus…
An Article
You might also want to read an article of mine on creating news lessons:
“Creating ESL/EFL Lessons Based on News and Current Events”
The Internet TESL Journal, Vol. XI, No. 9, September 2005.
Plus…
Teaching the News
A few thoughts from presentations I have given about bringing news / current events into the classroom.
Plus…
My Book
You can also download a free sample PDF showing various parts of my book:
“1,000 Ideas & Activities for Language Teachers”
Plus…
More to come…
Dear Sean,
May I say how much amazed I’ve been to spot your website today. Working with media materials has always been tricky to me as an English teacher. And now I see how easy and engrossing it may be. I have a question and maybe an offer for cooperation. Have you ever thought of publishing your materials? I am quite positive, a book of this kind, or a series of books, come to that, would do a lot of good to school and college teachers in Russia.
Hope to hear from you soon,
Kindest regards, Denis Mukhortov, PhD, Moscow University, School of Philology, School of International Politics, senior lecturer
Hello Denis
I have often thought of getting my materials published. I have been approached by most of the big ELT publishers but for various reasons, nothing really happened. I am the co-author of a listening text put out by MacMillan.
If you have any ideas about how to go about getting my lessons published in Russia, I’d be very interested.
Best wishes,
Sean
I’ve been a big fan of your materials for years, Sean. I’m glad you are producing more materials that are not so timely but will endure time wise.
I told you a couple years ago that your Breaking News English site was blocked in China. Well, it’s not blocked now. I’m not sure if you changed your server or if China removed the block.
(Of course, I don’t think the Chinese were targeting your website. They just block whole ISP’s if there is some material on it somewhere that they object to.)
Anyway, it’s all good news for you and your fans in China.
I would like to use some of your Listen A Minute material on my Moodle website http://davekees.com. I don’t use paper anymore and so it is not convenient to print out your lessons for my students in China.
You can see an example of what I have done here:
http://www.davekees.com/mod/quiz/attempt.php?id=30
I added this credit at the bottom of the exercise:
Special thanks to Sean Banville for this exercise. Find more Sean Banville material at Listen A Minute [with link to your website].
If you do not want me to use this material in this way, I will certainly take it down immediately.
Keep up the good work!
Wish you the best.
Dear Sean,
I’ve enjoyed using your Famous People Lessons over the years. However, I’ve recently been working with various Flesch-Kincaid calculators and I’d like to know where you are getting the score you’ve indicated.
Thanks in advance for your response.
Hello Sean
I’ve just discovered your websites and I am amazed by the amount of materials you have created. These are much better than any other ESL websites.
For me, this is a truly wonderful resource as I run conversation classes here in France and help pupils improved their listening skills. I’m always looking for short audios.
I’m creating a website called “Le Chatterbox” and I will certainly place links to your websites as useful resources for my students. I’m going to get your ebook to help you.
Just a request, have you got time to do a Listen a Minute about the World Cup in South Africa? One of my 14 y old student would love it!
Keep going and thank you again
Evelyne
Thank you Evelyn for your lovely feedback – it all helps to make me want to make more materials
There will be one or two lessons on the World Cup in the coming months. I’ll see if I can add a French flavor.
Best wishes.
Dear Sean,
I have just discovered your websites thanks to a yahoo group (esl teachers).
It’s amazing, and the material seems to be tailored to my lessons. I am teaching English in a small village in the heart of Tuscany to classes with mixed levels and so your breaking news and speaking ideas suit my lessons perfectly!
Keep going and thanks
Lola
Thank you Lola for your kind words. I hope you continue to find my lessons useful.
Best wishes,
Sean
I have been teaching Spanish for years in the States, but I moved to Venezuela last year and am now trying to teach English. I found your blog through your discussion website. What a wonderful resource! Thank you for publishing and especially for making things free!! I’m thrilled!
Karla
Thank you so much for your kind words Karla – I’m also thrilled
Best wishes to you,
Sean
I m an English teacher and I really appreciate your work ,what energy you have ! . Unfortunately I seldom find something about EST (ENGLISH FOR SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY) WHY?
Hello Monia,
Thank you for your comment. I have technology lessons here: http://www.breakingnewsenglish.com/technology.html and if you look at these sites, there are more science and technology-related lessons: http://www.listenaminute.com/ and http://www.esldiscussions.com/index.html.
Unfortunately, it’s only me here so my time is very limited in how many lessons I can make. With my news lessons, technology is just one of many themes I try to cover, other being business, health, entertainment, sport (sometimes), environment, politics… I’m making a lesson on the final launch of the Atlantis Space Shuttle today for my News English Lessons.com site. There are also science and technology lessons there.
Best wishes,
Sean
Hello Sean
Are you really a Human Being ???? LOL
I m just joking !!!!! – thank you for your information -god bless you -
Monia
Je me suis souvent dis qu’ il était important de laisser une trace de son passage sur terre -fonder une famille, avoir des enfants, écrire un livre faire un film -je suis sur que de ce point de vu la ,vous êtes satisfait …
Monia
Had a good squeeze of my arms and couldn’t feel any wires or circuits, so I guess I must be human
Thank you Monia
Dear Mr. Banville,
After many searches I finally discovered your site. Congratulations.
Breaking News English is exactly what I am looking for but for a more advanced level.
Do you have similar lessons or the book for intermediate ++.
I am looking forward to be hearing from you.
In the meantime I printed some lessons and I am going to show it to my teacher.
Many thanks and with my best regards.
A.L.
I need your help Sean ,you know I always find problems to translate some words which represent diplomas or exams.
some French words like le baccalauréat (final secondary school exam)
une Licence which just come before the Master can we translate it as a degree?
THANK YOU SO MUCH YOUR STUDENT
Hi Monia – The degree before the Master’s is the Bachelor’s degree.
Sean’
Your lastest “News” item was a disgrace. Untrue and biased,
I think you are amazing …. I have told you many times…………but..
I don’t know where you found the basis for the article but it has very little connection to what actually occured.
In these tense and uncertain times I can only call it “Inflammatory”….
Shame on you …………
Sean, I am in awe of how quickly you developed a lesson plan on the Israel/Gaza Flotilla story. It is brilliant! I really want to download your article on 1000 ideas for teaching as I am an English teacher in South Africa, BUT, I will not use anything of yours if I know that you are Anti-Semitic and anti- Israel. I have no objection to you making a lesson like this which is neutral , but I wont support you if you are one-sided and it comes through in your work.
Sorry, but this is the truth of how I feel.
I really like your lesson a lot and your ideas so hoping I can feel ok with you to use your wonderful knowledge. Please be honest here!