About this Blog

According to Seneca ‘Destiny guides those who follow it – and drags those who resist’. The same alas can be said for technology and even fashion. My opinion about blogging, bloggers and the blogosphere is very close to that of Satoshi Kanazawa, whom I am not going to quote here for fear of alienating an entire community… 🙂 Anyway – here is yet another blog. I hope you find it interesting.

The blog comprises 5 main sections:

Education: This section contains posts or full-length articles on ‘Psychology and Education’. I have long felt that ELT and the world of Education in general is rather insular and we stand to gain a great deal by ‘importing’ insights from (mostly Social) Psychology, the Business World, Advertising etc. Posts in this section look at discoveries from these fields and ways in which they can help Educators make their teaching more effective and increase motivation among their learners.

Human Nature: This section is much broader. It contains posts which somehow shed light on what human beings are like, what it is that makes us tick and how we operate.  Insights here come from all kinds of disciplines and sub-disciplines, from Social and Evolutionary Psychology, to Behavioural Ecology, Evolutionary Biology and Primatology. A central idea is that we are not who we think we are; introspection is of very little help – instead we should look at ourselves as an object of study.

Men and Women: OK – this is my favourite section. Most of the insights here come from Anthropology, Evolutionary Biology and, of course, Evolutionary Psychology. In my view almost nothing in the ‘battle of the two sexes’ makes any sense except in the light of evolution. Many of the findings of Evolutionary Psychology have become ‘mainstream’ nowadays, but there are still many eye-openers here – even for those who know the basics…

Comedy for ELT: This section contains the videos I have (re)uploaded on YouTube under ‘Comedy for ELT’ and ‘Ads for ELT’. These are simply perfect both for motivating learners and for teachers who would like to improve their English. At present, there are more than 200 clips on YouTube, so I will be posting them here piecemeal. One advantage is that if you see something on the blog and you would like to use it with your students, you can immediately download a handout with activities which also contains the Key and the full Script (there is a link under each video).

ELT Articles: This section contains articles by myself or other colleagues on matters related to EL teaching. Many of them are practical in nature, and they include activities that one can use directly with their students. Once again, these posts are often accompanied by photocopiable handouts which can be found immediately after the posts. [NB: Posts and articles related to ‘Psychology and ELT’ can be found on the ‘Education’ page].

I am always interested in responses, comments and feedback. If you would like to get in touch, here are the contact details:

CONTACT DETAILS

e-mail: nickmi@ath.forthnet.gr

cellphone: +30 6932123166