In many language classrooms around the world teachers generally ask a lot of questions to students. They do this as a way to generate chat and discussion, as in 'Did you have a nice trip?' or 'What do you think Jbene should do now?', but they also do it to test the knowledge of the students, as in "What's the past of go? ' and 'How do we say سمك in English?'Recently, in my online sessions with groups of kids in Palestine, I've been experimenting with a technique that encourages the learners to ask the questions.

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We are excited to inform you that Saturday the 14th April will be the Hands Up Project conference at Westminster University in Central London. As you'll see below there is a fantastic line up of speakers and the climax will be a live performance by the winners of our playmaking competition - 'Inner Thoughts' from Khan Younis, Gaza.

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The Hands Up Project isn't really very good at 'teaching' language. After three years of running this project, I've come to the conclusion that with all the power cuts, the often weak internet connection and the lack of physical presence, working online like this is actually quite an ineffective way of teaching anybody anything at all.

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There is something very beautiful that's been going on between Brazil and Palestine.It all started last summer when I was sponsored by Cambridge University Press to go to Brazil to do a series of talks all over the country. I was talking about the use of images in language learning and, since images are such an integral part in the way we work, I mentioned the Hands Up Project a lot. The talks went down well but the Hands Up Project went down even better!

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We are very pleased to announce the results of the Hands Up Project Playwriting and play performing competition for Palestinian children.Though I have had the enormous pleasure of watching and reading all 88 plays that were submitted, I was not involved in the process of picking the winners at all.

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‘The difference between theatre and classroom drama is that in theatre everything is contrived so that the audience gets the kicks. In the classroom, the participants get the kicks.’ So wrote the acclaimed drama in education specialist, Dorothy Heathcote in Drama as a learning medium; Wagner (1999). But we shouldn't just take Dorothy's word for this.

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I've written many posts on this blog about the value of drama in second language development and particularly about how helping learners to create their own plays can be a rich learning experience. Here I'd like to look at a specific example of how a play was developed over a number of weeks out of one simple writing exercise with a group of Syrian children in Zaatari refugee camp, Jordan.

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I've just been on another visit to Gaza, this time to Beit Hanoun and Rafah areas, where I ran a series of drama workshops with children. I've come back invigorated and brimming with ideas, and this is down, in no small part to the incredible energy, the creativity, and the life giving force that so many people have there.

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Stephen Krashen's big idea in 'The power of reading' (1993) was that reading for pleasure, or free voluntary reading (FVR) as he referred to it , was in many cases more conducive to language development than direct teaching alone. He cites lots of research to back up his view. I read the book in the late nineties when I was teaching English to very diverse multilingual groups of adults at the Brasshouse Centre in Birmingham, and it had a huge influence on the way that I conducted by classes.

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I was disappointed not to be able to go to the Palestine Expo which took place at the Queen Elizabeth centre in the heart of London, this weekend. This was a huge event, expected to be attended by up to 10.000 people, celebrating Palestinian culture including music, cookery, storytelling and other spoken word events. I'd planned to go but at the last minute something came up and I couldn't make it. I hope it was a huge success.

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