One man’s meat is another man’s poison, as the saying goes, and we can hardly expect that everyone in a profession as broad and as widely-spread around the world as ours will always see eye to eye. One of the topics that often divides people is the use of L1 in the classroom, and this is addressed in this issue by Ian Firth, who solicited the opinions of teachers and students in Spain on the question of whether, how much and for what the students’ L1 should be used. You can read the results of his study in our main feature and see the questionnaires that he used on our website. How far do the results match your views on this subject? 

Every year, we are sent quite a few articles describing how teachers have successfully used Kahoot! (an online tool for setting up and running interactive quizzes). In fact, Russell Stannard devoted his Webwatcher column to it in Issue 109 and Nicky Hockly mentions it in her Five things ... article in this issue; so it was something of a change to get a contribution from Jo Gakonga entitled ‘Why I hate Kahoot!’. Why not read her article and find out if you agree?

Something I am asked a lot is whether I think it is better to do an MA in TESOL online or on campus, so it is good to be able to include an article on the subject from Christopher Redmond, who has done both and can outline the advantages and

When it comes to giving feedback to students, Ivan Chong has seen both sides of the coin, having first viewed it as a curse, but then come round to the idea of its being a blessing. Where do you stand on the feedback issue?

Of course, most of the issues we face are not simply a case of either/or. With all the things mentioned above – L1, Kahoot!, feedback and MAs – it really depends on what you do with them or what your particular circumstances are.

And if all else fails, you can always take Alex Case’s advice and decide everything on the throw of a dice!