Seductive details in ELT

Have you ever thought what those unnecessary but ‘fun’ elements of a lesson or activity can be called? I’ve just come across the term ‘seductive details’ – very expressive, isn’t it? This article by Connie Malamed, for example, sums the notion up quite nicely: seductive (irrelevant but attractive, like the kitten picture for this post) detail detracts from learning, and it’s especially harmful for less proficient learners. It’s easy to avoid seductive details: make sure everything in the lesson, including warmers, ice-breakers, images on slides and activities for fast finishers, relates to the learning objective. Easy to say, but not always easy to do!