From the monthly archives: January 2012
On an increasingly international planet, multilingualism is fast becoming a desired trait in employees, meaning today’s college students enjoy an advantage if their degree plansrequire a second (or even third!) language. English speakers in America particularly find this possibility challenging, as far too many schools downplay the importance of learning to speak something additional. Fortunately, those who feel as if the system failed them in this regard can still pick up a foreign language relatively quickly. The following, ranked as Category I by the Foreign Service Institute but listed in no particular order, offer up comparatively easy starting points. Starting points which might very well prove useful for more than touristic reasons!
The latest article on ictineducation.org is titled “4 Reasons That The ICT Programme Of Study “Had” To Go”.
Terry Freedman says, “The fate of the ICT Programme of Study could have been predicted accurately long before Judge Gove donned his black cap and passed the death sentence. After several years of what might be justly described as a “war of attrition”, the weight of the “evidence”, such as it is, made such an outcome unavoidable.
The BusyTeacher.org team has added a worksheet titled “Present Simple Practice”.
The BusyTeacher.org team says, “The worsheet is about type 2 conditional mostly. Students are required to know how to use type 2 to be able to fill in the blanks without listening the song. After they fill in the blanks, teacher plays the song and they check their answers.
Continue reading »
Alex Case’s latest blog post is titled “My new favourite GTKY for one to one classes”.
Alex Case says, “Particularly good for first classes with low level private students. It’s the simplest thing in the world and it goes like this:
- Ask the student some questions about themselves whose answer will lead to a drawing or a word or two next to a drawing
Continue reading »
The latest ESLlibrary blog post is titled “Applications And Sites That Teachers Depend On”.
Peter Martin says, “In two recent posts on this blog, Shelly Terrell listed a number of online resources that teachers can use to interact with their students online and help them learn.
Continue reading »
I have some more recommendations, with a similar, though slightly different, focus. For the last year, I’ve looked extensively for applications and sites that can help students learn, help teachers teach, and help everyone share and organize educational material. While ESL Library offers teachers lots of great content we teachers can use in our lessons, other sites that are not focused on ESL offer services that an ESL teacher—or any teacher—will quickly find invaluable”.
The latest Grammarly blog post is titled “Making The Reader Work”.
Sheila van den Heuvel-Collins says, “We feed babies baby food. While eating is natural, it’s a process to be learned. Eventually, we wean the babies onto bigger and bigger chunks, getting them onto “real food” when they can be trusted to ingest and digest it effectively.
Continue reading »
Shaping the Way We Teach English: Module 10, Alternative Assessment
Alternative assessment is a way to directly evaluate learners’ language skills. A paper-pencil test shows knowledge about the language. Alternative assessment shows learners’ ability to use the language.
Shaping the Way We Teach English: Module 08, Authentic Materials
Authentic materials are used by native speakers of a language for actual communication. Authentic materials are good tools for language teaching and learning because they are: * Interesting. * They use real language. * They can be chosen for individual interests. * They illustrate accurate use of language in the target culture. * And, they help students learn how to get as much information as they can, even if they can’t understand everything, or even very much.
Shaping the Way We Teach English: Module 04, Pair and Group Work
The focus in this module is on Pair and Group Work. Pair and Group Work incorporates principles and themes from the Cooperative Learning and Collaborative Learning theoretical frameworks. We will look at some real classroom examples, using Stella Ting-Toomey’s “describe, interpret, evaluate” process to analyze what is happening with pair and group work in these classes.
Shaping the Way We Teach English: Module 06, Managing Large Classes
In recent years, the demand for English has increased. Schools around the world have responded by adding more English classes into the curriculum. Class sizes can be quite large and, in some cases, are growing even larger. Classes of 50-75 students are not uncommon. Many people in education are asking themselves: * How do large classes affect an instructorâs ability to teach, and a studentâs ability to learn? * And, how do large classes affect the quality of education?
Shaping the Way We Teach English: Module 05, Learner Feedback
One important distinction to make when giving learner feedback is that of formative vs. summative evaluation. Formative evaluation is a way of giving students feedback along the way. It is the answer to the questions, “How am I doing so far?” and “How can I improve?”
Summative evaluation includes those kinds of evaluation that summarize a studentâs overall performance. For example, the final grade for a course.
Continue reading »
- Alex Case: Teaching ideas and worksheets for “used to”
- BusyTeacher Blog: Teaching English As A Second Language – Why A Dictionary Is Your Best Friend
- BusyTeacher Blog: Two Sides to the Cigarette: The Smoking Debate in Your ESL Classroom
- Song Worksheet: Hazy by Rosi Golan
- Worksheet: Third Conditional PowerPoint Presentation
- Song Worksheet: I Don’t Wanna Miss A Thing by Aerosmith
- Worksheet: Fruits and Vegetables Worksheet
- Worksheet: Parts of the Body Elementary Worksheet
- Song Worksheet: Do You Hear What I Hear by Destiny’s Child
Alex Case’s latest blog post is titled “Teaching ideas and worksheets for “used to””.
Alex Case says, “All new this month, and more coming soon.
Article with teaching ideas
The latest BusyTeacher.org blog post is titled “Teaching English As A Second Language – Why A Dictionary Is Your Best Friend”.
The BusyTeacher.org team says, “There are times we are absolutely stunned to see a lack of dictionaries being used to teach English as a second language.
Continue reading »
Subscribe to EnglishTeachingDaily
