Being Multilingual: The natives and the speakers
Let me start with the good news. We are, all of us without exception, native speakers. This may come as a surprise to those of us who have had close encounters with the second/foreign language world, but is nonetheless true. It means that we are all competent users of language – more or less competent, of course, depending on all sorts of individual and social factors that make us clumsy or proficient in whatever we do.
Checking Understanding
Analysis of the language consists of two sub-stages, often known as highlighting and concept checking. Highlighting is taking the model sentence and showing, telling or eliciting what the problems are in terms of form, function, and phonology. Concept checking is checking the understanding of difficult aspects of the target structure in terms of function and meaning. Concept checking is vital, since learners must fully understand the structure before any intensive practice of form and phonology is carried out. Ways of checking understandingConcept questionsSome examplesLearning to construct concept questionsConclusion Ways of checking understanding Concept checking is normally achieved by the use of a set of questions designed to ensure comprehension of the target language, raise awareness of its problems, and to indicate to the teacher that the learners have fully understood.
Bradley - Scaffolding Academic Learning for Second Language Learners
The Internet TESL Journal Karen Sue Bradley & Jack Alden Bradleykfksb00 [at] tamuk.eduTexas A&M University (Kingsville, Texas, USA) Introduction What is meant by the term scaffolding? "Scaffolding refers to providing contextual supports for meaning through the use of simplified language, teacher modeling, visuals and graphics, cooperative learning and hands-on learning" (Ovando, Collier, & Combs, 2003, p. 345).
Kids and songs
On the LearnEnglish Kids website, you can find a wide range of both modern and traditional songs to use with your learners together with accompanying worksheets written by our young learner specialists and aimed specifically at children learning English as a second or foreign language. Why use songs in the primary classroom?Songs tend to be repetitive and have a strong rhythm. They are easily learnt by primary children and quickly become favourites because of their familiarity. They are fun and motivating for children.
Being Multilingual: You speak with an accent. I don’t.
Accents are things that only other people have. They are, by extension, things that you don’t want to have. Accents are, in short, shortcomings.
How Are Happiness and Learning Connected?
As teachers, we also know that when students' affective filters or defenses are sky high, fight or flight responses will be modus operandi. A room full of defensive behaviors (withdrawn, angry) is a sad, unproductive place to teach and learn. Now let's flip it and take a look at how much more we are able to learn when we are in harmony with the people and things in any given educational environment. Being in harmony means feeling safe, feeling valued and a necessary part a group, and in this case, a learning community. Hearts and Minds in Sync
Using students' first languages in the classroom
Summary: Using students' first languages in the classroom Whether it is better to use the students' first language (L1) in class or have an English-only policy is something that has been much debated and that has seen many changes of fashion over the years. It seems, therefore, that the only sensible reaction an individual teacher can take to this controversial subject is to neither accept nor reject the use of L1, but simply to search for an ideal level of its use in each individual class- maybe changing its use as the class progresses in level or changes in other ways.
IATEFL 2018: Safe Speaking Environments - What? Why? How?
Published 9 April 2018 In our first post from IATEFL 2018, we’re sharing the talk from Professor of Psycholinguistics, Zoltán Dörnyei, on what exactly Safe Speaking Environments are and why you should care. The talk looks at creating a psychological environment in the classroom which might make students’ lives easier. Zoltán says that in order to facilitate speaking in the language classroom, we need to:
Who needs resources?
What type of lessons would this include The following types of lessons would use minimal or no resources, and the students would have to produce most of it using their creative minds and using the teacher as a go-between. The only problem is whether or not you can maximise their potential.
Whole Child Development Is Undervalued
The question is how to make such an approach both systemic and sustainable. Whole Person Socio-emotional, physical, creative, and cognitive capacities are deeply intertwined and equally important in ensuring a child's wellbeing, learning, and growth.
Key Person & Attachment - Early Years Matters
The Key Person Children thrive from a base of loving and secure relationships. This is normally provided by a child’s parents but it can also be provided by a key person. A key person is a named member of staff with responsibilities for a small group of children who helps those children in the group feel safe and cared for.
English ESL past simple board game worksheets - Most downloaded (35 Results)
Simpsons Boardgame Daily Routine By Lili27 The game is played in groups from 2 to 4. Each player chooses one character (Lisa, Homer, Bart or Marge).The objective of the game is to ...
