Say What? 5 Ways to Get Students to Listen Ah, listening, the neglected literacy skill. I know when I was a high school English teacher this was not necessarily a primary focus; I was too busy honing the more measurable literacy skills -- reading, writing, and speaking. But when we think about career and college readiness, listening skills are just as important. This is evidenced by the listening standards found in the Common Core and also the integral role listening plays in collaboration and communication, two of the four Cs of 21st century learning. So how do we help kids become better listeners? Check out these tactics for encouraging a deeper level of listening that also include student accountability: Strategy #1: Say it Once Repeating ourselves in the classroom will produce lazy listening in our students. Of course you don't want to leave distracted students in the dust so for those few who forgot to listen, you can advise them to, "ask three, then ask me." Strategy #2: Turn and Talk Strategy #3: Student Hand Signals
Learn a Language | Free Online Language Learning Pourquoi les français sont-ils nuls en anglais ? [Infographie] Jeudi 26 septembre Web - 26 septembre 2013 :: 11:48 :: Par Valentin-Pringuay En Europe, la France est classée 15ème sur 17 sur son niveau en anglais.Une infographie compare le niveau de la France à celui de la Suède (leader européen sur son niveau d’anglais). Pili Pop (anciennement Babble Planet) milite depuis 2011 pour améliorer l’apprentissage de l’anglais auprès de nos chères têtes blondes (mais aussi brunes, rousses, …). Et la start-up profite aujourd’hui de la Journée Européenne des Langues pour sortir une infographie qui va venir comparer les méthodes d’apprentissage en France (notre pays étant classé 15ème sur 17) et celui des meilleurs en anglais en Europe, les suédois. Sans trop de surprises, nous découvrons que les français regardent leurs séries et films en version française et évitent de parler anglais lors de leurs voyages. L’infographie est disponible ci-dessous et vous pouvez l’agrandir d’un clic. Plus d'infos sur : anglais, français, langues, Suède
Listening Drills for Language-Learning: Tedious, Miserable, and Totally Worth It This will be a long-ish article about listening skills in learning a foreign language. For your sake, I’ll divide it into two parts. Part I will be research-heavy. In it, I’ll argue my case for why listening skills are the cornerstone of language learning, and why listening drills are the best way to acquire them. Part II will show you my personal method for creating and using listening drills. Feel free to skip the background if you don’t need to be convinced that listening skills are important. At any rate, good luck. Don’t pity him. Listening Skills Are So, So Important I agree with Donovan Nagel at the Mezzofanti Guild, who says that listening comprehension is the only aspect of language learning you can’t bullshit through: “A learner might be able to say a lot in their target language, but as soon as a native speaker says something which warrants a response, it’s going to be very obvious whether or not the listener actually understands what’s being said.” Exponential growth, baby.
The Best Ideas For Using Games In The ESL/EFL/ELL Classroom I have many “Best” lists related to using online games with English Language Learners, and you can find them all at A Collection Of “The Best…” Lists On Learning Games. I’ve also written a lot and published a number of posts and resources related to playing non-online games in the classroom, but just realized I had never brought them all together in one place. Here they are (feel free to offer more suggestions!): Here are two excerpts from our book on teaching ELLs: Using Games in the ELL Classroom, Part I Using Games in the ELL Classroom, Part II Awhile back, I invited ESL teachers to send in their favorite games and posted them: The Best Language Learning Games (That Are Not Online) In Pursuit of the Excellent Game is an excellent piece from TESOL on using games with ELL’s. Articles on TEFL games is by Alex Case. Humanising Language Teaching is one of my favorite online journals, and they’ve just published the newest issue. A homemade revision game is by Sandy Millin. This Is Wild! Kaboom!
What the Research Shows Skip to main content American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages What the Research Shows What does research show about the benefits of language learning? In this age of accountability in education, policymakers and administrators, as well as parents, are increasingly demanding to know what research studies show regarding the benefits of language learning. Three major areas have been identified: How does language learning support academic achievement? How does language learning support academic achievement? Click on the statement to review the specific studies that support this claim. How does language learning provide cognitive benefits to students? Click on the statement to review the specific studies that support this claim How does language learning affect attitudes and beliefs about language learning and about other cultures? About ACTFL Conventions Membership Assessment & PD Publications Advocacy News 1001 N. Home | Contact Us | Media Inquiries | Advertise | Privacy Policy | Sitemap
The Best Infographics About Teaching & Learning English As A Second (or Third!) Language I thought readers might appreciate this collection: Learn English with Kaplan How to learn English via Kaplan Blog Love learning English with Kaplan Explore more infographics like this one on the web’s largest information design community – Visually. If you’re reading this post on an RSS Reader, I think you’ll have to click through to see this next one: Savefrom macmillandictionaryblog.comSo you want to become and English language teacher? “Truth of Studying a Foreign Language” Infographic Savefrom americantesol.comCommon Mistakes to Avoid as an ESL Teacher: I learned about all of these pitfalls as a TEFL trainee. Savefrom eyeoneducation.comInfographic: 15 Helpful Strategies (and Unhelpful Practices) for ELLs > Eye On Education: FullerTeaching ELLs Infographics about English is a nice collection from Pearson English. Related May 1, 2013
Photo Collages as Writing Prompts In a post on Android for Schools I wrote about using Pic Collage on my Android phone to create a collage to summarize my day. Pic Collage is a free app available for Android and iOS devices. The app allows you to quickly arrange pictures on a wide variety of canvas designs, add text to your images, and add stickers to your collages. From the app you can share your collage to Google Drive, Instagram, Facebook, Dropbox, and many other file sharing services. Applications for Education Students who struggle to get started on a descriptive writing assignment could benefit from first creating a photo collage about the event or concept that they need to write about. In thinking about the images that they select, they're also thinking about what they will say about each image. Pic Collage is a good option for creating collages on Android and iOS devices. See Angela Oliverson's guest post for more ideas about using PicMonkey in your classroom.
3 fun ways of incorporating games into beginner level classes As we all know – or can quickly learn – from experience, even our best lessons can become overwhelming for beginner students in language classes. Learning any new language is a huge challenge, and English is particularly hard for many people. Consequently, we should always be looking to create practical lessons and give lots of encouragement. I’m a firm believer that games are an important part of such lessons, as they provide learners with the opportunity to practice language and gain confidence in their new skills, while also having a little fun. 1. One vital thing for beginning learners trying to acquire English is to get their hands on as much vocabulary as possible and to transition these words to their long-term memory. Pictionary works particularly well with concrete nouns, as it creates a need for learners to draw and then remember them. This video gives you an idea of how to play the game in class. Here’s a short clip demonstrating how to play charades. 2. 3.
Des tablettes numériques pour dynamiser la classe, Kédem Ferré - Cyber-Langues 2013 Ce retour d’expérimentation s’accompagne d’un ‘backchannelling’, c'est-à-dire qu’en début d’exposé, Kédem vidéo-projette un QRCode que les participants du colloque scannent avec leur smartphone pour accéder à une page de ‘Todaysmeet’. Pendant l’exposé, les participants peuvent faire des commentaires écrits en direct sur le réseau. Ce fil de discussion est projeté et commenté en fin de présentation. Cette expérimentation tablettes numériques est transdisciplinaire et fait partie des quatre lycées pilotes de l’académie de Lyon.