Tweetgovernment,politics news,politics news,politicsThe following is an article reprinted with permission from James J. Asher, originator of Total Physical Response (TPR). I emailed Dr. Asher about contributing in last Monday’s post, Sage Advice from 20 Amazing People for the Beginning Language Learner, to which he replied, If you wish you have my permission to reprint on your blog,…
Category Archives: Teachers
Language Teaching Tip: Use Native Speakers
Tweetgovernment,politics news,politics news,politicsTeaching a foreign language to high school aged kids is a challenging proposition. I suspect that the vast majority of students who complete their required year or two of a foreign language – most often Spanish in the States – have no real vision for how they might actually use that Spanish even if they…
The Marathon Revolution
Tweetgovernment,politics news,politics news,politics This post is about change. In in 1970s running a marathon was largely the domain of young, competitive men. Like the guy in the picture. Individuals ran – alone. Short shorts ruled. As did the seriousness of the sport. It was not the sport for the common man – and certainly not for the…
Thoughts for Teachers and Self-Directed Language Learners
Tweetgovernment,politics news,politics news,politics Foreign language learning refers to the learning of a second (or third, or fourth) language in a context where the target language is not widely used in the community (for example, learning French in China). This is often contrasted with second language learning, i.e. where the language being learned is used in the community…
Language Helpers in the Classroom
Tweetgovernment,politics news,politics news,politicsI recently posted about using a language helper. I want to add a thought to that idea and it is for foreign language teachers. Why can’t you as a foreign language teacher bring language helpers into your classroom? Empower new immigrants by giving them the opportunity to share their language and culture with your…
Let the Discussion Begin
Tweetgovernment,politics news,politics news,politics(The following is taken from a paper I am currently writing.) The last ten years have seen a revolutionary change in the world of language learning. A paradigm shift has occurred. The internet has ushered in the information age and now for the first time in the history of the world, language learners have access…
Three Legs
Tweetgovernment,politics news,politics news,politics The most efficient use of materials needed to build a strong stool is when we build it with three legs. It is probably the most overused analogy known to man, but perhaps it is overused for a reason. And so it is that I have three legs upon which I think the most effective,…
Why Read
Tweetgovernment,politics news,politics news,politicsI came across a study in the Krashen book I am currently reviewing about reading. The study compared a number of different contexts and the frequency of the 1000 most common words in English in those contexts. It also compared the number of rare words (words outside of the 1000 most common list) used per…
Responding to Change . . . or not
Tweetgovernment,politics news,politics news,politics If the opportunities for finding comprehensible input have increased exponentially in the last ten years, why have our language classrooms not changed as well? Teachers perhaps are no longer needed to teach, but rather to direct and guide and coach. The change is no longer ahead. The change is now. How will we respond?…
Light Reading as a Bridge
Tweetgovernment,politics news,politics news,politics I just finished reading The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe for a second time. I finished the whole Narnia series of seven books last spring and am now working through them again. In Turkish. I love Narnia. I have read the series at least three times in English – I always save book…
Handcrafted Books
Tweetgovernment,politics news,politics news,politicsOne new language learning innovation is the idea of “handcrafted” input. Finding input that is comprehensible is a well known problem. Coming to Turkey and beginning to learn Turkish proved that point to me. Certainly there were dialogues in grammar and other textbooks, but little was readily available that was both comprehensible and of interest…
Things Have Changed
Tweetgovernment,politics news,politics news,politicsI was reading a few days ago in Lightbown and Spada’s How Languages are Learned (1999) and came across a distinction between two terms in the glossary. I know, I know – why was I reading through the glossary, but the distinction was made between the two terms: Foreign Language Learning and Second Language Learning….
