For my first blog post this year I thought I'd provide you with a couple of light-hearted and entertaining looks at the English language. The first shows you just how confusing the language can sometimes be, whilst the second demonstrates why some suggest that English spelling should be reformed.
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English (ESL) Weblog
Continue reading English, a Crazy Language Indeed!.
Things have been quiet in some areas of the site of late and we haven't added many new items. Sadly, work has been squatting on our lives and eating into time normally spent updating the site.
Continue reading Getting Back to Normal.
In this video, Noam Chomsky talks about language at Google as part of the Authors@Google series. In this question and answer session he discusses a number of topics, but the first is about universal grammar in which he provides an in-depth description of how his ideas on universal grammar have evolved over time. Another interesting question he answers at the end of the session relates to the effect of email, instant messaging and the like on syntax and grammar (TXT Speak). Hear Chomsky's views on whether this is just a natural part of the evolution of language and how it's affecting our minds.
Continue reading Noam Chomsky Talks About Universal Grammar [Video].
An Illinois, non-profit organisation called Innovations for Learning has released a handheld cosole, like a Game Boy or Nintendo DS designed for education and targeted at kindergarten and elementary students. Despite its simplicity and lack of software, this device has a lot of potential for English language education.
Continue reading Teachermate -Handheld Console for Educational Games.
Another training article. Something my trainees weren't doing very well -drilling. Not very exciting, but someone might find it useful.
Continue reading Drilling - Judicious Use of Brute Force in the ESL Classroom.
I recently watched an inspiring talk given as part of the TED 2008 conference by Dave Eggers, a philanthropist and teacher-at-large (as they describe him). The talk shows ways in which dedicated one-to-one teaching can be provided to pupils who would not normally have access to this sort of personal tuition. What's more, the students seem to lap it up. The successful and growing network of professionals volunteering their time to shine their light on local students of all ages is only part of the story. His novel approach to teaching and the way he makes learning fun should be an inspiration to all of us. As Time puts it: "Many writers, having written a first best-seller, might see it as a nice way to start a career. He started a movement instead."
Continue reading Once Upon A School - TED Prize Winner.
As an aside from my usual topics about using computers for language education, recently I am involved in a teacher training programme and would like to share an article I am working on to assist new teachers to plan a lesson.
As part of the course, trainees need to present evaluation lessons using a grammar based syllabus prepared with PPP. I hope this will be interesting to other teacher trainers and helpful to trainees, and I would like to hear your comments and criticisms.
Continue reading Teacher Training -Grammar Based PPP.
Lexxica provides resources to determine how much vocabulary a student knows and find gaps in their knowledge. They also claim to be able to accurately assess which words a student already knows.
The site is difficult to navigate and prone to crash. If all goes well, try the V-Check to find out how vocabulary you know (works for native speakers, too) and V-Admin to process your data. There are also flash games, free graded texts and flash cards. I would be interested if other members here tried it and posted comments. Lexxica: URL - http://www.lexxica.com/ Since the end of 2004, we have recorded how many entries we have in some of the sections of our site, which means that we can see how much new content we have created since then.
Continue reading Site Overview- 2007.
We have added a number of lessons for different levels and articles about Christmas and how it can be taught and used in the classroom. There will be more to follow in the next few days, so please check the What's New page for updates.
Continue reading Teaching Christmas.
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