Podcast
21 – Can Dictation Be Fun? – Oksana Kharley
“Oh googie…dictation….”
Possibly one of the most misused input/output techniques. The dreaded dictation. How can we move beyond playing a CD or reading and having students just write down what they hear? Oksana Kharley takes us through some useful approaches and techniques for practicing listening and writing that don’t include playing audio a couple of times and then handing out a script. Her ideas can help open up some new avenues for activities that the word and a new way of thinking about “dictation” (eg, does it NEED to include writing?)
Some of these activities come from:
Paul Davis & Mario Rinvolucri. (2006). Dictation. New methods, new possibilities. CUP.
20 – using TED talks (and other videos) in ESL EFL class – Roger Fusselman
I caught up with Roger Fusselman after his KOTESOL conference presentation on using TED talks and videos in general for language teaching. This is a MUST listen for anyone using visual media in the classroom.
We cover the DOs and DON’Ts of choosing videos as well as his principles of using media:
Challenge / Meaningful / Support / Choice / Integration (connecting ideas) / Variety / Application
Video Sites referenced:
http://www.ideacity.ca/watch-talks/
Specific videos referenced:
19 – Reflective Practice – Thomas Farrell
The self-styled ‘bad boy’ of language teaching, Thomas Farrell, dropped by my office to take about self reflection. What do we do in the classroom and, importantly, WHY do we do it? Who are YOU as a teacher and what do YOU bring into the classroom?
Start adding this reflective practice regularly to your professional life and you’ll be surprised at the difference it can make to your personal and professional development.
Also a good lesson about having a safety net. I recorded this with my fancy MICs but the recordings failed for some reason, so this is based on my phone back-up recording. Phew….
18 – Discourse Markers – Jon Campbell-Larsen
Well, discourse markers are kinda a feature of, like, natural speech in, you know, basically every language. Jon Campbell-Larsen takes us through the how and why of teaching Discourse Markers. Here is a link to an example of how to scaffold students practicing these markers (based on Jon’s KOTESOL hand out). Feel free to adapt it for your own classes.
Keywords: ESL, EFL, TESOL, TEFL, CELTA, DELTA, discourse markers, discourse, markers, linguistics, language, second language, teaching, learning, English, bilingual, multilingual, cognition, students, education,
17 – Reichmuth and Hanf – How to use TV shows for pronunciation – QUICKIE
How effective is using English language TV in helping students improve their pronunciation? Well, Reichmuth & Hanf actually did some research and the results are in. How I Met Your Mother!
Another quickie from the last KOTESOL conference.
Keywords: ESL, EFL, TESOL, TEFL, CELTA, DELTA, pronunciation, pronouncing, TV, linguistics, language, second language, teaching, learning, English, Israeli, , bilingual, mulitlingual, cognition,
16 – Eytan Zweig – what words really mean – semantics and pragmatics
Plurals are easy, right? There’s one or there’s more than one… pretty straight forward. “All”, “every”, “All the” “each” – that’s pretty simple too, isn’t it? Well, hold on to something sturdy as Eytan Zweig gets you to think a little deeper about how we both form and understand language.
The literal meaning (semantics) and the meaning of the use (pragmatics) of the language is a vital part of how we communicate in real life. So, let’s a show like this is chomping at the bit to dig down into this topic.
Keywords: ESL, EFL, TESOL, TEFL, CELTA, DELTA, pragmatics, semantics, linguistics, language, second language, teaching, learning, English, Israeli, Hebrew, bilingual, mulitlingual, York, University of York, UK, England, cognition, Eytan Zweig,
15 – The Student Becomes The Teacher – Justin McKibben
In the first of this batch of hit-n-run quickie interviews from the KOTESOL conference in Seoul at the end of 2016, I spoke to Justin McKibben about how we can expand students roles. By giving students certain speaking tasks the traditional classroom would consider a teacher’s job, we can vastly increase student talk time and give them a broader sense of control in their own classroom.
Justin takes us through some of the techniques we can use in our classrooms to shift away from the traditional teacher-fronted classroom. You can start using these techniques immediately.
STT, TTT, ESL, EFL, TEFL, TESOL, CELTA, DELTA, teacher-fronted classroom, teaching, English,
