teaching
22 – Online Learning Past and Future – Stafford Lumsden
{bleep bloop bleep} I booted up cyborg teacher Stafford Lumsden to talk about online learning and the changing perception of what exactly a classroom is. We are more connected than ever and this shift in technology is changing the options that students have and how we teach. We discuss….
- distance learning
- e-learning vs online learning
- Is online education as ‘good’ as offline?
- Basics of having a repository
- LMS – Learning Management System – create assignments, give feedback, students upload and interact with each other and the instructor
- The pros and cons of a fully online classroom
- No one-size-fits-all with online teaching
Useful resources:
Google – heard of it? add dot com. It’s quite good.
Google Sites – make your own web pages
classroom.google.com – education specific ‘classrooms’. Students can submit and track assignments. Teachers can receive and give feedback on assignments all within the Google eco-system.
wix.com – make your own web pages
moodle.org – open source LMS. Requires some computer savvy to use
Blackboard.com – pricy. Would require financial support from your department
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,
KOTESOL upload coming soon!
Hello to the people who attended my KOTESOL pronunciation workshop. I’ve managed to upload the colour vowel chart already. I’ll be uploading the video and the materials and ideas after the insanity of midterm grading has subsided. So check back soon!
How can learners FEEL pronunciation?
Vowels are the most difficult of the phonemes to teach. Consonants generally don’t differ that much between language and, crucially, consonants have things touch – tongue between the teeth, bottom lip on the teeth etc – which makes it easier to describe to students. Vowels on the other hand have anything in the mouth making contact with another part. This makes it difficult to explain to students. Of course, we have the classic ‘mouth map’ that we can show students but that seems quite academic.
Students get a much better sense of where vowel sounds are produced using the colour chart attached below. Having two words that students can practice gives them double the chance to FEEL where the sounds are produced. The left side is the front of the mouth, the right is the back of the throat.
However, even when practicing, students are frequently sat closer to their partner, speaking softly. This is not good for FEELING where a vowel is being produced. For that, we need VOLUME.
Solution 1: separating out the students. Get them at opposite ends of the classroom having to speak to their partners. The extra volume necessary helps them to concentrate on where the sound is coming from, using the colour chart.
Solution 2: if you don’t have space – play music. The extra volume will force the students to speak up.
A loud classroom is a productive classroom.
The colour chart is not mine, so I’ve put the source on the bottom of the chart.
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,
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12 – Babies and First Language Acquisition – Tamar Keren-Portnoy pt1
Now on Instagram!
Once again, I got lost in the labyrinthian corridors of the University of York Language & Linguistic Science department, this time to speak to Tamar Keren-Portnoy about first language acquisition. There’s a lot of similarities between how we learn our first language and how we acquire our second language, so it’s a useful topic for ESL / EFL / second language teachers.
She gives us insights into such things as how babies develop syntax/grammar norms, why they learn some words earlier than others, how babies are not simply mimicking their caretakers and, through her own research with Rory DePaolis & Marilyn Vihman, how babies learn through listening and the sounds they themselves make.
You may remember Marilyn Vihman from episode 9 of MOT.
Later in the year, I’ll release a mini-episode about the developmental stages of babies.
Links:
Marilyn Vihman Interview on MOT
“Travel Broadens the Mind” – Campos et al (2000)
Key words: baby, babies, acquisition, teaching, learning, babbling, language, babbling, cooing,
Masters of TESOL 