2018/08/01

ENGLISH IN CONTEXT 
Practising  the Present Continuous Tense in a real-life situation

- What are you doing? 
- I AM DRAWING. 
- What are you drawing?
- I AM DRAWING a girl. 
- What are you drawing, her body or her face? 
- I AM DRAWING her face. 
- That's a good girl!:) 


Now it is your turn! Watch the video and practise answering the speaker. Use the words - DRAW, GIRL, FACE


#esl#english#eslteaching#englishteaching#teachingenglish#englishteacher#languages#foreignlanguages#creativetasks#reallifesituations#eslactivities#englishviaskype#teachingskype#englishviaskype#positivereinforecement

2018/07/28

READING FOR WORDS AND CULTURE

Languages are treasure chests of cultures and people world outlook. Look at any specific language and you will find that  words are used in a different way and what is regular for your mother language fails to work for a foreign one.
 
Read the abstract from the book THE COLOURS by Rose Tremain. Find the expression which describes what you can see in the picture:
 

 


Reading is a magic tool for enriching our stock of word collocations!!

#esl#teaching#eslteaching#languageteaching#teachinglanguages#foreignlanguages#teachingenglish#english#englishteacher#reading#englishreading#englishliterature

2018/07/26

READING FOR WORDS AND CULTURE

Languages are treasure chests of cultures and people world outlook. Look at any specific language and you will find that  words are used in a different way and what is regular for your mother language fails to work for a foreign one. One of the examples of this is the use of verbs to name actions of people, animals and objects.

Read the abstract from the book THE COLOURS by Rose Tremain. Find the verbs which are used to describe the typical actions of:

- the spinning top
- the acrobat
- the tiger

What does a spinning top do?
What does an acrobat do?
What does a tiger do?
 
Word collocations is a usual problem. We know which word collocates with which is our mother language and transfer it, translating directly into a foreign language we speak. Can words and cultures be transferred so artificially onto another language?:) The answer is a definite NO!!!
Reading is a magic tool for enriching our stock of word collocations!!
#esl#teaching#eslteaching#languageteaching#teachinglanguages#foreignlanguages#teachingenglish#english#englishteacher#reading#englishreading#englishliterature

2018/07/21

About Languages.

Thousands Once Spoke His Language in the Amazon. Now, He’s the Only One

INTUTO, Peru — Amadeo García García rushed upriver in his canoe, slipping into the hidden, booby-trapped camp where his brother Juan lay dying.
Juan writhed in pain and shook uncontrollably as his fever rose, battling malaria. As Amadeo consoled him, the sick man muttered back in words that no one else on Earth still understood.
Je’intavea’, he said that sweltering day in 1999. I am so ill.
The words were Taushiro. A mystery to linguists and anthropologists alike, the language was spoken by a tribe that vanished into the jungles of the Amazon basin in Peru generations ago, hoping to save itself from the invaders whose weapons and diseases had brought it to the brink of extinction.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/26/world/americas/peru-amazon-the-end.html?action=click&module=RelatedCoverage&pgtype=Article&region=Footer

2018/07/07

Week-end ESL activities

Let's train the Past Simple and the Past Continuous in a real-life situation. Fill in the gaps in the dialogue. There is an icon in the picture that will help you.

 Friend: Where were you?
Lena: (see the picture for an answer)........

Friend: What were you doing there?
Lena: (see the picture for an answer)........

Friend: Were you there alone?
Lena: (see the picture for an answer)........

So, can you say where Lena was and what she was doing? :):)

#esl#english#eslteaching#teachingenglish#englishteacher#languages#foreignlanguages#creativetasks#reallifesituations#eslactivities


2018/07/04

IATEFL Webinar - 'What is the future of Business English training?'


Louise Goodman - 'What is the future of Business English training?' 


The webinar came up to my expectations! The host was great and very knowlegeable. The speaker managed her time perfectly, and the good thing was that she dwelled on the issues for about 35 minutes and the rest of the time (25 min) was devoted to discussion during which very many useful ideas were shared. That is a really worthy format because discussion IS important.
I teach BE to MA students majoring in English as a part of their academic English program, and I have not worked with businesses I mean courses for corporate clients, etc however, all said by the speaker can be used by the ESL teacher both for teaching BE in the university and business environments. The speaker delineated which topics clients tend to find most useful for them in their BE course, pointed out the peculiarities of some approaches of teaching BE and the general idea was that a BE teacher now is not a trainer but rather a coacher, this was discussed, and my recent participatin in the Coaching and Emotional Intelligence webinar from British Council happened to be quite helpful. So, participating in chains of webinars seems to be very useful as some problems are related to others and provide better understanding of one another....

2018/06/29

Today's Webinar - Coaching and Emotional Intelligence Speaker - Nik Peachey

Today's Webinar - Coaching and Emotional Intelligence
Speaker - Nik Peachey

Pre-webinar activities:
two videos that have valuable insights into what makes us better speakers, listeners and what can help us to have better conversations.

https://www.ted.com/talks/julian_treasure_how_to_speak_so_that_people_want_to_listen

https://www.ted.com/talks/celeste_headlee_10_ways_to_have_a_better_conversation

ttps://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/article/coaching-emotional-intelligence-webinar-nik-peachey

The Presentation can be seen here:
http://technogogy.org.uk/Coaching-and%20EI.pdf

My impressions from the Webinar are very positive. First, I like the speaker's manner of speech - calm and reserved, and that helps to navigate the listeners through the material on coaching which is quite new and baffling, and at the same time it is emotional and enthusiastic which shows that he is very interested in the things he is talking about.
Secondly, the problem discussed seems to be related to the positive reinforcement and so it is quite interesting to see how the speaker suggests the ways it can be introduced to the ESL classroom (or any other classroom, by the way).
And thirdly, but perhaps most importantly, it is about that psychological issue of trying to be reflexive and responsive to the feelings of others, respecting every person as an individual!!

 

Join The teacher educator community:
https://teacher-educators.english.britishcouncil.org



2018/06/25

Today's CAE Webinar

 


The Cambridge Assessment Webinar has just finished!
It was very informative and helped to brush up and systematize my ESL teaching knowledge, while listening and '' making notes'' using print screen I thought about all the exs and tests we have, tried to identify their status and efficiency according to the CAE criteria... And what can I say?! I should say our materials do conform to all these standards!! 

#cambridgeassessmentenglish#webinars#webinarsforteachers#teacher#english#esl#englushteacher


2018/06/24

...of my recent online training - the webinar from IATEFL...

Good ideas about using some culturally vital attributes in the ESL class when teaching kids!!



2018/06/09

...of my recent online training!


A good article on the problem of modern education, can be well used in the English speaking classroom if you study Education Module or in the English teaching methodology classroom!

Teaching languages with technology: tools that help students become fluent

Advertisement feature: From Padlets to Popplets, languages consultant Joe Dale shares the tools modern foreign languages teachers are turning to in their classroom
Independent learning
 Technology lends itself very well to personalised and independent learning, allowing students to work at their own pace, says Joe Dale. Photograph: Rosetta Stone
Young people live their lives through technology: they are the web generation and they are hungry for more. Our challenge is to channel the natural enthusiasm our pupils have for ICT by using it in their everyday lives and embed it purposefully into the modern foreign languages (MFL) classroom.
There is great value in incorporating new technologies not as a bolt on or reward, but as an integral part of the process. This allows learners to foster the four c's: communication, creativity, collaboration and critical thinking. ICT lets learners easily draw on authentic resources that promote inter-cultural understanding and interact with virtual peers in real non-fabricated contexts.
Publishing students' multimedia outcomes on a blog or wiki gives them a real audience for their work, facilitates peer assessment through commenting and encourages them to raise their standards as a result. Virtual learning environments also offer students distance learning opportunities wherever and whenever they want. Tools like PadletPoppletLinoit and Pinterest let students collaborate easily with others as a class or in small groups and reflect on learning.
Many MFL departments now run their own Twitter accounts to keep in touch with parents, inform pupils of important notices, for celebrating achievement and for retweeting interesting tweets about language learning such as authentic tweets in the target language or tweets for word/expression of the day. This can raise the profile of the school and help to connect with the wider community – @allsaintslingo and @EccoMFL are good current examples of this in action.
Technology lends itself very well to personalised and independent learning where students can work at their own pace, complete interactive exercises rigorously in class or at home and receive immediate feedback. Gaining points for their efforts and being able to compare their scores with their classmates is motivating for them too and adds an element of engaging gamification to their learning.
For any MFL teacher learning vocabulary is essential and Quizlet is an effective way of memorising and embedding words, phrases and making sound spelling links. Students and teachers can search for existing lists and easily create their own. Socrative is another free cross-platform tool which allows for classroom voting, instant feedback and formative assessment. You can send students multiple choice, true or false or short answer questions as well self-marking pre-made quizzes. Furthermore, using avatars instead of real pupils' faces may encourage increased participation especially from reluctant learners.
Rehearsing, recording and editing spoken work digitally allows pupils to improve their pronunciation, boost their confidence, extend their speaking and listen back as many times as they like. They can also produce a script individually or collaboratively through a Google doc and import their text into an online teleprompter like Cue Prompter or the Visioprompt app so they can record their audio while it scrolls up the screen using Audacity or Voice Record Pro. Some departments employ this technique, as well as Textivate and Triptico, to help students learn their controlled assessment pieces.
Video is another powerful vehicle in and out of the languages classroom. Making videos draws upon multiple intelligences, promotes creativity and fosters collaboration. The process gives students ownership of their work which increases engagement. Pupils can produce short films in the target language, create animations using apps such as Yakit Kids, Puppet Pals and Explain Everything screencasts, as well as peer assess each other's work. These videos can be easily uploaded and stored in the cloud, used to form part of an e-portfolio over time and are accessible at all times. Other tools used for generating e-portfolios and submitting homework are Edmodo or Showbie. The advantage of these tools is that students don't require an email address just a class code.
Using video to flip the classroom is another possibility where learners access the lesson content they would normally learn in class, at home which frees up more class time for practising and accessing higher-order thinking skills. The MFL department at Wildern School in Hampshire is currently experimenting with flipping and recording their findings on a dedicated blog. Flipping doesn't have to involve creating lots of new material. It can be as simple as sharing existing PowerPoints or screencasts.
To support colleagues who find technology integration challenging, here are some suggestions:
 Lead by example and introduce some of the easier tools or apps to begin with to boost confidence and then share outcomes generated through their use.
 Team-teach a lesson incorporating technology and afterwards discuss the successes and challenges.
 Offer in-house mentoring sessions at lunchtime, after school or during professional development days.
 Nominate student digital leaders who can troubleshoot issues and offer support in class.
 Propose having technology as a performance management target.
 Recommend signing up to Twitter and following the #MFLtwitterati or attending the ICT and Languages Conference (ILILC) in February at Southampton University.
 Suggest joining online communities like the TES MFL Forum and MFL resources.
 Sign up to your subject association such as Association for language Learning (ALL) in the UK
For the current generation of teachers using digital media may be a challenge. The good news is by using social media for support and integrating available tools and apps, connected teachers can access technology's power and potential for language learning. Let's make language classrooms for the web generation more relevant, engaging and accessible.
Joe Dale is an independent consultant and former languages teacher. He blogs at Integrating ICT into the MFL Classroom and tweets as @joedale.

2018/01/25

When my Cognition fails me.....

Today I didn't recognize the word DENIAL reading words in the picture in the previous post (about the linguist's mind).

I even looked it up in the Dictionary!!! and was shocked to learn that I know it! !!!!! But of course I know it!!!!!
But I read it the way we read German words - it sounds the way it is written, or Latin...
Why so?...this question is vexing me now....

I do know that the verb is DENY and the noun is DENIAL. i know it like the ABC in my native language. But....What makes it slip from my perception and deceive me?
I read it over and over again and every time my eyes come to this borederline in the word between "N-I" I want to pronounce it as [ni] and not [nai].
TRIAL is no hindrance for my perception but DENIAL is...
There should be something about the universal structures I have in my mind, some other parallels unknown to me yet that make me stumble before reading it correctly...
The MIND...a mysterious creation....

INSIDE THE MIND OF A LINGUIST.....

What would you say to that??! :) :)


http://language.home.sprynet.com/lingdex/lingview.htm

E-Learning Resources

Here is a good article for those teachers who are involved in E-learning/teaching process.

I myself have not created many online materials, but for some online tests and the English Language Olympiad "Think, Feel, Act GREEN" (Moodle), the latter I enjoyed doing very much!!!
I wish I could work in a team of those teacher who could cooperate and instruct me how to do many things in e-format especially so that I have been developing my own course of Teaching English to Dog-lovers and Specialists which is presupposed to be taught online first.....
4 Ways To Perform A Post-Course Evaluation Analysis

And many others at: www.elearningindustry.com

2018/01/24

TBL and PBL (2)
Task-based learning and Project-based learning

So, to cope with the Fishbone activity students work in groups.

To me the ideal variant is a group/team of 3 students: 2 are too few for collective thinking, 4 are a bit too many and besides students tend to work in pairs within the group of 4 and then just sum up their results so there is no real discussion.
Of course the way you organize it depends on how large your class is.

The same important is the changeability of a group  as it will be tedious if the same students work in one and the same group the whole year round.
The first time make this process comfortable for them, let them make groups on their own, then you can do it yourself knowing students' level and preferences.

The same well you can try it when there are students of the same language level in a group and when their levels are different.

Sometimes when the students are very close friends and very emotional persons at that, their working in one team can result in a very noisy atmosphere and a little bit of a chaos about the way they are working and interfering with the others'.
So, psychology matters!

YOU FEEDBACK IS ALWAYS WELCOME!!
TBL and PBL
Task-based learning and Project-based learning

Here is a very good and educative article which clearly shows the differentces and benefits and possible difficulties:
https://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/article/tbl-pbl-two-learner-centred-approaches?page=2#comment-206204

First about TBL 
From my experience I can say that TBL is an approach which you cannot simply avoid if you want to make your classroom student-developing and interesting both for your students and yourself. How do I use it?
First, I use it at that stage of working in class when my students already learnt basic vocabulary (and grammar) material and more complicated tasks for developing critical thinking, etc can be introduced.
Then, it can as well be used with beginner students but as their languagebasis is still limited you should be a bit more careful in selecting problems envisioning how students can deal with them with the vocabulary and grammar knoewedge they have.
As an example, you can find an interesting text related to the topic your students are studying at the moment and use TBL working with this text.
One of the techniques is using Fishbone: Fish head is result, fishbones are causes.
This cause-effect activity helps students:
- to work through every detail in the text
- to apply their critical thinking abilities in processing and organizing information related to the problem
- to make a many-sided analysis of the problem
- to make a schematic representation of the problem which is easily stored in mind and, well, it is usefull this way for the exam-preparation process when  you can easily remember what you can and should talk about in case you have to talk about this problem
- to understand what you personally think about it.
.....
How to use it
Fish head - students word the problem raised in the text, the way they see it,
Fish bones - students word the issues mentioned in the text (the most important facts) that "bulid" this problem.
Divide the students into Groups and each group should come with its Fichbone scheme after the discussion.

But let's talk about Group worki n the next post!
YOUR FEEDBACK IS ALWAYS WELCOME!!:):)

ОТКУДА БЕРУТСЯ ДЕТИ Родители сплюнулись, и получилась точная копия - детенок. А говорят, сперматозоиды, яйцеклетки! Слюни! ⠀ Так чт...