Monday 1 November 2010

Tefl Teaching in Peru

Things to consider before signing a contract...
http://tefltips.blogspot.com/2008/01/accepting-job.html


This is a useful blog to search for jobs and get a bit of insider knowledge....



http://www.tefltips.blogspot.com/


Tuesday 24 August 2010

Who still wants to learn languages?

Who still wants to learn languages?

The new GCSE results show foreign languages are in severe decline – with the number of children learning French and German falling most dramatically of all.

Find out more at The Guardian,

http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2010/aug/24/who-still-wants-learn-languages




Thursday 29 July 2010

Where's Matt....

Where's Matt

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jWUrj22pRD0&feature=fvst


How do you think this clip could be used in your lesson?
Here are a few questions to mull over....


Where in the Hell is Matt (2008) Questions

Which country had the field of flowers?
Where was the pyramid?
Which country was Matt dancing in the woods?
Where were the coloured buildings?
Where was the soldier?
Where was the dark statue?
Where were the tribesmen from?
Where was Matt dancing underwater?
Where was the boat?
Where was Matt dancing in the rain?

Tuesday 20 July 2010

I write like.....

A curious little site I recently came across is I Write Like.....

http://iwl.me/

On this site, the procedure is pretty simple: You cut and paste a piece of writing that you've done and it analyses it, immediately telling you what famous writer your style most resembles.
It reminded me of that famous old Woody Allen gag, 'I copied love letters by James Joyce and sent them to her, lying that they were from me.....I was surprised she never asked me about all the references to Dublin.'

You should try this site, but as language teachers, we should think a little bit deeper. For example, how does their software work? Is it analysing chunks of language? Punctuation? Syntax? Is it actually possible to do this with any level of accuracy? How did they code this?
How, if you had the IT nous, would YOU code this? That's perhaps the most interesting question of all....

A recent thread on the consistently excellent Word Magazine blog offers an amusing cross-section of witty reactions, from the wildly enthused to the deeply cynical. It's worth a look.

http://wordmagazine.co.uk/content/i-write

And no, I shan't tell you which alias is mine.

Mike

Thursday 15 July 2010

/aɪpi:jaɪ taɪpraɪtə/


Here is an IPA typewriter. If you need to added IPA script to your written assignments you can write it in the typewriter and cut and paste it into your document. Simple eh? Be careful though as some fonts in word won't recognize the symbols.

Here on the right is a screenshot of the site. It is really simple to write out the IPA and very easy to cut and paste. Here is the link below.

http://www.e-lang.co.uk/mackichan/call/pron/type.html






An instructional video

Have a look at this interesting clip from a cognition lab. As you watch count the number of times the players in white pass the basketball.
Perception
http://viscog.beckman.illinois.edu/flashmovie/15.php
Are there any parallels with language learning?
What do you think they might be?


Mike

Wednesday 14 July 2010

comparing lexis or chunks

If you are not sure how common a word or phrase is in English you could always check it against another word or phrase. A handy tool to help is at this link below.

http://www.googlefight.com/

Try it out....

Tuesday 13 July 2010

Categories

Sorting practices can be a good way to look at language. Here are some examples to sort into 2 categories. What do you think the categories are?


It's going to rain

What are you going to do about it.

Are you going to tell anybody?

I'm going to the cinema.

Where are you going?

We're going to Ibiza this summer.

Are you going to watch the match on Saturday?

Is anyone going with you?


Rote learning

Here is a handy chart to help our students work on personal pronouns and the like. Do you think it helps? Do you remember when you learnt your times table at school? Do you think it helped in learning maths? This chart I think has the same effect, learn it and it will help you assimilate the language. What do you think?


Sunday 11 July 2010

What is the missing word?

What is the missing word?






Tefl Lab on Facebook

http://www.facebook.com/pages/London-United-Kingdom/TEFL-Lab-London/113532395328899?ref=ts

a new slant on gap fills?

There are thousands of examples of gap fills on the net. As a developing teacher you have to ask yourself, what purpose do they serve? Why do so many language teachers design them? I think partly it is the low cost and low maintenance nature of them but also perhaps there is a testing dimension to them too. The main criticism of gap fills is the low contextual environment they provide, often there is more than one word that can be inserted due to the lack of context. Below is perhaps one possible solution to that. The idea came from Jamie Keddie and he has other examples on his blog but here I have a few examples. What do you think? How could they be used? What is the language point?