A few days ago I spotted a link on excellent EFL Classroom 2.0 to something called Animated Teacher Training. It seems to be just what it says it is — an animated module with text and audio support to help ESL/EFL teachers learn how to teach.
I thought, and continue to think, that this is a pretty weird way to learn second language learning methods, and it’s difficult for me to believe that it would be very effective. I immediately dismissed it from my mind.
Then, today, three English Language Learners at my school approached me for help on their senior projects. They’re all writing about teaching methods for second language learning. They’re having a very hard time finding anything accessible that they can read about it.
Bingo! This Animated Teacher Training activity is perfect.
One of the few things I remember from my psychology class is Karl Jung’s idea of synchronicity, what he called “meaningful coincidences.” I guess this was one of them….
Dear Larry
I am keen to here your views on the teaching of * Spoken English in yur experience/at your school – following an article below
Clearly, it is both the practice and development of a language that provides the “pen to paper” if I can call it that
What tenses do you personally use frequently…during the class in terms of students spoken words/sentences
Do you think the learners use of past tenses/participles used in the classroom>> vary dramatically between Elementary through Middle age/or High school!
What (tenses) > are ignored if any. ( and if so maybe why?).. and do you think there should be more of an emphasis on certain structures for teaching spoken English
What use of dialogue /conservation do you use in respect of the different tenses and how is that applied in the classroom ?
thanks
James
“To save money, underfunded schools are cutting the past tense from language programs, reports The Onion.
In the most dramatic display of the new trend yet, the Tennessee Department of Education decided Monday to remove “-ed” endings from all of the state’s English classrooms, saving struggling schools an estimated $3 million each year. Officials say they plan to slowly phase out the tense by first eliminating the past perfect; once students have adjusted to the change, the past progressive, the past continuous, the past perfect progressive, and the simple past will be cut. Hundreds of school districts across the country are expected to follow suit.
“This is the end of an era,” said Alicia Reynolds, a school district director in Tuscaloosa, AL. “For some, reading and writing about things not immediately taking place was almost as much a part of school as history class and social studies.”
“That is, until we were forced to drop history class and social studies a couple of months ago,” Reynolds added.
In addition to axing the past tense, “school districts in California have been forced to cut addition and subtraction from their math departments,” reports The Onion. “