• Dialogue dictations as communicative activities: A four skills task by David Ockert
• Video: Cambridge IGCSE English: An Experiment in eAssessment
• Research Paper: ‘Application of Web Resources for English Language & Literature Teaching’ by Dr.R.Gandhi Subramanian
• News: Sleep learning: Learn a language a week – you must be dreaming!
• Article: ‘Teaching English As a Foreign Language With Social Responsibility’ by Larry M. Lynch
• Article: Google and the lexical approach
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Teaching English As a Foreign Language With Social Responsibility
By [http://ezinearticles.com/?expert=Larry_M._Lynch]Larry M. Lynch

Teaching English as a Foreign Language

Are you conserving and recycling water? As EFL, ESL or foreign language teaching professionals we ultimately have a responsibility to our learners, our adopted communities and ourselves as a form of social responsibility. We can quite easily, quickly and responsibly incorporate global, regional and local social issues into our class sessions to provide our language learners with an outlet for their English as a foreign language or other foreign language communicative skills. Pollution, crime, the environment, global warming and terrorism are all available topics of concern regionally and locally worldwide. Take water conservation for example.

Google is special among search engines in that it has become a starting point for enquiries and data searches of all forms. As most of this data is linguistic, it deserves special attention from language teachers, but until now, search has been largely ignored by most course writers.

In this article I give several practical examples of how you can use Gffoogle, combined with a lexical approach to teaching, to enrich your class material with authentic examples, as well as building learner autonomy.

Google and lexis
Lexis, as most of you will know, is simply another term for ‘vocabulary’. The Lexical Approach treats language as a series of prefabricated lexical chunks. Its methodology puts grammar in second place to vocabulary.

The approach I will outline here is based on inputting ‘lexical chunks’ (strings of vocabulary or phrases) into Google’s various search functions to find samples of real world text. These are split into different types.

How Google treats language

This is a little complicated. What you need to know is that…

Read  the complete article at http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk

Suppose it were possible to learn a new language, keep fit or stop smoking by sleeping on it? Literally.

The theory of sleep learning or “hypnopaedia” was kick-started by novels like Brave New World. Here, having been played a George Bernard Shaw broadcast while asleep, a Polish-speaking boy is able to repeat it verbatim (and, presumably, with an Irish lilt) following morning.

Thus inspired, companies started marketing sleep learning courses, usually endorsed by “leading psychologists”. In one advertisement, a woman claims that, by playing Spanish tapes during sleep, at the end of just one week, she was in negotiations with a Venezuelan ambassador.

Read the complete news article at http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health

University of Cambridge International Examinations (CIE) University of Cambridge International Examinations (CIE) explores new technology to assess speaking and listening abilities for Cambridge IGCSE.

Dialogue dictations as communicative activities: A four skills task

By David Ockert

Quick Guide

Key words: group work, large group, dialogue, dictation, four-skills

Learner English level: All

Learner maturity level: All

Preparation time: 10-15 minutes

Activity time: Depends on number of students and materials

Materials: Print of a reading text or passage

Introduction

This activity works great with large groups because it requires the use of all four language skills in an exciting, interactive, and low-pressure competition. Furthermore, this activity works great with managing large groups of false-beginners (Norris, 1993). Research shows that Japanese learners of English like to work in groups (Ockert, 2005), but may have feelings toward the efficacy of the task that may differ from the teacher’s (Burden, 2005). However, recent research shows that male students of specific majors prefer moving about the classroom while completing tasks (Ockert, 2006). This task works best in a classroom where tables and chairs can be moved.

Application of Web Resources for English Language & Literature Teaching

Dr.R.Gandhi Subramanian, Reader (Retired), Postgraduate & Research Department of English, Government Arts College (Autonomous), Coimbatore-641018.

This paper intends to present a discussion on ways to apply web resources for effective teaching of English Language and Literature; how far the multimedia resources are used in our colleges and universities; suggestions to improve teaching of English Language and Literature by using multimedia as an innovative tool and also some of the problems encountered while introducing multimedia as a tool for imparting education.

Multimedia uses combinations of text, graphics, sound, video and animation controlled, coordinated, and delivered on the computer screen. Multimedia encourages inter-activity involving the user to get actively engaged in the presentation of information but not to remain a passive observer.