[ELTWeekly Volume 8, Issue 6 | February 15, 2016 | ISSN 0975-3036] Questions are a common way for teachers to check for understanding, right? The answer we’re looking for is “yes.” Who hasn’t questioned a group of students to determine whether or not they understood the content? Unfortunately, not all questions are created equally. We propose… Continue reading Questioning That Deepens Comprehension (Edutopia)
Category: ELTWeekly Volume 8
Student Autonomy, Compliance, and Intrinsic Motivation (Edutopia)
[ELTWeekly Volume 8, Issue 6 | February 15, 2016 | ISSN 0975-3036] Many empirical studies have shown that excessive control from strict, negative rules and punishments and extrinsic rewards for doing the “right thing” can achieve short-term compliance. But there are costs: It undermines intrinsic motivation, it decreases the overall quality of performance, and it connects continued performance… Continue reading Student Autonomy, Compliance, and Intrinsic Motivation (Edutopia)
Teaching speaking – Teaching talk as interaction (Cambridge Conversations)
[ELTWeekly Volume 8, Issue 6 | February 15, 2016 | ISSN 0975-3036] Implications for teaching Three core issues need to be addressed in planning speaking activities for an English class. The first is to determine what kinds of speaking skills the class will focus on. Is it all three of the genres described in the preceding… Continue reading Teaching speaking – Teaching talk as interaction (Cambridge Conversations)
Bottom-up decoding: listening (OUP ELT Blog)
[ELTWeekly Volume 8, Issue 6 | February 15, 2016 | ISSN 0975-3036] In a previous post I explained some of the reasons why we should focus on bottom-up strategies for listening and reading. In this post, I’d like to show how this might work in practice for the skill of listening. Even learners who have a… Continue reading Bottom-up decoding: listening (OUP ELT Blog)
How English became English – and not Latin (OUP Blog)
[ELTWeekly Volume 8, Issue 6 | February 15, 2016 | ISSN 0975-3036] English grammar has been closely bound up with that of Latin since the 16th century, when English first began to be taught in schools. Given that grammatical instruction prior to this had focused on Latin, it’s not surprising that teachers based their grammars of… Continue reading How English became English – and not Latin (OUP Blog)
Between language and folklore: “To hang out the broom” (OUP Blog)
[ELTWeekly Volume 8, Issue 6 | February 15, 2016 | ISSN 0975-3036] We know even less about the origin of idioms than about the origin of individual words. This is natural: words have tangible components: roots, suffixes, consonants, vowels, and so forth, while idioms spring from customs, rites, and general experience. Yet both are apt… Continue reading Between language and folklore: “To hang out the broom” (OUP Blog)
ELTWeekly Volume 8, Issue 5
[ELTWeekly Volume 8, Issue 5 | February 8, 2016 | ISSN 0975-3036] Top 10 Tools for Expression in the EFL Classroom (OUP ELT Blog) Webinar: Help teens build vocabulary and express themselves confidently, February 16 Online video genres and student creation Teaching speaking #1 – Conversational routines Try One New Thing in the New Year Shifting… Continue reading ELTWeekly Volume 8, Issue 5
Shifting Mental Models in Educators (Edutopia)
[ELTWeekly Volume 8, Issue 5 | February 8, 2016 | ISSN 0975-3036] Early in my career as an instructional coach, I worked with an enthusiastic new high school teacher who inspired most of her students to demonstrate their learning in all kinds of creative ways. Her ninth-grade English class performed skits, recorded radio plays, and published… Continue reading Shifting Mental Models in Educators (Edutopia)
Try One New Thing in the New Year (Edutopia)
[ELTWeekly Volume 8, Issue 5 | February 8, 2016 | ISSN 0975-3036] One of my favorite rituals of the New Year is putting up a fresh wall calendar. Like most of us, I rely on an online tool to keep track of daily appointments and deadlines. But the paper version, with all those blank pages, is… Continue reading Try One New Thing in the New Year (Edutopia)
Teaching speaking #1 – Conversational routines (Cambridge Conversations)
[ELTWeekly Volume 8, Issue 5 | February 8, 2016 | ISSN 0975-3036] The mastery of speaking skills in English is a priority for many second-language or foreign-language learners. Consequently, learners often evaluate their success in language learning, as well as the effectiveness of their English course, on the basis of how much they feel they have… Continue reading Teaching speaking #1 – Conversational routines (Cambridge Conversations)