ExpatChild’s Post

As professionals concerned with students language development, we often focus on leaners' ability to produce discreet items of language. These may be lexical, syntactical or phonetical, for example. I would suggest that whilst this is undoubtedly important, we should also be concerned with developing our learners' ability to learn how to learn; helping learners to develop their voice as a language learner will help to improve their metacognition - a key tool in any learner's arsenal. Try building in reflection activities into your lessons. don't simply review the learning aims at the end of lesson but rather have reflective questions throughout the learning process. In essence we want to help them not only learn language but also learn through and about language.

Do you dabble in dictation? 🗨️ Decoding skills, which involve correlating written language with its spoken form, are essential for acquiring language skills, and dictation can help with that. But how? 🔢 Development of all four language skills 👂🏽 Attentive listening and sound discrimination 🔍 Focus on accuracy and meaning 🥳 Engagement and fun! Read more on our blog in this piece from Jennifer Wozniak-Rush, Assistant Headteacher at The Hollins in Lancashire, and let us know in the comments how you're incorporating dictation into your language lessons 👇🏽 #languageteacher #dictation #languageexams

… and this photo marks the end of my Master’s after my defense session. I researched the notion of perception in language learning as it pertains to using music, and with the guidance of my teachers, colleagues and friends, this research came to fruition. Over the past 8 months, I have been researching, working and prototyping non-stop, and all of this is fueled by my passion to try and help the community that has welcomed me into its arms. While I hope I have been a good student, good listener, good observer and good colleague, the plan now is going to be a better educator. What I learned through my research was that learners feel better about themselves when they know they are not being tested, and somehow their language acquisition and their desire to be more active seem to soar in quality, that means our current systems of evaluations, assessments, grading and noting may be flawed at heart – it is the unmotivated learner that needs to be the target of our researches, the motivated students knows what it is they are doing. Music, just like any other tool – only enables the potential for control. If individuals know how to control their way of learning, they can learn the way they want to learn. We, as educators, need to be an accompanying part of the organizational circumstances to help facilitate this, and alleviate the possible frictions. The common denominator in education is, a lot of times, lack of true motivation. Thanks to Julia Putsche and Peggy Candas, among my other teachers to help guide me wish this research into existence. (PS – for context, over 15 years ago when I started learning French as my fourth language, I failed my first 3 semesters, I was a lost cause. Today, I graduated Master’s in France working on language acquisition; the moral is, anything is possible with the correct environment and motivation.) #UniversitedeStrasbourg #FacultedesLangues #Perception #Master #Soutenance

Excellent article on knowledge of how to help learning of language

Woke up today to some great news!! One of our parents just had a new baby!!💃🏿💃🏿 Boosting Language Development. Let's look at ways to support language growth: 1. Read daily: Even 15 minutes of reading can significantly impact vocabulary and comprehension skills. 2. Narrate your day: Describe what you're doing, seeing, or feeling. This exposes children to diverse vocabulary in context. 3. Ask open-ended questions: Encourage children to express themselves with questions that require more than yes/no answers. 4. Sing and rhyme: Songs and nursery rhymes develop phonological awareness, a crucial precursor to reading. 5. Limit screen time: While some educational programs can be beneficial, nothing beats real-world interactions for language learning. 6. Create a language-rich environment: Label objects, discuss pictures, and encourage storytelling. 7. Model good speech: Use proper grammar and pronunciation. Children learn by imitation. Remember, every interaction is an opportunity for language development. Make it fun, engaging, and part of your daily routine! #earlyyears #earlyyearspractitioner #earlyyearseducation #languagedevelopment

How do we get to improve our ability to express ourselves in a foreign language? Check out the video on this page to see one example of that interesting process …

Today, let's have a look at two nearly-forgotten language teaching methods, the Audiolingual Method and the Grammar-Translation Method! April Fools - not only are they not nearly-forgotten, they're not the ones that we want to highlight or use in a communicative classroom! (If the choice of methods didn't tip you off, hopefully the Comic Sans font did!) What do we propose instead? Glad you asked! Getting students USING the language in context is the most important part of a communicative, proficiency-based language class. Sure, they'll make mistakes - and we don't have to worry about avoiding every single mistake out of fear that "they'll learn it wrong." Mistakes just show us where they are in their language development. As they get exposed to more and more language through hearing you in the classroom, and authentic and comprehensible readings and videos (like the ones you can find on our platform!), the language that they produce will be more and more complex - and more and more accurate. Learn more at https://lnkd.in/g_tXG3E5 #LanguageLearning #LanguageTeaching #TransitioningTeacher #AprilFools #AprilFoolsDay #AprilFool #TransitioningTeachers #SpanishTeachers #FrenchTeachers

As I write this post, I realized that today is Teachers' Day. Anyways, in an earlier article titled ‘We don’t have to teach!’, I had written about one of the roles of an educator is to collaborate with learners in creating a democratic classroom. This article is an extension of those thoughts. If you are a Japanese (foreign) language learner or an educator, do leave your thoughts and comments on the blog. https://lnkd.in/gGVS8HGy

I was reading a paper( Dörnyei (1998).Motivation in second and  foreign language learning. Language Teaching, 31, pp 117­-135) and this quote ( by Williams, 1994:77) grabbed my attention. Learning a language is a lot more than just picking up words and grammar. It's like, when your students are trying to string a sentence together in a new language, they're not just speaking, they're kind of putting their whole identity out there. So, here's the thing, when our students are hesitant to speak up, it's not always because they're scared of getting the grammar wrong ( sometimes that might be case, but we can dig deeper)It could be more about how they feel they're seen by others, and, you know, that's a big deal. It's about their self-image. Imagine, every time they open their mouth, it's like they're walking a line between who they are and who they want to be in this new language. And yep, that can be super nerve-wracking. What's our job then? Well, IMHO, it's to make that line a bit wider, make the classroom a place where it's OK to wobble a bit, maybe even fall, because that's how they learn ( as cliche as this sounds!) We need to be their cheerleaders, celebrating every little win, every 'almost got it' moment. It's not just about teaching language; it's about helping them build a bridge to their new selves, with plenty of cheers along the way. What's your take on that?

A framework combining whole-class scaffolding, language levels, and scaffolding motivations can provide insights into the ways language scaffolds unfold in classrooms #EERAblog #EduSci http://ow.ly/hpbb30sHEN1