business curriculum eikaiwa extensive listening extensive reading language courses materials school management self-study teaching technology university
by sendaiben
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Self-access centres in private language schools
I have always wanted to have some kind of self-access centre (room?) at Cambridge English. I feel it would offer a lot of value to some students, as well as make what we do more effective.
The room would have books, computers, and comfortable chairs. It would have nice lighting and be a quiet, pleasant place.
Students would come and use the room whenever they wanted, and regular classes would also include self-study time (students would have to spend 30-60 minutes of a 90- or 120-minute class doing self-study).
We may have the chance to create something like this this year as our current classroom is too small and there is very little real estate available in Sendai after the 2011 disaster so we have rented an apartment above the school to have classes in.
I would like to do something like this at university as well. For now, I think the best chance is to work with the library.
Does anyone have any experience of implementing this kind of system?
(photo is the Self-Access Centre at Kanda University)
conference curriculum EFL eikaiwa elllo ES ETJ expectations extensive listening extensive reading high school Japanese junior high school Language learning online resources oxford owl Oxford Reading Tree phonics popjisyo presentations renshuu reviews rikai self-study teaching technology TED university video
by sendaiben
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Annotated list of websites from the “SRS, RSS, LMS: Online Tools to Boost Learner Efficiency” presentations
Hi everyone
A friend from Sendai reminded me that I promised to post the list of websites from my presentation on the blog. Here it is:
Anki is a spaced-repetition program
elllo.org is an amazing listening resource: over 1200 short conversations with transcripts
EnglishCentral.com has short videos with interactive subtitles as well as vocab and pronunciation practice
Facebook needs no introduction
Google search settings have some interesting tools, like reading level
Google translate is partially useful
iTunesUniversity great content for advanced students and teachers can now use it to show their classes
Network (Oxford University Press textbook) new series based around social media
OxfordOwl incredible resources including Oxford Reading Tree ebooks with sound
pikifriends a closed social network for junior high schools
popjisyo.com amazing resource for reading online content
readthekanji.com a simple (paid) system for learning kanji
renshuu.org a very powerful site for learning kanji and vocabulary -freemium but most of it is free
rikaikun for Chrome/rikaichan browser extension Firefox gives popup translations within the browser
skype for video calls
starfall.com phonics and reading practice for children
TED.com great content for teachers and advanced learners
youtube.com you know this
Hope you find something useful in there.
conference curriculum EFL eikaiwa elllo ETJ extensive listening Language learning materials online resources oxford owl popjisyo presentations self-study teaching technology TED video
by sendaiben
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SRS, RSS, LMS: Online Tools to Boost Learner Efficiency
This is my presentation from the 2012 Tokyo ETJ Expo. Thanks to Oxford University Press for sponsoring my presentation and making it possible for me to attend.
curriculum EFL expectations extensive listening language courses Language learning listening teaching theory
by sendaiben
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Listening and taking notes: harder than just listening?
I’ve been meaning to write something about this for a couple of weeks months now.
I started doing listening exercises this year in my university reading classes. Students listen to graded reader CDs as a class while taking notes, then talk in groups checking their understanding, and finally write a short summary of what they heard.
So far we’ve been doing short (two three minute) sections of level two reader CDs. These are texts that my students would be able to read easily, but they have trouble following it as audio. I presume this is because most high school students rarely if at all practice listening for more than a single sentence or short dialogue.
The feedback so far has been pretty good, with most students finding the practice interesting, challenging, and useful. They also appreciate the chance to practice listening, speaking, and writing in a short time.
However, there was one thing that came up that really surprised me. Many of the students have mentioned in feedback that they find it much harder to listen and take notes at the same time. I had assumed that taking notes would help them focus, but it seems that for a substantial minority this is not the case.
After receiving this feedback I allowed the students to take notes or not in the following class, and that seems to have solved the problem.
Does anyone have any similar experiences or articles/theories that address this? It was fairly counterintuitive to me, although I guess it makes sense that the increased mental load of having to filter the content to take notes would make it harder to actually process the language…
curriculum expectations extensive listening extensive reading Language learning online resources personal Thai theory
by sendaiben
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Thai (lack of) progress
Okay, so we are now two months into 2012, and my Thai study is going nowhere very slowly.
This has been a very interesting exercise for me, both from a learning point of view, and as a way to test out my theories regarding how best to study a language. Now, it has been very clear to me from observing my students that learning preferences and habits are extremely personal and vary widely among individuals. Some of my students take to internet drills, some like reading, some spend hours writing journals, and some, despite my best efforts, do nothing.
I am definitely not a self-directed learner. I like the idea of input, but at the end of the day I need the structure and encouragement provided by a teacher, a class, or by actually living in a foreign language environment.
Come to think of it, I have done all my language learning under one or more of those conditions. This is the first time for me to try to learn a language on my own, outside of a place where it is spoken. It is not going well.
There are many examples of successful language learners who have succeeded under similar conditions. Khatsumoto for Japanese, or Steve Kaufmann for all sorts of languages. They rely on masses of input, supplemented with judicious use of SRS (spaced repetition system online flashcard applications). I completely agree with the approach, and see great results from those of my students that follow my advice. So what’s my problem?
I have been listening to the Learn Thai Podcast materials, which are pretty good, but in all fairness are nowhere near adequate to take me to Thai language mastery. I need a foundation of basic phrases to provide a base, then a huge amount of input supplemented by the ‘teaching’ in the podcasts, as well as conversation practice/tutoring once I get a bit better.
I have three fairly serious issues I need to overcome first:
1. I can’t read Thai yet. This is a huge hurdle because it is preventing me from getting input through reading (probably the best way to get lots of input fast)
2. I haven’t found good sources for input (radio, videos, music)
3. I haven’t found anyone to help me with Thai or hold me accountable for (not) studying
It’s fairly clear what I need to do. I need to learn Thai phonics and the alphabet. I need to find videos, TV, and music that I like and make sure I spend a chunk of time each day with it. And I am going to need a teacher or class to keep me focused. That last point is particular to me. I tend to get distracted and lose interest in things, so I need an external motivator to help me.
Okay, round two. I’ll keep you posted.