Best tools and reflections to introduce creative and collaborative learning in our lessons... especially in ESL. Super cool website I found just "surfing" the web and I think it could be of some use to students interested in fun, creative ways to learn as well as ESL!! This is like a board where interesting articles related to innovative education are posted! Enjoy!!!

This study investigated semantic transfer in second language. The author studied Korean ESL speakers who were asked to perform a semantic judgment task in which they decided whether or not 2 English words were related in meaning. I'm not sure if it's because I did a similar project in semantics or what, but this article is just jumping off the page to me and I feel like I need to share it with others. Semantic transfer from L1 to L2 is so fascinating and I have a feeling I can link this to where my inquiry is going.

This classroom in Japan supplemented their English course with an additional grammar course. I find this interesting because it's another way of looking at what we've been studying, understanding how ESL students and teachers and bridging the grammar gap, either with additional coursework, courses or teaching methods.

This article was really interesting because it targeted exactly what I'm doing at the ESL resource center and gave me a lot of insight into what kinds of questions I should be asking students who come in, how I can better understand their writing and most importantly, how I can better help them with their writing. It discussed how as tutors, we should maximize our resources and skills to better help these students. In the ESL resource center, we have such a good mix of backgrounds, that it really helps accomodate the students as we better understand them. This article emphasized pointing out the differences between HOC (Higher Order Content) vs LOC (Lower Order Content) something I have definitely come across in my internship: students coming in focusing solely on grammar, or pronunciation, or content (a rare one.)

This article describes a study similar to one that we read about with the 10 UCLA students, except these students in the study are ESL students; something I want to follow with this thread. This study basically shows that L1 and L2 writers had many strategies in common, the main difference being that L2 writers weren't as concerned as the L1 writers in correcting their work, their main focus being, just get it out! We have discussed in class about writing for a specific purpose and how you audience affects your writing; this study shows that ESL students' composing strategies were not inhibited by their purpose or audience.