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Isabelle Jones

When do people learn languages? - 0 views

www.zompist.com/whylang.html

languages learning promotion reference resources

shared by Isabelle Jones on 07 Aug 08 - Cached
  • eflclassroom 2.0 on 07 Aug 08
     
    Advice for language learners General warning: what follows may or may not apply to you. It's based on what linguistics knows about people in general (but any general advice will be ludicrously inappropriate for some people) and on my own experience (but you're not the same as me). If you have another way of learning that works, more power to you. Given the discussion so far, the prospects for language learning may seem pretty bleak. It seems that you'll only learn a language if you really need to; but the fact that you haven't done so already is a pretty good indication that you don't really need to. How to break out of this paradox? At the least, try to make the facts of language learning work for you, not against you. Exposure to the language, for instance, works in your favor. So create exposure. * Read books in the target language. * Better yet, read comics and magazines. (They're easier, more colloquial, and easier to incorporate into your weekly routine.) * Buy music that's sung in it; play it while you're doing other things. * Read websites and participate in newsgroups that use it. * Play language tapes in your car. If you have none, make some for yourself. * Hang out in the neighborhood where they speak it. * Try it out with anyone you know who speaks it. If necessary, go make new friends. * Seek out opportunities to work using the language. * Babysit a child, or hire a sitter, who speaks the language. * Take notes in your classes or at meetings in the language. * Marry a speaker of the language. (Warning: marry someone patient: some people want you to know their language-- they don't want to teach it. Also, this strategy is tricky for multiple languages.) Taking a class can be effective, partly for the instruction, but also because you can meet others who are learning the language, and because, psychologically, classes may be needed to make us give the subject matter time and attention. Self-study is too eas
Joel Josephson

Folk Songs of Europe http://folkdc.eu/ - 4 views

soundcloud.com/...folk-songs-of-europe

Folk music Europe

shared by Joel Josephson on 24 Aug 12 - No Cached
  • Joel Josephson on 24 Aug 12
     
    Folk music in many European languages http://folkdc.eu/ The Digital Children's Folksongs for Language and Cultural Learning (Folk DC) project is a European Union project designed to motivate young language learners to engage with language learning through using Folk songs, and activities around the songs. The songs are in 10 European languages (Czech, Danish, English, Finnish, Greek, Italian, Portuguese, Romanian, Spanish, Turkish). The project will be producing a complete package for schools (Autonomous Teacher Training Tool kit - ATTT) so that schools all over Europe can take part in the project. The project culminates in a simultaneous, live concert in 5 countries, streamed over the Internet to audiences all over Europe. School choirs will sing folk songs in non-native languages that will be streamed to the other concert venues and also made available to an Internet audience. Schools can take part in this project by: Using the resources produced by the project Suggesting your own language, culture and music activities, inspired by the project Watching the live concert (at the venue or online) - see how you can join Adding folk songs of your language - see the project Wiki You can ask more information about how you can take part here. The project will introduce an understanding of the number, richness and culture of other languages when children start to learn a foreign language and begin to understand the meaning of additional languages. It will engage children in fascinating and engaging activities that will resonate in to the future and answer the need for materials that can directly engage and motivate children to enjoy their learning.
Dianne Krause

Learn a Language | Free Online Language Learning - 6 views

www.learnalanguage.com

language learning spanish french chinese german russian english

shared by Dianne Krause on 22 Mar 11 - No Cached
  • Dianne Krause on 22 Mar 11
     
    "Learn a Language - or Learn 8 of Them! Learn a language here with Visual Link® Languages. You can learn over 1,400 words for free here! There are interactive audio/visual flash cards to help you learn a foreign language. There's also an addictive Lingo Dingo game to help you on your online language learning journey. As seen above, you can learn any language of your choice. You can also learn important phrases like greetings, survival expressions and slang words in the language of your choice. If you want verbs, there are over 350 verbs to help you with your language study. To our knowledge, this is the most extensive, free website dedicated to online language learning. Be sure to use it and pass it on to others. "
Barbara Lindsey

NEA: World Languages - 0 views

www.nea.org/...worldlanguages.html

articulation culture glastonbury language learning lifelong

shared by Barbara Lindsey on 11 Oct 08 - Cached
  • "The fact that our students study a language from grade one not only teaches them how to learn languages, it gives them the mindset that languages are just as important as any other subject," says Janet Eklund, now in her 20th year at Glastonbury, where she's one of two Russian teachers.
  • "All along, we're working to make them not just language proficient, but culturally aware," says Oleksak. "We always remind them that they have to learn more than just the words to relate to people from other cultures."
  • "There's a Chinese saying, that if three people pass by, one of them is your teacher. We learn from just about every experience we have," says Wang. "Then we make sense of it through our language."   
  • ...10 more annotations...
  • Asia Society's Shuhan Wang cautions against a "language of the month" approach for districts working to build their language programs. It's more important, she says, to build on community resources and to do what you can to make language learning real-world and relevant to them.
  • Presidential candidate Barack Obama hit on some deep-seated anxiety when he remarked in July that we should emphasize foreign language learning from an early age.
  • "The U.S. will become less competitive in the global economy because of a shortage of strong foreign language and international studies programs at the elementary, high school, and college levels," the Committee for Economic Development stated plainly in a 2006 report. "Our diplomatic efforts often have been hampered by a lack of cultural awareness," the report went on to say. The world is becoming so interrelated, if we don't teach our young other languages and cultural values, says Wang, "We are denying them access to the new world. It is just plain and simple. If we continue to view language learning as for the elite, for the "smart ones," or for the family who can afford to pay for it, we are really widening the gap."
  • What does it say about America that we are the only industrialized nation that routinely graduates high school students who speak only one language? Frankly, it says that if you want to talk to us—to do business with us, negotiate peace with us, learn from or teach us, or even just pal around with us—you'd better speak English.
  • "The norm is still either no foreign language or two years in high school," says Marty Abbott, director of Education at the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages.
  • Foreign language programs are often among the first things cut by urban school administrators desperately adding math and reading classes to raise test scores.
  • "It's time to reassess what 'basic skills' really means for the 21st century," says Asia Society's Wang.
  • Not only will students learn new vocabulary in the target language, but they get to work on the concepts they need to master for other classes, and yes, for high-stakes tests. That's how they do it in Glastonbury, says Oleksak: "We pre-teach, co-teach, and post-teach what's going on in the elementary classroom."
  • The kids reason out what you get when you add three butterflies plus four butterflies: Seven, yes, but really it's practice in Chinese and math, as well as a reminder that caterpillars turn into butterflies.
  • Right now, districts like Glastonbury—with an articulated, sequential program spanning grades 1–12, state-of-the-art language labs, and all the support an administration could give—are the exception.
Barbara Lindsey

Education Week: Science Grows on Acquiring New Language - 6 views

www.edweek.org/...09window_ep.h30.html

language learning brain research advocacy

shared by Barbara Lindsey on 26 Oct 10 - No Cached
  • For example, when babies born to native-English-speaking parents played three times a week during that window with a native-Mandarin-speaking tutor, at 12 months, they had progressed in their ability to recognize both English and Mandarin sounds, rather than starting to retrench in the non-native language. By contrast, children exposed only to audio or video recordings of native speakers showed no change in their language trajectory. Brain-imaging of the same children backed up the results of test-based measures of language specialization.
  • The research may not immediately translate into a new language arts curriculum, but it has already deepened the evidence for something most educators believe instinctively: Social engagement, particularly with speakers of multiple languages, is critical to language learning.
  • “The key to that series of studies is exposure and live interactions with native speakers,” Ms. Lebedeva said. “The interactions need to be naturalistic: eye contact, gestures, exaggerated phonemes.”
  • ...2 more annotations...
  • “Human brains are wired to learn best in social interactions, whether that learning is about language or problem-solving or emotion,” Ms. Lebedeva said, “but language is such a ubiquitous human behavior that studying it gives us an example of how more general learning takes place.”
  • at the science-oriented Ultimate Block Party held in New York City this month, children of different backgrounds played games in which they were required to sort toys either by shape or color, based on a rule indicated by changing flashcards. A child sorting blue and yellow ducks and trucks by shape, say, might suddenly have to switch to sorting them by color. The field games exemplified research findings that bilingual children have greater cognitive flexibility than monolingual children. That is, they can adapt better than monolingual children to changes in rules—What criteria do I use to sort?—and close out mental distractions—It doesn’t matter that some blue items are ducks and some are trucks.
  • Barbara Lindsey on 26 Oct 10
     
    researchers long thought the window for learning a new language shrinks rapidly after age 7 and closes almost entirely after puberty. Yet interdisciplinary research conducted over the past five years at the University of Washington, Pennsylvania State University, and other colleges suggest that the time frame may be more flexible than first thought and that students who learn additional languages become more adaptable in other types of learning, too.
Martin Burrett

One Stop English - 5 views

www.onestopenglish.com

English grammar worksheets resources ESL EAL

shared by Martin Burrett on 10 Jul 12 - Cached
  • Martin Burrett on 10 Jul 12
     
    A great site which has a vast amount of English language resources for both native and learners of English as a second language. Sections include business English, grammar, games and more. http://ictmagic.wikispaces.com/English+As+An+Additional+Language
Martin Burrett

Learn English at GCFLearnFree.org - 10 views

www.gcflearnfree.org/learnenglish

ESL EAL English

shared by Martin Burrett on 23 Dec 13 - No Cached
  • Martin Burrett on 23 Dec 13
     
    This is a beautifully designed resource for learning English through the learner's native language. Because the resources teach the same English, it is ideal for using with English classes with learners from all over the world. The flash resources are great and the lessons are arranged in categories. http://ictmagic.wikispaces.com/English+As+An+Additional+Language
Maggie Verster

Using English Effectively (A free english course) - 6 views

alison.com/...Using-English-Effectively

english school2.0 courses

shared by Maggie Verster on 17 Apr 10 - Cached
  • Maggie Verster on 17 Apr 10
     
    "The free online course will help you learn how to use English more effectively. It covers different types of writing including imaginative writing, English in the media, journalism, and textual analysis. It goes on to offer a comprehensive guide to using language effectively. This course is ideal for those who want to improve their written English for work or pleasure. It is also suitable for students of English. "
Martin Burrett

EFL Activities for Kids, ESL Printables, Worksheets, Games, Puzzles, for Preschool, Pri... - 7 views

www.english-4kids.com

esl EAL worksheets English resources printables flashcards games

shared by Martin Burrett on 17 Aug 11 - Cached
  • Martin Burrett on 17 Aug 11
     
    A huge ESL/EAL site with a vast collection of PDF worksheets and flashcards, activities, games, ebooks and media for English language students. http://ictmagic.wikispaces.com/English+As+An+Additional+Language
Martin Burrett

LearnEnglish Kids - British Council - 5 views

learnenglishkids.britishcouncil.org/en

mfl languages esl EAL games stories songs English

shared by Martin Burrett on 17 Aug 11 - Cached
  • Martin Burrett on 17 Aug 11
     
    Learn English Kids is a great collection of resources from the British Council for children learning English as an additional language. Play games, listen and watch stories and learn songs. http://ictmagic.wikispaces.com/English+As+An+Additional+Language
Claude Almansi

MyEE Online - My Everyday English Online Community - 3 views

www.myeeonline.com

myee english EFL language languages education community

shared by Claude Almansi on 18 Aug 10 - Cached
  • Claude Almansi on 18 Aug 10
     
    "A meeting place for English learners, English teachers and users of English language. A place for social networking and culture exchange."
Andrew Jeppesen

Building Peace - Thoughts on Modern Conflict - 0 views

www.buildingpeace.net/...why-language-matters.html

languages promoting-language languages-work buildingpeace learning a language

shared by Andrew Jeppesen on 13 Jul 09 - Cached
  • This is the crux: foreign language ability is not just about converting information from one format to another. It's about human relationships.
  • A few years ago, while General Abizaid was still CENTCOM commander, I flew a C-17 into Cairo to pick him up after a meeting. While I sat on the parking ramp with my engines running, knocking out checklists for the next takeoff, I looked out the window and saw General Abizaid moving among a circle of grinning Egyptian military officers. He was shaking hands, talking, doing the kinds of things a combatant commander is supposed to do: keeping our alliances strong at a time when the situation in Iraq was critical. Because he is fluent in Arabic, I presume he was doing at least some of this in Arabic. I remember thinking, Wow. This is why language matters.
  • Language is extremely hard. We need as many language solutions as we can get, and technology certainly can and should help fill the gap. But no matter how good the technology gets, no matter how prevalent English becomes, old-fashioned speaking of a foreign language still matters.
Lauren Rosen

How tablets accelerate the ease of learning a foreign language | TabTimes - 9 views

tabtimes.com/...ease-learning-foreign-language

apps mobile mobileLearning ACTFL12

shared by Lauren Rosen on 13 Feb 12 - No Cached
  • French Yelp, the Spanish-version of Craigslist, or the Japanese-language weather app.
  • best route from Le Louvre to Notre Dame in Paris. Students can use the same technology that a native speaker would use to accomplish any given task
  • mobile devices connect users with foreign language newspapers, videos, podcasts, and streaming online radio. This level of remote accessibility into other cultures and languages is completely unprecedented.
  • ...8 more annotations...
  • how you might use the technology if your first language wasn’t English
  • electing applications that align with personal or professional interests
  • recipes in French
  • chord charts, and share recordings
  • Musicians
  • Cooking
  • majority of tablet applications are designed for just one task
  • ask-based approach to language learning relies on authentic language used in authentic ways. Tablets are now proving to serve this purpose
  • Lauren Rosen on 13 Feb 12
     
    Using real apps for real language learning through taks based activities and practice in the ways that native speakers function daily. Authenticity at its best. . 
Paul Beaufait

http://leighcherry.wikispaces.com/file/view/FLCAS+-+Horwitz.pdf - 8 views

leighcherry.wikispaces.com/...FLCAS+-+Horwitz.pdf

anxiety classroom education foreign languages Horwitz Modern Language Journal survey

shared by Paul Beaufait on 10 Jun 13 - No Cached
  • Paul Beaufait on 10 Jun 13
     
    Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale [English version, apparently from] Horwitz, E. K., Horwitz, M. B., & Cope, J. (1986). Foreign language classroom anxiety. The Modern Language Journal, 70(2), 125‐132.
  • Isabelle Jones on 26 Jul 13
     
    Thank you for sharing this-something I have suspected for a long time but that is denied by many foreign languages teachers.
Gramarye Gramarye

Language Leader Intermediate - ESL book review - 1 views

hubpages.com/...der-Intermediate-A-book-review

language leader esl english language leader intermediate

shared by Gramarye Gramarye on 24 Apr 10 - Cached
  • Gramarye Gramarye on 24 Apr 10
     
    If you really want to learn English, but are sick of boring books, then Language Leader Intermediate is what you want. - This ESL book review will tell you why Language Leader is what you should buy! You can use this book without a teacher, but it will be more fun if you learn with a friend.
Martin Burrett

Babadum - 6 views

ukedchat.com/babadum

languages English Spanish German French Chinese Mandarin Japan Italian Russian Polish mfl

shared by Martin Burrett on 02 Oct 18 - No Cached
  • Martin Burrett on 02 Oct 18
     
    "This is a fab HTML5 language learning site which tests your language skills through a series of games with 1500 words. The site collects stats on your performance. The current 21 languages include English, Spanish, German, French, Chinese, Japan, Italian, Russian, Polish and many more."
Martin Burrett

ESL Partyland - 1 views

www.eslpartyland.com

esl EAL English language

shared by Martin Burrett on 06 Oct 11 - Cached
  • Martin Burrett on 06 Oct 11
     
    A great site for teachers/learner of English as a second language to find resources. http://ictmagic.wikispaces.com/English+As+An+Additional+Language
Mariangeles Romero

Valentine's Day Worksheets, Vocabulary, Exercises, Teaching Resources and Activities - 10 views

www.esolcourses.com/...valentines-day.html

San Valentín valentines

shared by Mariangeles Romero on 03 Feb 13 - No Cached
  • Mariangeles Romero on 03 Feb 13
     
    Games and activities about Valentine's Day for English language students and kids - printable and online word searches, crosswords, vocabulary, grammar, reading and listening activities, song quizzes, games and other lesson resources. Browse our site for hundreds more free English language printables and quizzes for English students and young learners.
Martin Burrett

English Club - 3 views

www.englishclub.com

English esl EAL grammar quiz games lesson plan ideas

shared by Martin Burrett on 23 Aug 11 - Cached
  • Martin Burrett on 23 Aug 11
     
    A huge site with lots resources to teach English as a additional language. Find games, ideas, lesson plans, quizzes and a helpful online community of students and educators. http://ictmagic.wikispaces.com/English+As+An+Additional+Language
eflclassroom 2.0

English Everywhere - Live Forum - Chatroll - 0 views

chatroll.com/...english-everywhere

shared by eflclassroom 2.0 on 29 Aug 08 - Cached
  • eflclassroom 2.0 on 29 Aug 08
     
    English learners , teachers and any English speakers can chat on any topic and make the world that much smaller by sharing the English language and interests.
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