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Joel Bennett

Social Media is Here to Stay... Now What? - 0 views

www.danah.org/...MSRTechFest2009.html

Development WebDesign SocialNetworking Twitter Research SocialMedia

shared by Joel Bennett on 18 Mar 09 - Cached
  • Social media is driven by another buzzword: "user-generated content" or content that is contributed by participants rather than editors.
  • I'm going to share my research in three acts: 1) How did social media - and social network sites in particular - gain traction in the US? And how should we think about network effects? 2) What are some core differences between how teens leverage social media and how adults engage with these same tools? 3) How is social media reconfiguring social infrastructure and where is all of this going?
  • Facebook was narrated as the "safe" alternative and, in the 2006-2007 school year, a split amongst American teens occurred. Those college-bound kids from wealthier or upwardly mobile backgrounds flocked to Facebook while teens from urban or less economically privileged backgrounds rejected the transition and opted to stay with MySpace while simultaneously rejecting the fears brought on by American media. Many kids were caught in the middle and opted to use both, but the division that occurred resembles the same "jocks and burnouts" narrative that shaped American schools in the 1980s.
  • ...6 more annotations...
  • over 35% of American adults have a profile on a social network site
  • many adults have jumped in, but what they are doing there is often very different than what young people are doing.
  • Teens are much more motivated to talk only with their friends and they learned a harsh lesson with social network sites. Even if they are just trying to talk to their friends, those who hold power over them are going to access everything they wrote if it's in public
  • while you can replicate a conversation, it's much easier to alter what's been said than to confirm that it's an accurate portrayal of the original conversation.
  • 1. Invisible Audiences. We are used to being able to assess the people around us when we're speaking. We adjust what we're saying to account for the audience. Social media introduces all sorts of invisible audiences.
  • Social media brings all of these contexts crashing into one another and it's often difficult to figure out what's appropriate
  • Joel Bennett on 18 Mar 09
     
    1) How did social media - and social network sites in particular - gain traction in the US? And how should we think about network effects? 2) What are some core differences between how teens leverage social media and how adults engage with these same tools? 3) How is social media reconfiguring social infrastructure and where is all of this going?
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
Claude Almansi

Official Google Blog: Automatic captions in YouTube - Ken Harrenstien, Nov. 19, 09 - 7 views

googleblog.blogspot.com/...matic-captions-in-youtube.html

google youtube captions Harrenstein accessibility video TTS

shared by Claude Almansi on 19 Nov 09 - Cached
  • Claude Almansi on 19 Nov 09
     
    "However, like everything YouTube does, captions face a tremendous challenge of scale. Every minute, 20 hours of video are uploaded. How can we expect every video owner to spend the time and effort necessary to add captions to their videos? Even with all of the captioning support already available on YouTube, the majority of user-generated video content online is still inaccessible to people like me. To help address this challenge, we've combined Google's automatic speech recognition (ASR) technology with the YouTube caption system to offer automatic captions, or auto-caps for short. Auto-caps use the same voice recognition algorithms in Google Voice to automatically generate captions for video. The captions will not always be perfect (check out the video below for an amusing example), but even when they're off, they can still be helpful-and the technology will continue to improve with time. In addition to automatic captions, we're also launching automatic caption timing, or auto-timing, to make it significantly easier to create captions manually. With auto-timing, you no longer need to have special expertise to create your own captions in YouTube. All you need to do is create a simple text file with all the words in the video and we'll use Google's ASR technology to figure out when the words are spoken and create captions for your video. This should significantly lower the barriers for video owners who want to add captions, but who don't have the time or resources to create professional caption tracks."
Pamela Arraras

Foreign Language Teaching Wiki - Culture - 1 views

flteaching.wikispaces.com/Culture

virtualbackpacking culture intercultural

shared by Pamela Arraras on 22 Aug 09 - No Cached
  • The main exposure students had to the culture of the target language was through controlled interaction with native speakers in the classroom.
  • Language & culture are more naturally integrated in this approach. Culture instruction is connected to grammar instruction. Its main goal is to teach students how to use the target language when communicating in a cultural context
  • the following are other common approaches to teaching culture: (from Omaggio) The Frankenstein Approach: A taco from here, a flamenco dancer from there, a gaucho from here, a bullfight from there. The 4-F Approach: Folk dances, festivals, fairs and food. The Tour Guide Approach: The identification of monuments, rivers and cities. The "By-the-Way" Approach: Sporadic lectures or bits of behavior selected indiscriminately to emphasize sharp differences.
  • ...14 more annotations...
  • focusing a little more on similarities, instead of the differences, between cultures
  • Latorre believes that focusing on differences instead of on the similarities contributes to people misunderstanding other cultures, often thinking that the foreign cultures are "exotic," perhaps more exotic than they actually are. What Latorre suggests that any teacher of any foreign language should do is focus on the “true differential, the language [itself], rather than enlarging beyond proportion attitudes and activities which are either regional, outdated, or downright non-existent” (672).
  • one of the most important factors for success in learning a foreign language is the need for students to get involved in the learning process. The use of materials based on internet technologies offers many innovative ways of getting students involved in the process of learning a language. Students can get to know the target culture by means of interacting directly with native speakers via on-line communication, with mail exchanges or chatrooms.
  • From her point of view, it is crucial that the students can learn not only the language but also the diversity of the target culture. That is why, according to her, internet resources, such as newspapers and magazines, have a great importance, since they provide students with authentic and current information that can help them understand the target culture. Reading on-line newspapers makes students aware of current social phenomena.
  • According to Lee, recent studies have proved that internet resources can help students improve their language skills in a similar way to full immersion or study abroad, although are based basically on written communication. Besides, this use of on-line resources are more beneficial to students at the advanced level because they require a high level of language proficiency to read, comprehend, and respond to cultural readings, for example, newspapers.
  • The most important part of Stern's research involves his 3-level framework of foreign culture pedagogy: teaching social sciences, applying theory/research, and their practical applications in the classroom. In the 1990s, Stern's cultural/communication mix evolved from describing sociocultural contexts of second language/foreign language to contexts of competence in second culture acquisition (not just language acquisition). This is the first time that cultural pedagogy and social sciences had been paired.
  • In H.H. Stern's breakthrough 1983 study "Fundamental concepts of language Teaching," there are concepts of day-to-day culture and customs that should be used in the classroom. Stern uses a four component model including a 'cultural syllabus' for culture teaching.
  • Foreign language (FL) teachers should make culture more of a central role in the class FL teachers should throw out teaching culture in terms of isolated facts FL teachers should have an awareness of the past on the present within any culture without focusing too much on the past FL teachers should be aware of cognitive and affective influences on the students FL teachers should engage students as active participants FL teachers should teach culture in such a way that students can be cross-cultural here and abroad Given that the teacher’s assumptions about how language and lang learning affect how he or she teaches lang and culture, the approach should aim for communicative competence (that is, real communication)
  • Tang discussed the use of performance-based theory developed by Walker (2000) who suggests that culture could be better taught if done through simulated social interactions in the classroom, for example hosting a guest or accepting a gift. This serves to create a “default memory” within the student's mind that will help him perform in the target culture without drawing conclusions or using as a reference his own base culture which could lead to misunderstandings.
  • Tang also discourages the pure instruction of behavioral culture in the classroom and says that to perform effectively in a target culture one must not only be able to master it linguistically, be familiar with its artifacts, norms and rituals but also with the meaning system, or the hidden significance underlying these. This is why she believes that Walker's performance-based theory can only work properly if the true meaning system underlying the simulated situations and interations created in the classroom are internalized by the students.
  • the Three P's, into three separate categories: cultural perspectives, cultural products, and cultural practices. Cultural perspectives are the values, beliefs, attitudes, and assumptions shared within a culture. Cultural products are things such as literature, music, art, or even utensils such as chopsticks; tangible items that are linked to a certain culture. Cultural practices are the acceptable behavioral patterns, forms of discourse, and rites of passage within a specific culture.
  • the goals are that students "demonstrate an understanding of the relationship between the practices and perspectives of the culture studied," which means that we should encourage the students to understand why other cultures do what they do and what the members of that culture think about the reasons behind what they do. In addition, the students should come to an understanding of "the relationship between the products and perspectives of the culture studied." This means that we should enlighten the students on what members of other cultures do and what these peoples' own opinions are about what they do. Moreover, culture should be starting point for all classroom education. In keeping with the 5 C's, culture is used to make comparisons and connections about communities and in doing so students can have meaningful communication within those communties.
  • According to Omaggio: Culture is complex and elusive and is difficult to include in linear instructional formats. Culture requires time that many teachers feel that do not have. Teachers avoid culture because of their own perceived lack of knowledge. Culture often requires both teacher and learner to move beyond their level of comfort when confronted with deeper, sometimes controversial issues. When teaching languages that are spoken in many different countries, e.g., Spanish, where are the cultural boundaries? Balancing Big C with Little C.
  • Strategies, techniques, and tools for teaching culture in the classroom
Gramarye Gramarye

How to learn English vocabulary - which words? - 2 views

hubpages.com/...English-vocabulary-which-words

how to learn english vocabulary

shared by Gramarye Gramarye on 24 Apr 10 - Cached
  • Gramarye Gramarye on 24 Apr 10
     
    If you want to learn how to learn English vocabulary, you need to know which words to learn.\nIf you are a teacher, you also need to know which words your students need to learn.\nCambridge English Lexicon was first published in 1980, and the fifth printing was in 1991. There might have been further printings, but it seems to be out of print now.\nTHE GOOD NEWS is that Amazon does have a few second hand copies available at very cheap prices, so get in quick if you want to buy one of these rare gems!
Patrick Higgins

New Jersey Department of Education - 0 views

www.state.nj.us/...index.html

nj worldlanguage standards curriculum actfl levels

shared by Patrick Higgins on 12 Feb 09 - Cached
  • In Preschool, children are just beginning to learn about language and how it works. Exposure to multiple languages is advantageous for all children and can be supported by developmentally appropriate teaching practices that make use of songs, rhymes, and stories. In programs for beginning learners that offer appropriate time and frequency of instruction, students communicate at the Novice-Mid level using memorized language to talk about familiar topics related to school, home, and the community. After three-six years of study in programs offering the appropriate time and frequency of standards-based instruction, Novice-High through Intermediate-Mid level students communicate at the sentence level creating with language to ask and answer questions and to handle simple transactions related to everyday life and subject matter studied in other classes. After nine-twelve years of well articulated standards-based instruction, Intermediate-High through Advanced-Low level students communicate at the paragraph level and are able to handle complicated situations on a wide-range of topics.
  • Integration of technology within the CPIs necessitates its use as a tool in instruction and assessment.
  • Patrick Higgins on 12 Feb 09
     
    # In Preschool, children are just beginning to learn about language and how it works. Exposure to multiple languages is advantageous for all children and can be supported by developmentally appropriate teaching practices that make use of songs, rhymes, and stories. # In programs for beginning learners that offer appropriate time and frequency of instruction, students communicate at the Novice-Mid level using memorized language to talk about familiar topics related to school, home, and the community. # After three-six years of study in programs offering the appropriate time and frequency of standards-based instruction, Novice-High through Intermediate-Mid level students communicate at the sentence level creating with language to ask and answer questions and to handle simple transactions related to everyday life and subject matter studied in other classes. # After nine-twelve years of well articulated standards-based instruction, Intermediate-High through Advanced-Low level students communicate at the paragraph level and are able to handle complicated situations on a wide-range of topics.
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.
Martin Burrett

Improving Writing - 7 views

ukedchat.com/...improving-writing

writing UKEdChat

shared by Martin Burrett on 12 Nov 18 - No Cached
Sun Shade liked it
  • Martin Burrett on 12 Nov 18
     
    "Writing is vital to most examples of learning. It is how civilisation conveys information from generation to generation, it is how parents often communicate their needs and fears for their children as notes to the teacher, and it is how little Johnny/Jane tells you about what their cat and/or dog did at the weekend. Some people love writing, while others struggle with it, but everyone has to write to some degree in their daily lives, and all of this stems from their experiences in the classroom."
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.
Claude Almansi

Theatre of sleep - an anthology of literary dreams by Guido Almansi and Claud... - 0 views

ia301533.us.archive.org/...theatre_of_sleep_01.html

Theatre of Sleep almansi béguin dreams literature multilingual

shared by Claude Almansi on 22 Jun 09 - Cached
    • Claude Almansi
      Claude Almansi on 22 Jun 09
       
      Inded. I'm marking them with these Diigo notes, and will be very grateful if others do the same.
  • I probably left many mistakes
    • Claude Almansi
      Claude Almansi on 22 Jun 09
       
      Indeed. I am marking them with these Diigo comments, and will be very grateful if others do the same.
  • in cross-references, the inner link to the cross-referenced text has been added
    • Claude Almansi
      Claude Almansi on 22 Jun 09
       
      rephrase more clearly
  • ...51 more annotations...
  • And he enjoyed the possibility to write and rewrite and re-rewrite with it.
    • Claude Almansi
      Claude Almansi on 22 Jun 09
       
      Rephrase?
  • is given
    • Claude Almansi
      Claude Almansi on 22 Jun 09
       
      is given. (add the period)
  • LEncyclopédie
    • Claude Almansi
      Claude Almansi on 22 Jun 09
       
      L'Encyclopédie
  • copyright q:)
    • Claude Almansi
      Claude Almansi on 22 Jun 09
       
      copyright ©
  • copyright Ç
  • die disturbing
  • bc die only
  • at die table
  • what arc their causes
  • Dreams arc what we know nothing about
  • but we arc at liberty
  • We arc giving
  • arc formless little black lumps
  • But the what problem
  • the world turns half away/ Through
  • writes the American poet Elizabeth Bishop in a poem included in this anthology
  • What does this translation entai]
  • just like the interpretations by Freud orjung
  • the ear of man hadi not seen
  • skin, eves, ears, nose, tongue
  • We said that a dream could bc a descent
  • Of course dreams of flying can also bc symbolic
  • which could bc due to the continuous curving
  • bc th4 his own or society's
  • to bc crushed mashed and mushed
  • another example would bc the mine
  • in Zola's Genrmina
  • In Dante's Hell
  • 0.1 Electronic version
  • the dream "1"
  • Hervey SaintDenis
  • what kind of symbols would they bc
  • I fortuned on a day to goc thither,
  • to make mv market there
  • as'it often
  • by the decree of the Provinciall judge-.
  • 0Omy friend Aristomenus
  • we might bc merry and laugh
  • Bt I becing in such extremity
  • being an old man atid one
  • whieh she useth in a certaine hole i ' n her house
  • yea rather with great fcare
  • But I wanted to sec
  • But I not willing to sec
  • to sec how of Aristomenus I
  • snafl
  • And whfle I lay on the ground
  • I peeped under the bed to sec
  • I shall bc forsaken
  • and hadi seene all our doings
  • Behold, I sec Socrates is sound
  • Claude Almansi on 22 Jun 09
     
    This is an "0.1" version because electronic texts are far easier to amend than printed books, and so they must be. And this version will need to be: on the one hand, scanning and OCRing (see Formal Features below) is a stupendous possibility, but it is not totally reliable, and even if I proof-read the electronic text, I probably left many mistakes. On the other hand, I hope to be able in future to reinsert some of the texts under copyright for which I haven't obtained yet a renewal of the permissions given for the print edition (see Copyright and Content below). However, the deadline of the Google Book Search Settlement for asking Google to pull out their own, inacceptable, electronic version made it imperative to publish this one quickly.
  • Claude Almansi on 22 Jun 09
     
    This electronic version of "Theatre of Sleep - Dreams in Literature " is multilingual, because it uses the original texts when they were in the public domain and the translation was copyrighted. It was made by scanning and OCRing the book, which left many mistakes even if I proofread the result of the OCR (Optical Character Recognition). I am correcting them in the Diigo comments, and would be very grateful to others who would do the same.
Claude Almansi

Deb Roy: The birth of a word | Video on TED.com 2011 (filmed and posted= - 7 views

www.ted.com/...b_roy_the_birth_of_a_word.html

TED language computer Roy Deb Roy MIT webcam

shared by Claude Almansi on 13 Mar 11 - No Cached
  • Claude Almansi on 31 Mar 11
     
    "MIT researcher Deb Roy wanted to understand how his infant son learned language -- so he wired up his house with videocameras to catch every moment (with exceptions) of his son's life, then parsed 90,000 hours of home video to watch "gaaaa" slowly turn into "water." Astonishing, data-rich research with deep implications for how we learn. About Deb Roy Deb Roy studies how children learn language, and designs machines that learn to communicate in human-like ways. On sabbatical from MIT Media Lab, he's working with the AI company Bluefin Labs"
Gramarye Gramarye

How to Learn English Verbs with an iPod - 5 views

hubpages.com/...ow-to-Learn-English-Vocabulary

to learn english vocabulary ipod verbs how

shared by Gramarye Gramarye on 24 Apr 10 - Cached
  • Gramarye Gramarye on 24 Apr 10
     
    f you want to know how to learn English verbs with an iPod, you are in the right place. Rory Ryder has published a book called "101 English Verbs for your iPod", and it is FANTASTIC!
eric paul

How to translate main Phrasal Verbs in French - 3 views

www.frenchspanishonline.com/magazine

phrasal verbs in French

shared by eric paul on 29 Sep 11 - No Cached
  • eric paul on 29 Sep 11
     
    How to translate main Phrasal Verbs in French, this week: to figure out, to look for, to put on, to run into. Comment traduire les verbes à prépositions en français.
Lauren Rosen

eTools for Language Teachers: How to use Social Media in the Foreign Language Class: A ... - 10 views

mmeduckworth.blogspot.ca/...e-social-media-in-foreign.html

social media language teachers twitter wikki blog video socialbookmarking

shared by Lauren Rosen on 28 Dec 12 - No Cached
  • Lauren Rosen on 28 Dec 12
     
    More of a "what is" than a "how to" but this post offers several links to more information all of which is geared towards language educators and learners. 
Claude Almansi

Digital October - Knowledge Stream. Coursera: This Time In Russian 2013-11-13 - 0 views

digitaloctober.ru/...ream_coursera_sdelano_v_rossii

Coursera abby abby_ls eli eli_bildner digital_october subtitle subtitles translation 2013-11-13 2013 russian

shared by Claude Almansi on 02 Sep 14 - No Cached
  • Claude Almansi on 02 Sep 14
     
    "On November 13 the Digital October Center hosted a web meeting with Eli Bildner, one of the Coursera team members. Bildner is responsible for looking for educational partners and translating selected videos into the native languages of the projects's multicultural audience, and shared the results of the first few months of work he has put into localizing the content of the most popular platform for free online education. He discussed: which translation approaches have been tried and how well they have worked from country to country why Coursera settled on working with local partners the statistics on what has already brought about growth in the number of users who do now know English well enough or even at all. Lecture guests also were the first to see how the crowdsourcing platform ABBYY Language Services and the Knowledge Stream team built to translate Coursera content works. This solution at some point in the future may become a universal tool for localizing courses around the entire world. At this point, however, the development is in beta testing."
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.
Dugg Lowe

How to Write a Feedback Essay - 0 views

personal-writer.com/...how-to-write-a-feedback-essay

analysis critics critique essay evaluation feedback paper reaction response writing

shared by Dugg Lowe on 26 Sep 08 - Cached
  • Dugg Lowe on 26 Sep 08
     
    An outlined how-to article on feedback essay writing by an English teacher.
Martin Burrett

Language Teaching: A Practical approach by @Natalieburdett9 - 3 views

ukedchat.com/...ge-teaching-practical-approach

languages language mfl

shared by Martin Burrett on 17 Jan 18 - No Cached
  • Martin Burrett on 17 Jan 18
     
    "As I stood in the school hall, during an assembly on National Languages Day, I felt such pride, but equally astonishment at how the children had embraced the task of saying hello in as many languages as possible. I watched in amazement as the 34th child stood up in front of the school to share his knowledge of yet another greeting from a different country. I don't know whether it was the sheer volume of children or their confidence whilst standing in front of the school and speak a different language that struck me most, but whatever it was, made me reflect on how I had come to be in this moment."
Cindy Marston

Culture Crossing - 0 views

www.culturecrossing.net/about_this_guide.php

world languages foreign language culture language

shared by Cindy Marston on 03 Aug 09 - Cached
  • Pamela Arraras on 03 Aug 09
     
    CultureCrossing.net is an evolving database of cross-cultural information about every country in the world. This user-built guide allows people from all walks of life to share essential tips with each other about how to navigate our increasingly borderless world with savvy and sensitivity.
  • Cindy Marston on 09 Aug 09
     
    CultureCrossing.net is an evolving database of cross-cultural information about every country in the world. This user-built guide allows people from all walks of life to share essential tips with each other about how to navigate our increasingly borderless world with savvy and sensitivity.
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. "
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