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In fact, some of the greatest obstacles to world-language education are parents who recall their own miserable experiences. Many Americans were introduced to foreign languages in middle school or high school classes that emphasized conjugation of verbs and other dull grammatical tasks rather than relevant communication skills. "Language teaching in the U.S. has been ineffective," Stewart says. "We start it at the wrong age. Teacher skills are not great. There's a focus on grammar and translation." The result: "Adults who took three years of French don't speak a word," she states.\nBut the trend toward competency and away from conjugation is helping create a new generation of language learners, one that gains real-world skills with many practical applications.

the key here lies in the paragraph I clipped: the focus should be on competency rather than on conjugation.

Myths and Reality-Foreign Languages skills for the 21st century? - http://t.co/y9SnR9OIiD

Myths and Reality-Foreign Languages skills for the 21st century? - http://t.co/y9SnR9OIiD

The previous sessions in the series were: * Learn English Now : A Course * Learn English Online : Speaking, Pronunciation, Fluency and Accents * Learn English Online : Effective Listening Skills * Learn English Online : Reading Skills

students were provided 30 minute window to write and essay on a particular topic; scored and compared through NAEP; score were reported; overall improvement; low societal expectations for boys' writing skills still showing up; girls 42% proficient compared to boys' 20% minorities' writing skills improving; 90% of students at basic achievement

In this blog post, Conti reiterated inadequacies in methods from previous posts about teaching listening to secondary-level additional (modern) language learners in the UK. He then outlined skills and conditions necessary for successful listening comprehension. As he enumerated practical implications of those skills for learning and teaching activities, he provided illustrative sequences of tasks that teachers could set for learners to help them develop their listening comprehension.

"Second-grade students who read aloud to dogs in an after-school program demonstrated improved attitudes about reading, according to researchers at Tufts Institute for Human-Animal Interaction at Tufts University. Their research appears online in advance of print in the Early Childhood Education Journal. Reading skills are often associated with improved academic performance and positive attitudes about school in children. Researchers wanted to learn if animal-assisted intervention in the form of reading aloud to dogs in a classroom setting could contribute to improved skills and attitudes."

"Building a rich vocabulary, across the curriculum, is one of the main aims for most teachers. Not only does a rich vocabulary help to create strong writing skills, but also can help with improving access to all areas of the curriculum. In his book, Andrew Jennings explains why vocabulary should be a focus in your classroom, providing resources and inspiration to help optimise vocabulary learning. Resources include a focus on SPaG facts, key vocab words that support various popular primary topics, an etymology section to inspire pupils, and looking at various grammatical features that can help build a repertoire of rich vocabulary. Throughout, the book provides other resources that can be copied for classroom use, or be used to take home to help build vocabulary skills away from the school setting."

"Lyrics Training is an easy and fun method to learn and improve your foreign languages skills like english through the music and lyrics of the songs."

Speaking skills. B2 ESL learners

How to teach the art of public speaking and presentation skills to literacy or English as a Second Language (ESL, ELL) learners.

The Partnership advocates for the integration of 21st Century Skills into K-12 education so that students can advance their learning in core academic subjects.

Project "Developing Digital Skills @ School" focuses on ICT. Teachers & students learn how to deal with the computer. DigiSkills teachers design, share, compare and enhance teaching methods and materials.

Every now and again, a book comes along that should be compulsory reading. This is one of those books. It is designed for students for whom English is a second language and plan to study in an English speaking country, however all students can benefit from reading relevant sections of this book. Furthermore, the authors demonstrate a thorough knowledge of this topic and an empathic understanding of the problems confronting students from a variety of countries.

This page shows all the previous activities.\n * Play Games and Improve Your Vocabulary\n * Write a Music Video Review\n * Improving Your IT Skills and Vocabulary\n * 1 Minute Listening Activity\n * Learn a Song in English\n * Try a TOEFL Reading Test\n * Listen and Write the News\n * Improve Your Vocabulary and Make Friends\n * Exercise Your Ears With Authentic Film Clips\n * Record Yourself Reading a Poem\n * Using a Word Cloud to Remember Words and Texts\n * Take a Quiz Adventure Journey\n * Create an Online CV in English

In reading tests at school, girls tend to be ahead of boys, in all age groups and in all countries. But in young adults, there is suddenly no longer any difference between men's and women's reading skills. Why is that? Could the answer be in the way the tests are designed?