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from Tom Hemingway, a link related to postings he has made about shoddy building practices in schools; from Global Voices; heroism of teachers who gave their lives to save children and those who managed to escape and save their students

story, with English translations from Chinese, particularly about teachers and those who saved children, many not their own.

Even though this is for learning to write better, I think the focus on word choice would make it an excellent educational game for learning English.

I love 6 Traits of writing; NWREL has a new resource to encourage fun practice for the students who need it most: 5-9th grades; 3-4th can use w/adult assistance; check out this website; I want one!

This site includes clips from different movies. It's ideal to practice listening comprenhension but other skills can also be developed.

MIMEA is a series of interactive multimedia modules for language learning, practice, and assessment. The modules are based on video clips that show native speakers and nonnative speakers interacting in natural, unscripted situations. Interactive exercises

Over 70 topics from Accommodation to Work. Each Phrase is accompanied by a simple pronunciation guide which ensures that there's no problem pronouncing the foreign words. English words are in black text; Spanish words are in red. Practical hints and useful vocabulary are highlighted. Where the English words appear first, this indicates vocabulary you may need. Where the red Spanish words appear first, these are words you are more likely to see written on signs and notices. Where appropriate, possible phrases you may hear in reply to your questions are indicated under You May Hear.

vocab practice site with games

vocabulary practice and games

This is a fantastic resource for any classroom learning Chinese or about China. The dictionary pinyin with tones as well as simplified and traditional writing, an animation of the order stroke for many words and audio of how the word should be spoken. There is also other resources such as practice sheets for writing, a translator, and other stuff for kids and the classroom.

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

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.

Make your own personalized maps with this mashup. I plan to have my students collaborate on maps of their neighborhoods with the intent of having them practice giving directions in Spanish.

Very useful tips to consider and put into practice for oral presentations.

watch authentic video and record your voice. Track students and give them fun, effective practice.

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.

For exam practice