Neuroscience in ELT

Another overview looking at neuromyths in education and why they persist

Left / Right Brain bollocks. A study shows fairly conclusively that the idea one side of our brain is more dominant than the other - and by extension, that this dictates what kind of person you are - is little more than a myth.

Robin McKie of the Guardian with some wise opinions on the gender debate

Suzanne Moore argues vociforously against the recent overblown news that men and women's brains are wired differently.

Musicians percieve prosodic differences in foreign languages better than non-musicians

Maps of neural circuitry show women's brains are suited to social skills and memory, men's perception and co-ordination

Huge and comprehensive report on learning styles, with some very positive things to say about them.

Using subjects with brain lesions, scienists are mapping cgnitive processes involved in decoding texts - top-down processing to you and me

no evidence that the study participants had a stronger left or right-sided brain network

A metastudy of research on Learning Styles and the conclusions

Fascinating study in auditory cortex of rats being trained to discriminate subtle pitch differences raises a great many questions about learning and learning from mistakes.

Frontiers is an open access resource for scientists and those interested in academic writing in specific fields. This search for 'foreign languages' throws up a great deal of potentially interesting articles. For browsing only - more digging required to access whole article

A perfect example of the kind of unmitigated rubbish spouted by 'brain-friendly' educators, who fail to acknowledge the sheer complexity of the brain, and the need for multiple modules of the brain to be employed in a simple task such as discerning differences in a picture.

Be specific about the praise you give - there's good praise and bad praise

This is a wonderful lecture from Karen Froud, Director of the Neurocognition of Language Lab, and Associate Professor of Speech-Language Pathology and Neuroscience and Education at Teachers College, at the cutting edge of neuroeducation.

Two seemingly contradictory investigations. People with lower blood sugar fared better at memory tests, but is there a direct link between better memory and sugar, or is lower sugar levels indicative of greater dietary awareness, which may accompany better general awareness, including a metacognitive awareness propitious to all cognitive functions, including memory? Then a link to a report suggesting CHOCOLATE is good for the memory! WHat's the answer? Sugar-free chocolate?!

Ebbinghaus forgetting curve and vocabulary teaching

A serious paper on why we perhaps should not trust anything we read about the brain. DON'T TRUST FINDINGS!