21 mar 2014

by | in Language Acquisition

While waiting for a jazz class that wasn’t going to happen, my ten year old daughter and her friend start knocking on the door. “They bang and cry, let me in! I am the big bad wolf!” It must be over half her lifetime since she has heard the story The Three Little Pigs and yet, knocking forcefully on the door recreates the big bad wolf image for her. I started to pay more attention. She is reading Harry Potter now and concerned about the world turning in on itself, translating Hogwarts...

14 mar 2014

by | in Language Acquisition, Resources

Dizem que o ano começa agora - passadas as férias e o Carnaval, vamos retomar a vida até a próxima parada: a Copa do Mundo. Será impossível ficarmos alheios ao evento, que terá impacto inclusive no calendário escolar. Sem entrar no mérito da questão do ponto de vista político e econômico, tento aqui colocar o foco na sala de aula de língua(s) estrangeira(s), e pensar em como trazer o assunto para a nossa prática. Os alunos que hoje estão no Ensino Fundamental ainda não terão ingressado no mercado de...

12 mar 2014

by | in Language Acquisition

[caption id="" align="alignright" width="242"] Stewie Griffin (Wikipedia)[/caption] There is a cartoon that I love to watch called Family Guy (Uma Familia da Pesada).  It isn’t to everyone’s taste because of the casual violence, bad language and somewhat offensive jokes.  Whether you like it or not it's clear that the writers know quite a bit about how young children behave. One of the main characters is called Stewie, a talking and very intelligent baby.  No matter how smart he might be, though, he is still a baby and so likes to...

10 mar 2014

by | in Classroom Management, Language Acquisition, Teacher Development

I don’t think I have ever taught or observed an advanced lesson that went seriously wrong. I mean cringe-worthy wrong. Which shouldn't come as a surprise. After all, advanced students have been in the game long enough and know enough English to ensure that most of our lessons run - at worst - relatively smoothly. Except perhaps for those all-too-familiar “How do you say X?” questions (X = a word YOU don't know), which they seem to pluck out of nowhere, at the worst possible moments. Yes, the ones that...

26 fev 2014

by | in Language Acquisition

Long ago, in 1981, before many of you were even contemplated, I was teaching at the British Council, Cairo, Egypt. An expensive, imported gringo, I was energetic, attractive, hirsuit, super-keen having just done my second TEFL diploma, and feeling like ‘Superteacher’. But, I quickly learned some important pedagogical lessons. I’ll blog a few of them here over the next few months: Lesson 1: Native and non-native teachers; horses for courses I wasn’t allowed near Beginners or Elementary. Why? Because I had no idea of Arabic, their mother tongue, their needs...

21 fev 2014

by | in Language Acquisition

There is a lot of theory that can go into storytelling. Lots of ideas and lots of games and exercises for the classroom. I hope to touch upon those topics and others in this blog. I hope to be challenged, to share ideas, and to learn from the experience of others. Stories are the way in which we communicate with one another. They are the way in which we answer questions, the build-up until you get to the punch line of jokes, gossip, news, interviews, and shared conversations. Stories surround...

12 fev 2014

by | in Language Acquisition

This is my first blog for RichmondShare and I must say I am honoured, and a little bit in awe, to be sharing a platform with such great writers and professionals.  After reading some of the other posts already on this site the pressure is on to write something new, entertaining, interesting and relevant.  If I manage to achieve one of those I’ll be happy. [caption id="attachment_354" align="alignright" width="300"] It's so much easier at this age                     (Dept of Children...

05 fev 2014

by | in Language Acquisition

Segundo o portal de notícias do Senado Federal, um projeto apresentado em 2012 pelo Senador Cícero Lucena (PSDB-PB) está pronto para ser votado na Comissão de Educação do Senado (CE). O projeto (PLS 71/2012) tem como objetivo “incluir a fluência na oralidade como um dos objetivos do ensino de língua estrangeira no ensino fundamental e médio”, alterando o parágrafo 5 do artigo 26 da Lei nº 9.394, de 20 de dezembro de 1996, a chamada Lei de Diretrizes e Bases da Educação. O projeto parece não levar em...