Classroom management – how to nip potential troublemakers in the bud (2)
Re-arrange the furniture Assign seats Assign bell-work. Coming up with good bell-work (work that actually engages them and keeps them quiet yet productively busy) is difficult. Problems: Today’s bell-work was not so hot. I was so busy photocopying and cutting and pasting (literally, not digitally) to prepare for today’s classes (which run back-to-back with just [...]
TPRS Workshop with Susan Gross in Shimabara, Japan, Sep. 2011
A three day teaching skills workshop for teachers of foreign languages, held in Shimabara, Japan. We welcome any teachers, regardless of where and at which level they teach, and seek to build a forum for shared and co-operative skill improvement. An English – Japanese interpreter will be present for all sessions. More info on [...]
Automatic Language Growth – a variant of Krashen’s Natural Approach
Jack Taylor, a young teacher of English in Japan and creator and manager of the Japan TPRS forum, alerted me to the work of Dr. J. Marvin Brown who created the Automatic Language Growth (ALG) (earlier called the Listening Approach), a variant of Krashen and Terrell’s Natural Approach. Dr. Brown developed his ideas over many years [...]
Tools for Teaching 2
Having had my first day of teaching since beginning to read Fred Jones’ “Tools for Teaching”, I can now give you a preliminary report. I know you’ve all been dying to hear about it, so here it is. I had 4 classes today, 3 of which are pretty draining. I used the following ideas from Fred [...]
Sy Ying Lee
I got this link from Ben Slavic, and he got it from Beniko Mason. It’s somewhat technical – it’s aimed at language teachers who are somewhat familiar with Second Language Acquisition theory, especially the ideas of Stephen Krashen. If you are new to these ideas, the content of the presentation may contain many “upside-down bananas”, [...]
Nine Language-Teaching Myths
The following article sums up some key ideas that form the basis of TPRS, an approach to teaching second/foreign languages that is largely based on, and supported by, Stephen Krashen’s theories of language acquisition. It was written by Jack Taylor, an AET in Japan, and originally posted on the TPRS Japan Forum. It is reposted [...]
Lessons learned – how not to use movies in class, and other useful tips
Image via Wikipedia I learned a couple of lessons today. Don’t use the same movie and lesson-plan with both an advanced class and a dummies class. When playing a DVD in the classroom, don’t start up the projector until just 5 minutes before you plan to actually show the movie. The other lesson was more [...]
Planned lessons vs unplanned lessons
Quandary. Contradiction. Oxymoron. Storytelling vs. PQA. “Teaching children, not a curriculum.” I’m losing student interest. I’m using stories (Blaine Ray’s Look I Can Talk 1 & 2). Book 2 is more engaging for the university students I teach than book 1 (and I’m using the textbook, not the mini-stories or extended readings). My most difficult [...]
Teaching a foreign language at university level using TPRS
Image via Wikipedia Do you teach a foreign or second language at university? Is fluency a key goal of yours? Are you using TPRS, or some similar approach? If so, you might be interested in what I’ve written below, and I’d be interested in reading your comments. Every teacher who attempts to use TPRS must [...]
TPRS Workshop in Shimabara, Kyushu – part deux
Had my first full day of Oral English university classes today (all non-English majors) and discovered some more benefits from the TPRS workshop I attended last weekend in Kyushu, Japan. Here’s the short version: no prep! Increased confidence. Sticking to the program of events. Didn’t circle every sentence. Insisting on absolute quiet and attention during [...]
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