Literature Circles

Reading is a complex activity and we know that many of our learners are not accustomed to reading in their first language, let alone reading in the target language. When we create a collaborative communicative context for students to work on subskills in the target language, we begin to promote not only reading subskills, but we also promote collaboration, speaking skills, writing skills and listening skills.

It is difficult to separately work with any language skill, out of context with the other language skills. Literacy circles provides students with authentic reasons to communicate, a supportive learning environment and breaks down the tasks that students must do in order to practice and become proficient at reading skills.

Look at the Literature_Circles written by past students of the TKT course.
What is your opinion of Literature Circles? Can they help promote reading in L1 or L2 in your learning/teaching situation? For foreign language learners are they especially helpful? Why? Think about these questions as you investigate more about Literature Circles.
How would you use them in your classes? Investigate the links included in the PPT for more information.

The post of the week: A great example of how to transform teaching into learning

I would like to have a showcase for the best blogging efforts during the week. This week our winner is definitely, hands down, Liz on her blog with her post, “Online tools applied to our content.” Not only did Liz recommend various sites, she created various games using the sites to add to her teaching toolbox. In order to keep a catalogued record of her work she created a page named Glossary term activities/games.

Congratulations Liz for a job superbly done. You are transforming the learning process into the way our students think. Your students are going to love what you do!

Fun ways to learn vocabulary

Do you remember memorizing lists of words, some of them with no apparent relationship? Friday came along, and it was test time! Not only did you have to know the word’s definition, you had to spell it correctly also.
Well, I think those days might be past. There are so many different tools available on the Web 2.0 that memorizing is a thing of the past. Just take a look at this article by the Edblogger, about a new toy…I mean tool called Memrise. You can even adapt the Mural.ly to help review all the glossary terms and show the relationship they have with each other.

Since part of this course is learning about the terminology that unites us English teachers around the world, and some of you are advanced in your tech knowledge, I invite you to set up a section for TKT glossary vocabulary for public sharing, using Memrise or to set up a mural with Mural.ly. It could be a great way to study yourself!

Teaching Vocabulary and ICT Vocabulary Applications: Unit 2 reflection and application

Teaching vocabulary can be tricky, but  not if you relate it to contexts which students can associate with. Remember:

• Provide students with continuous opportunities for applying words in receptive and productive situations
• Recycle often, even if doing so isn’t included in the textbook
• Give your students more than the basic vocabulary: gradual expansion is the key
• Organize words to help students organize their knowledge.

Be aware of

• cultural considerations with connotations
• word changes through form.

I invite you to read this E-how Website where you can get ideas for posting activities for students in your blogs.

Watch this helpful video by the Cambridge University Press for helping expose vocabulary to students; and watch this video by TEFL videos about teaching with timelines.

On Saturday we touched the theme of sight words, also known as function words. 220 of them reside in a list called the Dolch list, and most of these words are taught at beginning levels of English as a foreign language; but students have great difficulty learning them. Why are they so difficult to keep straight? Are they easily memorized? Watch this video by Improve-Education which gives us some ideas of Sight Words and Functions words.

Vocabulary is one of the foundations of learning language and it is just as important as grammar when learning a language. We learn and produce vocabulary by using words we learn in context.

Look at this slideshare presentation, Teaching Vocabulary. Did you learn anything new?

The Internet is full of activities that students can practice and play vocabulary on. Look at the slideshare presentation ICT Tools for Teaching Vocabulary.  What game, worksheet, interactive Web tool or just plain fun activity did you like from this presentation or any other space? You can use any of these ideas or tools to share on your blog. Set up your own game using the words that you must learn from the TKT glossary and create and play with your own game.

Write your ideas in a reflection for your blog and link us to the site you recommend. Include: Why do you recommend this tool? How would you use it with your learners?

We are all looking forward to sharing great vocabulary learning tips, strategies, and ideas. Please post your ontribution in a timely manner, not at the last minute, so we can all review them before next weekend. Happy searching and experiementing!