WORKSHOP: Blogging for beginners
We´re very happy teachers have enjoyed blogging. Here are some of the pictures taken.




You can learn more about blogging clicking in BLOGGING TEACHERS.

- Get Your Own

LINKS for working with grammar:

• Online exercises
• English exercises online
• Better-english
• Learning English online
• the Grammar Aquarium
• English grammar quizzes

Want something different to teach grammar? Have a look at the following links:

• Grammar man
• Grammar gold
• Grammar treasure hunt

Online articles on the topic:

• "Your class is very nice, aren't they?" - Into the Grey Area of English
• Explaining grammar with metaphors
• A Semantic Approach to the Grammar Lesson

STUDY GUIDE (“Teaching Grammar” by Diane Larsen-Freeman)

“Teaching grammar means enabling language students to use linguistic forms accurately, meaningfully, and appropriately.”


1. In the Three-Dimensional Grammar Framework, which dimensions must concern us? (p. 252)
2. Think of a grammar topic. Try to identify the three dimensions involved. Which dimension would offer the biggest challenge to our students?
3. Which are the 3 insights she mentions about the Learning Process? (p.255)
4. When talking about the Teaching Process, she mentions some noticing techniques such as enhancing the input, consciousness-raising task, the garden path and input processing. Can you describe them? (p. 257)
5. What activities does she suggest when the focus is on FORM? (p. 258, 259)
6. If the focus is on MEANING, what are the suggestions? (p. 260)
7. What are relevant practice activities when the challenge is the USE of a structure? (p. 260, 261)
8. What problem does she point out with the way the PASSIVE VOICE is taught? (p.261, 262)
9. What´s the difference between a deductive approach and an inductive approach to dealing with grammar? (p. 264)
10. FOOD FOR THOUGHT: “Teachers should concentrate on teaching reasons, not rules.” “ Reasons are meaning based and use based”. (p. 265)

NEW TOPIC: "Teaching Grammar"

This Friday,18th May, we have our group discussion about the article "Teaching Grammar" written by Diane Larsen-Freeman. Have you already read it?

Have a look at this suggested link, it integrates grammar with listening, reading and writing.
CLICK HERE

MINI-CONFERENCE

The mini-conference was a way of sharing the outcome of our discussions. It´s also the product of our reflexions brought into practice. Congratulations to all presenters! Thank you for sharing your work.

For more listening resources look at the "Learning with Computers" BLOG.

This is a summary of the text "Skills and Strategies for Proficient Listening" by Pat Wilcox Peterson presented during our Mini-conference on Listening.

MINI- CONFERENCE

Topic: Listening
Date: 11/05/07
Time: 15:00 - 16:30

The mini-conference is being promoted by the study group in order to share the outcome of our last meeting with the rest of the staff.

Great News! Camila Sousa and I are taking part in a Yahoo community called "Learning with Computers" and look what we´re discussing this week , LISTENING. I´ve included an extract of an e-mail message written by a teacher called Gladys where she suggests various links to deal with Listening. Have a look!

Remember this month we've agreed to discuss "TEACHING LISTENING WITH COMPUTERS"? This being the first week, it's devoted to "RECOMMENDED SITES". Here goes my shortlist:

ELLO - "ELLLO stands for English Language Listening Lab Online. It is a collection of over 1,000 listening activites that students can view free via the internet. Most listening activites come with a downloadable MP3 audio file, transcipt and interactive quiz. ELLLO offers a variety of listening activities that each target a specific listening skill, need or interest."

ComAudio Online - "You can listen to many different kinds of audio items and read the texts at the same time. To find the meaning of a word, you can click on it and then click the Find button. ... You also have the option of doing a ... CLOZE. You have three chances to get it right. If your answer is wrong, you will see this immediately. However, if your answer is correct, please wait while the full text is being processed."

Randall's ESL Cyber Listening Lab - Looots of quizzes in English for General Purposes, and English for Academic Purposes, Videos and a lot more! (classified by level and topic) (also by Randall: http://www.dailyesl .com/ - which integrates listening into lesson plans!)

British Council - LearnEnglish - Stories for Kids - Ideal for younger learners, here you can listen to (and read) short (and longer) stories in simple English. Great fun!

CNN Stories Archive - Each module includes the full text of each story and interactive activities to test comprehension. Your can choose to read the text, listen to the text, and view a short video clip of the story.Enough to get started, I'd say!

Next Article: "When the teacher is a non-native speaker" by Peter Medgyes.

The article we´re reading for our next discussion is about the differences about native and non-native teachers. Read the article and remember to bring some questions with you.
Next meeting: 27 April

Willing to read more? Have a look at the following articles:
The native speaker Concept
Native and Non-native Teacher: A Matter to Think Over

OUR NOTICEBOARD
This is a noticeboard for notes and photos. It´s ours! Study group members, please upload a picture or leave us a note.

MEETINGS 1/07

• 30/03
• 13/04
• 27/04
• 11/05
• 18/05
• 15/06
• 29/06

In our last meeting, we discussed an article about LISTENING "Skills and Strategies for Proficient Listening" by Pat Wilcox Peterson and decided to dedicate some more time to it. We´ll be trying to use some of the suggested activities from the article during these following weeks so that we can present them to each other during our next meeting on 13 April.

These are some interesting articles on Listening:

• Listening skills
• Effective Listening skills
• Improving Listening skills

Leave your impressions about the articles in the comments area.

TEACHING teaching, UNDERSTANDING understanding

This is a wonderful short-film about education. Watch the film and let me know what you think.
WATCH THE FILM

QUOTATIONS

MEETING 29 Sept
Lexical Approach again. Remember to take more questions with you. Have you read the texts suggested in the previous post? They´re very interesting.

NEXT MEETING - 22 Sept

The next article we´re discussing is about the Lexical Approach. If you´re interested in reading more about it, here are some links to interesting articles:

Chunking for Language Classes

Why I won´t say goodbye to the Lexical Approach

MEETINGS 2/06

September- 22, 29
October- 27
November- 10, 24