Meeting the demands of writing with language learning is an uphill climb, so one nice thing we can do for second language writers is reduce their cognitive load. A sentence builder box does this by providing relevant vocabulary in a structure that is salient to a task. Students use […]
How is language learning like a roller coaster? Diane Larsen-Freeman (2008) notes that language learning is a complex, dynamic system. According to Freeman, language learning is constantly in motion. Like the loops of a roller coaster, students are taken on a journey in which language is learned and […]
All good writers—no matter what they are writing about—share a secret, and that is the power of being specific. Anyone can circle around a topic with vague statements and abstract commentary, but where writing really gets interesting is when it tells the reader something she doesn’t already know. […]
The following video is an astronomical metaphor for the way we see vocabulary, grammar and writing spiral throughout the language development process. Just as nature spirals, so does language. We liken language to astronomy because there are so many parallels. When students just begin to learn a language, it is like […]
Language tends to spiral like nature. As planets spiral around the sun, so the sun spirals around the galaxy. On earth, hurricanes spiral, picking up objects and pulling them into whirling winds. Vocabulary and grammar spiral as well, around the language learner. It is a dynamic system where chunks […]
On Thursday, October 1, we will be presenting an OUP webinar titled Spiraling Into Control: Meeting the needs of beginning writers. This practice-oriented webinar draws on some of our biggest influences, including Eli Hinkle, Ken Hyland, and Diane Larsen-Freeman, who provide possible answers for one of the biggest questions in second language […]
Power point presentations were never meant for English language teaching, but they lend themselves to lesson plans in myriad ways and are a great way to get one’s feet wet in the waters of technology A very simple power point can be a reusable answer key, a worksheet, a game, or […]
Students love games. A little competition can often bring out the best in them. A Grammar Throwdown is a very simple yet effective game you can bring to any class to reinforce the grammar your students are studying or need to review. The concept comes from the television […]
We are Colin Ward and Alice Savage, a couple of English language teachers who met at Lone Star College in Houston, Texas and discovered a common passion for testing theory in the classroom. This hunger to help our students learn better and faster led to a collaboration on the […]
When can we say we know the meaning of a word? After looking it up in the dictionary? After experiencing it in discourse seven times? In fact, some might argue that we never stop learning a word because it is constantly changing, evolving, and taking on new meanings. Our job as teachers, […]
English Endeavors 