When a student turned in a paragraph that was clearly written by an A.I., I shoveled the paragraph into my own A.I. and asked it to give her feedback. Then I printed both and gave the paper back to her. “Now wasn’t that easy?” I said. She […]
Sounds are social creatures. While there is certainly value in helping students with individual sounds, the fact is that there is a lot more to pronunciation than segmentals. Imagine trying to have a conversation without knowing how we blend sounds together, or how sounds are so often reduced […]
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 […]
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, […]
The Russian education researcher, Lev Vygotsky, remains famous among language teachers because his work continues to resonate. His enduring Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD) occupies the territory in a lesson in which the scaffolding provided by teachers and peers enhances student learning beyond what individuals could do on their own. This elegant […]
The first day of class can be a bit scary. New students shuffle in, nervously clutching registration papers. After a quick glance at the room number, they take a seat, often far from each other. Occasionally, a returning student will recognize a pal from the past, and after a joyful greeting, the friends sit close together. The new ones, […]
The young Vietnamese man sat in the back and quietly looked at his book. When called on, he was silent for so long that other students became fidgety. When he did speak, it was a whisper. What do you do with a student like Thao? What if you […]
Waiting for an elevator at the Colorado TESOL conference, I heard two teachers complaining about a session they had attended. “The presenter was only talking,” said a tall woman in an engineer’s cap. “There was no interaction, so I left.” It seems that group work has gotten to […]
Truthfully, sometimes it is easier to just lecture. The default mode of the traditional classroom is that the teacher is standing, sometimes pacing, while students are sitting, watching, listening, and taking notes. These roles are still easy to fall into, especially when teachers are entertaining. Still, no matter […]
English Endeavors 