An American English Video?
This video is a spoof of the ridiculousness of some English as a foreign language learning series videos. EFL teachers should always make every effort to use authentic English language materials with their language learners to avoid having their students imitating and sounding similar to this. There are far, far too many cases of English language learners "studying" English for years, then taking a short vacation trip to the USA or Canada only to discover they can't speak and don't understand anyone who speaks to them.
Authentic English Language Material is Freely Available Worldwide
This is a completely avoidable situation, in my opinion. Especially if English language learners are "weaned off" of bland "made for EFL" videos which strip the language of its dignity and spontaneity. Even if you have no access to printed materials like newspapers, magazines and other media in English where you live and teach (or are learning) English, the internet is so chock full of free, readily-available materials and audio-visual media of all types, that there is hardly any excuse for "I don't have any materials in English" excuses any more.
Learn to Teach English
Get serious, get help if you need it, get certified if you're not already - teach English well using authentic language and dynamics or do your learners a big favor and go do something else for a living. If you're really lost or in trouble and don't know the way to go, e-mail me and I'll provide you with whatever assistance, materials and / or suggestions that I can.
Unraveling how children become bilingual so easily
By LAURAN NEERGAARD (AP) WASHINGTON
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5j5-F8j-yYdLNUrlLhObAy0vbd4SgD99IBQS00
The best time to learn a foreign language:
Between birth and age 7.
Missed that window?
New research is showing just how children's brains can become bilingual so easily, findings that scientists hope eventually could help the rest of us learn a new language a bit easier.
"We think the magic that kids apply to this learning situation, some of the principles, can be imported into learning programs for adults," says Dr. Patricia Kuhl of the University of Washington, who is part of an international team now trying to turn those lessons into more teachable technology.
Each language uses a unique set of sounds. Scientists now know babies are born with the ability to distinguish all of them, but that ability starts weakening even before they start talking, by the first birthday.
Kuhl offers an example: Japanese doesn't distinguish between the "L" and "R" sounds of English — "rake" and "lake" would sound the same. Her team proved that a 7-month-old in Tokyo and a 7-month-old in Seattle respond equally well to those different sounds. But by 11 months, the Japanese infant had lost a lot of that ability.
Time out — how do you test a baby? By tracking eye gaze. Make a fun toy appear on one side or the other whenever there's a particular sound. The baby quickly learns to look on that side whenever he or she hears a brand-new but similar sound. Noninvasive brain scans document how the brain is processing and imprinting language.
Mastering your dominant language gets in the way of learning a second, less familiar one, Kuhl's research suggests. The brain tunes out sounds that don't fit.
"You're building a brain architecture that's a perfect fit for Japanese or English or French," whatever is native, Kuhl explains — or, if you're a lucky baby, a brain with two sets of neural circuits dedicated to two languages.
It's remarkable that babies being raised bilingual — by simply speaking to them in two languages — can learn both in the time it takes most babies to learn one. On average, monolingual and bilingual babies start talking around age 1 and can say about 50 words by 18 months.
Italian researchers wondered why there wasn't a delay, and reported this month in the journal Science that being bilingual seems to make the brain more flexible.
The researchers tested 44 12-month-olds to see how they recognized three-syllable patterns — nonsense words, just to test sound learning. Sure enough, gaze-tracking showed the bilingual babies learned two kinds of patterns at the same time — like lo-ba-lo or lo-lo-ba — while the one-language babies learned only one, concluded Agnes Melinda Kovacs of Italy's International School for Advanced Studies.
While new language learning is easiest by age 7, the ability markedly declines after puberty.
"We're seeing the brain as more plastic and ready to create new circuits before than after puberty," Kuhl says. As an adult, "it's a totally different process. You won't learn it in the same way. You won't become (as good as) a native speaker."
Yet a soon-to-be-released survey from the Center for Applied Linguistics, a nonprofit organization that researches language issues, shows U.S. elementary schools cut back on foreign language instruction over the last decade. About a quarter of public elementary schools were teaching foreign languages in 1997, but just 15 percent last year, say preliminary results posted on the center's Web site.
What might help people who missed their childhood window? Baby brains need personal interaction to soak in a new language — TV or CDs alone don't work. So researchers are improving the technology that adults tend to use for language learning, to make it more social and possibly tap brain circuitry that tots would use.
Recall that Japanese "L" and "R" difficulty? Kuhl and scientists at Tokyo Denki University and the University of Minnesota helped develop a computer language program that pictures people speaking in "motherese," the slow exaggeration of sounds that parents use with babies.
Japanese college students who'd had little exposure to spoken English underwent 12 sessions listening to exaggerated "Ls" and "Rs" while watching the computerized instructor's face pronounce English words. Brain scans — a hair dryer-looking device called MEG, for magnetoencephalography — that measure millisecond-by-millisecond activity showed the students could better distinguish between those alien English sounds. And they pronounced them better, too, the team reported in the journal NeuroImage.
"It's our very first, preliminary crude attempt but the gains were phenomenal," says Kuhl.
But she'd rather see parents follow biology and expose youngsters early. If you speak a second language, speak it at home. Or find a play group or caregiver where your child can hear another language regularly.
"You'll be surprised," Kuhl says. "They do seem to pick it up like sponges."
EDITOR's NOTE _ Lauran Neergaard covers health and medical issues for The Associated Press in Washington. Copyright © 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
Prof. Larry M. Lynch is an EFL Teacher Trainer, Intellectual Development Specialist, author and speaker. He has written ESP, foreign language learning, English language teaching texts and hundreds of articles used in more than 100 countries. Get your FREE E-book, “If you Want to Teach English Abroad, Here's What You Need to Know" by requesting the title at: lynchlarrym@gmail.com Need a blogger or copywriter to promote your school, institution, service or business or an experienced writer and vibrant SEO content for your website, blog or newsletter? Then E-mail me for further information.
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5j5-F8j-yYdLNUrlLhObAy0vbd4SgD99IBQS00
The best time to learn a foreign language:
Between birth and age 7.
Missed that window?
New research is showing just how children's brains can become bilingual so easily, findings that scientists hope eventually could help the rest of us learn a new language a bit easier.
"We think the magic that kids apply to this learning situation, some of the principles, can be imported into learning programs for adults," says Dr. Patricia Kuhl of the University of Washington, who is part of an international team now trying to turn those lessons into more teachable technology.
Each language uses a unique set of sounds. Scientists now know babies are born with the ability to distinguish all of them, but that ability starts weakening even before they start talking, by the first birthday.
Kuhl offers an example: Japanese doesn't distinguish between the "L" and "R" sounds of English — "rake" and "lake" would sound the same. Her team proved that a 7-month-old in Tokyo and a 7-month-old in Seattle respond equally well to those different sounds. But by 11 months, the Japanese infant had lost a lot of that ability.
Time out — how do you test a baby? By tracking eye gaze. Make a fun toy appear on one side or the other whenever there's a particular sound. The baby quickly learns to look on that side whenever he or she hears a brand-new but similar sound. Noninvasive brain scans document how the brain is processing and imprinting language.
Mastering your dominant language gets in the way of learning a second, less familiar one, Kuhl's research suggests. The brain tunes out sounds that don't fit.
"You're building a brain architecture that's a perfect fit for Japanese or English or French," whatever is native, Kuhl explains — or, if you're a lucky baby, a brain with two sets of neural circuits dedicated to two languages.
It's remarkable that babies being raised bilingual — by simply speaking to them in two languages — can learn both in the time it takes most babies to learn one. On average, monolingual and bilingual babies start talking around age 1 and can say about 50 words by 18 months.
Italian researchers wondered why there wasn't a delay, and reported this month in the journal Science that being bilingual seems to make the brain more flexible.
The researchers tested 44 12-month-olds to see how they recognized three-syllable patterns — nonsense words, just to test sound learning. Sure enough, gaze-tracking showed the bilingual babies learned two kinds of patterns at the same time — like lo-ba-lo or lo-lo-ba — while the one-language babies learned only one, concluded Agnes Melinda Kovacs of Italy's International School for Advanced Studies.
While new language learning is easiest by age 7, the ability markedly declines after puberty.
"We're seeing the brain as more plastic and ready to create new circuits before than after puberty," Kuhl says. As an adult, "it's a totally different process. You won't learn it in the same way. You won't become (as good as) a native speaker."
Yet a soon-to-be-released survey from the Center for Applied Linguistics, a nonprofit organization that researches language issues, shows U.S. elementary schools cut back on foreign language instruction over the last decade. About a quarter of public elementary schools were teaching foreign languages in 1997, but just 15 percent last year, say preliminary results posted on the center's Web site.
What might help people who missed their childhood window? Baby brains need personal interaction to soak in a new language — TV or CDs alone don't work. So researchers are improving the technology that adults tend to use for language learning, to make it more social and possibly tap brain circuitry that tots would use.
Recall that Japanese "L" and "R" difficulty? Kuhl and scientists at Tokyo Denki University and the University of Minnesota helped develop a computer language program that pictures people speaking in "motherese," the slow exaggeration of sounds that parents use with babies.
Japanese college students who'd had little exposure to spoken English underwent 12 sessions listening to exaggerated "Ls" and "Rs" while watching the computerized instructor's face pronounce English words. Brain scans — a hair dryer-looking device called MEG, for magnetoencephalography — that measure millisecond-by-millisecond activity showed the students could better distinguish between those alien English sounds. And they pronounced them better, too, the team reported in the journal NeuroImage.
"It's our very first, preliminary crude attempt but the gains were phenomenal," says Kuhl.
But she'd rather see parents follow biology and expose youngsters early. If you speak a second language, speak it at home. Or find a play group or caregiver where your child can hear another language regularly.
"You'll be surprised," Kuhl says. "They do seem to pick it up like sponges."
EDITOR's NOTE _ Lauran Neergaard covers health and medical issues for The Associated Press in Washington. Copyright © 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
Prof. Larry M. Lynch is an EFL Teacher Trainer, Intellectual Development Specialist, author and speaker. He has written ESP, foreign language learning, English language teaching texts and hundreds of articles used in more than 100 countries. Get your FREE E-book, “If you Want to Teach English Abroad, Here's What You Need to Know" by requesting the title at: lynchlarrym@gmail.com Need a blogger or copywriter to promote your school, institution, service or business or an experienced writer and vibrant SEO content for your website, blog or newsletter? Then E-mail me for further information.
Learning a Language for Love in Vancouver, Canada
The city of Vancouver, British Columbia has recently seen a boom in international marriages. This boom has led to steady growth for Vancouver area language schools.
http://www.prweb.com/releases/learn/languages/prweb2667284.htm
Vancouver, British Columbia (PRWEB)
"His aunties were driving me crazy," Christine Li said. "Every time I went into the kitchen they would start talking in Italian at double speed. My fiancée was raised by his aunts; I really needed to know what they were saying."
Christine signed up for a conversation class in Italian through the Modern Languages program at International House, Vancouver. "Christine's story is not that unusual," says Cameron Prior, the Director of Operations for IH Vancouver Modern Languages.
"In fact one of the top reasons for learning a new language has to do with family. And immigrant families need no convincing about the value of learning a second language."
Mixed marriages are increasing and Statistics Canada data supports this trend, there was a 33% increase in mixed unions from the 2001 census to the 2006 census. Multi-cultural Vancouver leads the country in these types of unions.
"We think it has to do with the type of immigrants that Vancouver and British Columbia has attracted over the last twenty years," says Prior. "Since Expo 86 and also due in part to the success of the Provincial Nominees Program, Vancouver has been a destination of choice for new immigrants. These entrepreneurial immigrants tend to be better educated, and there is a correlation between higher levels of education and mixed marriages."
International House Vancouver - Modern Languages is a leader in second language learning. In addition to its extensive English as a Second Language programs, and a very successful Japanese immersion program for children, the Modern Languages program offers courses in several languages such as French, Spanish, Japanese, Mandarin, Italian, German and Portuguese.
Christine's story has a happy twist, her fiancée, Roberto, has also signed up for a second language class at International House Vancouver, he is learning Mandarin. He wants to know what Christine's grandmother is up to in her kitchen.
Prof. Larry M. Lynch is an EFL Teacher Trainer, Intellectual Development Specialist, author and speaker. He has written ESP, foreign language learning, English language teaching texts and hundreds of articles used in more than 100 countries. Get your FREE E-book, “If you Want to Teach English Abroad, Here's What You Need to Know" by requesting the title at: lynchlarrym@gmail.com Need a blogger or copywriter to promote your school, institution, service or business or an experienced writer and vibrant SEO content for your website, blog or newsletter? Then E-mail me for further information.
http://www.prweb.com/releases/learn/languages/prweb2667284.htm
Vancouver, British Columbia (PRWEB)
"His aunties were driving me crazy," Christine Li said. "Every time I went into the kitchen they would start talking in Italian at double speed. My fiancée was raised by his aunts; I really needed to know what they were saying."
Christine signed up for a conversation class in Italian through the Modern Languages program at International House, Vancouver. "Christine's story is not that unusual," says Cameron Prior, the Director of Operations for IH Vancouver Modern Languages.
"In fact one of the top reasons for learning a new language has to do with family. And immigrant families need no convincing about the value of learning a second language."
Mixed marriages are increasing and Statistics Canada data supports this trend, there was a 33% increase in mixed unions from the 2001 census to the 2006 census. Multi-cultural Vancouver leads the country in these types of unions.
"We think it has to do with the type of immigrants that Vancouver and British Columbia has attracted over the last twenty years," says Prior. "Since Expo 86 and also due in part to the success of the Provincial Nominees Program, Vancouver has been a destination of choice for new immigrants. These entrepreneurial immigrants tend to be better educated, and there is a correlation between higher levels of education and mixed marriages."
International House Vancouver - Modern Languages is a leader in second language learning. In addition to its extensive English as a Second Language programs, and a very successful Japanese immersion program for children, the Modern Languages program offers courses in several languages such as French, Spanish, Japanese, Mandarin, Italian, German and Portuguese.
Christine's story has a happy twist, her fiancée, Roberto, has also signed up for a second language class at International House Vancouver, he is learning Mandarin. He wants to know what Christine's grandmother is up to in her kitchen.
Prof. Larry M. Lynch is an EFL Teacher Trainer, Intellectual Development Specialist, author and speaker. He has written ESP, foreign language learning, English language teaching texts and hundreds of articles used in more than 100 countries. Get your FREE E-book, “If you Want to Teach English Abroad, Here's What You Need to Know" by requesting the title at: lynchlarrym@gmail.com Need a blogger or copywriter to promote your school, institution, service or business or an experienced writer and vibrant SEO content for your website, blog or newsletter? Then E-mail me for further information.
20 English Language Learning Tools for EFL Students
No matter what age you are, learning English can be fun and best of all free. The Internet is loaded with web apps, social networks, activities, and interactive lessons designed specifically for EFL students. Here is a list of 20 tools every student can use:
VerbaLearn - VerbaLearn is a free vocabulary builder with tools that can help you study, track progress, and save time. This site is flush with vocabulary tools such as audio files, video flashcards, puzzles, and review.
Italki - This site features a free online social community that's great for EFL students. Italki offers language partners, multimedia chat, open source file sharing, knowledge wikis, and more.
Popling - Popling is a free web app designed for language learners who lack motivation. The app makes flashcards pop up on your computer throughout the day while you are working or surfing the net. The interval for the flashcards can be customized so you can see as many or as few flashcards as you'd like.
ESL Galaxy - The ESL Galaxy offers over 2,368 printable worksheets that can be used in lesson plans or as activities by students. The worksheets cover grammar, vocabulary, pronunciation, and more.
ESL Podcast - This podcast site features free podcasts for EFL students. Episodes provide conversations and discussions presented at a slower speed for greater understanding and comprehension.
WorldLingo - WorldLingo provides several online translators for translating your home language into English. The site can be used to translate text, documents, websites, and emails.
Dave's ESL Cafe - Dave's ESL Cafe offers free tools to improve English language skills, including a hint-of-the-day, idioms, phrasal verbs, pronunciation power, quizzes, slang, and student forums.
A4ESL.org - The A4ESL.org provides many different online activities and tools for EFL students, including bilingual quizzes, grammar quizzes, vocabulary quizzes, and crossword puzzles.
Cramberry - Cramberry is a free online flashcard site that provides you with the tools needed to create and study flashcards over the web. The site also records your progress to show cards you're having trouble with so that you can study more effectively.
1-Language.com - 1-Language.com provides services and resources to learn English and other languages. This language site features English courses, flash games, grammar quizzes, essay writing, and a reading library.
Using English - Using English offers a large library of tools and resources for English learners, including a grammar glossary of verbs and idioms, forums, articles, and printables.
Word2Word - This large collection of language resources provides dictionaries, translators, courses, videos, audio, forums, and social communities for EFL students.
Radio Lingua Network - For ESL students on the move, Radio Lingua provides free podcasts created by an experienced teacher or a native speaker.
MyLanguageExchange - With over 1 million members, MyLanguageExchange offers plenty of language partners to improve your English skills. Students can also practice online with free lessons, chat rooms, and other resources.
Babbel - Babbel offers a fun, easy way to learn English. The site uses effective learning elements such as pictures, video, sound, and interactive elements for quick success.
FreeTranslation.com - This popular translation site offers free translators for text documents and websites. FreeTranslation.com is a great way for EFL students to understand and translate words.
Parapal Online - Parapal Online offers free English exercises for improving writing, listening, reading, vocabulary, and grammar.
Nonstop English - With new tests added weekly, Nonstop English is the perfect way to practice your grammar and vocabulary skills. Students can take free interactive tests online or get them emailed.
EnglishMediaLab - The EnglishMediaLab offers free online lessons and videos for beginner to advanced EFL students. This informational site also provides survival English, grammar exercises, vocabulary, and pronunciation activities.
ESL-Kids.com - This site, designed for younger EFL students, features flashcards, worksheets, and activities. ESL-Kids.com also offers creative songs and games to engage younger students.
Guest post from Karen Schweitzer, the About.com Guide to Business School. Karen also writes about online courses for OnlineCourses.org.
Prof. Larry M. Lynch is an EFL Teacher Trainer, Intellectual Development Specialist, author and speaker. He has written ESP, foreign language learning, English language teaching texts and hundreds of articles used in more than 100 countries. Get your FREE E-book, “If you Want to Teach English Abroad, Here's What You Need to Know" by requesting the title at: lynchlarrym@gmail.com Need a blogger or copywriter to promote your school, institution, service or business or an experienced writer and vibrant SEO content for your website, blog or newsletter? Then E-mail me for further information.
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