Tagged: linguistics

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A Language Thought Experiment

Recently, I’ve chanced upon a number of articles and blog posts championing the seemingly well established idea that children are much better language learners than adults and that adults will never be able to approach native like fluency except for a few exceptions. These ideas...

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Gifs as Universal Language Ideographs

Isaiah Berlin related that there are only two types of people, foxes or hedgehogs.  I’m a hedgehog.  A generalist. A slow plodder that sees the bigger, wider picture. When it comes to language learning, this has been very handy.  It’s valuable to cut through the...

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Who’s Speaking? Guess the Accent.

This game, Guess Who’s Speaking, I designed using the Speech Archives and stock photos. It could be a good listening activity for students (it provides repetition) and also a way to discuss stereotypes. Basically, you first guess who might be speaking (these aren’t the real...

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Strange Stories of Language Learning Part 2

After writing about some strange stories I’d come across over the years regarding language learning, I remembered a few more ….. So in the interest of a comprehensive list, here are more of these strange but supposedly true stories about language.   1.  Sarah Colwill overnight...

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Living The Languages

I highly recommend these series of videos. Not just as an anthropologist and a teacher interested in language but as a human being who understands the importance of preserving cultural/ethnic diversity, our cultural genome. I presently live in Guatemala and this episode makes a great...

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Strange stories about language learning

Over the years, I’ve kept my eyes and ears open for great “thought experiments” for language. Real examples and events that are so extreme, they really force you to think differently about ones preconceived notions about language learning (and by default teaching it). Here are...

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Issues in ELT / Issues in SLA

I haven’t written much about language recently but I’m definitely always thinking about it. It is itself a jailer, something I can’t get away from and like the adage goes “I am language”. But been thinking about language as it relates to what we teachers...

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Joking Matters

I’ve spent the weekend reading the Heidegger and a Hippo walk through those Pearly Gates, the sequel to the amazing Plato and a Platypus Walk Into A Bar. Amazing books that combine commentary with jokes. As I’m reading, I was thinking of how jokes so...

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Learning To Swear

“I am my language.” What a powerful phrase about how language is so wrapped up with identity. Both our own personal identity and our social identity in a larger group. A language learner aims to get to the moment where they “flow” with the language...

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EFL 2.0 Gems – Our Podcast Library

I’m a major “junk” collector and when I first started using Huffduffer, just couldn’t resist collecting all the best education/teaching related podcasts on the web. And I think I’ve achieved that, bar none. You’ll enjoy searching with handy tags and you’ll be sure to find...

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Motherese

It is always a delight to read/hear one’s ideas confirmed/supported. It’s the source of so much joy and progress in this world and also the source of so much evil. Such is our nature. Today, over my Friday morning ritual of “the big breakfast” at...

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Free “Won’t”

I’ve been thinking a lot about “free will” and the nature of the choices we make – both in teaching and in life. Recent research, especially since the famous Libert experiment, suggests we make decisions before we even know we make decisions. Meaning, something, a...

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The Poetic Alphabet

I’m in love with the alphabet! It is for me, a mine where my deep waters run still, until there is nothing left. It is the ultimate organizer, the ultimate trumpet of sound, the operating table of meaning.   Years ago (see the date on...

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The Idiot’s Dictionary – early release

I mentioned this book previously. Now, releasing it early – I’ll have a hard cover, POD (Print On Demand), for purchase version shortly. Download The Idiot’s Dictionary.doc I’ll only say thank you to my niece Gabriella, who painstakingly went over the copy and edited everything....

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Memory and Language – an experiment.

I’ve always been fascinated by the role memory plays in language acquisition. It isn’t a straight forward relationship (better memory = better fluency) however, looking at student “2nd language memory” does allow us teachers in a very crude way, to gather knowledge about student fluency....

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Name The Language. Can you?

As a teacher of language, I love thinking about language. This weekend I made a few quizzes which I’ll be modifying over the next month. Making them more interactive and also with video. However, I chanced upon this video of many languages and readings of...

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Huffduffer – a great podcasting library

Huffduffer is a site where you can simply collect and tag audio podcasts. It really is so attractive and well laid out. Visit our EFL Classroom 2.0 collection to see for yourself. Click on the tags on the right to get podcasts that might interest...

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Insights about SLA …..

I’ve long been studying Second Language Acquisition and its relationship to teaching and learning a language. One article that I read several years ago has always stood out for me. What do we know about learning and teaching second language – Implications for teaching. Written...

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Know – Do / Learn – Acquire

As a teacher trainer, there is one “theoretical” thing I really want all new teachers to believe and understand. It is the difference between “knowing” a language and “doing” a language. Further, the implications that suggests for our classroom practices. In general speak, we use...