Tagged: theory

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Low Impact Teaching

Over the last 5 to 10 years, I’ve been developing new ideas about how we should be teaching in our classrooms.   These ideas have changed as the possibilities and promises of educational technology have become reality. The most fundamental of these ideas are always...

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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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Dogme revisited

This morning, sat down and had some “my time”.  Went through a number of my hundreds of notebooks full of philosophy, essays, poems that I’ve been collecting over 4 decades.  A lot of stuff buried in these books but was surprised to pull open about...

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More about “getting out of the way”

The objective of education is learning. Or not even that, I’ll interject. More exactly, the true objective is “contentment”, a well adjusted individual. And the only way to reach this objective is to tap into the “feeling good about oneself” that is always there in...

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Focal vs Tacit knowledge

Technology. Everyone wants to learn it and everyone wants the “key” that might open up the door to these skills. Truth is, there is no easy way! I’ve been mucking about and learning as I go – for a long time. And that’s what I...

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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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Self Directed Learning – Part 1

If I could meet just one guy who I’d like to chat about the future and place of education in the world – it would be a toss up between Ivan Illich and John Taylor Gatto. Illich the intellectual, the piercing and challenging mind –...

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What is Language?

“in the beginning was the word, and the word became flesh” Today I was reading Roger Cohen’s column (I’m quite his fan, never was but recently he’s take some very intelligent and courageous stands on issues from nuclear disarmament to Palestine) Loos and Language. That...

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What Makes A Great Teacher?

There is A LOT that makes a great teacher. I guess that’s why this topic comes up over and over and over again. Hard to pin down and wrap it in some formulaic response. However, The Atlantic “What makes a Great Teacher“, just tried to...

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The #1 …….. (book on language)

** Not your ordinary, endless list – just what’s number 1. Let’s not beat around the bush – no question: Thought and Language – Lev Vygotsky This book is the “Origin of Species” for language. A collosus. It has everything a mind interested in language...