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Activity: vocabulary tennis

February 29, 2008 in Activities, skills, speaking, word lists | No comments

This is an activity that requires no setting up and can be done at the drop of a hat just the kind of activity that I love to have in my toolbox! Essentially, the idea is to promote automatization through quick responses, under moderately stressful conditions.

Aim: learners will recycle vocabulary and/or create short sentences under moderately stressful conditions.

Materials: none - don’t you just love it :) … Read the rest of this entry »

Classroom Dynamics: creating a happy learning environment

February 14, 2008 in classroom dynamics | No comments

Striking the perfect balance between the extremes of ultra- discipline and a lassez-fiare “anything goes” approach is not easy. This  post begins by asking various questions and along the way provides some home-spun answers. None of the ideas here are intended to be prescriptive, rather they are intended to be a starting point, working towards a better understanding of what is happening in the classroom.

Before starting, why not take this test:

  • In a study conducted by Denis Girad (1970), 1000 students between 12-17 were asked to list teacher qualities in order of preference, 1 being the most important to them and 10 the least important.
    • What do think the results were?
  • Scroll to the end of the post to see if you
    • guessed the qualities identified by the students
    • correctly guessed their order…

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What is cooperative learning?

February 11, 2008 in classroom dynamics | No comments

‘Cooperative learning is group learning activity organised in such a way that learning is dependent on the socially structured exchange of information between learners in groups. Each leaner is held accountable for his or her own learning, and is motivated to increase the learning of others.’

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