Archive for the ‘Observations’ Category
How Long Should One Online Language Lesson Last?
To begin with, I am not aware of any reliable statistics. I can only draw on my personal experience and summarize a number of related Google search results. It is obvious, I hope, that it is impossible to spend more than 3 clock hours talking without a break. I guess that’s the maximum. As for […]
In: Instructional Design, language learning e-tivities, Learning Language Teaching, Observations, Statistics, Teacher Skills · Tagged with: duration, EFL lesson structure, lesson planning, lesson stages, online lessons, warmers
An Ideal E-Notebook
‘Spent the day contemplating Clarke’s e-note-taking advice. Isn’t it amazing? They’ve got it all online but for proper note-taking tools. I mean Moodle doesn’t have such a module or activity as a notebook. Nor does Blackboard Vista. Well, they do have blogs and notes sections, but they’re so-o badly designed that I do not want […]
In: Course Design, Instructional Design, language learning e-tivities, Learner Skills, Observations, Teacher Skills, Using Blogs in EFL, Using Wikis in EFL · Tagged with: affordances, categorizing, Clarke, e-learning skills, note-taking, sorting, tagging
Learning Tools & Technologies: Implementation Issues
Whenever I come across a book on web-based learning tools and technologies that seems remotely relevant to my current objectives, it talks about tools and technologies that are either as old as the hills and ever so often do not exist any more, or have been replaced by or evolved to to be something completely […]
In: E-Learning Design & Management, Observations · Tagged with: implementation
Lexis & Writing: Graph Descriptions & Headline English
I wonder whether it is really that necessary to be able to read and describe graphs in a foreign language. I have been teaching this skill for several years now, always going into minute detail, and can say that very few people actually need it in their jobs. They usually spend a few weeks learning […]
In: Learning Language Teaching, Observations · Tagged with: mind-boggling thoughts
What a mix!
I am teaching elementaries this year – this is very unlike me for I find this level somewhat tedious to teach. To make matters worse, instead of two nationalities, I’ve got four – it is a real challenge, for I do understand what sort of problems Russians and Estonians might encounter in terms vocabulary, grammar or pronunciation, […]
In: Accents, Learning Language Teaching, Observations · Tagged with: beginners, elementary, group dynamics, intonation, mixed-ability, pronunciation
Pet Peeves
I guess everyone has got a few pet peeves. Mine are marking creative writing assignments submitted by my students and having to take a smelly tram home (the latter can only be avoided if I choose to walk or take a taxi instead, both of which I quite often do, especially the latter when it’s freezing cold outside). Another […]
In: Learning Language Teaching, Observations, Teacher Skills · Tagged with: archiving, categorizing, leftover handouts, materials, worksheets
