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Category Archives: Learning
An enduring insight
I think it’s the early career epiphanies that make the greatest impact. Here, I share mine. This post is my contribution to Dave Ferguson’s Work/Learn Carnival. 1989 I’m a fledgling ESL teacher who learned a few languages through immersion and a self-directed … Continue reading
Posted in Learning
9 Comments
Designing conversations
By looking at speech ‘beyond the level of the sentence’, discourse analysis reveals some of the conventions that underlie it. Speakers use conversational structures to engage listeners, create cohesion, and facilitate comprehension. As we talk, we subtly adjust the lexis and structures in accordance with roles, status, and context. There’s … Continue reading
Posted in Learning
13 Comments
Skype, social networks and language learning
There’s lots of start-ups in the language learning space, mostly variations on the social networking and Skype models. Most of them aren’t very good though, and many miss the point entirely. What, imho, are they doing wrong? Medium and message These are early days for Learning 2.0. There’s … Continue reading
Posted in Learning, Learning 2.0, Social networks
16 Comments
Linear and non-linear learning
Obligatory pic of horrific looking 19th cen school that should add impact to the post. In a previous post, I talked about what language learning 2.0 meant to me. In the coming weeks and months I’ll try to elaborate through examples from projects that I’ve … Continue reading
Posted in Learning, Learning 2.0
27 Comments
Re-thinking language instruction
By the time we finished school, 90% of my generation hated the mandatory Irish lessons. Hundreds of thousands of kids (aka language learning machines) failed to master even rudimentary communication in the language we had studied for years. If the teachers had set … Continue reading
Posted in Learning
20 Comments