Blair Teacher http://blairteacher.posterous.com Most recent posts at Blair Teacher posterous.com Tue, 04 Dec 2012 05:18:00 -0800 Geography Matters: Space and Identity in the International Student Experience http://blairteacher.posterous.com/geography-matters-space-and-identity-in-the-i-60040 http://blairteacher.posterous.com/geography-matters-space-and-identity-in-the-i-60040

Lights_in_rothko_by_paintedstarfish-d327aua

The international student experience can be characterised by a sense of being “in-between”: in between childhood and adulthood; in between dependence and independence and of being between cultures. Although the desire to explore the new environment can mitigate negative feelings, a prolonged sense of in-betweenness can become a burden, and individuals may feel a sense of non-belonging or outsidedness.

International students are physically distanced from their established sources of social support, and relationships from home may diminish with distance and time. Meanwhile, although the desire to build friendships is strong, frequently the opportunities to develop supportive relationships are missed, as individuals may struggle with language or acculturation.

Moreover while students gain confidence and competence in interacting with the host culture, they may find diminished opportunities to integrate as friendships groups have formed and settled around them during the initial buzz. As a result, research suggests that international students often inhabit a “third space," juxtaposed alongside the host culture, while at the same time, isolated from it.

There is a need to explore the space that international students create for themselves to ensure that they are getting access to the right support.

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Sat, 20 Oct 2012 04:05:00 -0700 Recentering relationships in the international student experience http://blairteacher.posterous.com/recentering-relationships-in-the-internationa http://blairteacher.posterous.com/recentering-relationships-in-the-internationa

International students contribute billions of pounds to the UK economy and sustain thousands of jobs. However, the challenges that international students experience are significant and little research has been carried out into this diverse group of people.

The international student experience is situated during a period of life (the ages of 18-25) that is characterised by change, and many of life's most important experiences occur during this period, particularly changes in relationships. A way of understanding the international student experience is by looking at the types of relationships that individuals have during this period.

One of the most fundamental changes of this age group is the renegotiation of relationships from dependence (on family) to independence. Tanner calls this process recentering.

Recentering is a framework for understanding the process of relying on family to becoming independent. It is a three-stage framework where individuals first begin making new relationships with those around them. Secondly, individuals engage in activities typical of this age group (ie. frequent partners, changes in jobs, full-time study, frequently moving house). Finally, individuals start making the long-term connections that will stay with them for the rest of their lives (ie. getting married, getting a stable job and settling down).

Obviously, each individual's experience is unique. For students coming to study in the UK, they are negotiating their independence while also negotiating the transition to a foreign culture, often in a second language, and many may not make a comfortable transition. There is a need to look at how international students develop supportive relationships during their sojourn.

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Thu, 12 Jul 2012 06:46:00 -0700 International Students and Social Networks http://blairteacher.posterous.com/international-students-and-social-networks http://blairteacher.posterous.com/international-students-and-social-networks

I recently presented a poster presentation at the HEA conference in Manchester on an abridged version of my MA dissertation. This had grown out of looking at my own students and wondering what on earth goes on when they arrive in the UK.

International students are an interesting group when looking at how humans develop social networks. They arrive in a new country, often without having a mastery of the local language, knowing noone and they are distanced from their established forms of social support. Since social support is important in the academic and emotional wellbeing of students, surely it would be interesting to see how students develop networks when they arrive in the UK.

So I surveyed some of my own students .. I asked them who they went to for different types of support, and which medium they used. The results showed (my poster is attached below in A1 size) that:

  • The students in the sample were an isolated group - with on average only 9.03 connections
  • Cross cultural connections were rare - students tended to establish connections with people from their own culture
  • Students tended to maintain relationships from home rather than develop new connections in-country.

HEAposter.ppt Download this file
This was only a small survey, but I hope to scale it up so I can get some more definitive hyptheses. I think it's important to look at the way students develop networks, since this can inform how we plan student support. Although there are huge differences in the experiences of indiviual students, it is still good to look for patterns.

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Sun, 03 Jun 2012 00:57:00 -0700 Dictation activities http://blairteacher.posterous.com/dictation-activities http://blairteacher.posterous.com/dictation-activities

I've recently been asked to teach a class of students to prepare them for the new Pearson PTE (Academic) exam. I am a little unfamiliar with the test as it is a computer-based one, and there are very few example tests that I can look at.

Nevertheless, from what I have seen, the task types are extremely clear. In the speaking part for example, the task types include reading aloud, listen and repeat, describing an image, re-telling a lecture (a summary) and answering a short question. These are not particularly communicative tasks and standard classroom practices such as pair work and group work (ie. speaking tasks that involve more than one people) are not always the most effective preparation. The challenge therefore is to provide students with some fun, engaging and effective practice tasks. I use dictation a lot as it is a powerful way to integrate grammar and vocabulary with speaking and listening.

Dictation has had a pretty bad press, and any mention of it may send people quivering in horror at the thought of having to write down scores of lines of text. However, this is not the case, and there are a variety of dictation tasks that can make the class fun, show a good model of language, and form the basis of effective language practice for students.

I've collated some tasks that I have been using with my students to prepare them for the Pearson exam.

Example tasks

  1. Dictogloss (prepares students for re-telling a lecture)

A dictogloss is a type of dictation where the teacher reads a text, which students have to make notes of and then recreate using their own words. The purpose is to have students "notice" grammar or vocabulary, or other stylistic feature of a text. Teachers and students can analyse the text for structure, or any salient language points that are a feature of lectures (lectures are usually highly structured).

      2. Mutual dictation

This is where students dictate to each other. I do this by giving students half a text each, and have them read their parts of the text to each other in order to complete a coherent whole. They can do this by either summarising their part of the text, or by reading the text aloud to their partner. This can also be done with dates, numbers, telephone numbers, addresses ... anything that a student may need to write down from speech.

      3.  Text to graph

This is another pairwork task. One student is given a description of a graph or an image, while the other has an incomplete image. The speaker reads aloud (or summarises) their text, while the listener has to complete the image they have. This works well with graphs, tables or charts.

      4. Running dictation

Straight from the CELTA handbook. Texts are posted on the wall around the classroom. Students (working in pairs) take in turns to read the text, remember it, tell it to their partner who writes it down. This can be done with single sentences, or longer texts where speakers have to summarise what they read.

      5. Stop/rewind/repeat

The teacher reads a text at a normal speed. Students have to listen and write down what the teacher says. If they need to go over part of it again, they ask the teacher to stop, rewind and repeat, each time the teacher speaking at normal speed (clear but not too slow, using features of connected speech). The teacher can be replaced with a CD (but the controls will be the same).

      6. Picture dictations

Similar to text-to-graph, both partners have images, which they describe to each other while their partner draws it. Students may need preparation time before dictating.

      7. Error dictation

Students are given a text which has a number of errors in it. The speaker reads the text aloud, while the listener has to read and correct the mistakes. This can be done as a type of paired dictation, where one partner has the original, or it can be done as a whole class dictation (the teacher reads aloud, or uses the CD).

      8. Gap fill dictation

Similar to the error dictation, but instead of an error, there is a gap.

      9. Phonemic dictation

Not a particularly good name, but an effective way of practising using connected speech. Students are given short sentences written in phonemic script. Students read aloud what they see (including obviously all the features of connected speech such as assimilation, catenation etc.) while their partner writes it down. This could be done as a running dictation, too.

      10. Retelling

Students are given a text (for example, a joke or a story) which they tell a partner (who writes down a summary). They then change partners and continue telling the same story to different students until there is no need for reading aloud, as students have (hopefully) remembered the text that they are telling.

     11. Dictate vocabulary

The teacher reads out sentences, or short complete texts, which contain new vocabulary. Students write the sentences down (inferring the spelling from the dictation) before using a dictionary to find the definitions. This mirrors the way that students encounter new vocabulary in everyday life - as it is a very lucky language learner who is presented with all new words before they engage in a conversation with a native speaker.

      12. Mark the punctuation

Students are given a text with no punctuation. The teacher reads the text aloud, and students have to infer what punctuation goes where. This highlights how punctuation reflects the pauses and changes in intonation in connected speech. Since the PTE Academic is a computerised test, students need to have good punctuation as the computer relies on punctuation to analyse the complexity of the language (using its top secret algorithm).

Secretary-and-boss-008

That's enough to be getting with I think. Sometimes I like to put music on in the background for paired dictations, while sometimes I get students to sit really far apart from each other, so they have to speak audibly and clearly to their partner. Dictation can be used to liven up a sleep class, or calm a lively class and a good dictatist (dictator?) can exude a calm authority over the class. If anyone has any other ideas, or improvements on these ideas, then let me know.

Further reading

Ruth Wajnryb's "Dictogloss" is a good book on using dictation to teach grammar. Mario Rinvolucri and Paul Davis wrote an excellent book on dictation about 20 years ago.

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Wed, 02 May 2012 07:05:00 -0700 Popular Patterns of Texts in Academic Writing http://blairteacher.posterous.com/patterns-of-text-in-academic-writing http://blairteacher.posterous.com/patterns-of-text-in-academic-writing

Academic writing is a complex process, however, even articles on the most complex themes often follow very simple structures. One of the most common structures in both journal articles and essay writing is the problem-solution structure (perhaps, as Freire points out, because of the Western habit of problematising everything.)

The problem solution follows a fluid Situation-Problem-Response-Evaluation structure, where each section of the structure has a distinct function:

  • Situation - Details the participants, the location and the time with (often) an indication of the problem-solution structure
  • Problem - A descripton of the problem
  • Response - A description of a response
  • Evaluation - Says whether the response works or not

Though this is particularly common in academic writing it is also found elsewhere as in the advert below:

Hilarious_print_advertisements_07

The advert is aimed at women in the UK (situation), and the problem is "bad hair". A solution is provided (ie. Timotei) and this is positively evaluated (naturally, since it is an advert).

How does this relate to essay writing?

The awareness that even complex texts follow a simple structure can be enlightening for students. Moreover, such a framework can help inexperienced writers structure their essays (and IELTS writing tasks) clearly and logically.  

One particularly useful aspect of these structures is the idea of lexical cohesion in problem-solution texts. That is, experienced writers clearly signal the different stages of the problem-solution structure using nouns (often) or other markers that signal a problem that needs tackled, and a response to this need.

Words that indicate a problem

need, difficulty, challenge, problem, risk, danger

Words that indicate a response

way, method, measure, means, approach, response, model

The example below shows an abstract for an article from a medical journal which clearly signals a problem-solution structure:

Probsol
I like to emphasise these signals to my students in order to help them scaffold their essays clearly, and to have them impose clear structures in their writing. In short essays, I feel, no topic sentence should be without an indication of a problem or solution.

I have had very positive results teaching this structure with my students. Our assessments reflect this theory in that students are explicitly asked to write a problem-solution essay, and the good students clearly signal their ideas. This also has a positive impact on their critical thinking as students can positively or negatively evaluate various solutions to a given problem. Using a simple framework such as this can free students to engage in engaging in higher order thinking.

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Thu, 29 Mar 2012 02:25:00 -0700 Rhetorical Moves in Academic Writing http://blairteacher.posterous.com/rhetorical-moves-in-academic-writing http://blairteacher.posterous.com/rhetorical-moves-in-academic-writing

Writing an essay is a complex process, and as teachers of academic writing, we require our students to make sophisticated rhetorical moves in their essays, asking them to, in a foreign language, synthesise ideas, identify problems, make connections between abstract concepts and real life examples all from a variety of sources.

The academic genre, however, has developed its own ways of making rhetorical moves which are fairly standard. EAP teachers can take advantage of this to help students identify and apply rhetorical moves in their thinking and writing.

I like to be clear with my students, and I use a framework developed by Drown and Riedner to help students identify rhetorical moves in academic arguments. These templates are useful because they provide a scaffold for inexperienced writers for support. As students' linguistic and intellectual competence develops, they take ownership of the language and move beyond the support. Though this takes time, as students become more expert at identifying rhetorical moves, so they become more critical of others' and their own ideas.

Examples of rhetorical moves include:

Justifying an approach: 

  • I approach [my topic] by ______ to support and expand points about the significance of ____
  • This approach allos us to see evidence regarding _________, prompting further questions about _________

Identifying a complication

  • This explanation gets us [only so far] as [evidence] does not fit in to this explanation. Consequently, [reformulate the argument]
  • The case is not so simple, rather _________

Reformulating arguments

  • Although this term is often understood [in this way], in the context it means more [more complex, more nuanced, specific thing]
  • While [situation], in my context [slightly different situation]

Moving from the general to the specific

  • [Problem x] is a significant challenge, particularly [for specific focus]

Identifying a counterclaim

  • [Writer] claims that [idea]. However, in fact, [evidence] shows that this is not entirely true.
  • While some evidence suggests [one thing], others claim that [other thing]

Teaching tips:

  1. Students categorise the moves (for example, where in an essay might you expect to find these moves?)
  2. Students identify moves in a text/argument. Students read an article and find examples of various moves in a text (and make a note of the language used).
  3. Students write their own simple rhetorical moves.
  4. Students rewrite a text,applying some rhetorical moves to arguments.

 

 

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Wed, 07 Mar 2012 00:51:00 -0800 Fantastic pictures of the earth at night http://blairteacher.posterous.com/fantastic-pictures-of-the-earth-at-night http://blairteacher.posterous.com/fantastic-pictures-of-the-earth-at-night

Satellite view of the earth at night. Absolutely mindblowing.

 

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Thu, 23 Feb 2012 07:18:00 -0800 Notemaking http://blairteacher.posterous.com/notemaking http://blairteacher.posterous.com/notemaking

One of the main features of the UK education system is the amount of reading that students are expected to do at university. This can be extremely challenging to some students, especially if all that reading is in a language different to their own. This can be overwhelming for some as they may not only have problems withe linguistic complexity of what they have to read, but some may also struggle with the ideas expressed.

One method I find helpful with students is to present them with a framework for notemaking where they read a complex text, then review and rewrite their notes in order to fill in any gaps in understanding.

I ask students to divide a page in their notebooks into two columns (one column being bigger than the other). At the top of the page they write the referencing details - this will become helpful when they start writing their essays. In the narrow column, the student writes the structure of the essay. For example, if they have identified the text they are reading as a problem-solution structure, they write problem and solution. In the main column, they write details, information and data from the text.

At the bottom of the page, I encourage students to write a rhetorical precis. This helps students evaluate the text they have read, getting them to think about the tone, the purpose and the intended audience.

Cinas_notes
I find this works becuase it makes students think about what they are reading, while also giving them a record of what they have read which they can use later. I encourage students to file these in a binder and we work with these texts and I can set them as homework; if I want my students to read an article at home I get them to provide me with their notes. It also provides me with a "zone of intervention" whereby I can read their notes and intervene if I feel they have misunderstood something, or have not got a complete idea. Students seem to like it because it is something they have produced and it gives them a more complete understanding of their reading.

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Fri, 27 Jan 2012 08:42:48 -0800 Rhetorical Precis http://blairteacher.posterous.com/rhetorical-precis-60330 http://blairteacher.posterous.com/rhetorical-precis-60330

For international students beginning their university career in the UK, the amount of reading they need to do can be overwhelming and, for many students, understanding and critically evaluating academic texts can be challenging.

One response is to encourage students to have students use a framework such as a rhetorical precis to summarise the texts that they read. A rhetorical precis, developed by Margaret Woodworth in 1988, is a four sentence, structured summary of a complete text, consisting of the following information:

  1. Name the author, genre and title and introduce the main idea using a reporting verb.
  2. State the main idea and provide supporting evidence from the text.
  3. State the author's purpose
  4. State the author's tone and the intended audience

An example rhetorical precis might look like this:

"Houghton, in his article (2004), looks at different approaches to learning at university in the UK. He supports his research by comparing two approaches to learning identified by Marton and Saljo (1976): a deep approach and a surface approach. The author’s purpose is to explain how different approaches affect student success at university and he recommends that students take a deep approach to learning. The author writes in a formal style for a student audience."

Although this may be difficult for students at first, it can help students get to the bottom of a text, and begin to think crticially about how the intended audience can affect the tone of the article. I've tried it, though I think my delivery of it could do with some refining, I can certainly see value in it for my students.

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Wed, 30 Nov 2011 01:47:00 -0800 Referencing guide for academic writing http://blairteacher.posterous.com/referencing-guides-for-academic-writing http://blairteacher.posterous.com/referencing-guides-for-academic-writing

Possibly my favourite website ever (no exaggeration) - the excellent referencing guide offered by the University of Portsmouth is the most comprehensive and user-friendly referencing guide out there.

Just choose which referencing standard you are using and the type of text you want to reference and click "go".

 

For my students (on an academic writing course), one of the biggest problems they have is to bring others' ideas into their own arguments without plagiarising. This site is really helpful as it is so clear and easy to use.

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Tue, 02 Aug 2011 05:53:00 -0700 Evaluating Online Sources http://blairteacher.posterous.com/evaluating-online-sources http://blairteacher.posterous.com/evaluating-online-sources

The Internet has come a long way in a short time and for students at university, it is now possible to do all required reading online. Blogs, news feeds, wikis and online academic journals are all rich sources of information and, used properly, can be a great source of information.

However, there is a danger that students don't evaluate critically the sources that they encounter online and they may also overrely on online sources, ignoring other key sources.

There is a need for students to be able to evaluate online sources so that they use appropriate sources for their assignments. Robert Harris developed a framework for evaluating online sources using the acronym CARS:

Cars-lightning-mcqueen

Credibility:

  • Does the site name the author or the organisation?
  • Is bibliographical information listed?
  • Is the website a commercial or a sponsored website?
  • Is the site a personal website or a blog?

Accuracy

  • Is the information outdated or obsolete?
  • Does the site contradict other sources?
  • Is the content meaningful?
  • Is the content objective?

Reasonableness

  • Does the organisation have a commercial or a political bias?
  • Is the purpose clearly stated?
  • Is the article well-balanced?
  • Is the writer over-critical or angry?

Support

  • Is the article supported with peer-reviewed research?
  • Has the article been peer-reviewed?
  • Is the site linked to a respected institution or organisation?Can you contact the writer or the organisation?

This framework has been tested quantitatively and qualitatively and has been shown to effect "lasting change" on students' use of online sources in academic assignments. Using a framework such as this can help students become better at evaluating online sources and ultimatley better, more independent learners.

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Thu, 02 Jun 2011 05:56:00 -0700 Stephen Krashen on language acquisition http://blairteacher.posterous.com/stephen-krashen-on-language-acquisition http://blairteacher.posterous.com/stephen-krashen-on-language-acquisition

Stephen Krashen is a brilliant academic, teacher and activist. In this short lecture, he demonstrates brilliantly his theory of comprehensible input. He makes language teaching look so easy.

"The only thing that seems to count, is getting messages you understand - comprehensible input"

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Fri, 18 Feb 2011 06:56:00 -0800 Embedding Twitter Hash Tag Feeds http://blairteacher.posterous.com/embedding-twitter-hash-tag-feeds http://blairteacher.posterous.com/embedding-twitter-hash-tag-feeds

While I was keeping up to date with the events in Egypt, an idea struck me. Wouldn't it be great for students to apply the theories that they learn in class to real life through the meidum of Twitter? For many, what we learn in class is far removed from our daily lives and we can't always make the connections between what we study and what goes on in the world around us.

During the Egyptian revolution, ordinary people were tweeting from Tahrir square, while, at the same time, news agencies were reporting on what (they thought) was going on. Through Twitter, we were taken into the complexity of real life events and we could view these from an objective and informed standpoint - in real time.

Twitter have made a widget available so that you can stream a Twitter hashtag feed in your webpage (for example #Egypt). I've made a video of this, in case anyone wants to use it for themselves.

Embedding a Twitter Hash Tag Feed into a Website from Digital Spaces on Vimeo.

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Thu, 17 Feb 2011 03:55:00 -0800 Babies learning languages http://blairteacher.posterous.com/babies-learning-languages http://blairteacher.posterous.com/babies-learning-languages

The talk by Professor Patricia Kuhl in this video describes a series of experiments investigating what goes on in the brains of babies as they learn languages. They show that human interaction is vital for babies to learn a language and also, that babies can process sounds from different languages innately - a skill we seem to lose dramatically as we get older.

She also states that babies learn languages better than adults. I have to say I don't think I agree with this. It takes a child five years to become proficient in their native tongue, whereas it is possible for an adult to become proficient with hard work in a couple of years. Certainly, an adult would speak with an accent, but grammatically and lexically, they could become native speaker-like far quicker than a baby learning their first language. First language and second language learning are two overlapping yet distinct processes and evidence on how babies learn languages may not always hold true for adults learning a second language.

Child language acquisition is absolutely fascinating though :-).

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Sun, 06 Feb 2011 06:23:00 -0800 Informal Learning and Wikipedia http://blairteacher.posterous.com/informal-learning-and-wikipedia http://blairteacher.posterous.com/informal-learning-and-wikipedia

Jimmy Wales talks about how Wikipedia is used for informal learning. For many people it's the first port of call on the web if they want to know something. I may be a bit of a geek, but I have often been watching something on the TV then gone on to look on Wikipedia to find out more about it, often going on tangents and finding out about things I'd never heard of before, from the Wilhelm Scream to the Mandelbrot set.

There are still doubts about the veracity and the validity of Wikipedia however and most universities would often rightly question the use of Wikipedia as a secondary source for students. 

Nevertheless, the more it gets used, the better it becomes and the more refined the peer review gets. There may be a time when Wikipedia becomes the main portal for all knowledge.

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Sat, 29 Jan 2011 12:51:00 -0800 The Cornell System http://blairteacher.posterous.com/the-cornell-system http://blairteacher.posterous.com/the-cornell-system

Nobody is taught how to write notes, and even at Master's level, it may be difficult for students (especially disorganised ones like me) to know exactly how to organise their ideas. The Cornell System of note taking, developed in the 1950s and becoming more popular, is one way of taking notes in a way that can aid the retention and use of information. In the left hand column, the writer writes cues and the main note taking is done in the right hand column. The bottom part also has a reflective function. Once the notes have been written, you can add your own thoughts, questions and ideas which haven't been mentioned in the lecture.

advancednotes.pdf Download this file
The four Rs

Record

Take notes during a lecture using abbreviations and paraphrasing.

Recite

Cover your notes and test yourself from the prompts.

Reflect

Reflect on the notes. Be critical, and question the importance of the information and how it fits with your own ideas

Review

Review your notes. Your ideas and opinions may change over time as you learn more. 

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Fri, 21 Jan 2011 12:29:29 -0800 Isaac Asimov on education http://blairteacher.posterous.com/isaac-asimov-on-education http://blairteacher.posterous.com/isaac-asimov-on-education

This videos shows Isaac Asimov talking about "the future of education" in 1988. He mentions a lot of things we are now familiar with; access to libraries from our own homes; lifelong learning; 

 

 

I particularly like what he says about how we think of education as something we can finish. Technology, and access to information, changes all this. It's good to see that we are in a place nowadays where we much of what Asimov says is a reality.

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Tue, 09 Nov 2010 01:10:00 -0800 Language learning and informal learning http://blairteacher.posterous.com/language-learning-and-informal-learning http://blairteacher.posterous.com/language-learning-and-informal-learning

The concept of informal learning has been around since antiquity. In its modern context, it is rooted in post-war development where there have been two main movements. The first movement aimed to empower underprivileged learners in developing countries and was primarily political. The second was borne out of work-based learning such as internships or voluntary work.

Informalapproach_cartoon

In recent years there has been a tendency to formalise the informal through externally prescribing objectives and testing, while, paradoxically, there have been moves towards informalising the formal through the adoption of less structured approaches to teaching. This is particularly true in the language classroom; the number of people taking formal language exams such as IELTS has risen at the same time as a rise in the adoption of more informal approaches to teaching.

In one study, Stephen Krashen (1976) argued that formal and informal environments both contributed to different aspects of second language competence: formal environments help learners with language learning (the grammatical and phonological rules) while informal environments contribute to language acquisition, the subconscious process similar to the way children learn their first language. Krashen argues that active involvement in an environment where language occurs regularly (what he calls an intake intensive environment) is necessary for language acquisition. 

With the development of web 2.0 applications, it is now much easier to create an "intake intensive" environment away from the classroom. Students have access to real-time updates (Twitter), they can share links, photos, music etc.These applications were not intended for educational purposes, though there is clearly value in them for education. However, the educational nature of these applications do not necessarily correspond to the learning objectives of educators. Moreover, students do not necessarily want to use web applications in an educational setting and there are concerns about e-safety and the variable quality of learning that users experience. Despite the immediate appeal of web 2.0 applications, there is a need to explore the opportunities available.

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Fri, 20 Aug 2010 07:35:00 -0700 The University Circuit http://blairteacher.posterous.com/the-university-circuit http://blairteacher.posterous.com/the-university-circuit

Job cuts, an unprecedented funding crisis, universities turning students away - higher education in the UK faces a number of challenges. Conversely, demand for a UK education from overseas students increases the opportunities within the sector for EAP teachers. However, for many, it is a difficult time to get a job at a university. If you are an ambitious young teacher, teach abroad.

It's so much easier to have a career in EAP abroad than it is in the UK. Many universities are opening campuses overseas. Liverpool has one in China. Nottingham University has a campus in Malaysia and there are others, too. The quality of these institutions is high. Young and ambitious teachers could "work the circuit" in these institutions, getting university teaching experience while living abroad and earning money. Compare that to the job market in the UK. It is almost impossible to break in to full-time EAP teaching in the UK. Almost all advertised work at universities is sessional and the only full-time positions are at private international colleges of questionable reputation and quality. 

The international market is a lucrative and growing market. It is also highly specialised and teachers need expertise in intercultural practice, language and subject knowledge. There are plenty of opportunities to study, develop professionally, to earn money and see the world. 

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Fri, 30 Jul 2010 03:37:00 -0700 Udutu http://blairteacher.posterous.com/udutu http://blairteacher.posterous.com/udutu

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I don't know how to pronounce it, but udutu is a great online authoring tool. And best of all, for some reason, it's free. I've found it suits my needs extremely well and I can have complex learning objects ready in a short amount of time.

Their rationale is to get people using the software and then they may (or may not) pay for extra services. Since I already have access to an online VLE, I have no need to pay for their services, which makes me feel extremely guilty at using their software for free. Because it's great.

The forums are good too. Even if I have had a simple question, it has been answered promptly and politely by their admin team.

I really see no weakness. I have a couple of gripes about not being able to embed HTML in assessment pages (though embedding HTML is not a problem on normal pages) and there is no way to create gap fills. However, these are small issues and in the big picture, Udutu works much better than many expensive and more well-known tools.

I could not recommend this highly enough.

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