Blog

  by  Beth Rankin  Performances and cultural events are only some of the ways teachers are advocating for proficiency-based language methods. Love was in the air at Thursday’s Valentine’s #langchat, but not the romantic kind. Participants at the night’s chat seemed to be focused on finding ways to love their colleagues and administration more in order to […]

  by  Fort Worth Squatch  Are changes on the foreign language AP exams going to break your students, or build their language skills? “Students that know a second language statistically score higher on any standardized test compared to monolinguals. That’s something!” @darcypippens pointed out on Thursday night. Although her enthusiasm for teaching a second language was universally […]

  by  roland  Should language classrooms be translator-free, or can online translators be beneficial to learning? This Thursday at #langchat, educators weighed the benefits and drawbacks of online translators and dictionaries. Although participants agreed that online dictionaries and translators can be a beneficial part of the language classroom, it was also clear that they can become a […]

  by  BiblioArchives / LibraryArchives  Is the textbook an antique or a necessary part of world language curriculum? The importance of the textbook in the world language classroom has become a heated discussion rather than a reliable staple of the language community. During #langchat on Thursday, participants discussed the benefits and drawbacks of relying on textbooks as […]

During Thursday night’s session of #langchat, participants discussed various interactive ways to develop students’ world language writing skills. The discussion topics included ways to foster many types of writing through analysis and discussion. By using various methods such as online tools, group discussion and word games, teachers are encouraging and incorporating writing into the world […]

After a very restful winter break, #langchat was back on Thursday night, chock full of plans for updating and invigorating the language classroom. Even though each participant had a different goal for their foreign language teaching, we have the common goal of having more interactive, engaging classrooms where students feel free to communicate and teachers […]

While language assessments are a large part of the foreign language classroom, not all tests are created equal. This was one of the major topics of discussion during #langchat on Thursday. Although everyone had a different opinion about the importance of summative assessment tools for language teaching, we could all agree that they are often […]

  by  Fancy Jantzi  Ipad Curious Learners, Fancy Jantzi. January 24, 2011. Penn Laird, Virginia, US. Langchat Summary: Total Participation Techniques in the Classroom It was a great meeting of minds at this Thursday’s #Langchat. The newest member of the moderating team, @CoLeeSensei, was introduced.  In addition, a reminder was given to participants to be aware of […]

During our #Langchat session last Thursday night, participants batted around a number of excellent authentic language listening resources and ideas for using authentic audio in the classroom. Here are some of our favorites! Audio Resources Pandora Radio Latin channels. Great songs for in class use! (@srapontarelli) @ZJonesSpanish has organized resources by topic (@espanolbartlett) Musicuentos Blog […]

After a short break for the Thanksgiving holiday, #langchat was alive with great ideas and interesting perspectives on the different ways that teachers are preparing their students to interpret authentic audio sources. Setting Clear and Appropriate Learning Expectations One of the key components that many teachers agreed upon was the importance of setting realistic and […]