Blog

  by  DaveCrosby  ‘Honestly, how can we have ‘valid’ second language courses if we don’t also have ‘valid’ assessments?!’ asked @dr_dmd. This hypothetical question summed up the core discussion of last Thursday’s #langchat: What are valid assessments and how can teachers make time for them? What is “Valid Assessment”? The first thought that moderator @dr_dmd presented was […]

  by  James Jordan  #langchat teachers discuss the delicate balance of teaching students a love for world language in addition to the required skills and modes of learning that makes them proficient and AP-bound   Balancing Proficiency Skills and Activities World language teachers have traditionally organized their classes around the skills of reading, writing, speaking and listening. […]

  by  Kevin M. Gill  #langchat discusses some ideas for taking advantage of the increased access to global language sharing. Even though Spring Break is closing in, #langchat participants shared a wealth of great ideas on how to use the global language teaching community to help students acquire new skills. Many teachers focused on creating personal connections […]

  by  The-Lane-Team  Recycling excellent content can be the key to solidify new concepts, but what are the best ways to renew, re-use and re-teach in the world language classroom? Although most teachers know the necessity of re-teaching and re-using concepts to help scaffold language learning, it can be difficult to decide the best way to do […]

  by  gordonplant  Collaborative learning can keep language students from becoming zombies, but how can teachers keep group work level-appropriate and comprehensible? Despite the best efforts of Thursday night’s #langchat moderator, @CoLeeSensei, participants talked much more about the benefits and problems with collaborative learning rather than sharing specific strategies. Although a few very good ideas were presented, […]

  by  tm-tm  #langchat participants vote on when and how grammar instruction should be incorporated into world language curriculum. Grammar is a necessary part of language teaching and learning. During #langchat last Thursday, many participants shared that they realize the importance of teaching grammar in order to help students feel more confident and have better communication. On […]

  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 […]