Blog

  by  morag.riddell  The #langchat twitter feed was explosive on Thursday night as teachers from around the country shared their feelings on the effects that standardized grading has had on their classrooms. Even though many teachers realized that removing grading from world language classrooms is unlikely, many were passionately advocating for a serious change away from emphasis […]

  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 […]