Blog

  by  giulia.forsythe  Thank you to everyone who contributed to our discussion on April 17! The conversation centered on how (and in what language) to provide students with feedback to support deeper learning. This topic generated a lively discussion, and we would like to extend a special thanks to our moderators: @SECottrell and @CoLeeSensei. In case you […]

Welcome back to #langchat! Thank you to everyone who joined us for a lively discussion on Thursday, April 10! The conversation focused on how thematic units and action-oriented tasks can best incorporate culture. There was a large turnout, and participants shared a wealth of useful suggestions! A special thanks to our moderators: @msfrenchteach and @CoLeeSensei. […]

Grammar is a necessary part of language instruction, and yet it remains one of the most hotly debated topics among language teachers. How much explicit grammar is necessary to include? What grammar structures are vital to first-year students in order to allow them to communicate? On Thursday night, the #langchat participants discussed these questions, in […]

No matter how many years you’ve been teaching world language, there is always room for learning a new way of making class more fun and effective. At last week’s #langchat, teachers from all over the world shared their best tips and tricks for making language class an experience that students can remember for a lifetime. […]

  by  mkhail  Traditionally, world language classrooms have relied heavily on textbooks to help teachers organize and share key concepts that are needed to communicate in the second language. With the dawn of the Information Age, language teachers have access to more valuable resources and authentic media than ever before. This, coupled with the recent trend towards […]

  by  kevin dooley  Although there are many skills that must be explored in the first stages of language acquisition, there is some debate about whether circumlocution is one that should be emphasized. Key vocabulary, grammatical structures and conversational skills are clearly important elements of the novice classroom, but is there a place for circumlocution at this […]

As Common Core State Standards and standardized testing continues to influence that way that language teachers focus their methods of teaching, there is an increased emphasis on reading instruction. As it has become an important element for many language teachers, even more than in previous years, this was a very lively discussion, full of great […]

Sometimes, it takes focusing on a certain strategy to help remind you of just how effective it can be. This seemed to be the case last Thursday, as the #langchat participants discussed station activities and how they can be tools for fast, deep language acquisition. Not only did they talk about the purpose for station […]

  by  jencu  During the pre-Valentine’s day #langchat, participants were sharing the resource love by talking about some of the best ways to incorporate native language speaking interactions into the classroom. Not only were some of the best online apps discussed, but the virtues of old-fashioned pen-pals were extolled and some excellent tips were shared from teachers […]

On Thursday night, #langchat participants were vocal about the topic of communication. In addition to talking about their personal definitions of a communicative classroom, they shared great ideas for how to make world language classrooms more communicative by following 10 key rules.   What is a Communicative Language Classroom? How do you define a communicative […]