As game-based learning gains momentum in education circles, teachers
increasingly want substantive proof that games are helpful for learning.
The game-makers at the non-profit GlassLab are hoping to do this with the popular video game SimCity.
Sonntag, 17. März 2013
How Emotional Connections Can Trigger Creativity and Learning
Scientists are always uncovering new ways into how people learn best,
and some of the most recent neuroscience research has shown connections
between basic survival functions, social and emotional reactions to the
world, and creative impulses.
Montag, 4. März 2013
Txtng Rules
Anne Curzan
Two weeks ago I gave a talk to a group of University of Michigan at Ann
Arbor undergraduates called “Txtng and the Future of English.” As a
linguist who studies the history of the English language, I reassured
the students that they are not ruining the English language, no matter
what they hear from their parents or teachers or other trustworthy and
concerned authorities. Some of the students looked gratified by this
alternate perspective; others looked skeptical.
Montag, 17. Dezember 2012
35 Modern Words Recently Added to the Dictionary
The Oxford Dictionary Online is a warehouse of over 600,000 words.
Despite this large arsenal, we continue to coin, clip, and blend new
words into existence, and the Oxford folks pump some of these new words
into their dictionaries. Here are some more recent additions with their
official definitions.
1. Bling (n): Expensive, ostentatious clothing and jewelry.
*
2. Bromance (n): A close but non-sexual relationship between two men.
*
3. Chillax (v): Calm down and relax.
*
2. Bromance (n): A close but non-sexual relationship between two men.
*
3. Chillax (v): Calm down and relax.
Read the full text here:
Freitag, 7. Dezember 2012
Bringing languages to life: teaching tips, tech and ideas
I have loved using music to bring languages to life in my language
classroom. Music videos are a great way to introduce students to the
culture of French-speaking countries and develop speaking/writing
projects. For this particular project, I used French rap and encouraged
groups of students to write about chosen common themes. We used mind maps to explore the links between ideas and the sounds of the key words, such as the 'tion' 'isme' words.
Students used online rhyming dictionaries and wrote their rap around the main rhymes with the support of a dictionary and a sound file with a beat.
The text was then uploaded to a text-to-speech software
http://text-to-speech.imtranslator.net/ to allow students to practise
their pronunciation independently.
Some students needed more support and I recorded myself saying their text using Audacity
for them to practise listening, reading and saying the text on their
own. They could then try to say the text, record themselves and decide
if they were ready to perform it.
The performance was recorded
into a PowerPoint presentation with pictures and the words in French and
English. It was shared with the staff and other classes and it is still
used in school to promote languages.
Donnerstag, 29. November 2012
English or Hinglish - which will India choose?
Today's aspirational
Indians want their children to go to a school where lessons are taught
in English. But often the pupils leave speaking a language that would
not be recognised in London or New York. Could this Hinglish be the
language of India's future?
Why, half a century after Indian independence, does English
remain the language of higher education, national media, the upper
judiciary and bureaucracy and corporate business?
The answer is that India, unlike its rival Asian giant China,
has no truly national language of its own. Hindi, the official language
of central government, is an artificial and largely unspoken 20th
Century construct.
Even the colloquial Hindustani of Bollywood films is spoken
by only 40% of the population, concentrated in the "cow belt" of
northern India.
The rest of the subcontinent speaks hundreds of regional vernaculars.
Amid this Babel, English remains the country's only lingua franca.
Tipps, die das Lernen leichter machen
Vor dem Einschlafen lernen wir effektiver,
Aufgeschriebenes behält man besser – heißt es. Stimmt das? Psychiater
Manfred Spitzer erklärt, wie wir Dinge wirklich behalten.
Studieren heißt oft, komplizierte Dinge in den Kopf zu kriegen. Jeder
hat da seine eigene Technik. Ein bisschen haben die Eltern dazu
beigetragen, ein bisschen hat man selbst herausgefunden. Außerdem hört
und liest man ja allerlei von Experten: Zum Beispiel, dass man am besten
vor dem Einschlafen lernen soll. Oder dass Handgeschriebenes sich eher
im Kopf festsetzt als Getipptes. Was stimmt davon?
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