Dr Gianfranco Conti
@gianfrancocont9
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Speaker,trainer,best-selling author, ‘Breaking the sound barrier’, etc.; Sentence builders book series; TES Award winner; CEO ; creator #EPI
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Joined February 2014
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Put sentence patterns first. Humans chunk everything into patterns. The larger the chunk, the lighter the load on working memory as we process language. However, if you put the teaching of single words and conjugations first you will raise a breed of slow and hesitant speakers.
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Foreign language acquisition is a slow and long-drawn process. Hence, testing shouldn't be about verifying if students 'have got' something 100% or 90 % correct; rather, if they are on the right track and at what stage in their journey to acquisition they are.
#mfltwitterati
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PYRAMID TRANSLATION
One of my favourite creations and activities for structured oral production. An extract from our teaching sequences chapter in our forthcoming book. The aim is to practise extending chunks and manipulating patterns. Note: the referee has the answer sheet.
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Less is more - cut coverage, allow yourself and your students sufficient time to learn by doing lots of recycling and interleaving. Work more on fluency and less on grammar rules. Put chunks and patterns first.
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Sentence builders are a great way (1) to teach vocabulary in context;(2) to model sentence constructions through listening + reading ;(3) to organize knowledge in a clear and accessible way; (4) to prevent or at least reduce agreement mistakes in French, German, Spanish, etc.
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A comment made on a thread on Global Innovative Language Teachers about the current GCSE LISTENING papers that many language teachers I am sure agree with.
I have been campaigning for this for ever.
Pls retweet if you agree, hoping it gets to the powers that be.
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SECRET SENTENCES - A zero-prep writing activity that can be used as a starter, a pre-writing task and a plenary - from a thread in Global Innovative Language Teachers (on Facebook)
#mfltwitterati
#GILT_FB
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One of my favourite listening activities: Spot the nonsense. Zero prep, fun and makes for a great starter.
Also, it encourages thorough processing, as the students really need to pay attention to every single word.
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Annoying how many schools merge their EAL ( English as an additional
@language
) departments with SEND (special needs) They are NOT the same thing !!! If anything, their closest equivalent is MFL...
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A FREEBIE FOR FRENCH TEACHERS
The 1st unit of my forthcoming GCSE revision workouts book. It contains (1) a K.O. (2) 8 pages of vocabulary consolidation activities and (3) answer key. Co-authored with Julien Barrett, Dylan Viñales and Ronan Jezequel.
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On the importance and benefits of Reading Aloud
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As you know, mounting research evidence indicates that reading aloud, by improving decoding skills and training the articulators to produce L2 sounds, contributes crucially to oral fluency. Here is a read aloud game for younger learners.
#mfltwitterati
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Grammar can’t be taught like a math formula: applying a fixed formula to the sentences without the understanding of the meaning in context. Vocabulary can’t be just learned by memorizing without understanding how actual words are used in a sentence.
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'Piranha-grama'- a zero-prep,very simple writing/grammar game designed to practise speed of retrieval & editing skills whilst focusing students on sentence patterns and accuracy + having a bit of fun. Slide 1 explains pre-task and task and Slide 2 the post-task
@MrVinalesMFL
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Finally starting to recover from Covid. It hasn’t been easy and don’t wish it on anyone. Whilst much better, unfortunately still not strong enough to deliver workshops for at least another week. Apologies to all who have signed up. They will definitely be rescheduled soon 🙏🙏🙏
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New book 'French sentence builders" co-authored with DYLAN VINALES
@MrVinalesMFL
and RONAN JEZEQUEL
@JezequelR
, two E.P.I. authors and evangelists finished. Book now being proofread by three native speakers. Can't wait for it to be out
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In four months or even earlier, a new website will be launched, as result of a joint venture between The Language Gym and Textivate.
Interactive sentence builders with audio and lots of narrow readings with 200 interactive and self-marking activities.
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A FREEBIE FOR FRENCH TEACHERS FROM THE BOOK "FRENCH SENTENCE BUILDERS"
This is a unit on saying what food one likes /dislikes
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Instructional techniques that enhance vocabulary learning according to research
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Language teaching is best when (1) we forget being the talented/passionate linguists we are and wear the hat of the average adolescent millenial learner with his interests, motivation and finite cognitive resources and (2) asks ouselves: why should he buy into this?
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Grammar helps. Phonics help. Chunking helps. Strategies help. The issue is: with one or two hours a week of teaching, where do our invest our ‘money’ in? I say: teach to communicate in the fastest way possible. And that ain’t grammar.
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If we teach our students effectively at KS3, e.g. cover less stuff but teach it REALLY WELL across all four skills, we won't have to rush at KS4 and make it all about acronyms and strategies to pass the exam.
#EPI
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Next month I will be staging a five-hour course (2 x 2.5 hours webinars) for anyone who wants to have a 360 degree knowledge of my approach. I will walk you through the whole methodology. Do contact me if you're interested.
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French sentence builder book will be out end of this week to early next week. Slight delay doing to meticulous proofreading and formatting. Can’t wait !
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Out on Amazon next week ! Excited !
Many thanks to Steve Smith for taking the lead on this and to his wife Professor Elspeth Jones for editing this humongous book.
I have thoroughly enjoyed co-authoring this and have learnt lots in the process !
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So...it looks like Steve Smith and I might just write a new book on maximizing learning and making the most of the little curriculum time available, a practical 100-pages accessible handbook on how to apply cognitive science and language acquisition research to everyday teaching.
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'Mosaic writing' can be very useful, too, as a pre-reading activity. I use it as a follow-up to 'Sentence detective'.
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A degree of gamification in the MFL classroom is a must with teenagers. However, each activity should serve a clear pedagogical rationale and ought to be as inclusive. The time spent on a game should be justified by its learning outcomes.
#EPI
#mfltwitterati
. 1/2
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Penmanship Isn’t Dead
If you want to remember something, write it out on paper, like they used to do in the old days. It turns out that the act of writing things out allows greater memory retention in a way that touching a keyboard does not.
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Use listening to model speaking and reading to model writing. Make every bit of your input matter; make it 98% comprehensible; make them notice it; make them absorb it; make them own it; make them use it to express themselves. Don’t rush it; teach it.
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A FREEBIE FOR SPANISH TEACHERS
A freebie from my forthcoming GCSE Spanish Revision book, co-authored with
@MrVinalesMFL
. Eight pages of vocab-building, R.A.M. and retrieval practice, implementing my P.I.P.O. sequence, from Priming to Output.
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The next Language Gym book will be out next week, most likely by Wednesday. The cover will look like this draft by Ross Padget. Well done
@JezequelR
for translating and adapting our work to French.
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I have just found out that last night The Language Gym, the blog I set up in May 2015 to disseminate my ideas, exceeded 1,000,000 hits. I would like to thank the British Council Teaching English Facebook page, who have consistently featured my blog posts over the years
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And our new book is finally out on Amazon
Congratulations to
@JezequelR
for adapting Spanish Sentence Builders to French and
@JulienBarrett
Barrett for editing and actively contributing to making it the little masterpiece it is.
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Dear all who purchased our Spanish Builders booklet. We are happy to announce that the booklet is 100 % photocopiable. We have decided to officially lift any photocopying restrictions. With this in mind, the current price is an absolute bargain !
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"Tick or Cross", a brilliant way to gamify reading, fostering oral passage fluency and encouraging repeated processing of the target reading or listening text.
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Long gone are the days when students learnt languages for languages' sake. Things have changed. We need to make lang. learning easier. Not by dumbing it down; rather, by hacking today's adolescents' cognition and affect. By arousing their interest and facilitating retention.
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Our 1st collection of short stories for MFL learners, entitled 'Extranjeros', is being written as we speak.
Designed for Intermediate, it'll contain the first 2,500 most frequent words in the target language.
It will also contain lots of Vocab and Grammar learning activities.
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It is a pleasure and an HONOUR to promote any languages but when it comes to languages like Welsh and Irish or any other languages threatened with extinction...the pleasure and honour are even greater. Coming out in one month: Irish Sentence Builders
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A wider range of verbs enhances your students' chance to comprehend aural and written texts. So teach more verbs and their collocations. Stop teaching long lists of nouns on their own - they do very little for language acquisition.
#FB_GILT
#mfltwitterati
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Great news! Partnering with Martin Lapworth of
@textivate
to create a new sentence-builder website, unique in its genre. The perfect complement to the Language Gym
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If we want to improve the status of MFL teaching in the UK, we can't simply tweak. We must overhaul. It's not simply about teaching phonics and grammar or getting students to analyze language; it's about making learning easier (without dumbing it), successful and enjoyable !
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Here's how I have adapted the MARS EARS cycle for over 18 years, both as a classroom teacher and as a CPD provider in the schools I have supported over the last decade or so. Tried and tested.
#EPI
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The rule of ablaut reduplication (from a post on Global Innovative Language teachers)
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Comprehensible input is a must in language learning. However, grammar, when judiciously and effectively taught to serve meaning and scaffold communicative interaction, can speed up acquisition. No to grammar overdose - yes to a balanced approach that heeds individual differences
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Elated to announce that Martin Lapworth (creator of TaskMagic, Textivate and TeachVid ) and I are teaming up with an eye to create a language learning website. A different concept altogether from what you are used to. We'll start working on it early next year.
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#EPI
No need to rush through content at KS2 and KS3 only to have to reteach it at KS4.
An ambitious curriculum is not about quantity but about DEPTH, MULTI-MODALITY, FLUENCY and DURABILITY of learning.
Less is more, when less lasts longer and builds solid foundations.
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French sentence builders book has been successfully uploaded to Amazon. It should be out any time over the next 48 hours.
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MARS EARS
MA
Sentence Builders model new language and sensitize the students to the target patterns (pop-up grammar/phonics)
R
L.A.M. and R.A.M. 'bombard' the learners with the target patterns with activities directing the learners to specific features
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Grammar matters. But at the right time, with the right class, fully contextualised and serving a communicative purpose not as an item on a list of structures to tick off to ‘show progression’.
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My new GCSE French revision book will be published on amazon this weekend. 16 units, more than 160 photocopiable pages recycling high frequency lexical chunks to death. It covers Self, family and friends; Daily activities; Leisure and Hobbies.
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10 (research-informed) PRINCIPLES OF LANGUAGE TEACHING
Our thinking vis-a-vis pedagogy has evolved since the 1st edition of "The Language Teacher Toolkit". These are the 10 main principles of sound Language Teaching as laid out in the latest edition
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To the many of you who have suggested to me to offer collaboration to Pearson in a bid to help improve their teaching resources, I have finally done so. Let’s see what happens. 😀
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Have just been notified by the British Council
@TeachingEnglish
that my latest Language Gym post has won their Blog of the month award.
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MFL teachers - be mindful of the knowledge gap online teaching is creating. Hence, unless you have homogenous classes, focus on consolidating right now, don't try to teach too much new content. If you do, recycle recycle recycle.
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Show your kids. Short but impactful.
Why being bilingual is good for your brain.
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This is mostly true of the teachers I remember, too 😀
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'Staircase translation' will feature in many of the units in our forthcoming Spanish Grammar book, co-authored with
@MrVinalesMFL
&
@BotonesSalgado
.
Designed to promote the ability to master the Spanish lexicogrammar.
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IS IT REALLY WORTH TO DEVOTE A SIGNIFICANT CHUNK OF YOUR LESSON TO A GAME OR TECH TASK?
Here is a Task-worthiness evaluation tool, useful for trainees and NQTs but also a helpful reminder for more experienced colleagues, especially when it comes to the use of games and tech.
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MARSEARS broken down beautifully and concisely in this great info gram by Ana Castillo from Marple Hall School! What a legend!
@anacastillo333
The more I read this, the more I like it.
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Creating enjoyable listening lessons in the MFL classroom - a practical guide. via
@MrVinalesMFL
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A STAIRCASE TRANSLATION task from the Spanish Grammar Book for beginners that
@MrVinalesMFL
and I are currently authoring.
Very comprehensive with lots of recycling and interleaving of the core patterns.
Great focus on verbs and colligations. Grammar in context all the way.
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I would like to wish everyone, from my staunchest supporters to my harshest and most dedicated haters a very happy and relaxing Xmas.
May 2022 bring you all lots of happiness and rewards for your hard work and passion for teaching.
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12 principles for research-informed second language teaching (Smoth and Conti, 2023)
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Working on KOs and narrow readings for the next Language Gym project: a reading-for-writing book for GCSE based on AQA and EDEXCEL sub-topics accompanied by a GCSE revision quickies with matching topics. Exciting !
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Latest Language Gym post. The first one in 2019. There is more to dictation than meets the eye !
'Beyond transcription: unlocking the full power of dictation – My favourite dictation tasks'
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French and German version of the first Language Gym "Spanish Sentence Builders" book well under way. Our French and German lead authors have completed nearly half.
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The importance of teaching languages at primary level.
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The list of microskills for listening that teachers should target in their teaching according to professor Jack Richards
#mfltwitterati
#GILT_FB
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To believe that in schools languages can be learnt through the memorization of words (through retrieval practice) and the grammar rules that glue them together is naive and contradicts all we have learnt in 50 years of Instructed Second Language Acquisition research.
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New GCSE is out. Looks very accessible and
#EPI
prepares the students perfectly for it. No need to stress over it. Keep teaching the way you do. You are most likely already including the vast majority of the words and grammar required.
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A connectigram is minimum prep task which allows the recycling of connectives whilst eliciting creating writing. You can limit the scope of the students' output by cueing them as to the theme/context, tense, register, etc.
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I salute every single SLT who doesn’t flood teachers with the first inset back with 1 million acronyms, long-winded mission statements, endless lists of core values, learner skills, etc and instead let them get on with the business of planning engaging lessons.
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Chunk- based receptive retrieval using tarsia puzzles. A popular and easy-to-use tarsia-puzzle maker here:
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Seriously? In one year? Who in their right mind believes that the average English language learner at this age could ever learn all of this, one module per half-term? No wonder, research shows English students find languages difficult !
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Exciting news! is now officially launched. You can actually already subscribe!
@MartinLapworth
@MrVinalesMFL
@JezequelR
@Gianfra09080952
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In a global world where code-switching is a daily occurrence, to impose a ban or heavy restrictions on L1 use in the classroom is counter-productive. The ability to switch from one language to another is in many workplaces and communities an imperative, a crucial survival skill.
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The Language Gym is currently working on 2 new projects:
(1) A Spanish GRAMMAR book. It mixes EPI with traditional grammar teaching so as to be useful to all of you.
(2) A series of accessible SHORT STORIES (levels A2-B1) containing only the most frequent vocabulary.
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Do a lot of reading aloud, regularly and frequently, either teacher-led (e.g. shadow reading, tracking) or student-led (e.g. shared reading, paired dictations). Fluent reading aloud has correlated significantly with comprehension in a number of studies (Grabe, 2010).
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It’s about time Language teachers use what we know about human cognition, Applied Linguistics research and children’s affect and start question received teaching & learning practices like single words teaching, death by grammar, error correction and high stake end of unit tests
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Simona
@simograv
's Padlet getting better and better every day !!! Highly recommended. Lots of links to great blogs !
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Only a fool would assume that learning to speak a language = learning subjects such as biology, physics, history, geography or business studies.
Likewise, it's foolish to transfer WHOLESALE, as many do, principles and methods used in those subjects to language teaching. Madness.
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(1) 1st unit of the Listening booklet accompanying the Spanish Sentence builders (book 1) finished; 18 more 2 go!
(2) French Sentence builders (book 1) finished and nearly ready 2 be published;
(3) Finished planning content of Spanish Sentence builders (book 2)
@MrVinalesMFL
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A reminder of what MARS EARS involves at each step. Not all of the accounts of my pedagogical cycle floating on the web are accurate.
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Fluent speech is phrasal, not produced by stringing together single words. We need to teach our students to organize their output cognitively and physically through clusters of words. Single-word teaching undermines and delays the onset of oral fluency.
#GILT_FB
#mfltwitterati
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Research shows clearly that listening to an aural text whilst viewing its transcript as we do in the early stages of an EPI sequence enhances vocabulary acquisition (e.g. Makobe, 2018; Teng,2018) 1/2
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Just finished planning my next project with
@spsmith45
in which I will take the lead: "From input to fluent output".
The book will be out next year.
In it, I'll lay out the theory & practice of
#EPI
, providing sample instructional sequences for each level of proficiency
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To those who believe L2 learning is mainly grammar and phonics:
"Language learning is not a process of representing linguistic objects in the brain on the basis of input received... we don't 'have' or 'possess' language, but we learn to use it and live in it" (Van Lier, 2000)
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Successful & motivated linguists should avoid looking at lang. teaching & learning through the lenses of their own language learning experiences & try to put themselves in the shoes of the average teenager in a typical comprehensive school with their wants, lacks & necessities.
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Elated to announce that the Language Gym FRENCH LISTENING many of you have been asking for will soon be out. A matter of days now. Watch this space 💪
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As if we didn't have enough problems as it is, with COVID and all, the old men are at it again. Why don't they just meet up and play a game of 'Risk' and leave the rest of the world alone?
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Very excited to announce that we are already in the process of planning our next project: The Language Gym Junior, a language learning website intended for primary students, with lots of games and audiovisuals. Can't wait.
#the_language_gym_never_sleeps
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A fascinating article that every linguist and language teacher should read.
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How much easier to learn how to use GUSTAR through worked examples like this 1. U hardly need 2 explain the grammar rules as it is self-explanatory, the l1 translation guiding the learner all the way through.
Check out the grammar section of it is Tops!
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Due to the constraints and many interferences posed by remote teaching and learning, it is paramount that teachers recycle as much as possible and SLOW DOWN. 1/2
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