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BRAVE Blog

Language learners: it’s 2015. Do you know where your humans are?

Language Learners: it's 2015. Do you know where your humans are?I’m going to IATEFL again this year. Last time was fun (well, depending on who you ask) and certainly gave lots of people lots of ranting material. But you don’t need conferences to see how the language learning landscape evolves. And if you just want to learn to use a language, you don’t really care. Here’s one thing I would like you to think about today. It’s important regardless of the language you’re learning or teaching.

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BRAVE Blog

24 Unusual Ways To Learn a Language Every Hour

24_unusual_ways_to_learn_a_language_every_hourYou can learn a new language anywhere, anytime. This is a gift that few people in previous generations ever had. What will you do with this new polyglot possibilities? How can you get started? Here’s a bunch of ideas for quirky bilingual projects – one for every hour.

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BRAVE Blog

More language for your click: 3 simple ways to make Freerice teach you more

file7231339581147From the word go, I was charmed by the idea behind Freerice – get a question right, click through to the next one, help fight world hunger. This worked for my English students, worked for my Arts knowledge – and recently, it’s been part of my 25-minute German daily workout. But the big question remains – for a foreign language learner, how useful is this website – and how can you make it work for you better?

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BRAVE Blog

Guerrilla Language Learning Update: German Learning Habit Revived With 7 Apps

me_and_wolfgangFor the past few days, I’ve been learning German again, and this time more new elements have fallen into place. This is just a quick re-cap of how I’m doing. Remember – my goal is not learning fast. It’s learning by maximizing resources, and language learning on a budget. Here are seven tools I’m using to accomplish this.

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BRAVE Blog

How To Learn a Language From a Hole In the Wall

Okay, let’s start again. One professor with a TED Prize wish tells a hall full of English teachers that sometimes kids learn best with no teachers around. Teachers react differently. Teachers have discussions. Teachers write blog posts, ask questions (the professor answers some of them).
I want to move beyond teachers today. There’s plenty in this conversation for a language learner. And if the whole idea of teacher-less learning is discussed by educators, it should at least be on the radar of some future polyglots.
Here’s a hint before we begin, though: many of us have been doing this for ages.

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BRAVE Blog

How Sugata Mitra Annoyed English Teachers (& why I care)

shocked face What is the role of good teaching? Why does learning sometimes happen on its own? Is there something children cannot learn independently? These were some questions brought about by Saturday’s morning plenary talk at IATEFL – an international English language teachers’ conference. For foreign language learners, the debate which ensued can be quite inspiring. Let’s dive in, but be warned: strong opinions will follow.