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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

Foreign Language Influencers: Why you may not have your say on your language course

who is looking over your shoulder in a language class?This may be the most common reason for dropping out of language schools globally, and yet it’s not often discussed – not to mention remedied. Why is stakeholder analysis missing from our thinking about language learning? Who exactly has the power to influence how you learn – and how can you make sure your voice is heard? Read on and let’s start talking about this.

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BRAVE Blog

Beyond the Hour: Time in Language Learning

Six years of my teaching and training career were paid “by the hour.” The same thing applied to all the language courses I took: and hour cost this much, and I got that much in return. Today, I will try to think about language study differently. Do all foreign language classes have to revolve around the question of time?

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BRAVE Blog

Fire Your Teachers If They Don’t Ask This Question

Why Tintin44 via Compfight

It’s customary to exaggerate a little in the post headline. But not this time. I would find it hard to think of a more important question for learners. Here’s where I heard it.

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BRAVE Blog

Build On What You Know: Scaffolding for Language Learners

The problem I have with a lot of language teachers is this: the techniques, terms and strategies they use to teach languages cannot be easily transferred to the learners who want to do the work by themselves. I’m big on DIY language learning and on guerrilla solutions recently. That’s why today I’m tackling one of these techniques, and trying to describe it so that every language learner can at least begin thinking about using it!

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BRAVE Blog

#ELTchat Summary – 16 May 2012: “How to analyse and restage activities to make them more learner centred”

 This post is a summary of an #ELTchat that took place on the 16th of May, 2012. If you want to know what and #ELTchat is, head over to eltchat.com – and if you’re a language teacher, joining one of the chats is strongly recommended!