ELD & Technology

American English Pronunciation Podcast (image from the podcast website) When you think podcasts you probably don't think about English Learners using them, however, after searching around iTunes, I happened to find some great podcasts. This blog will be focused on a podcast called, American English Pronunciation.  American English Pronunciation has a lot of great features that would make it perfect for a English Learner. One reason is because it teaches the listeners different rules of pronunciation for the English Language.There are actually 200 episodes for the learners to listen to! After reviewing each of the episodes I found all of the different pronunciation topics in each episode to be important and beneficial for English Learners. These are pronunciation errors that my English Learners at school make and would be helpful for them. Some sample episode pronunciation topics are: the difference between short i and short e, intonation in wh question words, and the

Social Media Addiction is a Good Thing When Acquiring English? Photograph from Article (see reference) Mint Reading is an English Learning application developed by  Chengdu Chaoyouai Education Technology. It uses the validation people seek on social media to motivate users to complete tasks in order to learn English in order to get a "like" or "share. This company is not alone in using social media to motivate users. Actually, according to the South China Morning Post (2018), "e ducational apps have increasingly leveraged social networking to create peer pressure and keep users going" (paragraph 6).  Although  some users ended up finding the application annoying (constantly sending out and receiving alerts are the user and their friends complete activities) or somewhat distracting (too much social media, not enough studying) I can find many uses for this type of thinking in the ESL classroom. One example is having students be able to share the

Interesting Photos for Better Writing One of the Google Alerts I received this week was an article from the New York Times. The authors shared how teachers have been using one of the most famous feature of the times called “What’s Going On in This Picture?” in order to help their English Learners because better writers. They noted that, “teachers across grade levels and subjects have told us again and again how powerful of a learning tool such a simple activity can be” (Leon, Montemagno, & The Learning Network, 2018, paragraph 2). The article then goes into a detailed explanation of how the two teachers, Leon & Montemagno, who are titled E.N.L (English as a New Language) teachers used the feature in their classroom. Essentially they have their English Learners write claims about the photographs. They start by posting the picture at the beginning of the week. They give copies of the photographs to student in either paper form or on iPads. Those that use iPads use a

Brain Hacking This week I got an update on an application (app) I have used in the past called Duolingo. If you are not familiar with Duolingo, it’s an app that helps users learn a different language. The author of the article, Minda Zetlin (2018), shared how the application is “reviewing the data on tens of thousands of their users” (paragraph 2) and “comparing when they studied with how well they were performing on the app's tests. That review led them to a simple two-step formula for improving language learning and retention: 1. Study the language right before bedtime. 2. Study every night, weekends included.” (paragraph 2) The study was completed by first dividing Duolingo users into 14 different groups “based on when [what time of the day] they did their studying” (paragraph 3) or used the application to learn a new language. “The group that studied at bedtime seven nights a week outperformed 52.9 percent of other users, while the worst performing group, which

“The Power of Video” My next blog is from a website based in another country. It’s about a freelancer from the U.K. named Antonia Clarke who wrote about “The Power of Video” which is essentially “the revolution of video in English Language Teaching” (Sunanda, 2018, paragraph 1). I thought this was perfect for this week because we are learning about digital storytelling in our graduate class. She found that “video is found everywhere” (paragraph 1). In fact, “over recent years, YouTube has become the second most popular site on the internet, beaten only by Google” (paragraph 1). Since video is prominent the author advises instructors to use videos in the classroom. Actually, in India they have such a shortage of teachers that they have started a digital classroom. In the digital classroom the students learn through watching videos made by the staff. Dr. Sunanda, the author, then shared benefits of using video in the classroom especially with English Learners. The benefits inclu

When I came across this article it immediately grabbed my attention because it talks about Flipped Classrooms. At my school, I have a very “techy” 5 th grade teacher that has a flipped classroom. I taught 4 th grade for 3 years in this building before I became an ELD/ESL teacher, so I was very intrigued to learn more about it especially how it would look in the ESL classroom. In first paragraph the author, Synodavis, explained the difference between a traditional classroom and flipped classroom by using the following example: Traditional Classroom Teacher: Teaches basic lessons on new subject matter in the classroom. Student: Does practice exercises and other homework independently at home. Flipped Classroom Student: Learns basic lessons on new subject matter individually at home. Teacher: Does practice exercises and other reinforcement material in the classroom. The article then explains how a flipped classroom make the most sense because the students are lear