Job Discussion Forums

[thelmadatter]

Gosh.... I would KILL to have only 15 in a class!

[PlayadelSoul]

[john_n_carolina]

...i'm not so sure "self-access" works.

my wife (Ecuadorian) has 20 + books, 10 ESL CD's, EnglishTown account, NetFlix, and she doesn't touch them.

she learns more in the 1 hr / wk from American Literacy volunteer than all her books.

i was the same way, with Spanish. i could never get into Pimsleur.

by far, the only 2 "self-access" that works for me are:

1) Listening repetitively to Julio Iglesias LP's from the late 60's
2) Watching Mexican soap operas

[john_n_carolina]

...however, there are situations / students that would benefit ALOT from "self-access" centers:

1) high level TOEFL students
2) Scientific English students (petroleum, etc)
3) basic basic students, that can't pronounce "island" without saying the S
4) someone that has 0% contact / ability for contact with an English or average-English speaking person (e.g. someone in jail)

[TheLongWayHome]

[hlamb]

[lozwich]

[some waygug-in]

Just a wild stab into the black, but here goes....


I'm just wondering if access to the internet is changing things a bit. I don't know how expensive it is there. Perhaps it's still too expensive to be
attainable for common folk, I don't know.

But I am seeing more and more in the way of free online language courses as well as things like video lessons on youtube or similar sites.

Just curious as to whether these things are becoming used down there yet?

[Guy Courchesne]

Internet isn't too expensive here, but it's still likely out of reach to a large chunk of the population that lives in poverty.

I read sometime ago that the most popular websites in Mexico were all related to email and chat. I've not seen anyone here using free online courses, but I've never asked either. That's a good question to run by the kids, for those of us here working at the primaria level.

[Vanica]

My daughter is learning a lot of English and some Spanish through pbskids and nickjr websites, though they are not designed to teach English. She learns a lot about makeup at barbie.com

My little cousins learn a lot of Spanish and Portuguese from the telenovelas that are broadcast in Croatia with subtitles. Their parents simply turn the sound off when they watch.

[hlamb]

I always give my students tips about websites that can help them learn, either through specific study of grammar rules or more general reading and listening to real materials. Most are completely clueless about how to search for materials until I tell them, and only the most motivated seem to take advantage of the internet.