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Social media a threat to language learning...LOT News March 2010
publication date: Mar 24, 2010
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author/source: Jason West
 Languages Out There - March 2010 Newsletter (1) Hello to everyone Out There
This is an 'anything is possible' newsletter. The one where we try to do things that no one else would even think of doing.
I really hope you have been getting social in
your quests to teach and learn English, that you have met new people
and bonded (made friends) via some enjoyable and exciting interactions.
Listen to this newsletter online
Pole Position - EOT podcast case study with Waldek
"Let's be 'avin EU" - the fearful future of language teaching...
EOT summer school in London
London EOT Meetup booming Old Jokes Home
Listen to me read this newsletter:
you can see and hear me read this newsletter on our Facebook fans page,
click here (careful I do it in one take, so no editing, and the
mistakes are left in):
The challenge? Help a pre-Intermediate
student improve his English fast and then help him to start a face to
face and online EOT English learning business in his home town in
Poland. Yup. You're not seeing
things (going mad or about to fall over). Waldek, a very genial
(friendly and sociable) Polish gentleman contacted me via Skype and
asked me to help him. I said 'Ok, but as long as you let me record
everything'. So that is what we are doing and you can all follow it
here every week:
Try listening to Waldek's level placement
interview of 10th March and then compare it to his practice
conversations this week. All comments most welcome.
EU funded 'Study on the Impact of ICT and New Media on Language Learning' (official title)
- This next piece feels a bit like groundhog day (where the same day
keeps repeating itself) because I am going to keep some of the same
words from the LOT newsletter of 29/01/10 and a piece that was about a
British Council article on social media in ELT.
It is a very useful report but there is one hilarious and highly contradictory sentence nestling in amongst all of the good advice. I would say that this displays, in a nutshell, the dichotomy (two opposing views) that many in ELT are struggling with.
So,
here's the EU research via our forward looking friends at the Open
University who had a big hand in writing it. Read the 100 page report
on the future of language learning and how ICT and social media will be
involved, very good stuff despite my bleating (moaning) about the innate fear than some people in this business feel about change:
WARNING: Please Do Not Read It if you work in the conventional ELT sector and are of a nervous disposition (easily frightened)!
I guess the clue to the way the lead authors
were embracing inevitable change was in the page heading on the Open
University's own website and which I used to hopefully grab your
attention in this newsletter's subject line - 'Social networking threat
to language learning'. Summer in the city - Watch out for news of the EOT London summer school
on the main website. We have a large number of agent bookings already
and will be happy to hear from you. The info there now is from last
year...but this year will be...similar, only with different people.
Make sense?
London Meetups go from strength to strength - Yes, it has taken a while but Maria's focused EOT conversation Meetup
has just passed 200 members, is now regularly getting 15 attendees per
session and meeting twice a month. Maria will charge you 3 GBP for
attending before she hands out the EOT print outs. Just bring a pen and
some beer money! You can sign up here:
The EOT teachers' Meetup
has still only had two Meetups (my fault for leaving London) but now
has over 70 teachers in it and we will be using the group to farm out
(dispense, allocate or distribute) paid teaching work that comes in to
us. All you need to do is sign up and watch your inbox for jobs. For
example a big Italian group due at the end of April and the summer
school will have their teachers recruited from this Meetup group. Free
to join at:
You
still, even now, might not know but we have had a channel on Youtube
for a while now...see students talking about their experiences of EOT:
We have temporarily suspended premium
membership and ebook purchases whilst we make some changes. Meanwhile
you can purchase a printed version of the world's first English course for use with online social media, Intermediate TD4, from Amazon:
....and here is a review of Intermediate TD4 on TEFL.net:
"I would certainly recommend this to anyone looking for a new, vibrant
and engaging approach to learning English and look forward to using
these materials in more of my own classes."
Old Jokes Home:
I went on a trip to a postcard factory last week.
It was OK. Nothing to write home about.
Until next time...
Cheers
Jason |
