Will Slade's Language Teaching Blog

Siempre se dice que entender las noticias en español puede ser difícil por que los reportes pueden ser muy rápidos y siguen sin pausas... pero de todas formas, ¡se puede tratar! En serio, creo que es una buena práctica.  Si se te dificulta mucho, escucha solo una pequeña parte y escucharla varias veces.  Vea si con repetición puedes entender más. In other words, listen to short chunks, play them back several times repeatedly, and listen for the gist.  Don't worry if you're not getting every word.  Also, if you watch a video and have no idea what it was about, try googling a key word or a newspaper article from that country and see if you can learn more. Para ver: Noticias de Argentina : Todo Noticias (even though I don't speak Argentine Spanish, I find the news on this channel slower and easier to follow than others). Televisión de Costa Rica : Teletica Noticias del Ecuador : TeleAmazonas Noticias de Guatemala : Guatevisión Noticias de Honduras : Televicentr

My friend Suzanne Mateus writes a blog that deals with challenges and opportunities of bilingual parenting in the United States (and more specifically in Austin).  Check out Interpretations of a Bilingual Life !

Lou Rawls performed this popular classic using modals in the past .  His title "If I Coulda, Shoulda, Woulda" uses an informal contraction for "If I could have (done something), I should have (done it), I would have (done it)."  He is using the modals in the past to talk about the regret when someone realizes that they have made a mistake but it is too late. This popular song by Cheap Trick uses infinitives patterns and verbs in the past tense in an interesting way.  It also includes some  puns or jokes with the double meaning of words like "want." The lyrics to this Smokey Robinson and the Miracles song are very simple, but they include a nice use of an idiomatic phrase "get a hold on someone"... They use it in kind of a unique way, that seems to mean that the singer is very attached to his or her lover.   (Of course, this is different than to "get a hold of someone" which means to contact them, especially by phone.)  There are

Cuando visité a Denton la semana pasada, me contó un amigo que usa mucho este blog para sacar práctica en el español.  Me inspiró meter otros sitios para que practiquemos todos: Encontré algunos videos que se tratan de la educación temprana (por profesores en Harvard) . También este video en Youtube me interesó:   educación y teatro del oprimido (las ideas de Boal y Freire aplicadas en Bolivia)  . BrainPop  es un sitio educacional que me parece chido.  Es fácil inscribir para accesarlo gratis, aunque sea temporal.  Tiene videos interesante; acabo de ver uno que se trata de "bullying." Un estudiante de Arabia Saudita me preguntó de las influencias arabes en el lenguaje español .  Encontramos este árticulo en Wikipedia. Por favor, comparte cualquier corrección u oportunidades adicionales para practicar.  Puede usarw la sección "Comments."

One of my current students is focusing on verb tenses, and he asked for some resources and advice.  Here's what I sent him: For practicing verb tenses , here are some websites:  http://www. englishpage.com/verbpage/ verbtenseintro.html http://www.eflnet.com/grammar/ verbtense.php These should be good opportunities for specific practice on these skills; however, continued conversation and speaking practice is my number one recommendation.   Have you downloaded the  Audacity  program?  That is a great way to record yourself speaking and listen to yourself or send to an English teacher (like me) for feedback.  Obviously I am limited in how much I can listen to and comment on, but I will do what I can.  : ) Also, listening to  esl-lab.com  and noticing the use of tenses will help raise your awareness of correct usage.  As you pay attention to the tenses, you will find it more natural to use them in the standard way.  and noticing the use of tenses will help raise your awareness of

If you're like me and study French, you might be interested in connections between our city and nation and the French.  Here are a few sites I ran across that might interest you.  The first is a party that's this coming week! Bastille Day Celebration on July 16 at the French Legation:  http://www.afaustin.org/ Brief history of cities with French names in the US :  http://nclrc.org/cultureclub/speakers_corner/Americas-French-Heritage.pdf American students of French writing poetry:  http://frenchcinquains.blogspot.com/

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/CSX9YHL  

Austin is famous for having a lot of stuff going on.  How can you find out about it?  How can you access it?  This post will brainstorm different activities that I enjoy, and give links where you can find more information.  Search any of them in google maps  and click on "BUS" to figure out the best bus route to get there. Improvised theater can be really fun.  There are many theaters, like the Hideout , the Cold Town Theater , and Salvage Vanguard .  You can watch hilarious performances, and you can sign up to take an improv theater class -- most of these are attended by American English-speakers who are practicing to speak spontaneously. There are lots of outdoor places to swim in Austin.   Barton Springs and Deep Eddie are two of the most popular places to swim in Austin.  They are both natural water, but Barton Springs has more plants.  Big Stacie is a free pool in South Austin, and there are lots of pools at apartment complexes. There are also places to canoe ,

I'm excited to be teaching at TIEP with a group of fascinating, intelligent students this summer!  We are using the Grammar in Context book by Sandra Elbaum, which I have used before and really like.  The stories are interesting, and the grammatical explanations and exercises are very detailed. The website for the text book:  Grammar in Context  has quizzes and writing activities.  When we finish a lesson, we will do the quiz.  For example,  this is the quiz  for Lesson 2 in Book 3.   Before Tuesday, would you go back and take at least three quizzes from  Grammar in Context 1  and/or  Grammar in Context 2  and e-mail me your results?  My e-mail address is sladewill AT gmail DOT com (substitute @ for AT and . for DOT).

My student Yousef and I are practicing for the TOEFL -- an academic English proficiency test -- and we have found some good free resources.  These are some of the best ones that came up from Google searches. Timed speaking is one of the most stressful and difficult parts of TOEFL and most tests.  This website has good practice opportunities.  We use Audacity to record and listen to our answers. Another website gives listening and reading exercises.  Check it out!  Yousef also showed me that you can search Youtube for listening practice  and speaking practice .  Click on "Show More" to see questions.  Scroll down to the bottom for the answers.  Obviously, some of these may not be perfect, but they should be good opportunities to practice.  If you have recommendations for websites for TOEFL practice, let me know.

English speakers and English learners alike will learn tons from these incredible podcasts.  I am a huge fan of all of these: This American Life  shares stories that are linked by quirky and ironic themes by its host Ira Glass.  If you are thinking about how to compose an engaging narrative story, these will model some great rhetorical styles.  The cultural component of these is really rich as well. Radio Lab  will teach you all sorts of science, technology, and philosophy in a really stimulating way.  They use a lot of interviews and expository speeches, and fun sound effects prevent any risk of boredom.  I listened to one on sleep yesterday, and I can't stop thinking about it! TED  Talks  is a forum for lectures on technology, entertainment, and design.  The website has videos of incredible speakers talking about a range of topics.  Be prepared to LEARN! Enjoy!

Engaging, comprehensible, diverse video snippets of people speaking in the language you're trying to learn!  And different activities and ways of engaging the materials. Spanish video clips with transcript options and practical organization! I really wish this one had been available when I was learning Spanish! Spanish conjugations  with a variety of other Spanish practice materials French resources, particularly videos of proficient non-native speakers (a learner doesn't need to shoot for a native speaker standard, just a proficient non-native, right?) Portuguese all over Brazil !Vivian and others did such a wonderful job on this one! COERLL has a ton of other languages represented as well!  Check them out.