Will Slade's Language Teaching Blog

Many thanks to Vera Dugardsyrenova, a fellow language teacher and education researcher, for introducing me to  Mi Vida Loca, a cool, interactive BBC Spanish series .  I am really impressed with it!  The scenes of Spain are beautiful and interesting; the plot of the series seems engaging, and they manage to expose you to really useful vocabulary in meaningful contexts.  As you watch the episodes, there are opportunities for you to participate as a character and practice some of the phrases they have introduced.  Mi VidaLoca is designed for beginners, but I think someone who is a little more advanced could still get a lot out of listening to the native speakers in the videos.  I came across some vocabulary that was new to me in episode 19, la inmobiliaria (the real estate office), either because a different word is used in Latin America, or just because I have never bought real estate, furniture, or even appliances in Spanish. Check it out and let me know ...

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."

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.