2011年12月16日 星期五

CD or no CD?


Most textbooks often include an audio CD. An audio CD is like a two blades knife. Sometimes it creates great effect but other times it might not be so effective.
Here are the advantages and disadvantages of the recorded audio:


Advantages:
--- An audio CD allows students have the opportunity to listen to few different voices and accents instead of only one person.
---Audio CD is portable and ready to use. You don’t have to read through or be trained for the text. It is already there, all you have to do is to hit PLAY!


Disadvantages:
--- The volume and the quality of the recording could be tricky. There were a few times that the recording was simply not loud enough for everyone to hear it clearly or the quality was so bad and distorted. Nowadays everyone uses CD for recording, sometime there are might scratches on the CD and it just won’t play. These technical problems could go on for a full list.
---- Another interesting thing I observed throughout the years is that like all students have to ability to listen and comprehend at the same speed. Some students of mine, they understand the materials completely but it takes them a longer period of time or slower speed to react to it. Therefore using pre-recorded materials might restrict the possibility for your students to learn at their own speed.

2011年12月13日 星期二

Extensive Listening


As a teacher, sometime I found myself in the situation that my students struggled with listening. No matter how hard I try, they never seem to improve at all. Later, I learned that through extensive listening and intensive listening, students can improve their listening skills. So what is extensive listening?

Extensive listening is “where a teacher encourages students to choose for themselves what they listen to and to do so for pleasure and general language improvement.(303)” according to The Practice of English Language Teaching.

Extensive listening could be done during class time. However, it might take up too much time. As a result, extensive listening is best executed at home or outside of classroom. For example, I often assigned my adult students to listen to English radio one hour a day. They might not be able to understand it at first. But after a few months of listening to it on a regular basis, they start to pick up. They learn new vocabularies from it!
Another good example of extensive listening is Christmas caroling. Instead of simply teaching your students the lyrics, you can make a CD with all the songs you want them to learn and ask them to listen to it everyday. My young students learned how to sing the song before I begin to teach them!
However, there is still downfall for extensive listening. Extensive listening is only effective when your students have strong will enforce it. And the materials got to be exciting enough for them to follow through. 

2011年12月5日 星期一

More Christmas Craft Ideas


If you have seen or made all the crafts on my previous blog entry and want to tone the Christmas craftness up a notch. You go visit Marthastewart.com for up to 49 kids-friendly crafts!

2011年12月4日 星期日

Christmas Craft Ideas!


Do you want to make Christmas craft with your students and children but don't know where to start?
You can go to http://www.enchantedlearning.com for more Christmas crafty ideas!