Mobile Learning

How can we utilize students' phones effectively in the classroom?
Image via apple.com

Mobile learning is a new-ish phenomenon; I have been reading about them everywhere recently. Alexandra Lowe recently posted about using smartphones and tablets on the TESOL blog, and I just found a great video from the British Council on using cell (mobile) phones in the classroom: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uYRxpoFPCFU. They provide three different ways to use smart phones: pictures, voice recording, and apps. Bonus: the first two can be used with "dumb" phones and don't need an internet connection. 

No smartphone? No problem!

My students always bring their phones to class, so I like the idea of integrating the use of phones into my lessons. My beginning-level reading/writing course is using the Oshima and Hogue series for writing, and one of the chapters is about describing a picture. The book provides a picture with a sample description; however, rather than having students describe a random picture from the book or internet, I can have them describe a picture on their phone. Then they can read their paragraph to their classmates (this would work in pairs or small groups) and show the picture that they're describing. This would be much more meaningful to have them describe and write about an actual person in their lives, and they wouldn't have to "make stuff up from their head" (a common complaint about non-context-based writing). 

How do you (or could you) utilize smart phones in your classroom? What are other ways we can incorporate students' interests in the classroom to maintain engagement?

P.S. More with Alexandra Lowe: Secrets for Adult ELLs Part 1 and Part 2

A Few Differences Between American and British English

Vicki Hollett, blogger of Learning to Speak 'Merican, has a great site called Simple English Videos. There are tons of great (and short videos) for learning English. These are wonderful mini-lessons and are a great addition to day's objective(s).

In one video, entitled How to Confuse an American, provides five differences between American and British English. Some of the ways include: zed, saying double plus a letter, and saying the day before the month in a date. I think this would be a great addition to a lesson on the differences between the two dialects students often learn. Many of my students learn British English in their home countries and get surprised by the differences when they arrive in the US.

Additionally, these videos have transcripts, so students can watch on their own and follow along by reading. Have you ever used these videos? What is the best way to incorporate videos in the classroom?

Slash, Part 2.

Do any of you watch Parks and Recreation on NBC? I love it; and in last Thursday's episode Andy (supporting character) uses slash as a conjunction! Check it out witht the link below. It starts at 5:44 and ends about 6:02.

Parks and Recreation: Swing Vote

He's the "lead singer, slash song writer, slash t-shirt designer, slash nacho chef." Love it!

English Mania

Sorry for the lack of posts recently. I haven't had much time to post during the beginning of the semester. I would love to share with you a great (and short) video that one of my colleagues found. It's about English mania and English as the world's second language. It is originally from TED.com, and the speaker is Jay Walker.

 

I love the focus on China, as well as his perspective on English NOT taking over the world. As an English teacher, I am all too aware of the issues of language and power. I don't want to dwell on it now (maybe in a different post); however, I think it's important to add to the conversation that English should be used as a supplement*, rather than a replacement* for one's native language.

Thanks for the link, Natalie!

P.S. I love TED.com

*supplement and replacement were vocabulary words in my ELI 082 class, and this was a "conclusion" we drew as a class while discussing English as the lingua franca.

Scene from "The Miracle Worker"

The "water" scene from The Miracle Worker is a great way to introduce the power of language.

 

My writing students are going to be writing literary autobiographies (autobiographies of their literary, written, reading, and spoken, experience), and I am going to show this video as an introduction to the theme of literacy and the power of language. There is also a nice quotation in our textbook from Helen Keller's biography The Day Language Came into My Life, which shows how powerful this moment was in her life:

"I stood still, my whole attention fixed upon the motions of [Annie's] fingers. Suddenly I felt a misty consciousness of something forgotten--a thrill of returning thought; and somehow the mystery of languaeg was revealed to me. I knoew then that "w-a-t-e-r" meant the wonderful cool something that was flowing over my hand. The living world awakened my soul, gave light, hope, job, set it free... I left the well-house eager to learn. Everything had a name, and each name gave a birth to new thought. As we returned to the house, every object which I touched seemed to quiver with life. That was because I saw everything with the strange, new sight that had come to me" (p. 122-3).

I wonder if my students ever had this "realization" in English. Does anybody remember a feeling like this with learning another language? Did it ever just "hit" you and you "got" it?