This year I started my 9's, 10's and senior class with a serious of class discussions that lay the foundation for goal setting and activity/ content planning. I want the students to have increasing input into what they learn and do - that said, it's not easy! Students and teachers alike are largely conditioned to the old idea that students know little to nothing, don't know what's good for them and that the teacher will tell them what to do and learn. There's still a place for that approach at times but yeah - I'm trying to get them more involved from the start!
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For the month of January I did the 30 Day Language Challenge - which requires participants to record and share themselves speaking on a variety of topics everyday in their target language - which for me is Bahasa Indonesia.
Although made somewhat easier by the fact that I was on holiday and had more time, it's definitely still a challenge, but one that's well worth it for the benefits gained. The main purpose is to practice speaking and to speak on topics that are emailed to you each day. It helps you gain vocabulary (which I constantly had to look up), pronuciation, confidence in speaking and receiving feedback, and the regularity and consistency of staying on task and wanting to complete the challenge helps with your own discipline and work ethic. In short, the benefits are as much about process and confidence as they are specific language outcomes. This challenge is ongoing and some people do it back to back from month to month, some do is a one-off and some do it when they can and choose to - I intend to repeat it in March and continue to progress from it. It's certainly not something you'd do exclusively, but more of an extra regular activity that creates the mentioned gains but also put you in touch with passionate language learners around the world also striving to learn their language/s of choice. Here are some links for more info and content etc:: Language Exchange Group (Facebook group) My 30 Day Challenge Videos/ entries (Youtube) |
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Teacher/ Musician from Northland, New Zealand. |