Photo courtesy of Jenn Durfey via Flickr Ritsuko Nakata, co-author of Let’s Go, looks at why children forget what they’ve learned and shares her top tips for getting young learners to remember new language. Ritsuko will be hosting a webinar on this topic on 13th February 2014. Teachers are often puzzled and dismayed to find that their students have forgotten what they learned in the last lesson, not to mention lessons from a few weeks or months before. However, if we look back on our own school days, I think we can say that we also had a similar experience: often forgetting what we had learned. We also crammed for tests and tried to memorize everything, forgetting most of it after the test. Children tend to forget things Why do you think you forgot your lessons? Was it the way the teacher taught you or was it your own attitude towards learning? It might have been a combination of both. There might have been other factors as well, like the way you felt at the time, or the environment in which you were living and learning. There are many reasons why students forget. As teachers, we have a great responsibility to get our students to learn as much as possible. When I first started out teaching, I worked very hard in every lesson and the children were able to repeat after me quite well. However, I was shocked when I saw them again at our next lesson. They had forgotten almost everything! They could repeat well after me, but could not say a single word on their own. I was beginning to think my students were just not good at learning English. I started to think very carefully about what and how I was teaching the children, and why they couldn’t remember much even after working so hard in each lesson. I realized that it was the way I taught them! I was teaching them to become parrots, repeating all the time and speaking like robots. The children were satisfied just to repeat rather than trying to remember what to say, because I did not teach them how to retain what they learned and actually use the language themselves. So what are some other reasons children forget what they have learned? Perhaps they were not paying attention during the lesson or were bored. It’s possible that they did not understand the lesson. They may not have been given enough of a chance to internalize the language. Or they might have not practiced it enough to react spontaneously to it. So what is remembering and being able to retain new language? It is NOT memorization. How many times have we memorized things, only to forget them fast? Since English is a communication tool, we want our students to use the language they learn in class. If children use the language, they will remember it because they are the ones talking, not the teacher. Children need a little time to process the new items we teach them. They need more time to practice saying them aloud in order to become independent speakers. As teachers, we need to make time for practice in our lesson plans. How can we help them remember? One way to get students to remember their lessons is to make the lessons active and student centered, where the students do the work together. They will want to learn more, and will be more active in class, concentrate better and enjoy your lesson. This leads to retention of the lesson, gives the children confidence, and will surely bring a sparkle to their eyes (and the teacher’s, too)! We should give children lots of practice time in class. If your students do not have exposure to English outside of class, this is the only time they will be able to practice. In Japan our once-a-week lessons are only 35 to 45 hours a year. This means that a year’s worth of lessons do not even amount to two days! Therefore we have to make every lesson an intensive one so that they can remember each one six days later when we meet again. An intensive lesson does not mean study, study, study! An intensive lesson can be a lot of fun and even more interesting than a slow-paced lesson. Children concentrate better when there is rhythm to the lesson. They speak out more when they get a chance to do quick, short drills instead of one long one. They are more active when they can talk to each other and not only to the teacher. They are motivated, concentrate more and enjoy their lessons. Emotions affect learning and, if they are having fun, learning and concentrating, they will remember the lesson! Motivation and a sense of progress play a big part in student attitudes. Once children are able to remember their lessons, they will have more confidence and will be motivated to learn (and remember) more. Output is important! To help our students remember better, our lessons should concentrate on a lot of output from the students. Not only speaking naturally with speed, rhythm, good intonation and pronunciation, but also reading and writing. Listening is also important, as it is an active skill that requires concentration and understanding. With a balanced lesson, that teaches the four skills, we can cover the learning needs in a way that fits the students’ ages. With a variety of techniques, we can cover the different learning styles of the students as well. It’s easy to get into the "textbook trap" This means that when the lesson starts, everyone opens their textbook, all heads are looking down and it is difficult to get the children to look at the teacher. Instead, it is more interesting to pre-teach the lesson before looking at the text. This way, the students will pay attention to the teacher, and the cards and other materials that are used. Visual aids will help slower learners by allowing them to see as well as hear the words. Adding the sentence pattern will provide context to the vocabulary, and therefore meaning to what the children are learning. Without meaning, memory will not be well formed. After the sentence is learned, the question form can be practiced. Putting the Q&A together, the students can ask and answer each other instead of being asked individually by the teacher. They will have fun and will have to THINK of the words themselves, instead of just repeating after the teacher. It’s important to present the language in a variety of ways Using actions while talking stimulates both sides of the brain and improves memory. Songs and chants with gestures also are important to bring rhythm into speech. Picture and word cards provide the visual stimuli necessary for students to grasp the meaning of what you are teaching. Putting the students into groups and pairs will encourage them to start speaking on their own, to each other, creating their own dialogs instead of relying on the teacher. If you teach new language step by step, with children putting together new chunks of language to build meaningful short dialogs, the students will remember what they say and will be ready to read and write what they have learned. Their memory will be built up gradually. With plenty of review, their language bank will be expanded throughout the lessons and they will be able to retain most of what they learn. Join me for my webinar on 13 February to find out more. I’ll be sharing some of the techniques we can use to build our students’ confidence and get them motivated as they have fun learning. I’m looking forward to seeing you there! Get more free articles, videos and lesson plans from Ritsuko and her Let’s Go co-authors.Filed under: Grammar & Vocabulary, Skills, Young Learners Tagged: Answers, Auxiliary verbs, Conversation, Introducing new language, Language acquisition, Let's Go, Let's Share, Questions, Ritsuko Nakata, Speaking, Vocabulary retention

Learni.st bills itself as a crowd sourcer of knowledge, serving as a gathering place for users to post content on "boards" shared with other members and is a great aid to E-learning. This expands on the Pinterest concept of photos pinned to boards. Learni.st caters to small business owners interested in becoming thought leaders in their respective industries. Using Learni.st, you can create boards with content related to your own industry, attracting followers who share your interests. Many of the board topics are of interest to startups, since the sight was designed with the growing small business in mind. As you launch and refine your marketing campaigns, consider these growing social media sites as possible additions to your strategies. Instead of struggling to be heard in the flurry of posts and marketing messages on larger, noisier sites, get noticed by a smaller audience on a lesser-known outlet. Just as with the big sites, it takes dedication, consistency and creativity, but over time you can build a following and find more customers for your business. Learni.st

Gareth Davies, an experienced teacher and teacher trainer gives his thoughts on the first of our Solutions Speaking Challenges: reducing the use of L1 in class. In a recent survey on speaking challenges run by Oxford University Press, teachers were asked to vote on their top speaking challenge. The problem that received the most votes was ‘in group or pair speaking activities, my students chat in their mother tongue’. I am not sure if this is good or bad news, in some ways it is comforting to know that teachers all around the world have similar problems to ones I am facing, but on the other hand I know that speaking is an important part of the learning process and the final exams, so I know my students need as much practise as possible. So how do I get my students to stop using the comfort blanket of their mother tongue and encourage them to speak in English? Taking away the comfort blanket My first answer to this question is don’t worry about it. This might sound controversial but in my experience the more you nag teenagers, the less likely they are to do what you ask them to do. There’s an old expression: you can lead a horse to water but you can’t make it drink. So our job is to explain why it’s a good idea to use English and create the right environment but not to force the students to do it. So I suppose the question could be: how can I create the right environment to encourage my students to stop using the comfort blanket? If we know what is stopping the students from using English then we might be closer to the answer. I think there are three main reasons why students don’t use English in pair work and group work. 1. They are scared to make mistakes School culture often makes students scared to make mistakes; it might not be what we are doing in our English lessons but what is going on when they are not being taught languages. That means we need to work hard to overcome their resistance to error rather than highlight every error the students make. Often students are scared that if they make mistakes they will be marked down, so let’s let them know that mistakes are an essential part of the learning process. To do this we could have ‘quantity not quality’ days where we tell the students they will be marked on how much they say not on how they say it. Also we could have a dice or spinning wheel with typical mistakes written on it. For each speaking activity we spin the wheel and whatever it lands on is the mistakes the teacher listens for and corrects. This shows students they can learn from their mistakes. Finally, as a teacher it is really important to respond to the content of what is being said. So if your student says "I went in Rome", initially respond to the fact they were in Rome rather than the fact they have their preposition wrong. 2. They don’t have any ideas An oft heard quote is that students don’t have any ideas, but in the feedback to the survey many teachers said the students were on task but just not using English. So can we use this to our advantage? Could we allow the preparation time to be in the students’ L1? Allow them time to come up with ideas and then translate them. Would this give them the tools to give more than just one- or two-word answers? Whatever we do, I think for speaking activities to work, preparation time is a necessity not a luxury. I also think it is important to give students a chance to work in pairs to plan what they are going to say before changing pairs and asking them to do the activity. It is often a nice idea to repeat the activity with a new partner, the students will feel the first one was a rehearsal and they feel more relaxed second time around, (maybe even stealing some of their previous partner’s ideas.) Finally, you could give the students opinions; maybe students are too shy to say what they really feel for fear of being ridiculed, so if we tell them they have to argue against X or in favour of Y then they can hide behind the ‘role’ they have been given. 3. They don’t see the point I often hear teachers say that students don’t see the point. Maybe a reason for this is that if they are in a class of twenty then they realise the teacher can’t listen to all of them at the same time, so they only feel they are learning when the teacher is listening. One thing we could try is to ask the students to record themselves using their phones or other recording devices. They could send us their recordings so we can use something from it in the next lesson and they can keep a record for themselves. A lot of respondents to the survey said their students don’t listen to each other. This is a common problem, turning speaking into a series of monologues. One way to combat this is to have an activity within an activity. For example, ask your students to answer as a famous person or as another student in the class, or try to get random words into the speaking activity, or to slip in a lie. Their partner has to listen and guess who they are, or guess what the word was or what the lie was, training them to listen. So throw away your ‘No L1’ signs, stop worrying when L1 pops up, and allow students to have their comfort blanket when they need it. But let them know why you want them to speak English, let them know that you actually welcome mistakes not frown on them, they are part of the process of learning, and encourage students to listen to each other by bringing fun to speaking activities and hopefully you’ll soon have them leaving their comfort blankets behind by themselves.Filed under: Skills, Teenagers Tagged: ELT, First language, Gareth Davies, L1, New Solutions, Secondary, Solutions second edition, Speaking, Speaking in class, Speaking in English, Teenagers

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What is micro-learning? Micro-learning is learning in smaller segments and goes hand in hand with traditional eLearning. Micro-learning activities include short-term lessons, projects, or assignments with smaller amounts of information. The course material is broken into smaller lessons or modules, rather than teaching a broad topic all at once. Although the course may be broken down into smaller modules, it is still hosted on an eLearning platform. Micro-learning even in e  - publishing can be best when the student truly needs the information or when they are the most receptive. These instances are real-life examples that they can relate to, such as reading a bulletin, catching up on recent tweets, or reading a blog article about cooking. Micro-learning occurs on a daily basis. Micro-learning has a few main advantages. For example, it gives the students the ability to gather information in small segments and helps them absorb it much more effectively. Another advantage is that the learning can be done on-the-go. Mobile learning allows you to learn anywhere, anytime. Like eLearning, micro-learning can be accomplished in a variety of ways. Emails, online articles, multimedia videos, and short presentations can give the students the tools to achieve their end-of-course goals. Find an eLearning platform that works for you and build your course!

Ahead of his webinar on 7th and 12th February on the same topic, Gareth Davies looks at how to make vocabulary learning inspring and motivating. I was sitting on a train late last year and I watched a girl do her English homework. She got out a course book, turned to the back and started memorising a list of words for Unit 4. The word list had a date above it, as did previous word lists, suggesting to me that the girl was revising for a test that was coming on Monday morning. The girl read the words, occasionally writing in a translation or stopping to look one up on her phone. This made me a little sad. Obviously to her, (and her teacher?) vocabulary was just a list of words to be learnt for a test; but vocabulary is so much more than that. It’s a bundle of words to be used and consumed, a tool to help you express yourself and your imagination, the very key to successful communication in a language. How can we change this perception of vocabulary? How can we make vocabulary learning more inspirational? What tools can we give our students to allow them to learn and grow their vocabulary autonomously and not just trudge through a list of words? How can we make vocabulary feel like a bundle of joy, each word like a Christmas present to be unwrapped and discovered? We are lucky as English teachers that we have so much more than just a school subject on our hands; we have a tool for creativity. But if we are not careful we can turn English into another subject to be endured by the students. In my webinar ‘Getting the words off the page’ I will look at some answers to the questions posed above and think about some practical ways to teach and review vocabulary so the students actively enjoy learning words. To find out more about teaching vocabulary, register for Gareth’s webinar on 30th January.Filed under: Grammar & Vocabulary, Professional Development, Teenagers Tagged: Gareth Davies, insight, Language learning, Learner autonomy, Motivation, Professional Development, Teenagers, Vocabulary, Webinar

There’s an ever-growing range of companies offering an array of social media analytics tools, from entry-level platforms such as Hootsuite and Sprout Social to sophisticated stand-alone products like Socialbakers and Radian6. All of these products use an API to capture data—the exact same data already available to you and your business for free from Facebook Insights, Twitter Analytics and many other social media networks. The only differences between the native analytics and the more sophisticated—and expensive—options are the interface and the math used to calculate ambiguous metrics like "potential reach" and "engagement." As it turns out, the more you pay, the prettier the interface, the sexier the reports and the more complex the math. How much "pretty" you need or can afford depends on your budget, the scope of your marketing effort and the nature of your business.

There is a growing interest in using tablets in the English language classroom. Teachers are interested in them for a number of reasons. Firstly, is their potential for the higher student engagement that comes with using a device that is interactive, intuitive and with scope to use a multitude of tools for personalised learning. Teachers also appreciate the benefit of having some course components that give instant feedback to students thus saving marking time. Another compelling reason is the ease with which teachers can create lessons for classes that are more targeted to individual needs. If you are considering using tablets with your students, our new white paper Tablets and Apps in Your School is a great place to start your journey. It supports and guides decision-makers with the who, what, why, where, and how of implementing tablets. Download your free copy of the white paper now. The authors, Diana Bannister, MBE and Shaun Wilden are familiar to many in the ELT world. Bannister works directly within the education sector, helping schools implement and develop learning technologies, and is working on two long-term projects focusing on the use of tablets in European schools. Wilden trains teachers in the use of new technologies, as well as writing blogs, conducting webinars, moderating the #eltchat group, and delivering talks worldwide. Bannister and Wilden understand that, for a school leader, it’s not just a question of whether the technology will benefit the students or if the teachers want it; they also need a vision for how they will be implemented - from introduction to training to maintenance and on-going cost. In the paper, Bannister and Wilden look at the questions that leaders need to ask themselves before embarking on a tablet programme, including, "Is my school ready for tablets?" and "Which tablets do we buy?". Importantly, they also address issues of e-safety and parental involvement. As well as parents, teachers need to be on board and open to the idea of adjusting their classrooms for tablet use. Bannister and Wilden suggest steps to take to ensure teachers are comfortable with the new technology and outline the benefits of starting small. Perhaps the key issue for teachers is the use of tablets and apps for good teaching and learning. How can they help students learn English better? In the final section of this paper, Bannister and Wilden address this issue by setting out some guidelines for best practice. Most importantly, they outline the key questions teachers need to ask about tablets to ensure their use fulfils learning outcomes, and give a rationale for how specific apps can fulfil specific aims. One of the most convincing arguments for using tablets in the classroom is the possibility for students to then take that learning outside of the classroom - they can use the digital materials they are familiar with from class on their own devices at home. Bannister and Wilden conclude that tablet use in education is moving into the mainstream, but that we are still in an evolutionary stage. They recommend that school leaders do their homework and carefully consider not just the technology, but the impact implementation will have overall. To find out more, download the white paper now.Filed under: Adults / Young Adults, Multimedia & Digital, Teenagers Tagged: Apps, BYOD, Change management, Diana Bannister, Digital storytelling, e-safety, EdTech, Implementing tablet devices, mlearning, Personalisation, Professional Development, Shaun Wilden, Tablet devices, tablets, Technical infrastructure, White paper

We’re helping to solve your EFL teaching problems by answering your questions every two weeks. This week’s blog is in response to Simone’s blog comment requesting extra hints for teaching the over 50s. Stacey Hughes from the Professional Development Team responds. Hi, My name is Simone and I run a prime school for seniors, they complain a lot about understanding and using the language abroad. Do you have any extra hints for teaching people over 50 years old?" "You can’t teach an old dog new tricks" or so the saying goes, though perhaps the adage, "you’re never too old to learn" is more accurate. While older learners may face some hurdles younger learners don’t, the lifetime of learning through experience that they bring to the class makes them, in some ways, better learners. They have learning skills they may not recognise - the ability to solve problems and think critically, for example. They may have a clear perception of their own strengths and weaknesses or they may have strategies from learning another language in the past. Perhaps the biggest advantage adults have is their positive motivation: they have chosen to learn or they have an expectation of what they want to do with the language they are learning. This means that they want learning to be applicable to their lives. If, as a teacher, you can show this link, you will have very enthusiastic students! Here are some tips for teaching older learners: Make sure learning meets needs Find out about your learners’ goals and expectations. What do they want English for? How fluent do they hope to be? What problems do they have when reading/ writing/ listening to and speaking English? A simple checklist and follow-up discussion can go a long way in clarifying what your students want and will show them that you are interested in making the lessons applicable to their needs. Make lessons immediately applicable Adult learners are unlikely to be learning for learning’s sake. They want to be able to use what they have learned in real situations, so they are unlikely to want to learn language that they don’t perceive as useful for them or that seems a waste of time. Use activities where learners can use their strengths Some research suggests that older learners may not be as fast at rote learning as younger learners, and they may not learn as quickly. However, they will be very good at the types of problem solving and critical thinking activities they employ in everyday life and work. Use role play and simulations to practice language and provide lots of opportunities for discussion in small groups. Older learners are also good at reflection, so after a discussion activity, ask them to say what they did well and how they think they can improve on their weaknesses. Create a comfortable atmosphere Older learners have a certain status, so putting them into a classroom situation where they feel belittled or where their life experience is unappreciated will hinder learning. Create a classroom where learners feel comfortable about making mistakes. Build confidence through praise and encouragement. Set achievable goals and help learners see when they have reached them. One useful strategy is to tell learners about your own embarrassing experiences when using a language abroad (we all have them!). This can help them see that everyone makes mistakes and that it is OK. It may also help to point out that most people are forgiving of language mistakes and appreciate the effort learners make when speaking their language. Not too fast, but not too slow either How demotivating it is to feel confident when listening in class, but find that in the ‘real world’ of films and native speakers, people just speak too quickly! By all means, build listening skills with materials in class, but teach students to listen to authentic texts, too. Help them feel confident in knowing that, even if they can’t understand every word, they can get the main ideas. Point out websites where students can listen to newscasts and podcasts, especially when they are relevant and topical. So, for example, ask students to familiarize themselves with today’s news in their L1, then ask them to listen to an international newscast giving the same news, but in English. Or point them to a podcast that gives information related to an individual student’s line of work or expertise. Encourage film buffs to watch films in English with the English subtitles on for extra support. Capitalize on learners’ experiences and interests Learners naturally want to talk about what they are interested in, and adults have a wealth of experience to bring to the classroom. Extend course materials when necessary so that you can bring in more vocabulary and structures students need in order to be able to talk about things they want to talk about. Make lessons practical and authentic If your learners need to be able to use English abroad, then teach the language they will need to use abroad. This is applicable at any level. For example, at a lower level, you might help students understand train and airline announcements, language for commercial transactions and directions, etc. Higher level students may wish to understand and be able to discuss news and current events when abroad, so build in lesson time for this. Supplement and extend course materials with relevant materials from the web. For example, supplement a unit on sports with sports news, blogs or gossip about sports figures, podcasts or news about the impact of sporting events in the local area - whatever is current and relevant and of interest to the students. Make use of 24/7 Adult learners are generally willing to learn anywhere at any time, so provide plenty of materials for them to continue learning outside of class. Many course materials have online components, but students can also listen to English on their smartphones on the bus or to a CD/ MP3 player while driving. Those who love fiction can be given graded readers to read at home, or they can listen to downloaded audiobooks. Those who like writing can communicate by posting comments on blogs or by writing emails to another student in class. Revise, revise, revise Older learners may need more revision than younger ones, so build in plenty of revision. This doesn’t mean repeating lessons. Find new contexts and situations for your students to use the language they have learned. Don’t be afraid to repeat listening texts again for revision in the next lesson, especially at the lower levels. Have fun Adult learners are likely to be learning in their own time and may be attending classes partly for social reasons. It is obviously important to set learning goals, but you can still have fun reaching them. Invitation to share your ideas We are interested in hearing your ideas about teaching the over 50s, so please comment on this post and take part in our live Facebook chat on Friday 24 January at 12pm GMT. Please keep your challenges coming. The best way to let us know is by leaving a comment below or on the EFLproblems blog post. We will respond to your challenges in a blog every two weeks. Each blog will be followed by a live Facebook chat to discuss the challenge answered in the blog. Be sure to Like our Facebook page to be reminded about the upcoming live chats.Filed under: Adults / Young Adults, Professional Development Tagged: #EFLproblems, Adult Learners, Authentic texts, Critical thinking, EFL, Language learning, Learner autonomy, Learner needs, Motivation, Older learners, Over 50s, Professional Development, Stacey Hughes