Marmara Elt Resources

How to Read Your Way to Foreign Language Fluency in 30 Days or Less

The Four Basic English Language Skills
As any well-versed English or other foreign language teacher knows there are four basic skills to most foreign languages. These are reading, writing, listening and speaking. You might note that I just said “most foreign languages”. Why? Because, believe it or not, there are some languages which do not have a well-defined written form, or NO written form at all. There are in fact, a number of languages which have a purely “oral or spoken” tradition. In such cases, there is no literature to speak of. There may well be a strong tradition of story-telling however, frequently accomplished through skilled historians / story-tellers called “Griots”.

Literacy in English and Other Foreign Languages

Most foreign languages by far, do contain an alphabet or characters which allow the foreign language to be written. The written character forms may be unique and highly different from the Roman alphabet used in the English language, therefore initially incomprehensible to foreign language learners at first, but that will be acquired over time with intensive study and not a modicum of patience on the part of the foreign language learner. Consider Asian, Middle Eastern, African and Eastern European languages, for examples of other alphabet and spoken language character sets. Read the rest of this entry »

Teaching Ideas For the First Day of School
By Tonia Lee
As teachers eye their empty classrooms the day before school starts where not a creature is stirring and hopefully not a mouse, teachers are filled with anticipation about what they will get for the upcoming school year. Will they get a group of students that will be easy to teach? Will they get the supplies and support they need to be effective? Will they get ideas to do their tasks as teachers better? Of all the questions teachers may ponder, three are crucial to consider for a successful year. Those three questions are as follows.
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Annabel Lee-by Edgar Allen Poe
It was many and many a year ago,
In a kingdom by the sea,
That a maiden there lived whom you may know
By the name of Annabel Lee;
And this maiden she lived with no other thought
Than to love and be loved by me.
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Lesson Plans-Grades 3–5-Blending Fiction and Nonfiction to Improve Comprehension and Writing Skills by Stephanie Affinito, Glens Falls, New York

Overview

This lesson supports the use of a text set (paired fiction and nonfiction texts on a similar topic) to increase student interest in and understanding of content area material and to develop critical writing skills. The more familiar format of narrative fiction introduces the topic and generates confidence in exploring the less familiar genre of nonfiction. Students then demonstrate what they have learned about the topic and about genre by writing an original piece that blends together narrative and expository elements.

From theory to practice

Camp, D. (2000). It takes two: Teaching with Twin Texts of fact and fiction. The Reading Teacher, 53, 400–408.

Teachers can integrate language arts, science, social studies, and other content areas by using children’s literature as a bridge.

Beginning the lesson with fiction generates student interest and may facilitate subsequent understanding of nonfiction texts and content material.

A creative writing activity is a natural extension from text sets.

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