Marmara Elt Resources

Some practical thoughts about student-sensitive critical pedagogy
H. Douglas Brown-San Francisco State University
In recent years the language teaching profession has witnessed a stark increase in the number of articles, chapters, books, and presentations on the “critical” nature of language pedagogy. We language teachers and teacher educators are reminded that we are all driven by convictions about what this world should look like, how its people should behave, how its governments should control that behavior, and how its inhabitants should be partners in the stewardship of the planet. We are told, for example, that we should ” … embody in our teaching a vision of a better and more humane life” (Giroux & McLaren, 1989, p. xiii). Or, as Pennycook stated it, “the crucial issue here is to turn classrooms into places where the accepted canons of knowledge can be challenged and questioned” (1994, p. 298; see also Edge, 2003; Pennycook, 1999).

The call for teachers to act as agents for change is not a new one. Twenty-eight years ago, Postman and Weingartner (1969) shook some educational foundations with their best seller, Teaching as a Subversive Activity. In their stinging critique of the American educational establishment, they challenged teachers to enable their students to become “crap” detectors: (a) crap detectors in creating major changes in our social, economic, and political systems; (b) crap detectors who can cut through burgeoning bureaucracies (which, they note, are repositories of conventional assumptions and standard practices); and (c) crap detectors who can release us from the stranglehold of the communications media, which is creating its own version of censorship. Read the rest of this entry »

English learning resources: variety and motivation By Luke Holden

Variety is the key to success for those learning a new language or trying to build on their existing knowledge. Having interesting and appealing material to study from is essential to maintain motivation as a student, and this article will attempt to explain some of the more useful resources available.
It is worth noting that new learners of a language really do need to build a solid foundation of knowledge before attempting anything else, and it is most useful for them to use material intended for that purpose such as structured textbooks and some websites for beginners. Both of these types offer constructive examples with relative variety. The good news is that for English learners with at least a basic level of ability, there is an abundance of material available as learning resources. In order to create some order of what exactly is available, the following three categories have been constructed;
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Young children are often eager, almost too eager. The problem arises when they are eager to do things other than what you’re trying to teach them. Here are five tips to keep them interested in class and motivated to do what you want them to do:

Tip #1: Keep Yourself Motivated.
Think back to when you were a child. If your teacher was not enthusiastic about what he or she had scheduled for class that day, how did you feel about it? It’s the same with young children today. If you, the teacher and often a role model for younger children, think this is a neat activity, then they will too!

Tip #2: Encourage.
Young kids thrive on praise and positive attention from the adults in their lives. If you want them to like you and be motivated in your class, you often just need to give them a lot of positive attention.
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Summary
How to Effectively use Games in the Preschool and Elementary ESL Classroom by employing and using organization, expectations, variation, respect, routine and nuture. Just by keeping these tips in mind, you’ll be able to teach children grammar with ease. You’ll be having fun and they’ll be having fun - so much fun, in fact, that they might not even realize they are learning in the process!
Article

Organization. The first thing you should do when start teaching a preschool or elementary school ESL class is to figure out how to organize your class. For the younger students you’ll want to change your activities every five to ten minutes because they have shorter attention spans. If you don’t change your activities, they’ll soon start losing interest. As you get towards the higher elementary grades, you can expand the time you spend per activity. The best way to gauge this is to pay attention to your class for the first few days to see what length of time works the best for them. Additionally, try to have everything ready to go before the students enter the classroom. That way you can go from activity to activity with minimal downtime.
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