Correct errors in EFL

Correcting Student Errors in EFL

When and how to correct students errors in the EFL classroom is an issue of concern for every EFL teacher. What should we correct, when should we correct it, and how should it be corrected?
How do we give students the feedback they need and want to improve without damaging fluency and motivation?
Research Suggests . . .
Research tends to indicate that three types of errors should be addressed: high frequency errors, stigmatizing errors, and errors that block meaning or the understanding by the listener. I might add another: errors in using the target language of the lesson.
When and how should these errors be corrected? There is, unfortunately, no conclusive evidence/research about these issues.
Research seems to indicate that the most effective ways to deal with errors and offer corrections seem to include:
When hearing an error, speak the corrected statement
Listen for errors and make a general review of them at the end of the activity segment
Encourage peer correction
Correct the student personally (use this less than the other methods)

Choosing a song for EFL class

Songs are a ready source of authentic language. They can be exploited in countless
ways to practise any of the language skills, and students enjoy learning through them.
But how do you go about choosing from the millions of recorded songs available, and
what should you keep in mind when selecting a song for your lesson?


Why are you using the song?
Having a clear purpose in mind, and not just ‘doing’ a song to fill a spare five minutes, is essential. Adult classes may see a song as a waste of their time if you don’t choose and plan your material carefully. You’ll find interesting teaching points in most songs, so if you’re looking for something to kick-start the week or bring a bit of life to a lesson after a weekly test, you might consider choosing a song based on a recently-covered topic, or a topic you’d like to introduce next. Alternatively, you might want to present or revise a grammar point, in which case you might have to search a bit harder to find something fitting. Search engines are a useful place to begin in most cases. The language skill you want your students to practise will also affect your choice of song: a slower tune will be often be preferred for listening tasks; longer songs are well suited to practising reading; repetitive lyrics are great for teaching structures and pronunciation.

Teaching

Teaching is sharing knowledge and something good about life. Teaching is giving inspiration to students and how they could be the best and good of what they are. Teaching is the teacher as a good example of truth and righteousness.

Facebook in the classroom

Facebook is so big and popular that it doesn’t care if you don’t like it. Like a clever and over funded football team it’s risen to the top the social networking scene and nearly levelled all the competition. So, this year I’m going to use it with my ESOL class.
How?
I’ve created a Facebook profile with a general title, another email address and a pictrure of my classroom door as a profile picture. I also uploaded some pictures of the institution where I work. I posted my status as ‘starting teaching soon.’
What I hope my students and I will get out of using Facebook
1. I’ll have their email addresses in one handy place and will be able to contact them if I need to.
2. I’ll be able to post links to webpages, links to videos in youtube, links to files and homework that students can do at home.
3. Students will hopefully talk to each other. They might even link to other people on Facebook. This is okay though, any contact in English is ‘work’
4. Students might be ‘engaged’. As soon as they start using English to write to a friend, comment on a picture or update their status – they will be doing so because they want to and therefore really using the target language.

Problems
1. I don’t really want my students to be my friends on my  Facebook page, so I made another. I want to maintain a healthy and professional distance – I’ll have to ignore their friend requests if they search and find me.
2. Students might not find Facebook engaging. They might find that reading other people’s status updates is boring, ‘Ana is making a cup of tea’ for example.
Other Ideas
Of course, using Facebook is nothing new. Check out Web’s Random Ideas and Using Facebook as a teaching tool . Even Facebook themselves have some great ideas


 http://chrisspeck.wordpress.com/2009/08/27/using-facebook-for-esolefl/

Dangerous Technology ?

Within thirty years, we will have the technological means to create superhuman intelligence. Shortly after, the human era will be ended. Is such progress avoidable? If not to be avoided, can events be guided so that we may survive? These questions are investigated. Some possible answers (and some further dangers) are presented.

_What is The Singularity?_ The acceleration of technological progress has been the central feature of this century. I argue in this paper that we are on the edge of change comparable to the rise of human life on Earth. The precise cause of this change is the imminent creation by technology of entities with greater than human intelligence. There are several means by which science may achieve this breakthrough (and this is another reason for having confidence that the event will occur):

1. o The development of computers that are "awake" and superhumanly intelligent. (To date, most controversy in the area of AI relates to whether we can create human equivalence in a machine. But if the answer is "yes, we can", then there is little doubt that beings more intelligent can be constructed shortly thereafter.
2.  o Large computer networks (and their associated users) may "wake up" as a superhumanly intelligent entity.
3. o  Computer/human interfaces may become so intimate that users may reasonably be considered superhumanly intelligent.
4. o  Biological science may find ways to improve upon the natural human intellect.

http://twitterforteachers.wetpaint.com/page/Twitter+in+the+Classroom

Twitter in the classroom

Professors who wish to engage students during large lectures face an uphill battle. Not only is it a logistical impossibility for 200+ students to actively participate in a 90 minute lecture, but the downward sloping cone-shape of a lecture hall induces a one-to-many conversation. This problem is compounded by the recent budget cuts that have squeezed ever more students into each room.
Fortunately, educators have found that Twitter is an effective way to broaden participation in lecture. Additionally, the ubiquity of laptops and smartphones have made the integration of Twitter a virtually bureaucracy-free endeavor. This post describes the two main benefits professors find when using Twitter in lecture.
http://mashable.com/2010/03/01/twitter-classroom/

How much homework is too much?

For most parents and children, homework is a necessary evil. Resigned to the nightly struggle, families squeeze school assignments into their evening routines.
But when kids as young as 5 years old bring home packets of worksheets from kindergarten, and older children struggle to carry book-filled knapsacks, moms and dads are right to wonder: How much homework is too much? And what should we do about it?
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/01/18/how-much-homework-is-too-_n_810488.html

How much homework is enough?

How much homework is enough? Well, like so many other things in life, the answer depends on who you ask. For some of my students any amount of homework is too much. For others, no amount of homework is too much. Ask teachers and parents, you get the same range of answers- for some any amount of homework is too much for others no amount of homework is too much. It all depends on who you ask.
I really haven’t heard any kids say that they want to do homework for the love of learning. Maybe doing homework for the love of learning is too much to ask of students. There’s no grade given for the love of learning, and it’s probably just as well because it seems to me that kids don’t have time to love learning. They’re too busy doing projects, writing essays and studying for tests and exams.

http://www.teachersatrisk.com/2007/10/09/how-much-homework-is-enough/

Special Education Teachers

Special education teachers work with children and youths who have a variety of disabilities. A small number of special education teachers work with students with severe cognitive, emotional, or physical disabilities, primarily teaching them life skills and basic literacy. However, the majority of special education teachers work with children with mild to moderate disabilities, using or modifying the general education curriculum to meet the child's individual needs and providing required remedial instruction. Most special education teachers instruct students at the preschool, elementary, middle, and secondary school level, although some work with infants and toddlers.
The various types of disabilities that may qualify individuals for special education programs are as follows: specific learning disabilities, speech or language impairments, mental retardation, emotional disturbance, multiple disabilities, hearing impairments, orthopedic impairments, visual impairments, autism, combined deafness and blindness, traumatic brain injury, and other health impairments. Students are identified under one or more of these categories. Early identification of a child with special needs is an important part of a special education teacher's job, because early intervention is essential in educating children with disabilities.

http://www.bls.gov/oco/ocos070.htm

Discipline in an EFL class.

Discipline in your class is a very necessary ingredient for you as the teacher to provide, so that there is an atmosphere that will be conducive to learning. It is your job as a teacher to enforce class discipline to promote this environment where learning can occur for all of your students, but having said that, how do you actually keep control of your class? The discipline in your class is indubitably related to the level of teaching and the challenge of the content that you are teaching. What do I mean by this? If you are teaching something that your students find boring and uninteresting, then you are more likely to have restless students, and this is when the misbehaving is likely to begin. So, you need to provide interesting lesson material every day, to be enthusiastic about your topics, and thus try to get your students enthusiastic too. Of course, this is much easier said than done!

English grammar. Gerunds

A gerund is a verbal that ends in -ing and functions as a noun. The term verbal indicates that a gerund, like the other two kinds of verbals, is based on a verb and therefore expresses action or a state of being. However, since a gerund functions as a noun, it occupies some positions in a sentence that a noun ordinarily would, for example: subject, direct object, subject complement, and object of preposition.
Gerund as subject:

• Traveling might satisfy your desire for new experiences. (Traveling is the gerund.)
• The study abroad program might satisfy your desire for new experiences. (The gerund has been removed.)

Gerund as direct object:

• They do not appreciate my singing. (The gerund is singing.)
• They do not appreciate my assistance. (The gerund has been removed)

Gerund as subject complement:

• My cat's favorite activity is sleeping. (The gerund is sleeping.)
• My cat's favorite food is salmon. (The gerund has been removed.)

Gerund as object of preposition:

• The police arrested him for speeding. (The gerund is speeding.)
• The police arrested him for criminal activity. (The gerund has been removed.)

A Gerund Phrase is a group of words consisting of a gerund and the modifier(s) and/or (pro)noun(s) or noun phrase(s) that function as the direct object(s), indirect object(s), or complement(s) of the action or state expressed in the gerund, such as:
The gerund phrase functions as the subject of the sentence.

Finding a needle in a haystack would be easier than what we're trying to do.

Finding (gerund)
a needle (direct object of action expressed in gerund)
in a haystack (prepositional phrase as adverb)
The gerund phrase functions as the direct object of the verb appreciate.

I hope that you appreciate my offering you this opportunity.

my (possessive pronoun adjective form, modifying the gerund)
offering (gerund)
you (indirect object of action expressed in gerund)
this opportunity (direct object of action expressed in gerund)
The gerund phrase functions as the subject complement.

Tom's favorite tactic has been jabbering away to his constituents.

jabbering away to (gerund)
his constituents (direct object of action expressed in gerund)
The gerund phrase functions as the object of the preposition for.

You might get in trouble for faking an illness to avoid work.

faking (gerund)
an illness (direct object of action expressed in gerund)
to avoid work (infinitive phrase as adverb)
The gerund phrase functions as the subject of the sentence.

Being the boss made Jeff feel uneasy.

Being (gerund)
the boss (subject complement for Jeff, via state of being expressed in gerund)

Punctuation

A gerund virtually never requires any punctuation with it.

Points to remember:

1. A gerund is a verbal ending in -ing that is used as a noun.
2. A gerund phrase consists of a gerund plus modifier(s), object(s), and/or complement(s).
3. Gerunds and gerund phrases virtually never require punctuation.