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6 useless things teachers do

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garyb
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 Message 9 of 40
13 July 2015 at 10:50am | IP Logged 
The first three seem like problems with the student more than the teacher: they're being given valuable feedback and advice then ignoring it. My experience with recasts, from helping people with English, is that some people listen to them and quickly learn from them, often even specifically asking for corrections beforehand, while others just ignore them and keep making the same mistakes. The former tend to be more keen about learning in general and make faster progress. Although I can't say whether the latter group is less serious or they just need a different approach.

The main thing that puts me off group classes is having classmates who aren't serious about learning and are just going there to have something to do in the evening and because "it would be nice to know a bit of French". Of course this is just your typical school/university/evening class aimed at native English speakers; things are probably a lot more serious in an FSI classroom for example.
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Serpent
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 Message 10 of 40
14 July 2015 at 8:01pm | IP Logged 
tommus wrote:
One-off learning-to-learn sessions

This one baffled me. I read the original article and apparently this means that according to "research over 30 years", after one session without follow-up most students don't incorporate the advice into their learning.

First of all, I think the timeframe is meaningless given how much everything has changed in the recent years. Even assuming the advice is useful, it's much easier to follow now that most class learners in developed countries have some kind of mobile device/computer.

But what do teachers typically advice? Radio seems embarrassingly* common, although hopefully nowadays not anymore. Finding a penpal/exchange partner. Watching BBC in the background. Reading newspapers.
*I'm not against the radio, but it's generally too difficult for beginners, unless you recommend specific programmes/podcasts. And honestly, people aren't so stupid that they wouldn't think of the radio on their own.

Recommend the right things, and explain them well. Lyricstraining, Memrise/SRS, timeboxing/pomodoro. Mobile apps for keeping track of your studies. Twitter-based challenges ;D LWT, parallel texts, everything on the techniques page. Recommend BD/manga, computer games, subs2srs, sites with media etc, the way emk, Khatzumoto, Cavesa and iguanamon do.

Will all learners follow the recs? No, as we constantly see here on HTLAL. But if the recs are good, one session is enough for those that care. A lack of follow-up is hardly a major reason why people don't follow those recs.

Of course a big caveat here is that only a teacher who's also a language learner will recommend these things.

Edited by Serpent on 14 July 2015 at 8:14pm

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ScottScheule
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 Message 11 of 40
14 July 2015 at 8:13pm | IP Logged 
Rather than argue all this here, why don't you all just comment on Conti's post? He seems more than willing to discuss the issues.
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Serpent
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 Message 12 of 40
14 July 2015 at 8:29pm | IP Logged 
Because I'm much more interested in explaining my view to fellow HTLAL'ers? If you want to see what he'll respond, link him to this thread.
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ScottScheule
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 Message 13 of 40
14 July 2015 at 9:07pm | IP Logged 
I think it clear that "why don't you" is rhetorical and indicates a suggestion. But as you wish, I'll notify him.
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tangleweeds
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 Message 14 of 40
14 July 2015 at 9:37pm | IP Logged 
Quote:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Learning_styles

It's instructive to look at any page's edit history, when viewing pages in any contested
corner of research (or academic publication, for that matter).

There's a reason why Wikipedia is not an acceptable source in a secondary school/college
term paper bibliography.

[apology for the edits, I'm on a frustrating keyboard]

Edited by tangleweeds on 14 July 2015 at 9:41pm

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ScottScheule
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 Message 15 of 40
14 July 2015 at 10:02pm | IP Logged 
It is instructive, and I do.

If you know a better easy to access source on the topic, I'd be happy to read it. I find Wikipedia generally very good at reporting the consensus in a field, but I would not use it as a source in general bibliography. It is a good first cut at learning about an issue, and typically provides a useful bibliography which one can follow up on.

At any rate, I'll take it over unsourced comments on a forum (with no offense--most of my comments here are unsourced after all).
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daegga
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 Message 16 of 40
15 July 2015 at 2:51am | IP Logged 
Serpent wrote:
tommus wrote:
One-off learning-to-learn sessions

This one baffled me. I read the original article and apparently this means that according to
"research over 30 years", after one session without follow-up most students don't incorporate
the advice into their learning.
[...]


I think the point is that just informing them won't cut it, even if it is about great tools of
the kind you mentioned. Most will not even take a look at them. Follow-up session won't help
either I'm sure. As a teacher you need to somehow make your students use it for a while, and
then they either see the benefit or they don't. And with "make them do it" I mean incorporating
it into the classroom activities, not as homework. Nobody likes the things they have to do as
homework.


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