The Zone of Proximal Development is a concept that was introduced by Lev Vygotsky and is still one of the foundations for educational development together with Piagetian theory. I’m personally a big fan of the Zone of Proximal Development and it’s little brother, scaffolding. Whether this is teacher-initiated or self-guided scaffolding it doesn’t matter… finding your own zone or the zone for your students is integral.
Much as Krashen’s Input Hypotheses focuses on comprehensible input, the Zone of Proximal Development has this same notion at it’s core. Click here to read more.. »
I think I’m safe in assuming that actively studying vocabulary isn’t very popular for most people. It’s something that is often tedious and associated with rote memorisation. This doesn’t have to be the case as there are a few other popular methods out there. Your best bet is to fiddle around and find out what works best for you.
For some, rote memorisation is the most effective. For others, they use a mnemonics, space-repetition software (SRS), word lists, continuous and extensive reading, watching TV with a notebook… the list is endless. This article will mostly look at SRS / flashcards and word lists as continuous and extensive reading needs it’s own place. Click here to read more.. »
Age old advice has been to keep a diary or journal as a way to improve your writing and general language skills. The problem with this advice has often been the inability to find someone to offer you corrections. Meaning that you’re quite often reinforcing errors.
That’s kind of a problem!
How to solve this mild problem… Use the internet to your advantage. There are dozens of language exchange websites and portals around these days and I’ve tried out quite a few of them over the last few years. Some are useful and practical, others not so. I’ll give you a few inside tips so you don’t waste time registering at some of the places I’ve found less useful…. But by all means, use other sources; you may have more success than I did elsewhere… maybe my profile just isn’t appealing enough 
Click here to read more.. »
When you think about it, the vast majority of people learn a language to speak it. It’s pretty obvious that that’s a big motivator. But a question that is commonly asked (“how can I improve my speaking?”) gets the all-too-often reply of “to improve your speaking you have to speak”. Sounds crazy right?
It’s not as stupid as it sounds though. And it’s a not a matter of only stumbling around in the dark groping for expressions in a conversation where the other party doesn’t seem too engrossed in your grasp of what foods you like nor about how the wind is blowing strongly today. Sure, these topics are great for idle chit-chat and you feel a sense of achievement when you can have these kind of basic textbook style conversations, but let’s be honest…. that’s not really what you want to talk about is it? Click here to read more.. »
“Scriptorium” is a nice term coined by Professor Alexander Arguelles, personally I just used to think of it as a writing exercise that I had been doing naturally. But now that it has a name that is becoming recognised in the language learning community it makes it all the more accessible.
First off, let me detail what scriptorium is… Basically, as I said, it’s a writing exercise.. but what kind of writing exercise I hear you say. Ok, here we go… Click here to read more.. »
