VOICE TYPING

I will always choose a lazy person to do a difficult job because a lazy person will find an easy way to do it.

Bill Gates

And here I come!

Let me tell you my story.
I really wanted to get away from the coursebook and to stick to it at the same time.
What I mean is to take out the content and let it live its own life.
- Scanning the page?
- Nah !!! - I thought with the disgust. - Still the same text but just a blackandwhite version.
- Typing it into a .doc file?
- Sounds better. - My internal dialogue continued. - More ways of adapting it to my needs. BUT no way I'm spending my precious time exerting myself to move the very same text from a page to my computer trying to coordinate my eye movement, the moves of my fingers and straining my short-term memory !!!

Then I thought:
"It would be a perfect thing if I just said something and it would happen."
And that's how I made friends with Google Docs Voice Typing option.

If you don't know it yet, find it out asap here:

⏩Google Docs Voice Typing - Text Version⏪

⏩Google Docs Voice Typing - Video Version⏪

⏩Google Docs Voice Typing - More Commands In Action⏪

And it can be used
⇸ not only to dictate the reading comprehension text and exercise from the coursebook
⇸ but also to copy any exercise from the coursebook so you can adapt it to your needs,
⇸ or to create any type of exercise you need, e.g.

↷ lists of words which you can later use in a number of different types of tasks and with the help of different types of tools,
↷ the same with sentences to practice a grammar point or vocabulary,
↷ as well as writing tasks to be jazzed-up;
↷ and so on and so forth.

After all, we are creative beings and

[c]reativity is inventing, experimenting, growing, taking risks, breaking rules, making mistakes and having fun.

Mary Lou Cook

LESSON WARM UP - REVERSING TEXT - GIVING ADVICE PHRASES

TEACHER'S CORNER:

How about a brain teaser for a warm-up?
Reverse a text and give your students some brain workout.

The best thing about this idea is that it has multiple uses:
⇢ vocabulary presentation,
⇢ grammar examples or rules,
⇢ phrases for writing,
⇢ whole emails to decode,
⇢ phrases for speaking,
⇢ whole dialogues to decode,
⇢ introductory paragraphs for reading practice,
⇢ random words in the text,
⇢ whatever comes to your mind.

---

To give the idea a tangible shape, let's focus on 'giving advice' phrases warm-up exercise.
The instruction is:

DECODE THE PHRASES. FIND OUT WHAT THEY HAVE IN COMMON.

a. Yhw nod't uoy
b. Evah uoy deirt
c. Fi I erew ni ruoy ecalp
d. I dluow tseggus
e. I kniht uoy dluohs

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And NO! You don't have to reverse the letters by yourself.
You have the Internet to do that for you.
There are plenty of others but just to start with something, try this tool:

⏩"Reverse the text" converter ⏪

The tool will help you to
⇢ reverse the letters of a word in the whole text:               txet elohw eht esrever
⇢ reverse the letters of a word in each line:                       enil txet hcae esrever
⇢ reverse the word order in the whole text:                       lettering word the reversing without
⇢ reverse the word order in each line:                               line text each of order word
⇢ reverse the letters of each word                                      tuohtiw gnignahc eht drow redro
⇢ ʇxǝʇ uʍop ǝpısdn uɐ ɟo uoısnןןı ǝɥʇ ǝʇɐǝɹɔ ןןıʍ

---

Enjoy!

CONDITIONALS - INVERSION

As the Internet is full of all kinds of stuff already,
finding a thorough and complete explanation of what you are looking for
may be pretty much like looking for a needle in a haystack.

So if I find something really decent,
I think it's better to share it with you
rather than to create one more thing you need to browse through while doing the search.
Don't like redundancy, do you?

Having read this short introduction (maybe a redundant one - yikes!)
Let's have a look at the stuff proper.

Here is the link to a post with its clear and neat explanations and exercises
which walks you through all the nooks and crannies of


⏩ THE INVERSION IN CONDITIONALS ⏪

IRREGULAR VERBS - PRONUNCIATION

It's not a secret that English pronunciation is not easy to master.
The irregular verbs are no exception.
If you know how to write the word but still curious how to say it,
the links below might be of help .


-------------  1  -------------

You can type in a particular verb form into the box of an online dictionary,
e.g. ⏩ this one ⏪
and you can listen to it by clicking on the small speaker icon next to the word.

-------------  2  -------------

Or click on one of the verbs you need
on the list  ⏩ here ⏪.

-------------  3  -------------

Study with Quizlet ⏩ here ⏪.

-------------  4  -------------

In case you want to learn the irregular verbs the American way,
go ⏩ here ⏪.

-------------  5  -------------

Finally, complete the ⏬ worksheet ⏬ engo-lingo has prepared for you.

It's always worth getting familiar with the
⏩phonetic alphabet ⏪.

----------------------------


BUT
the listening alone won't help!
Do lots of 'listen and repeat'.

(And I don't mean 'I do 60 min. of drills every day' but rather
'I try to repeat a new word a few times out loud if I find it difficult or useful' approach.)
Besides, be happy and enjoy your day! =)

IRREGULAR VERBS - CATEGORIES

Though called irregular, there are some patterns they follow.
The worksheet below presents only a few ways the irregular verbs can be categorised.
You can start with the categories on the worksheet,
and then extend it by adding other categories in your notebook.


And please

💨
don't think it's a waste of time to copy something from your book onto a piece of paper.
The more times your brain processes a piece of information, the better chance the data will be retained in your long term memory.

💨
don't be afraid to use different colours, fonts, layouts while taking your notes.
It will also help your brain internalise the piece of information you want to learn.
Especially if you are a visual learner.

And here comes the worksheet you should feel free to use, reuse and overuse.

***
If you are looking for more categories, you can find them ⏩ here ⏪.

EASTER LESSON

 


   *    🐇   *    🐣   *    🐑   *    🐏   * 


                 Easter is coming !!!


   *    🐇   *    🐣   *    🐑   *    🐏   * 



       And so are some Easter exercises.



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I was searching the net for some nice Eastery stuff and my finds are two videos:

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For the elementary / pre-intermediate kids:
a worksheet:

and a clip " Easter in Britain":

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For the (upper-) intermediate students:

a link to a website where you can download a decent worksheet

Bet you didn't know - Easter Traditions - History Channel.

⏩Easter Traditions⏪

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   *    🐇   *    🐣   *    🐑   *    🐏   * 


                Happy Easter !!!


   *    🐇   *    🐣   *    🐑   *    🐏   * 

NEUROSCIENCE AND LANGUAGE TEACHING

TEACHER'S CORNER:

Though obvious, some facts are just needed to be refreshed and reconsidered once in a while, just not to lose the sight of what's really important in teaching a language (and teaching in general).

Without establishing a good rapport with students and helping them find their motivation to learn a language, all your effort and methods may turn out to be useless. Psychological factors are not less important, if not more of value, than explaining grammar and vocabulary or giving them jazzy materials.

What you're going to read in a few seconds (hopefully) is a summary of a short article by Tracey Tokuhama-Espinosa in which she shares her observations on 

⏩"What Neuroscience Tells Us About How To Teach Foreign Languages". ⏪

And here comes what she offers:

1. Help students believe in their ability to learn.

2. Have credibility in the eyes of the student.

3. Be contagious in [students'] enthusiasm for their subject matter.

4. Improve the likelihood of opennness to intervention.

5. Build upon learner's past knowledge to teach new concepts.

6. Incorporate learning activities that also provide evaluation data.

7. Take the time to reflect on [your] practice.

8. Manage a thorough "gap analysis" and determine where [you] want your students to be.

9. Be clear in [your] communication with students.

10. Understand the importance of learning in groups.

11. Manage classrooms well by keeping all learners deeply engaged.

It's a challenge to include all the factors in your everyday practices and cater to individual needs of every student.

But ...

SO or SUCH ? - Kahoot and exercises attached.

Time for grammar today.
So and Such on the board.
Below, some visuals to help a language-learning mind to:

Reduce (the info overload)

Deduce (the rules)

NoLongerConfuse (so with such).

It would be also nice to remember that 

so is pronounced /səʊ/

such is pronounced /sʌtʃ/.

The headline held the promise of Kahoot, so time to please you with one. 

⏩Click here for >so or such< KAHOOT.⏪

As a bonus, you're getting a visual disconfusing the difference between so much and so many.

⏩Click here for >so, such, such a, so much, so many< exercises.⏪

5 SECONDS RULE game - no preparation needed.

Hands up                             🙋🙋🙋
if you know how to play     5 seconds rule game.

If you're not familiar with the rules, here they go for you:

You're given a topic.
Counting starts.
You have 5 seconds 
to give 3 things that fit the topic.

Seems easy, huh?
Check it yourself to find out how funny or confusing it may be. 😅😅😅

To adapt the game to the classroom environment,
get your students to stand in a circle,
ask one of them to be the time-controller,
start the game by giving an example
(you can also specify the range of topics they should focus on,
e.g. only vocabulary - or grammar-related ones),
the student next to you names 3 things that fit the category,
if (s)he makes it in 5 seconds, (s)he is the one to think of a new topic,
if (s)he doesn't make it in 5 seconds, (s)he either drops out or stands "at the end of the circle line"
(or you can choose to ignore that and let the fun continue).

A few classroom examples for you:
- Name 3 adjectives ending with -ing.
- Name 3 adjectives starting with "a".
- Name 3 irregular verbs in Past Simple.
- Name 3 clothes items.
- Name 3 things that are always yellow.
- Name 3 cities in Australia.
- Give 3 words that rhyme with "fly".

A real-life example starring Ellen and Justin:

⏩ click me ⏪