From Whoa to Go

ESL Game: Sentence Banking

Caron Margarete — Mon, 20 Aug 2012 06:55:07 +0000

This game is a good team building activity and helps students to think of spelling and sentence structures without vowels and math all in English. Structure To begin you need to set the game up on the white/ black board. On one side of the board draw a table, like so: Break the class into teams; they do not have to be even numbered, nor does there need to be an equal number of teams, although, the more teams you have the longer the game will be. On the opposite side of the board ...

Beginner English – Lessons 2 & 3: Alphabet, Numbers & An Introduction

Caron Margarete — Sun, 18 Dec 2011 11:28:24 +0000

In this ongoing case study I review lessons I volunteer tutor in Beginner English for an Vietnamese elderly woman who has lived in Melbourne for 18 months without knowing how to say more than hello, good bye and thank you. In the first lesson, we looked at how to complete a Needs Analysis to ascertain what this student knows already and what she needs more help with. One of the things Binh was able to do was write cursively and yet when she wrote English, even though the alphabet is the ...

Beginner English – Lesson One: The Needs Analysis

Caron Margarete — Sun, 04 Dec 2011 11:22:17 +0000

Commencing tutoring of a student whose English is the equivalent of only hello, good bye and thank you provides a unique opportunity to provide a case study for a new English teacher to see how they too may develop the English skills of their first time English learner students. The unique aspect of AMES as an educational body is that they have given the tutor total education freedom to teach their students how they see fit. This is both a good thing and bad. Good for the experienced teacher like myself to guide the student gradually but bad for the inexperienced teacher who fumbles their way through. What they do offer is a fantastic array of teaching resources but what lacks is the how element to teaching. This is what I hope to explore in this ongoing case study of my Vietnamese elderly student, Binh.

Dusting off my Teaching Cobwebs

Caron Margarete — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 11:39:03 +0000

It will be my one year anniversary for returning to Australia in just 19 days. And I've felt every one of those days pass. Slowly. Sometimes painfully. Other times with great happiness and gratitude. This site, and my writing in general, simply stopped. It wasn't writing block. It was reverse culture shock and a lack of direction that prevented me from doing what I love. I learned that my two and half years of English teaching and teacher training experience was worthless here if I didn't have a piece of paper from the government to say I'm accredited to be a trainer. Being rejected by registered training organisations and ESL schools was like walking into a brick wall over and over again. Faced with the financial inability to study, no where to live, no employment and the reality that I would have to take a considerable career step backwards in order to achieve some semblance of stability for my partner & my future together I realised that my passion had to be put on hold.

Evolution suggests: One World, One Language.

Caron Margarete — Sat, 06 Aug 2011 08:53:19 +0000

In this modern globalised world, can we really afford to have all these different languages? Biologist Mark Pagel gave a talk on TED, How Language Transformed Humanity, where he outlined the evolution of language from 200 thousand years ago to today and how language has been the conduit to human connectivity. He believes that evolution will prove, for future success of the world's globalisation, there will be one standard language. Pagel is careful not to suggest any one language as the destined 'one language' though, but I think that evolution's decision, for better or for worse, has already been made.

Which English do you Learn?

Caron Margarete — Wed, 09 Feb 2011 05:22:02 +0000

My students have often asked why they’re learning one style of English, let’s say American, over British, Australian, Canadian or even south African. It’s usually the style of English chosen by the school management determined by the most common form of English used in their country but sometimes I have students wanting to understand which English is the best to learn. It’s not all the same A young student I had in China studied American English throughout her schooling and when I met her in university she told me about a native ...

Featured Site: Fluent in 3 Months

Caron Margarete — Wed, 12 Jan 2011 10:24:59 +0000

Every now and again I come across a brilliant website, a blog, a useful web-tool or simply something I love... today I'm featuring: Fluent in 3 Months

ESL Game: Beep Beep

Caron Margarete — Wed, 12 Jan 2011 06:46:31 +0000

This is a fun interactive reading game that concentrates on individual student’s pronunciation in a class activity. It is suitable for all levels and ages. This game builds on The One Word Reading Game. Begin with reading the required story or text to the students while they read along. For younger students encourage them to use their reading finger, that is, their pointer finger, to point to the words as the teacher reads. For the second round play The One Word Reading Game where each student reads one word each but do ...

Post- Cambodia Reflections

Caron Margarete — Thu, 06 Jan 2011 03:51:54 +0000

I last visited Australia a year and nine months ago. It was a two week holiday away from the culture shock of China. At the time I’d been travelling for a year and ten months so it seems I go in rhythms because here I am again. The differences I noted then remain similar now. I’m still looking for the waste paper basket for my toilet paper as opposed to simply flushing it and I catch myself out when Asian looking people speak perfect English. Yet this time I’m in ...

Angkor Wat Restoration Ruins

Caron Margarete — Sat, 04 Dec 2010 10:18:10 +0000

The Angkor Wat temple and surrounding ruins in the Angkor national park contain hundreds of years of history. When visiting the temples you come to expect that you will see the moss covered stones, broken statues, fallen debris and dirt tracks covered in footprints. It doesn’t occur to you that the temples would be filled with wooden frames, steel reinforcement or tarpaulin to ruin not only your photos but your natural experience. When visiting the temples a year ago I got the feeling of what it might be like in its ...