“Reading is a discount ticket to everywhere,” wrote the journalist Mary Schmich. It allows us to explore the world and make exciting discoveries. But for many language learners, reading in English is a challenging and often frustrating experience. So, how can we inspire our student readers and guide them to
Who doesn’t love an animal selfie? Check out this week’s highlighted Learning Moment, submitted by Margarita Kosior from Greece featuring two of her furry friends, Cookie and Mocha! This photo was submitted by Margarita Kosior from Thermi, Greece. What makes this photo a learning moment? Tell us how you might
Why Do We Learn New Languages? Many people around the world learn two or three languages during their lifetime. Sometimes their motivation is to speak with relatives and neighbors, sometimes for a job or travel, sometimes for the love of a culture or a heritage. Parents of young learners often
In the spirit of bringing together educators around the world, we invited teachers of English to take part in a photo showcase called Learning Moments, by sharing photos of their everyday life. We then asked National Geographic Contributing Photographer, Rubén Salgado, to select a few Learning Moments to highlight from the showcase.
How much do your students know about you? Are they curious about what you were like when you were their age? One of the best ways to start using storytelling in your classroom is to begin with a personal story about yourself. Children will be fascinated to see a photo
Teenagers Today According to Diana Divecha, Ph. D. in developmental psychology, “every generation of teens is shaped by the social, political, and economic events of their time”. So the first question to ask ourselves, as educators of this generation, is: What events are shaping the current generation of teens? Our
In this blog, Alex Warren looks at how we can help encourage our learners to take more responsibility for their own learning and be more autonomous. Mention the concept of learner autonomy and these words might spring to mind – a myth, magic, a miracle, impossible. How can we actually
Teens Making an Impact Many teenagers today are concerned about their places in the world and their roles as global citizens. They’re developing a sense of social responsibility. They’re also developing a personal sense of values and looking for role models. This month, we’re pulling from our programs for teenagers
In a new series of posts on the subject of using video with language learners, I plan to look at a range of issues relating to this area of English language teaching such as the criteria for selecting video, how different genre of video lend themselves to different task types
Developing learner agency is not a controversial idea. However, because there are many possible definitions of and approaches to learner agency, understanding exactly how to do that may not be obvious. This blog post will offer a simple but effective framework for promoting learner agency in the language teaching classroom.