Ever seen a Flashmeeting?

A Flashmeeting is where a bunch of people sit in front of their computer and talk to each other. Seems a bit like videoconferencing or multi-player Skype! If you follow this link you'll hear some MFL teachers who are keen on ICT talking about their impressions of the recent Language Show 2009. Nice to see and hear all that enthusiasm. Like most language teachers I am always attracted to useful ideas and one I picked up, which was explained by Esther Hardman, works like this: you put some of the words to a song on the wall. You then get some pupil to line up and they have to go and touch the words as they hear them in the song. Sounds like fun and a good way to get children to listen carefully. Makes me think I need to spice up my lessons!

If you are curious, here's the link. You can fast forward to hear each person's interventions. Thanks to Joe Dale who posted the link on mflresources. Joe is a leader in the use of ICT in language teaching.

http://flashmeeting.e2bn.net/fm/fmm.php?pwd=eb8137-7333

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What is skill acquisition theory?

For this post, I am drawing on a section from the excellent book by Rod Ellis and Natsuko Shintani called Exploring Language Pedagogy through Second Language Acquisition Research (Routledge, 2014). Skill acquisition is one of several competing theories of how we learn new languages. It’s a theory based on the idea that skilled behaviour in any area can become routinised and even automatic under certain conditions through repeated pairing of stimuli and responses. When put like that, it looks a bit like the behaviourist view of stimulus-response learning which went out of fashion from the late 1950s. Skill acquisition draws on John Anderson’s ACT theory, which he called a cognitivist stimulus-response theory. ACT stands for Adaptive Control of Thought. ACT theory distinguishes declarative knowledge (knowledge of facts and concepts, such as the fact that adjectives agree) from procedural knowledge (knowing how to do things in certain situations, such as understand and speak a language).

The 2026 GCSE subject content is published!

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La retraite à 60 ans

Suite à mon post récent sur les acquis sociaux..... L'âge légal de la retraite est une chose. Je voudrais bien savoir à quel âge les gens prennent leur retraite en pratique - l'âge réel de la retraite, si vous voulez. J'ai entendu prétendre qu'il y a peu de différence à cet égard entre la France et le Royaume-Uni. Manifestation à Marseille en 2008 pour le maintien de la retraite à 60 ans © AFP/Michel Gangne Six Français sur dix sont d’accord avec le PS qui défend la retraite à 60 ans (BVA) Cécile Quéguiner Plus de la moitié des Français jugent que le gouvernement a " tort de vouloir aller vite dans la réforme " et estiment que le PS a " raison de défendre l’âge légal de départ en retraite à 60 ans ". Résultat d’un sondage BVA/Absoluce pour Les Échos et France Info , paru ce matin. Une majorité de Français (58%) estiment que la position du Parti socialiste , qui défend le maintien de l’âge légal de départ à la retraite à 60 ans,

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