Southern Ontario Cooperative of ESL Ministries
Author’s Note: Here’s an article I wrote for the TESL Ontario blog back in the summertime, while researching for the workshop I presented at the October SOCEM Gathering. Then at the Gathering, at our lunch table, I learned of yet another way to use smart phones for pronunciation—see the PS at the end! Aren’t SOCEM […]
Muriel Saville-Troike Written for students encountering the topic for the first time, this is a clear and practical introduction to Second Language Acquisition (SLA). It explains in nontechnical language how a second language is acquired; what the second language learner needs to know; and why some learners are more successful than others. Introducing Second Language […]
Dwight Gradin, Mission Training International (http://www.mti.org/) If you see language learning as an academic course of study, you will approach it that way. Some people have only one model, one way to engage any intense learning experience: “Hit the books; study like mad; cram at the last minute.” Hopefully, the following will give you a better way to […]
Lyman Campbell, Version 1.0, July 2006 This introduction follows naturally from Thomson’s (2005) Introduction to the Sociocultural Dimension, in which the author developed a picture of the language learner as a growing participator involved in a process of unfolding as a person within the experience of host people. He argued against reifying language, that is, viewing a language as […]
Below is a long list of a variety of resources available online. We hope they’re helpful! Pronunciation http://soundsofspeech.uiowa.edu/index.html#english The #1 phonetics website. Includes cellphone app and web based app. Here are a few sites with minimal pairs. The first three have sound files. http://www.shiporsheep.com/ http://www.manythings.org/pp/ https://www.englishclub.com/pronunciation/minimal-pairs.htm http://www.speech-language-therapy.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=134:mp2&catid=9:resources&Itemid=108 Listening http://www.esl-lab.com/ Lots of listening exercises with downloadable […]
Greg Thomson. “An Introduction to the Socio-cultural Dimension of Language Learning” Lyman Campbell. “The Redemptive Dimension of Language Learning” Dwight Gradin, Mission Training International. “Language Learning Orientation for Learners and Teachers” Muriel Saville-Troike, “Introducing Second Language Acquisition” Written for students encountering the topic for the first time, this is a clear and practical introduction to […]
By Greg Thomson, Version .9, December 2006 LANGUAGE LEARNING IN THE FIRST DIMENSION For school-educated people around the world, understanding language learning from a socio-cultural viewpoint requires quite a change in thinking.[1] So get ready! In fact, I find the issues in this dimension of language learning much more difficult to grasp initially than those connected […]