I am pleased to share six new essays in the Essay Collection. Like previous essays, the new essays are revisions of journal entries that appeared much earlier. Each of the essays - in their own way - explore the topic of teaching (to put it simply) and joy and challenges of it.
ADDED - 17/07/14 - "If you understand anything in language, you must understand what the dialogue is, and you must see how understanding grows as the dialogue grows ... For language is discourse, is speaking. It is telling people things and trying to follow them. And that is what you try to understand ... You understand when it adds to your understanding of the discussion. Or of what the discussion is about." Read More ...
ADDED - 17/07/14 - Talk of best practices, teaching programs, cycles, and progressions can lull the casual observer into believing that programs on their own bring about result. A program's success is only as powerful as the vision and determination of the teacher delivering it and the learner engaging in it. We should not forget that learning is work, that skills and knowledge can and will be forgotten. Read More ...
UPDATED - 31/08/14 - Learning is often completed collaboratively with others, and features a sense of mutual accomplishment as the learners embark on a journey of discovery, consolidation and confidence. A “constructivist” approach is implied in the principles above as novices can come to approach, learn, master, question and refine skills under the scaffolded guidance of one who is more skilled. Read More ...
ADDED - 14/07/14 - Whilst it can be charming to believe that success can be achieved without hard work and access to expert teachers, space and time, and opportunities, the more accurate picture is quite different. What is required is perseverance, regular practice, access to effective teaching and mentoring, and access to relevant opportunities Read More ...
ADDED - 14/07/14 - In language teaching, it is important to initiate individuals into intentional activity whilst understanding the need to develop structural competency. The following discussion is influenced by a usage-based approach to language acquisition. It so follows that the individual develops language in an intricate give-and-take navigation with other language users in the pursuit of shared intention and joint construction. Read More ...
ADDED - 03/07/14 - Literate individuals have benefited from enabling relationships as well as access to adequate spaces, time, resources and formative experiences that aid and reinforce what it means to be literate. It is indispensable to acknowledge that literate practices are refined in collaboration with others (having people to talk to, to read with and to write to). Read More ...