Agregador: The Language Gym
Nº de artículos: 33
Blog en inglés de Gianfranco Conti, un experto en lingüística aplicada y adquisición de segundas lenguas, dirigido a profesores de lenguas. En él ofrece análisis y reflexiones basadas en la investigación sobre cómo se adquieren y enseñan los idiomas. Aborda metodologías, creencias docentes, evaluación y práctica en el aula, conectando teoría y experiencia para mejorar la enseñanza de lenguas.
Every few months — sometimes more often than that — social media fills up with posts telling us that research proves a particular language-teaching method works best. You know the sort of thing. One week it is storytelling. The next week it is explicit grammar. The week after is EPI (Yes – guilty... Leer más
Introduction I still remember marking a set of Year 10 writing tasks years ago and thinking, not without a certain irritation tinged with professional unease, “They understand this… so why can’t they write it?” They could recognise the language with little difficulty in aural tasks, manipulate it... Leer más
Introduction After nearly three decades of teaching, examining, observing lessons, reading scripts, delivering CPD, and, perhaps most importantly, sitting next to pupils as they struggled to produce writing under exam conditions or as part of research projects, I have come to a fairly consistent... Leer más
Introduction In my experience, one of the most persistent myths in language education is that vocabulary growth comes from introducing lots of new words quickly. Research, however, tells a very different story. Vocabulary learning is slow, cumulative, and constrained by cognitive limits, especially... Leer más
Introduction If I have learnt one thing throughout 28 years of teaching, is that there is no such thing as “teaching SEN pupils” in the abstract. SEN profiles are so diverse, messy, and contradictory! However, research from cognitive psychology, SLA, and special education converges on a clear set... Leer más
Intoduction The first lessons after a holiday are far more consequential than they appear on paper, because although they look like “normal lessons” on the timetable, pedagogically they are anything but! In my experience, what we do in January very often determines whether the rest of the term... Leer más
Before anything else, a quick clarification. This is Part 1, and its purpose is diagnosis rather than prescription. Part 2 will focus explicitly on classroom implications — what all this actually means for lesson design, routines and daily practice. Without that second step, this would simply be... Leer más
Introduction Vocabulary teaching is at the heart of every language classroom, yet most schools still teach words as items to memorise rather than meanings carried through communication. In 2023, Stuart Webb published a rigorous meta-analysis that, in my opinion, deserves every language teacher’s... Leer más
Introduction: Confessions of a very Imperfect Head of Department Before I go any further, let me say this very very clearly: I have made several of the mistakes I am going to write about. Not in theory, not in a textbook sense, but in my very own department, with my own colleagues, with real... Leer más
Introduction If we are honest, most teachers still treat listening as an assessment tool rather than a teachable skill. We press “play,” provide a set of questions, and call it “practice.” Then—when the real paper comes—students freeze, panic, and guess. We insist that we “taught them the... Leer más