Reading activity for French learners (beginner level).

Yeah!!! I am back to blogging! I had a very good excuse though for not posting for such a while: I had my fourth boy on the 24th of September. His name is Antoine and he is a lovely baby boy doing well 🙂

Whilst recovering from the birth and taking care of my precious little boy,

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acquire50 acquisition65 beginner318 blog7 Blogging1 ci145 comprehensible100 comprehension261 confidence92 confident8 content6 creative13 Education20 engaging10 French41 grammar72 input47 key structures8 languages13 Martina Bex11 meaning17 meaningful15 parallel story3 practice33 prepare6 printable1 story46 storytelling39 teacherspayteachers11 TPRS71 vocabulary256 worksheet2 writing55

Resources for English learners: shopping and the issue of being a shopaholic.

Last week, I was writing about my new “job” which is to teach online private lessons to Spanish students who want to improve their English. (via Google hangout or Skype). For now, it is going very well and I am receiving positive feedback from my students which is always good!

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acquire50 acquisition65 activity13 answers24 article46 communicate9 communication10 communicative7 compelling39 comprehend52 comprehensible100 comprehension261 conversation311 culture246 debate11 edmodo3 Education20 esl2 fluency107 input47 interesting23 language45 learner228 learning15 meaning17 meaningful15 personal13 personalized16 practise2 questions74 teacherspayteachers11 theme3 topic24

Resources for English learners: superstitions.

Although I am taking a break from my school and “formal” teaching, I have not really quit and I have now started to teach online (via Google hangout or Skype) private lessons to Spanish students who want to improve their English. It is actually very different from teaching a whole class and my students have a good level of English but they are not confident enough.

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activity13 comprehensible100 comprehension261 conversation311 culture246 Education20 engage161 fluency107 fluent57 language45 learning15 personal13 practice33 questions74 teacherspayteachers11

Reflection on Comprehensible Input

I haven’t updated my blog for a while now, and as I am taking a break due to my fourth baby coming at the end of September, I wanted to reflect on my last school year. I was teaching Spanish from grade 6 to 12 and I decided to turn to comprehensible input and TPRS since I was never fully satisfied with the traditional way to teach languages.

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6th graders2 acquisition65 comments3 comprehensible100 Education20 encourage2 feedback47 fluency107 fluent57 grade 108 grade 74 grade 85 grade 98 IGCSE12 input47 inspire13 languages13 listening52 Martina Bex11 middle school3 motivate162 motivation212 personalized16 review26 song29 Spanish33 story46 story asking15 storytelling39 TPRS71

How to use a mini story in a Spanish beginner class

I have become a fan of TPRS because I do believe it is the most efficient way so far to help students develop both fluency and accuracy in Spanish. However, I am new to the techniques and although I read the Big Green Book: Fluency through TPR Storytelling,

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Spanish story: El chico cansado

This story comes from a French story on The Task Magic blog: Bob est fatigué. I wanted to recycle the structures “debe”, “tengo que” which my students already learned with Los niños prisioneros de Bolivia and I also wanted to use “está cansado”.

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cansado1 comprehensible100 comprehension261 debe2 debes1 Education20 input47 key structures8 obediente1 personalized16 practice33 questions74 script201 Spanish33 story46 storytelling39 teacherspayteachers11 tengo que1 text4 TPRS71

IB Spanish Students: el Flamenco

As you might already know, I have been reading La casa de Bernarda Alba by Federico García Lorca with my small group of Spanish language B IB higher level students. They are only girls in this group so I think they have enjoyed reading this tragedy about passionate love and freedom!

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art41 book95 comprehension261 critical thinking3 cultural10 culture246 dance4 define1 Education20 higher1 IB9 input47 intermediate718 La Casa de Bernarda Alba1 language B4 level3 Lorca2 music27 play27 Spain6 Spanish33 speaking73 teacherspayteachers11 UNESCO1 video351 worksheet2