Whether it is better to use the students' first language (L1) in class
or have an English-only policy is something that has been much debated and that has seen many changes of fashion over the years. It seems, therefore, that the only sensible reaction an individual teacher can take to this controversial subject is to neither accept nor reject the use of L1, but simply to search for an ideal level of its use in each individual class- maybe changing its use as the class progresses in level or changes in other ways. Here are some tips to help you spot if you have found your own perfect level of L1 use in your classes and how to adjust the level if you haven't reached that point yet.

There are certain rules or norms which are generally abided by o­n a sub-conscious level during a conversation. These rules, however subtle, shape the structure of most conversations that take place. They govern who speaks, for how long and when they speak. 

Twenty-first-century schools need twenty-first-century technology.

The biggest question about technology and schools in the twenty-first century is not so much "What can it do?" but, rather, "When will it get to do it?" We all know life will be much different by 2100. Will school? How close will we be to Edutopia? First, it helps to look at the typical process of technology adoption (keeping in mind, of course, that schools are not typical of anything.)

In recent years there has been an increased interest in the great books approach to education. Nowhere is this approach more realized than at schools such as St. John's College and Thomas Aquinas College. As four year, great books programs, both of these schools focus exclusively on the original texts of the greatest writings in the history of the Western world. After reading these works, students and tutors engage in Socratic discussion groups so as to bring out the rich meaning to be found there.

Problem-based learning (PBL) is an instructional approach that challenges students to seek solutions to real-world (open-ended) problems by themselves or in groups, rather than learn primarily through lectures or textbooks. More importantly, PBL engages students in developing skills as self-directed learners. Problems are selected to exploit natural curiosity by connecting learning to students' daily lives and emphasizing the use of critical and analytical thinking skills.

Social and emotional learning can help students successfully resolve conflict, communicate clearly, solve problems, and much more.

Pronunciation is one of the biggest problems Vietnamese students usually have when studying English. How can we, teachers-to-be, help them . You may find this article work for you. 

You want your primary students to be communicative but don't know how to do so because his/her limitation of English? It's not only you who face such a dilemma.

Today the internet, consisting of millions of computers, has an important role and great potential in educational life. It is also used specifically and widely in second language learning all over the world. Though the internet use in second and foreign language learning has brought certain advantages, it carries some disadvantages. However, before discussing its advantages and disadvantages, it is a must to mention some potential problems

For all of the millions of pounds invested in researching school effectiveness, and the thousands of hours spent by policy-makers reforming education systems, do we yet have a unanimous answer to this most important of questions: "what makes a good teacher?"

Many studies have been done to investigate the relationship between affective variables and second or foreign language learning. o­ne of the affective variables, anxiety, will be focused o­n in this paper. To begin with, this paper will examine what anxiety is and how anxiety affects second or foreign language learning. The Community Language Learning (CLL) approach seems to be suitable to cope with language anxiety. To prove this notion, first, the CLL approach is analyzed along with learners reflections about a demonstration. Second, interviews with college students are provided to compare the traditional classroom and the CLL approach. Finally, a study which compared the Counseling-learning approach and the Audio-Lingual Method is investigated.

As with many of the methods addressed in this series of workshops, in the constructivist classroom, the focus tends to shift from the teacher to the students. The classroom is no longer a place where the teacher ("expert") pours knowledge into passive students, who wait like empty vessels to be filled. In the constructivist model, the students are urged to be actively involved in their own process of learning. The teacher functions more as a facilitator who coaches, mediates, prompts, and helps students develop and assess their understanding, and thereby their learning. One of the teacher's biggest jobs becomes ASKING GOOD QUESTIONS.

Teaching a large class is really difficult. When we have too many students, there may be problems with classroom management, correcting oral or written work, maintaining rapport with students etc. Therefore, many teachers believe that in large classes, students can’t do well, especially in a speaking class. However, from my observation of some large classes in Dong Nai, an underprivileged province of Vietnam, this is not really true. Students find their own ways in such classes to make learning fruitful and enjoyable.

The theory of Emotional Intelligence and its measurement, the Emotional Quotient (EQ) were developed in the 1970s and 80s but popularised by Daniel Goleman in the mid-90s. EQ is one of many concepts and models originating in psychology which are being incorporated into language teaching. Goleman defines EQ as ‘the capacity for recognizing our own feelings and those of others, for motivating ourselves, and for managing emotions well in ourselves and in our relationships.’

Proper pronunciation is often overlooked in the language teaching field. English textbooks and instruction manuals barely touch on the subject.

When I think back on the many conversations I have had in the teachers’ room about English language textbooks, photocopiable resource books etc. over the years, I can remember quite a few amusing ones (e.g. the American teacher stunned at having to teach the “stupid American tourists” listening and the “Why British food is so great” reading in Headway all in the same month), many impassioned speeches, a bit of polite disagreement and a lot of commiserating.

Although it is most often associated with the genesis of language immersion education in Canada in 1965, content-based instruction is hardly a new phenomenon. We know that "until the rise of nationalism, few languages other than those of the great empires, religions, and civilizations were considered competent or worthy to carry the content of a formal curriculum" (Swain & Johnson, 1997, p. 1).

How do we learn? Watching a young child grow from infancy to toddlerhood, we marvel at the amount of learning that has allowed her to understand her expanding environment. Those early years provide the basis for language, physical dexterity, social understanding, and emotional development that she will use for the rest of her life. What a vast amount of knowledge is acquired before she sets foot in school!

Constructivism is basically a theory -- based on observation and scientific study -- about how people learn. It says that people construct their own understanding and knowledge of the world, through experiencing things and reflecting on those experiences. When we encounter something new, we have to reconcile it with our previous ideas and experience, maybe changing what we believe, or maybe discarding the new information as irrelevant. In any case, we are active creators of our own knowledge. To do this, we must ask questions, explore, and assess what we know.