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Tuesday, April 16, 2013

Podcasts- Introducing the TC (target culture) and TL (target language)

I chose to share a podcast from http://kids.learnoutloud.com/.  This site offers podcasts for sale (this one below would be just $1.00. I chose a podcast about travel to Mexico. I teach a chapter on Mexico in my Spanish 1 course, where the students have not yet been exposed to much Spanish yet, but are just learning to appreciate the culture and geography of Spanish speaking countries. 

The use of a podcast on my blog would be beneficial in this introductory learning activity to Mexico, and could be spiraled up to the higher language classes by simply uploading the podcast in the target language (Spanish) rather than the audio being in English.
.Some things covered in this 5 minute podcast include:

  • Which country separates the United States of America from Central America? 
  • Where, on average, do people eat half a kilo of tortillas every day? 
  • Where is home to the cactus and the Chihuahua? Mexico, of course!
  • Mexico, or the United States of Mexico, is a federation of thirty-one sovereign states. 
  • Mexico's land mass is almost three times that of Texas, which it borders.
  • Mexico is the world’s fourteenth largest nation

This podcast is an excellent way to engage the young language learner.  I would like to include a podcast from each country that we study in level one Spanish. Each would simply be assigned to the students as homework for listening practice/knowledge. A blog question/answer prompt could be added for testing comprehension.

http://kids.learnoutloud.com/







Sunday, April 7, 2013

How can I use ePals in my classroom?

I explored ePals for the very first time. I am almost hesitant to admit that I have been a language teacher for 7 years and have not had any experience with ePals. I immediately went to find a classroom and match the students that I teach (13-17 years) according to their age group, preferred location, first language, etc. I immediately saw an opportunity to break away from the traditional classroom, and  collaborate with students from different corners of the world and become engaged in this cultural exchange community. I view this as a valuable opportunity to offer learning outside classrooms, while offering authentic Spanish language input, something that my high school's town does not have much experience with.

I think it would be great to allow my students to work in pairs to try their best to translate something that a high school group of students wanted to talk about from Spanish to English, and vice versa.  The relevance is what would really motivate the students.  

Through this Web interaction, students from both classrooms can learn new cultural knowledge from their partners.

When I consider something that I lack in my teaching, I myself like the other language teachers that I collaborate with, typically respond that it’s difficult to find native or fluent language speakers that our students can interact with. ePals is a solution.