Category: ESL

Valentine’s Day Fact Check & Idioms Fun

Posted on | by Pearson

Bill Bliss Photo 2014Bill Bliss

True or False?
Can your students answer these true-or-false statements? Have them correct the false sentences and rewrite them as true facts.

1. We celebrate Valentine’s Day on February 15.
2. Two common colors of Valentine’s Day cards are green and blue.
3. Post offices and banks are closed on Valentine’s Day because it’s a national holiday.
4. A heart is a common symbol of Valentine’s Day.
5. A popular gift to give someone on Valentine’s Day is a long-stemmed carrot.
6. Another popular gift to give someone on Valentine’s Day is a box of candles.
7. Presidents’ Day is a U.S. holiday in February that occurs before Valentine’s Day.
8. Cupid is a fictional character we associate with love and Valentine’s Day.
9. Many people like to go to a restaurant for breakfast in the evening on Valentine’s Day.
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Online Dictionaries Now Available

Posted on | by Pearson

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You know how valuable Longman learner dictionaries are. Now your students can get even more vocabulary and word practice by getting online access to the following Longman dictionaries:

  • Longman Study Dictionary of American English
  • Longman Dictionary of American English
  • Longman Advanced American Dictionary
  • Longman Thesaurus of American English

Even better, the online dictionaries let students use them anytime, anywhere.

Students can buy access codes (PIN codes) for one year or four years of online access. For one year the price is just $10.00 and for four years it is only $20.00.

The online dictionaries contain:

  • the complete contents of the print dictionary
  • pronunciation of all headwords and the example sentences
  • Longman Vocabulary Trainer
  • interactive skills practice

Your students can go to http://pearsoneltusa.com/buymylab and purchase access to the online dictionaries in minutes. Credit cards and PayPal are accepted.

Once a student completes the transaction, the access code (PIN code) is emailed to the student, usually within five minutes.

New – Instant Access for Your Students

Posted on | by Pearson

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Do you have situations where some students don’t have an access code for MyEnglishLab, because they bought or rented a used textbook? They can often hold up the rest of the class, until they buy an access code card and wait for it to arrive in the mail.

Or have you ordered textbooks without a MyEnglishLab access code, then realize some of your students could benefit from the extra practice in the MyEnglishLab?

Now there’s a solution. Students can purchase from pearsoneltusa.com/buymyenglishlab and get an access code emailed to them. All within 5 minutes!

Student can use their credit card or PayPal.

In the Instant Access site, students can purchase access codes for a variety of courses, including:

MyEnglishLab:
Focus on Grammar
NorthStar
Azar-Hagen Grammar Series
Pearson English Interactive
Project Success
MyEnglishLab: Reading
MyEnglishLab: Writing
TOEFL iBT
Also available is access to streaming audio for Contemporary Topics and Learn to Listen, Listen to Learn.

In January, students will be able to purchase subscriptions to four online dictionaries:

  • Longman Study Dictionary of American English
  • Longman Dictionary of American English
  • Longman Advanced American Dictionary
  • Longman Thesaurus of American English

You can give this flyer to your students, or have them go to pearsoneltusa.com/buymyenglishlab.

Using Technology versus Integrating Technology

Posted on | by Pearson

SCAD Language Studio ? Professor Christina Cavage, Human Resources headshot, Fall 2013 ? Photography by Stephanie Krell, courtesy of SCADChristina Cavage

Last month I introduced the concept of using technology versus integrating technology. Since then I haven’t stopped thinking about this concept and my own classes.  I believe that we need to strive towards true integration rather than just technology use.  One criteria outlined in recent publications regarding the integration of technology is where we use the technology.

With this push towards technology in learning, is it really effective to use it in the classroom?  Research says no.  Although certain tools can help facilitate learning, students using technology in the classroom takes away from the cooperative, communicative environment needed for language learning.  So, how can we effectively use tools in the classroom to facilitate learning while at the same time integrate technology outside of the classroom? Continue reading →

Uses of Technology:
Sharing Resources with Students

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Sharing learning resources with students is a great way to utilize technology in language teaching.[i] Like a lot of teachers, I compile resources that I find that I think will be suitable for my students to utilize as they try to challenge themselves outside of the classroom. And I’ve organized my resources into a kind of mind map[ii] that enables me to locate the kind of resource I might recommend to any particular student or any particular class. Now I wasn’t always so generous and certainly not always so organized in the ways that I recommended resources to students. In fact, I was probably very conservative about protecting resources rather than sharing them early on in my career.

I’d like to share with you a story of how my perspective on this began to shift. Continue reading →