Category: Masters in Digital Technologies for Language Teaching

Primarily, insights into my learning on a Masters distance course with the University of Nottingham.

March 22, 2015 karinawp

SLA Project Step 1: Identify a Problem For my  SLA module I am working through problems in my teaching practice and looking toward SLA theory to provide some solutions.  (I am also working through problems in my learning practice, but what with limited time, will have to come back to that at a later stage…

March 18, 2015 karinawp

Provocations of Light – Second Draft by Karina Thorne Part 2 Lights on. Like a patient coming out of hypnotherapy, she awakens with a sudden jolt. Having risen from her stool, Williams assumes a battle-ready position. Her silhouette is that of a sumo wrestler, slightly squatting, hands and arms clenched by her sides. From afar,…

March 18, 2015 karinawp

Provocations of Light – Second Draft by Karina Thorne Part 1 A hum of machines labouring under constant use, fills the airy void. Fridge-like vibrations, stop and start somewhere between walls of twisted aluminium sheets, light-weight and durable, and red lasers, stationed like cannons around the entire circumference. Supported by polished titanium columns, the low…

March 18, 2015 karinawp

One of my classmates gave quite a specific response to how psychology affects her teaching. So I wanted to summarise here the important points I picked up on: – We should try to put ourselves in the learners shoes. By understanding their view, and them, better, we can provide the best ‘service’ that matches their…

March 18, 2015 karinawp

I would say that psychology plays a large part in my practice as a language teacher. The main actions I take that are directly related to psychology are that of building trust and confidence, which leads to increased motivation in language learning. Building Trust I think it’s very important to have a good relationship with…

March 14, 2015 karinawp

Adam House, the host of TEFLCast, breaks down the fundamentals of online gaming within virtual worlds, and we uncover some striking parallels with the basic tenets of teaching and learning. Part Four In the final part of my interview with Adam, we discuss how online games such as Destiny facilitate interaction between players. For example,…

March 12, 2015 karinawp

Initial Thoughts on PoV Before reading the Jauss (2000) article, in my mind I had defined “…point of view in terms of ‘person’, focusing on the angle of perception -who tells the story- instead of the various degrees of depth available within that angle.” For the first draft of my short story, I had used…

March 12, 2015 karinawp

Re-Writing the Plot After reading Friedman’s plot categorisation last week, I’m still unsure which type of plot my short story would fall under. But here are three possibilities: – 1.1 The action plot, developing around a problem and its resolution – 2.1 The maturing plot, in which an attractive, naive protagonist achieves maturity – 2.2…

March 9, 2015 karinawp

Based on what I’ve learnt about beginnings, plot and character this week, here I lay out a simple lesson plan introducing the power of short story beginnings into the foreign language classroom: Materials A large copy of the text above with words missing, as mentioned in the Warmer below (for example, in ppt form). A…

March 8, 2015 karinawp

For the SLA module, apart from keeping a Teaching Diary, I have also been writing a Learning Diary describing my experience learning Chinese. Last semester I wrote a couple of posts that discuss how psychological and social factors may influence success in language learning. One was the affect of Foreign Language Anxiety and the other…