LET: The Treasure Hunt Club

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■ The Treasure Hunt Club No. 87
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November 2012 Treasure Hunt
Promoting Better Thinking
Marcel Van Amelsvoort
神奈川県立国際言語文化アカデミア
Kanagawa Prefectural Institute of Language and
Culture Studies

This month I'd like to talk a little about
thinking and give you a few suggestions for sites
you could use to promote better thinking. Language
teachers often focus on language learning, but
promoting better thinking and more autonomous
learners should also be among our goals. Of course,
this requires more than just a few new tools. It
takes a concerted effort. If you are really
interested in this topic, you may want to visit
the website for Visible Thinking. It's part of a
long-running project at Harvard University. They
have been investigating techniques for promoting
better thinking for many years and the website has
a lot of interesting ideas and information.
http://pzweb.harvard.edu/vt/VisibleThinking_html_files/VisibleThinking1.html

» 続きを読む

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■ The Treasure Hunt Club No. 86
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October 2012 Treasure Hunt
Odds and Ends: Lino, Memrise, Bingo Cards, Story
Starters, and Real-time Trains
Marcel Van Amelsvoort
神奈川県立国際言語文化アカデミア
Kanagawa Prefectural Institute of Language and
Culture Studies

Hello again. This month Ive got another collection
of various sites.

First up is a handy tool for people who like to
add notes to things. Are you a fan of sticky notes
such as post-its? Then you might be interested in
Lino, a canvas and sticky note tool available for
browsers or mobile devices. There are lots of
potential uses for interactive or collaborative
activities.
In English: http://en.linoit.com/
In Japanese: http://ja.linoit.com/

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■ The Treasure Hunt Club No. 85
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August 2012 Treasure Hunt
MOOCs
Marcel Van Amelsvoort
神奈川県立国際言語文化アカデミア
Kanagawa Prefectural Institute of Language and
Culture Studies

MOOCs, or Massive Open Online Courses are getting
really big. And by big I mean both popular and
famous. They are courses offered for free from
famous universities such as Stanford University,
Duke University, and the University of Edinburgh.
For people in Japan with an interest in studying
at the university level in English MOOCs represent
an exciting opportunity. In the past, university
courses have been available via iTunesU or YouTube,
or some combination of the two, but these new
MOOCs are a much more course-like experience. From
a dedicated website, you enroll, watch videos,
take tests, post comments on discussion boards,
and exchange assignments. There is even a
completion certificate available if you complete
everything successfully. There are several sites
through which you can now access these courses and
for the time being, they are completely free. As I
said, they are also popular, and enrollments of 60
or 70 thousand students are common in a single
course!

» 続きを読む

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■ The Treasure Hunt Club No. 84
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August 2012 Treasure Hunt
Pronunciation Resources and Firestorage
Marcel Van Amelsvoort
神奈川県立国際言語文化アカデミア
Kanagawa Prefectural Institute of Language and Culture
Studies

Many years ago, when I was in a graduate program for TESOL,
I had a course in phonology. One of the things the teacher
emphasized about teaching pronunciation was that
suprasegmental aspects of English were more important to
teach than segmental aspects. We were told to teach stress,
reduction, rhythm and intonation, and not to worry worry too
much about the individual sounds of the language. So that’s
what I have been doing for the past 15 years. But recent
research―done on communication between non-native speakers―
is apparently showing that individual sounds are more
important than everyone thought. A lot of communication
problems happen when non-native speakers get the individual
sounds wrong. So, with that in mind, I decided it might be a
good time to list up some online resources to help learners
with pronunciation.

» 続きを読む

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■ The Treasure Hunt Club No. 83
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July 2012 Treasure Hunt
Marcel Van Amelsvoort
神奈川県立国際言語文化アカデミア
Kanagawa Prefectural Institute of Language and
Learning By Yourself

July 2012 Treasure Hunt
Learning By Yourself

In a few weeks, most teachers will finish classes. If you
haven't yet made plans for the summer, this month's column
is especially for you. In the past, I've introduced lots of
places where teachers (and very proficient learners) can go
on the web to learn something and use English at the same
time. By now, everyone is familiar with at least some free
options for online learning. Recently, however, the number
and quality of online courses and self-access learning
materials have improved greatly. If you haven't done so
lately, it's time to take another look―especially if you
have a little time this summer to try out some of these
materials yourself.

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