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Title: Kidy: Search Engine for Kids
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Kidy is a new search engine, powered by Google, aimed at kids. As noted by Larry Ferlazzo (http://larryferlazzo.edublogs.org/2018/07/04/kidy-looks-like-a-good-search-engine-for-ells/) it is also a useful tool for English learners. Richard Byrne briefly reviews Kidy and describes how you can create your own customized search engine, as well, here: https://www.freetech4teachers.com/2018/07/create-your-own-search-engine.html
Kidy is available at https://kidy.co/
Source: Google
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Title: 25 Ways to Practice Self-Care and Avoid Teacher Burnout
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In line with our July InterCom theme of teacher self-care, here is a recent blog post by teacher and blogger Christina of the Daring English teacher with recommendations for self-care: https://www.thedaringenglishteacher.com/2018/07/25-ways-to-practice-self-care-and-avoid.html
Source: The Daring English Teacher
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Title: Quick Interactive Activity: Inside Outside Circles
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For this no-prep interpersonal activity, students stand in two concentric circles, one facing in and one facing out so that pairs face each other. After a certain amount of time, one circle rotates to the next person so that everyone has a new partner.
Read a fuller description at https://teachingrecipes.com/inside-outside-circles/
Source: EFL Teaching Recipes
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Title: Podcast Series on Community-Based Global Learning
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In Episodes 59 and 60 of the We Teach Languages podcast series, Eric Hartman and Richard Kiely, authors of Community-Based Global Learning: The Theory and Practice of Ethical Engagement at Home and Abroad, talk about community-based global service learning and its relevance to language teaching and learning.
Part 1, the main interview, is available at https://weteachlang.com/2018/06/29/ep-59-part-i-with-richard-kiely-and-eric-hartman/
Part 2, in which the authors respond to listener questions, is available at https://weteachlang.com/2018/07/06/ep-60-part-ii-with-richard-kiely-and-eric-hartman/
Source: We Teach Languages
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Title: Winning over "Alfredo": Relationships with Challenging Students
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From https://senorajotajota.blogspot.com
Now that the school year is over for most of us, we can put some emotional distance between ourselves and students that we had trouble getting along with. Here is a nice post reflecting on students who want to run the class and have lots of attention from their classrooms, and two approaches one teacher took to build positive relationships with two such students: https://senorajotajota.blogspot.com/2018/07/how-i-won-over-alfredo.html
Source: Señora Jota Jota
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Title: Overview of MovieTalk Technique
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Do you hear teachers talking about using MovieTalk in their classrooms? Here is a recent blog post explaining the technique and breaking it down into steps that you can follow to use this interpretive listening activity in your own classroom: https://martinabex.com/2018/07/06/movietalk-interpretive-listening-magic/
Source: The Comprehensible Classroom
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Title: More World Cup Resources: Final Roundup
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Your InterCom editor's heart is broken by Brazil's loss to Belgium on July 6. Nevertheless, with the final game having taken place yesterday, here are some last resources dealing with the World Cup and soccer in general.
Here is some Chinese World Cup vocabulary from Transparent Language: https://blogs.transparent.com/chinese/chinese-world-cup-vocabulary/
Here's a charming video and lesson from Comme Une Française about talking about soccer in French: https://www.commeunefrancaise.com/blog/world-cup-how-to-talk-about-le-football-in-french
Here are a few Russian words, with example sentences: https://blogs.transparent.com/russian/8-russian-football-words-for-the-world-cup/
Here is another lesson on a Brazilian Portuguese expression based on soccer from Street Smart Brazil: https://streetsmartbrazil.com/learn-colloquial-portuguese-pendurar-chuteiras-expressions-soccer-3/
Larry Ferlazzo has added a few more resources to his curated World Cup collection: http://larryferlazzo.edublogs.org/2018/07/11/a-few-last-useful-resources-about-the-world-cup/
Source: Various
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Title: Writing Resources for Language Learners
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From http://www.lindsaydoeslanguages.com
Here is an annotated collection of online (and a few analog) writing tools and resources for language learners: http://www.lindsaydoeslanguages.com/all-the-writing-resources-for-language-learning-that-youll-ever-need/
Source: Lindsay Does Languages
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Title: Wheelies Around the World: Instagram for Wheelchair Travelers
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Wheelies Around the World is University of Oregon alumnus Alysia Kezerian's Instagram account where she shares her own story and advice as a woman with a spinal cord injury traveling around the world.
Access and the Instagram account at https://www.instagram.com/wheeliesaroundtheworld/, and read more about Ms. Kezerian's experience at https://around.uoregon.edu/oq/alysia-kezerian-going-places
Source: Wheelies Around the World
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Title: What I Wish I Had Known about Culture When I Went Abroad
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By Isabelle Sackville-West, CASLS Fellow
I went abroad to Beijing the summer after my freshman year of college. At the time, I was an intermediate-level Mandarin speaker who had been studying Chinese for three years. In terms of culture, I truly believed that I was well-versed. This, I soon realized, was actually ignorance born out of a misconception of what culture fully entails. When one thinks of culture, in general what first comes is art, food, clothing, religion, and distinct social phenomena; the things one of my professors would call “capital C culture.” These larger cultural pieces, like major holidays, gift giving, and felicitous numbers, were well-addressed in my previous Chinese classes. What I didn’t understand, however, were the little intricacies that make up subtle, every-day interactions; the "little c" cultural phenomena bound in pragmatics. For example, 对不起，不好意思，and很抱歉 can all loosely translate into “sorry” in English. They all vary, however, in level of formality, appropriate context of use, and implication, ranging from something more like “excuse me” to “I am very apologetic.”
Pragmatic ability is something that teachers can begin cultivating even in the early years of students’ second language learning. To provide a concrete definition of what pragmatic ability entails, Cohen and Ishihara state that, “Pragmatic ability means being able to go beyond the literal meaning of what is said or written, in order to interpret the intended meaning, assumptions, purposes or goals, and the kinds of actions that are being performed” (Ishihara & Cohen, 2010: 5). Of course, capturing the multi-faceted nature and complexities of everyday existence in the L2 is difficult to manage in a formal classroom setting. To better prepare, however, I wish that pragmatics had been emphasized more in my beginning language education.
While big C cultural understanding is undoubtedly important, I found that knowledge of cultural artifacts didn’t come in handy in a variety of daily situations. For example, I struggled to decide what term to address an elderly waitress with. I wish I had known what statements come off as flirtatious or what phrases have a gendered association. I wish I had known how to better interact with peers in my age-group and how to behave in digital spaces. I recall, for example, that one of the Mainland Chinese students I became friends with used to mock me for being “too uptight.” I was frustrated by this judgement. I didn’t understand why I was projecting this image that I had no intention of displaying, but I realize now that my formal, traditional language is what lead him to develop this impression of me. I was slow to pick up on slang terms, and was altogether unfamiliar with the dialectal variation of Beijing Mandarin. This, coupled with the fact that my salutations and leave takings sounded rehearsed, contributed to the cold, stand-offish impression that I gave off.
Now, I definitely still make these types of pragmatic slip-ups, but I am glad to say that I am far more aware of the impact my language, gestures, and behaviors have on intercultural interactions. Integration of pragmatics into the classroom would have built up my awareness of smaller, subtler cultural differences and helped prevent numerous pragmatic missteps, aiding my integration into the target culture.
Reference
Ishihara, N. & Cohen, A.D. (2010). Teaching and Learning Pragmatics: Where Language and Culture Meet (Revised ed.). Routledge.
Source: CASLS Topic of the Week
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