Dominic Walters, Autor em RichmondShare Blog | High quality content and interaction in the ELT world

Dominic Walters

Gigging into the future

9 de novembro de 2016

I was asked recently what I did for a living. I replied that I was a freelance teacher and teacher trainer, working for an assortment of organizations, companies and individuals. However, what I am part of is the ‘gig economy’. A ‘gigger’, if you like. But what is it, and how will it affect English...Read More

Reflections about Education, Teacher Development, Technology

Investing in the Future

13 de outubro de 2016

by Dominic Walters

I asked an investment fund manager recently what were the big investment opportunities in Brazil at the moment. He replied that without doubt he would invest in the health and educational sectors. He specifically mentioned online courses, whether or not they are blended, as showing great potential for growth in the future, although he added...Read More

Reflections about Education

self-directed learning

Reading Allowed?

3 de setembro de 2016

by Dominic Walters

My son is learning to read. I sit with him as he tackles a short text. He approaches each word warily, vocalizes each individual letter, and then connects all the sounds together to pronounce the word. It’s a slow process. He stumbles over the words; his intonation is out of sync; and he sometimes gets...Read More

Reflections about Education

reading aloud

Changing Places

9 de agosto de 2016

by Dominic Walters

I was recently asked to give a workshop on interaction patterns It seemed that the teachers at the school were not using a sufficient variety of them, and that this was affecting the effectiveness of the lessons. This is not an uncommon criticism. I have lost count of the number of times in feedback that I have had...Read More

Classroom Management

classroom dynamics, dynamics, interaction patterns, Language acquisition, student talking time

Time for a rethink

3 de julho de 2016

by Dominic Walters

I think that we can all agree that learning a language is a complex process, involving complex systems. By complex systems, I mean a process of complex behavior which emerges from a few simple rules. All complex systems are networks of many interdependent parts which interact according to those rules. It is a process which...Read More

Reflections about Education

CELTA, education, teacher training course

Do you teach ‘global competence’?

3 de junho de 2016

by Dominic Walters

You have probably heard of the PISA (the Programme for International Student Assessment) tests. They are standardised tests of reading, science and mathematics, which are designed to allow comparisons of educational attainment around the world. Well, it appears that the OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development), the organisation which runs the tests, is likely...Read More

Reflections about Education, Teacher Development

global competence

A Word Atlas of the Mind

3 de maio de 2016

by Dominic Walters

There was some interesting news last week. Scientists at Berkeley University in the United States have mapped out how the brain organises language. Their ‘semantic atlas’ shows how the meaning of vocabulary is organised into different regions of the brain. In the past, it was believed that information about words’ meanings was represented in a...Read More

Vocabulary

language, semantic system, vocabulary

What’s in a name

6 de abril de 2016

by Dominic Walters

Something a student of mine said recently got me thinking. She told me that her English teacher at school had told her, and the class, that you should never translate the names of monuments and landmarks into the target language. Therefore, according to the teacher, the Pao de Acucar must never be translated as Sugar...Read More

Vocabulary

vocabulary

It’s complex, not complicated.

2 de março de 2016

by Dominic Walters

What is complexity theory and how does it accommodate up to date beliefs about how languages are acquired, and new approaches to teaching like task based learning and dogme approaches? Until recently, theories about language acquisition have been dominated by the cognitivists, such as Krashen, Long and Chomsky. The basic premise was that input would...Read More

Language Acquisition, Reflections about Education

Language acquisition, methodology

Pronunciation in the spotlight

3 de fevereiro de 2016

by Dominic Walters

Recently, I was asked to lead an in-service session on Pronunciation. I was given about an hour and a half to cover sentence stress, intonation, features of connected speech, word stress and phonemes. Not an easy task considering how much is involved in articulating speech. Maybe we under-estimate it? For ‘teaching’ pronunciation encompasses much more...Read More

Pronunciation, Reflections about Education

pronunciation

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