Saturday 25 April 2020

the homeschooling revolution

'Homeschoolling' has been around for a long time:
Jay Doubleyou: homeschooling more popular in uk
Jay Doubleyou: education happens beyond the classroom
Jay Doubleyou: the purpose of education: from china to prussia to the united states
Jay Doubleyou: schools as 'total institutions'

The BBC Education correspondent isn't impressed:
Coronavirus: The impossibility of home-schooling a nation - BBC News

And Deutsche Welle warns that "the digital playing field is anything but level. Access to education could leave a lot of people behind during the pandemic":
Learning revolution - but not for everyone? | DW News - latest news and breaking stories | DW | 22.04.2020

The longer-term effects are already being considered.

There'll be more interest in homeschooling itself:

Will coronavirus spark a homeschool revolution?



With children (and many parents) being forced to stay at home, homeschooling has suddenly become the norm. Whilst the situation is bleak, many parents will begin to see some of the benefits of homeschooling. Here’s what they’ll learn:
  • There are thousands of resources for homeschooling parents on the internet
  • Many of the resources are low cost or even free
  • Learning can be done at any time during the day, taking breaks whenever is needed
  • Spending quality time with your kids
  • Siblings can learn together, when possible
  • There’s less hassle getting ready for and traveling to school
  • Kids are safe from bullying
  • Kids can learn at their own pace
  • You have complete control over what they learn
The Clever Tykes books, guidebook and activity packs have been a popular choice of resources amongst homeschoolers for several years. You can see and buy them on our homeschool resources page. Over the past few weeks, however, there’s been a noticeable increase in their demand. We believe that homeschooling can facilitate a broader base of learning and one that develops key personal skills such as resourcefulness, positivity and creativity – those we describe as ‘enterprising’.

Homeschooling in the long-term

Homeschooling in the long-term will not be an option for many parents. For some, however, it may now seem a more viable option than it once did, maybe even a preferable option. Some of the challenges those new to homeschooling will face include how to structure learning in the long-term, including developing a syllabus and working out how kids will sit examinations when the time comes. They’ll also need to ensure their kids get enough social interactions with other kids, which is something that the current situation restricts.

It’s a challenging situation for parents. This new homeschooling environment is not an ideal one. The home may be a stressful environment at the moment. It may not be set up well for remote working for parents and homeschool for the kids. Many of the freedoms we would have to take kids to places of learning have been restricted or even removed entirely.

The good news is that if you’re able to deliver great homeschooling in the current circumstances, you’ll be excellently placed moving beyond the crisis.


Will coronavirus spark a homeschool revolution? - Clever Tykes

The interesting thing will also be the longer-term effect on mainstream education:
Homeschooling during the coronavirus pandemic could change education forever, says the OECD | World Economic Forum

What Will Happen to the Education System When the Coronavirus Pandemic Is Over?


While virtual learning may surge, hybrid models with in-person elements may work best.

By Christian Barnard April 24, 2020

For the remainder of the school year, online learning is the new normal for most schools across the country. The coronavirus pandemic has caused nearly all schools to close and has created a captive, nationwide audience of families interested in exploring alternative online platforms to keep their kids occupied and on track.

Online groups such as Learn Everywhere were quickly created and immediately attracted thousands of members who are sharing resources with each other, from online music classes for young children to free engineering lessons to empanada recipes.

While this could be a revolutionary moment in K-12 for virtual learning and homeschooling, it’s hard to know at this point. Here are three possibilities for what comes next.

Substantial numbers of students leave in-person schools and begin a virtual or home-based education full-time
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Online education and homeschooling remain only marginally influential...

Hybrid schooling becomes more widespread in every sector
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What Will Happen to the Education System When the Coronavirus Pandemic Is Over? | Reason Foundation

The last word goes to the

Coronavirus lockdown: From the demise of GCSEs to technology and AI, how the crisis has changed education



At some point, schools will reopen — but many people think education in the UK may never be the same again

By Will Hazell Saturday, 18th April 2020

The impact of coronavirus on education has been unprecedented. Since last month, schools across Britain have been closed for most pupils and exams have been cancelled. In Scotland, it is the first time exams have not gone ahead since 1881.

At some point, schools will reopen – but many people think education in the UK may never be the same again.

Some people are already predicting the demise of high-stakes exams such as the GCSE. Others think coronavirus will lead to classrooms being revolutionised by technology. With exams not taking place, a new way of awarding grades using teacher assessment has been invented from scratch.

In England, teachers have been asked to predict GCSE and A-level grades, which will be moderated by the exam boards. It is a remarkable volte-face. Under reforms introduced when Michael Gove was education secretary, the majority of teacher-assessed coursework was scrapped, with grades awarded almost purely on the basis of exam performance.

Many teachers have been critical of this system, arguing that it puts too much pressure on teenagers.

Geoff Barton, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, believes the crisis could be a “transformational moment” for education, proving that putting children through 30-plus exam papers “was a whole paraphernalia of assessment that we really didn’t need”, he says.

Magnus Bashaarat, the head of independent Hampshire school Bedales, agrees. His school became so dissatisfied with GCSEs that it created its own alternative qualification, the Bedales Assessed Course. Mr Bashaarat thinks the Gove reforms were motivated by mistrust. “The reason why Conservative ministers moved away from coursework towards terminal assessment is because they haven’t really trusted teachers,” he says. Covid-19 has forced them to place their trust in the profession again – whether they like it or not.


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Perhaps the most profound legacy of coronavirus will be how we view schools. Teachers have come in over their Easter holiday to look after the children of key workers. Others have walked miles to deliver free meals. “In a crisis, schools have carried on doing what they’ve always done, which is being a major support hub,” Dr Bousted says. “The idea that we can go back to Government ministers saying schools are about academic excellence and nothing else, that’s really been shown for the lie it is.”




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Monday 20 April 2020

how to acquire a language in one year - and not 'to learn a language'!

LANGUAGE ACQUISITION:

You've heard of the Krashen approach to learning a language?

'Acquisition' means picking it up, not learning consciously with lots of grammar. We learn through reading and listening, not studying rules! That is 'comprehensible input', not monitoring everything you produce!

Back in the 1970s, we had 'the natural approach':
Natural approach - Wikipedia
The Natural Approach
www.sdkrashen.com/content/books/the_natural_approach.pdf

The second method is TPRS: Teaching Proficiency through Reading and Storytelling:
TPR Storytelling - Wikipedia
TPRS: Making Your Lessons Impossible to Forget | General Educator Blog
TPRS Russian – Effortless Russian Podcast – Real Russian Club

But which language should you learn?

A 'level one' language for English native speakers needs 600 hours = 11 hours a week in one year:
How Long Does It Take to Be Fluent in Spanish?

But some are more difficult - because there are fewer 'cognates', or things which are similar between languages:
Language Difficulty Ranking - Effective Language Learning
Foreign Service Institute Language Difficulty Rankings | Atlas & Boots
A Map Showing How Much Time It Takes to Learn Foreign Languages: From Easiest to Hardest | Open Culture

And with really difficult languages, don't do any reading or writing because of the different characters/writing systems - that will come later!

HOW TO ACQUIRE A LANGUAGE:

First: find a language parent:
Tandem Language Exchange App | Find Conversation Exchange Partners
HelloTalk - Talk to the World
Find language exchange partners | italki

Second: find magazines and children's stories because there are lots of pictures!
= something to talk about with both sides asking lots of questions
+ the language parent retelling the story using the pictures (but not you!)

Some rules:
- don't use your native language to understand! keep to the target language!
- draw!
- or 'it's not important!'
- no grammar!
- don't correct the learner!

Third: Total Physical Response!
= lots of movement!

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Here are some more posts from this blog:
Jay Doubleyou: theories of language learning and teaching: input
Jay Doubleyou: second language acquisition
Jay Doubleyou: krashen and second language learning
Jay Doubleyou: theories of language learning and teaching: input part two

Here's how to do it:


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Stop learning languages and start acquiring them! Jeff Brown is a full-time language instructor and polyglot who guarantees anyone can acquire any language in one year!
How to Acquire any language NOT learn it! - YouTube
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Sunday 19 April 2020

the limitations of language apps

There are some great places to go to help learn a language:
Jay Doubleyou: apps to learn english
Jay Doubleyou: duolingo: free language-learning app

But maybe they are not that great...
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500 Days of Duolingo: What You Can (and Can’t) Learn From a Language App

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Free language learning apps often promise the world — but don’t expect fluency from one. Here’s what to expect before you sign up.

If mobile language-learning apps are to be believed, it’s never been easier to pick up another language. Just spend 20 minutes a day with a few virtual flashcards and you’ll be fluent in no time! The reality is a lot more nuanced — and arguably more disappointing — than that.

Apps like Duolingo, Memrise, and Babbel all promise to teach you how to read, write, or speak a new language, all from your phone. While they’re similar in concept, they differ a lot in the specifics:

  • Duolingo offers a skill tree of lessons that use listening exercises, flashcards, and multiple choice questions to drill you on new words, phrases, and sentences. Most questions have a comment thread where users can discuss a particular question in detail. The service also has community features that let you connect with other people who are learning the same language you are.
  • Memrise offers similar lessons to Duolingo, introducing new words and phrases with flashcards, listening exercises, and more. However, the app has a few unique features: on new words, you can write a note (called a “mem”) with anything that helps you remember the new word or phrase. These will appear later when you come across the word again. It also offers a feature called Learn With Locals, which pairs words with videos of native speakers saying the phrase out loud and demonstrating the phrase. For example, a speaker might shiver when describing cold weather. This helps connect words with their meaning. Memrise also offers more explanatory cards than Duolingo offers when introducing new or complex topics.
  • Babbel is different from the other two. While it uses similar multiple choice or listening exercises as the others, it uses conversational examples to demonstrate how to use new words or phrases when speaking with another person. It also offers a speech recognition feature that lets you speak words back during an exercise instead of writing them out or answering a multiple choice question. This helps you learn how to pronounce words properly, or at least properly enough for your phone to recognize what you’re saying.
Despite their differences, they have the same goal: use daily exercises on your phone to teach you an entire language. It’s an enticing promise, especially if you’re not already immersed in a culture or education system that will give you the exposure you need to pick up a second language. The question is, are they effective?

After I accumulated a Duolingo streak in excess of 500 days — a feat that, thanks to the app’s notoriously insistent reminders, has now come to define my self-worth — I found myself in a better place to judge just how much an app alone can really teach you. The short answer is that you can definitely learn some things from an app, but if you want to become fluent in a language — or even conversational — they won’t be enough.


Language apps are great for writing systems and basic phrases


The phrase “learning a language” is deceptively reductive. A language isn’t a singular monolith, but rather a complex interconnected system of components that build a way to communicate. The lexicon consists of the individual words, which speakers have to memorize. The syntax and grammar tell speakers how to properly structure those words in a sentence. Then there’s the writing system, which is the visual representation of words or sounds that allow words to be constructed (for example, in English, the writing system is the alphabet).

For languages that have a different writing system, like Japanese, Russian, or Korean, language apps can be an excellent way to learn. Duolingo and Memrise both use a combination of flash card and simple matching exercises to train you to recognize symbols in a new writing system, while Babbel goes an extra step further with in-lesson explanations for how new symbols or sounds work.


After a few weeks or months of consistently going through lessons, it’s feasible to learn every sound and symbol in a new writing system. You won’t be able to understand every word you can read, but you’ll be a lot closer than if you started from scratch. However, that’s only part of learning a language. Understanding the alphabet used in English doesn’t inherently mean you can understand French or Spanish, for example.
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500 Days of Duolingo: What You Can (and Can’t) Learn From a Language App - The New York Times
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Saturday 18 April 2020

how to learn any language in six months

From a TED Talk by Chris Lonsdale

Watched 21 million times:

There are five principles:

1) Focus on the language content that is relevant to you

2) Use your new language as a tool to communicate... from Day 1

3) When you first understand the message, then you will unconsciously acquire the language!
(= Krashen: comprehensible input)

4) It's physical! You need physiological training - what you can hear and what sounds you can make
('If your face is hurting, then you're doing it right!')

5) Psyho-physiological state matters!
(And you need to be tolerant of ambiguity)

There are 7 actions for rapid language acquisition:

1) Listen a lot: 'brain soaking'

2) Focus on getting the meaning first - before the words
= Use patterns you already know

3) Start mixing! Get creative!
eg: 10 verbs x 10 nouns x 10 adjectives = 1000 possible phrases!

4) Focus on the core
eg: 3000 English words = 95%
in Week 1: target questions, target language
in Weeks 2-3: pronouns, common verbs, adjectives
in Week 4: 'glue words' (and, but...)

5) Get a language parent
> works hard to understand what you're saying; doesn't correct mistakes; confirms understanding by using correct language; uses words the learner knows

6) Copy the face: get the muscles going

7) 'Direct connect' to imagery: same box (picture), different paths (language)



How to learn any language in six months | Chris Lonsdale | TEDxLingnanUniversity - YouTube

Here's the script:
http://www.the-third-ear.com/files/TEDx-ChrisLonsdale-LearnAnyLanguage6Months.pdf

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Monday 13 April 2020

the language of food

Susie Dent is one of Britain's top 'lexicographers' and appears on TV.
She also writes regularly for the Independent and i newspapers:

Bellygods and gigoles tell our story in food

English is richly seasoned with words forged at the table

As a lexicographer on Countdown, I spend a lot of time researching the history of words, and two news stories – the horsemeat scandal and the obesity epidemic – show the extent to which food has shaped our language. The meat scandal has been called a shambles, and the word is entirely appropriate. The "shambles" were the bloodied stalls of medieval butchers –all that carnage led to our use of the word for something messed up.
For the Anglo-Saxons, food determined a person's position in society. The words "lord" and "lady" began as the hláfweard and hlæfdige, or loaf-keeper and loaf-kneader. A servant, conversely, was a dependent, so the hláf-æta – bread-eater: he also subsisted on the "umbles" or cheap offcuts – the origin of the expression "humble pie". A "pittance" was originally a small portion of food allowed to a monk or poor person. Some masters were more generous: to "foster" first meant to feed someone – an idea that's retained in our word "helping" for a serving of food. A "companion" was someone you broke bread (pane) with (com), and a "mate" a comrade at your "mess", or table.
Food as a determiner of status continued as English and society evolved. After 1066, the conquered Britons tended the sheep, pigs, and cows (names rooted in Anglo-Saxon), while the Norman elite ate the results – mutton, pork and beef all come from the French.
Bellygods and gigoles tell our story in food | The Independent


It's so comforting to return to the language of childhood, so let's make a whim-wham for the waterwheel

The vocabulary from home, that we grew up with, somehow feels important now

Monday, 6th April 2020, 6:30 pm
“Not just now. I’m making a whim-wham for waterwheels.”
If home-schooling parents ever needed an excuse to avoid calculating the area of a parallelogram or putting a long piece of prose into the present perfect, this would once have been it.
A Northamptonshire substitute for “I’m busy”, it was once the ideal, mysterious fob-off for any child wanting attention...
So why be just “hungry” when we can be pined or gant (Yorkshire), hearty (Worcestershire), jimp (Aberdeen), clemt (Lancashire), wallow (Cumbria), famelled or famished (South-East), or sinking (Sussex)?
And why simply be cold when we could be nithered, hunchy,  shrammed, mopy, or perishing instead?
Susie Dent: It's so comforting to return to the language of childhood, so let's make a whim-wham for the waterwheel | inews
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