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Shiga JET Skills Development Conference Fall 2018

Posted by Betsy on November 25, 2018 in Language, Web2.0 | ∞

I am honored to have the opportunity to speak to current JET assistant language teachers (ALTs) in Shiga Prefecture at the Skills Development Conference on November 28, 2018.

Special thanks to all of the former ALTs who generously shared their experiences with me to help me prepare for this talk.

Keynote

Slides (PDF)Download

Note that I removed some images from the slides because I don’t have permission to publish them.

Workshop

Slides (PDF)Download

Kahoot (high-tech classroom)

Each student needs

  • Device (smartphone, laptop, tablet) OR 1 device per team of 2-4 students

Teacher needs:

  • Device to create
  • Way to display (e.g., projector)

Tutorials:

Plickers (low-tech classroom)

Each student needs

Teacher needs

  • Device to create (computer)
  • Device to scan (smartphone, tablet)
  • (Ideally) way to display (e.g., projector)

Tutorials

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Announcing the Language Center Handbook

Posted by Betsy on August 13, 2018 in Uncategorized | ∞
Language Center Handbook cover

Proud to announce my first book as editor, with co-editor Edwige Simon!

The Language Center Handbook is an update to IALLT’s Language Center Management and Language Center Design volumes. The chapters cover topics related to language center management and design, including case studies from various contexts.

I also contributed a chapter about language center mandates, in which I report data from the 2015 IALLT Survey, and a short essay about the tenuous status of language centers.

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Materials for Japanese, Chinese, and Spanish extensive reading

Posted by Betsy on December 8, 2017 in InstructionalDesign, Language | ∞

As I end my 3.5 years as Director of the Language Resource Center at Gettysburg College, I realized that there are some materials that I could be sharing. If you are thinking of starting an extensive reading club or incorporating extensive reading into your classroom teaching, I hope you’ll find these materials useful.

Japanese extensive reading resources

Chinese extensive reading resources

Spanish extensive reading resources

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Teaching language with technology: Basic tools and techniques, 2017

Posted by Betsy on July 30, 2017 in InstructionalDesign, Language, Web2.0 | ∞

Short link to this post: v.gd/clear17

I am honored to be invited to facilitate a workshop titled Teaching with technology: Basic tools and techniques, July 31-August 2, 2017. This is one of CLEAR‘s summer workshops, held at Michigan State University in East Lansing, MI.

Presentation slides (PDF)

I will facilitate learning to use the resources listed below during the workshop:

In-class response systems

  • Socrative
    • Cost: Free
    • Platform: Web (including mobile)
    • Description: Instructor creates multiple-choice, true-false, or short answer questions. Students respond using laptops or mobile devices. The instructor can display the results as they come in. You can let students respond anonymously or require students to enter their names. You can also use this system for in-class quizzes.
    • Student login page (use to respond to questions during this workshop)
  • Plickers
    • Cost: Free
    • Platform: iPhone, iPad, or Android (only 1 needed per classroom). The website is useful for creating classes, questions, and quizzes, but a mobile device is needed to scan students’ responses.
    • Description: Students respond to multiple-choice and true-false questions using specially designed paper that they hold up. The teacher scans the room using a smart phone or tablet. The results can be instantly displayed.
    • Getting started guide
    • Plickers in 2 minutes (video)
    • Help with Plickers

Digital storytelling

Flipped classroom

Delivery of content

Ready-made games

Find more games for your language and share them in the comments below!

Customizable games

  • Kahoot
    • Cost: Free
    • Platform: Web (including mobile)
    • Description: Create multiple choice games (“Quizzes”) and ordering games (“Jumbles”) for competition in class. Students respond individually or in teams on their own devices. This colorful game is very popular in K-12 contexts.
    • Student login page (use to respond to questions during this workshop)
  • PurposeGames
  • Quizlet
    • Cost: Free
    • Platform: Web, iPhone, iPad, Android
    • Description: Create flashcards that include images and automatically generated audio. Play games and take tests with the words. With a paid account, teachers can also facilitate team games using the flashcard sets.

Organization and saving time

  • Google Forms
  • Diigo
    • Cost: Free
    • Platform: Web (including mobile)
    • Description: Save bookmarks to webpages, including annotations and tags. You can also create groups and share the annotations among students and/or colleagues.
    • Example: Web Tools for Language Learning and Teaching
    • More: Diigolet bookmark
  • LastPass
    • Cost: Free
    • Platform: Web, with a browser plugin (mobile apps have a subscription fee)
    • Description: Save all of your usernames and passwords in one place. This app also generates secure passwords for you and saves you the trouble of remembering them. This helps keep your data secure by avoiding the reuse of passwords across websites.
  • Doodle
    • Cost: Free
    • Platform: Web
    • Description: Give a list of meeting options and find out the availability of each attendee. Choose the best meeting time based on the results.
  • v.gd
    • Cost: Free
    • Platform: Web
    • Description: Create a short link to any webpage. You can customize the web address so that it’s easy to remember and to share with others.

Language exchange

  • Skype
  • Students or teachers can use the following free sites to set up individual or classroom exchanges. Keep in mind that this is an exchange, so they would need to speak English for half of the exchange time and the TL for the other half.
  • The Mixxer
    • Cost: Free
    • Platform: Web
    • Description: Students can use this site to find a language exchange partner, or teachers can use the site to find a collaborating class. The Mixxer has tools for students to request confirmation to be sent to teachers to show that they participated in an exchange.
    • More: Book chapter about The Mixxer
  • HelloTalk
    • Cost: Free
    • Platform: iPhone, iPad, Android
    • Description: Language exchange via text or voice. Includes tools for correction, sending images and drawings, and timing your exchange.
    • More: HelloTalk from a teacher’s perspective
  • Other language exchange options:
    • Open Language Exchange
    • My Language Exchange
    • Speaky
    • WeSpeke
    • Teletandem Brasil – Set up language exchanges between your Portuguese class and Brazilian classes learning English
    • TalkAbroad – A paid service that includes tools for teachers to give instructions to conversations partners in advance. Students pay a fee per 30 minute conversation. Both teachers and students can access recordings of conversations. Available for Spanish, French, English, Mandarin, Arabic, German, Italian, and Portuguese.

Glossing

  • Rikaichan/Rikaikun/Rikaigu – plugin for Firefox/Chrome browsers that produces a popup box showing the meaning & reading of Japanese words
  • Google Dictionary – plugin for Chrome browser that produces a popup box showing the meaning of words in Brazilian Portuguese, Chinese (Simplified), Chinese (Traditional), Czech, Dutch, English, French, German, Italian, Korean, Russian, Slovak, and Spanish.
  • Zhongwen – plugin for Chrome browser that produces a popup box showing the meaning & reading of Chinese words
  • Adobe Acrobat – PDF creator and editor (paid)
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Reading and writing Japanese vs. Chinese

Posted by Betsy on July 24, 2017 in Language | ∞

Is it harder to learn to read Japanese or Mandarin Chinese? Let’s find out!

When you encounter a character in Mandarin, how many possible readings are there?

Let’s look up a very common character, 生, in a popular Mandarin-English dictionary:

One reading in Mandarin for this character.

One reading for this character in Mandarin.

One way to read this character? That seems reasonable.

What about the Japanese reading for the same character, 生, in a popular Japanese-English dictionary?

too many readings for this kanji!

Too many readings for this character in Japanese!

In what sort of writing system would you use a single character for 20 different readings???

Yes, this character is exceptional, but it’s not rare for characters to have three, four, or more readings in Japanese. Usually each character to has two readings – one derived from the native Japanese reading, and one derived from the Chinese reading (of whatever dialect and time period it happened to be imported).

So, why I am bringing this up now, when I’ve been studying Japanese for more than 15 years?

Well, I just spent a month in Beijing learning Chinese*. And I found that Chinese characters are perfect for writing Chinese. (Shocking that the Chinese developed a system that works for their language, right?) Each character generally has one possible reading.

But using Chinese characters to write Japanese is like this cat trying to squeeze into this box:

Ultimately, some cat/language parts are going to stick out awkwardly (and that’s where okurigana comes in).

Yes, in Mandarin, you have to learn a tone with the reading of each character. But with Japanese, you also have to know whether the vowel sound is long or short, whether consonants are doubled (geminate), and whether the consonant sound changes in combination with other sounds (rendaku). Not to mention pitch accent…

Okay, sure, the Chinese have created some crazy characters, like this one that puts the biāng in my new favorite noodles, biāngbiāngmiàn:

Biáng-order complete

58 strokes of deliciousness!

But not to be outdone, the Japanese went ahead and invented their own “Chinese” character that is even worse! Feast your eyes on taito, an 84-stroke monstrosity:

Taito 1

Just…NO!

So, while learning to read and write in Chinese is definitely a challenge, if you want to really torture yourself, why not give Japanese a try?

Personally, I didn’t know what I was getting into when I started learning Japanese, but it turned out to be one of the best decisions of my life. If you bring on the challenge, you’ll also reap the rewards–whatever language you choose to learn.

So, which language do you think is harder to learn to read?

 

*Yep, 1 month is not very long, and I reserve the right to change my opinion as I continue learning!

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Pleasantly it is the opposite.

Posted by Betsy on July 11, 2017 in Language, Web2.0 | ∞

Inspired by Google Translate poetry such as Muttony Muco, I have “written” a poem of my own.

That
Neat
Sneakily
Let it go
Right
Let it go
Pleasantly
Let it go
Pleasantly it is the opposite.
Powered by
Pleasantly it is right.
Let’s do it again, that’s it.
Pleasing to speak.
Let’s hurry, that’s it!
Pleasing to speak.
Let’s stop it.
Pleasing to speak.
Pleasing to speak.
Let’s pull it up, right.
Let’s pull it up, right.
Let’s pull it up, right.
Let’s pull it up, right.
Let’s move it to that direction.
Let’s pull it up, right.

Google translate poetry

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The future is behind us

Posted by Betsy on July 9, 2017 in Uncategorized | ∞
Great Wall

I just got back from a month in Beijing (did I mention that I helped write a Fulbright-Hays grant?), and I talk about bit about my thoughts on learning Mandarin on another blog. More thoughts to come here soon.

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Book chapter published

Posted by Betsy on May 23, 2017 in Uncategorized | ∞

I’m excited to share that a chapter that I co-authored has been published!

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Fulbright-Hays Group Project Abroad – China

Posted by Betsy on May 15, 2017 in Uncategorized | ∞

We got a grant and are headed to Beijing for a month! I’m blogging about it.

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Basic Excel skills for teachers

Posted by Betsy on October 15, 2016 in InstructionalDesign | ∞

Reposting from the Gettysburg College Language Resource Center blog:

On Wednesday, October 12, I held a workshop on Basic Excel skills for teachers and researchers, with the following description:

Do you use Excel as a grade book or for data collection? In this workshop, you’ll work with Excel hands-on to develop basic skills, such as quickly copying numbers down columns, keeping headings visible at all times, and sorting columns in the most convenient order. If you consider yourself an Excel jockey, this is not the workshop for you–but if you need basic tips and tricks, you’ll find them here.

Feel free to access the handout, with animations of how to do each task within Excel.

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