Dear teachers,
In this June 2013 issue of ELTA Newsletter you can read about teaching idioms, motivation and its effectiveness in the ELT classroom as well as parental influence on language learning with young learners. On a more practical side, you can also find interesting activities for youngsters and upper-intermediate/advanced learners.
ELTA Newsletter editorial team would like to make the announcement and call for papers for the first ELTA Journal. ELTA Journal will be submitted for scientific categorization to the Ministry of Education in Serbia. The aim is to publish and promote articles written by teachers with a particular emphasis on teachers researching their practice and thereafter spreading their findings with their professional community. Hence, if you are working on a project in your school/region, or have any ideas you would like to share, please contact us at newsletter.elta@gmail.com
You can also find us on www.facebook.com/eltasebia or on linkedin.
We look forward to hearing from you!
Best,
ELTA Newsletter editorial team
Teaching English Idioms through Translation: The Everlasting Appeal of Idioms
By Petra Grgicevic Bakaric, Edita Salov, Department of Professional Studies, University of Split
Key words: translation, idioms, contrastive analysis, English and Croatian
Despite the previous arguments against teaching translation, there are strong arguments for teaching translation. From an opposite perspective, translation, misconceived and overused, could be seen as a victim of the grammar-translation method, rather than the source of its evils. The problem was not translation as such, but a teaching methodology that separated language from its communicative function.
Clik to download »
Teaching English: Class journals
By Joanna Dossetor
Key words: genre, journal, goal, correction code, activities
Students often write in their English classes, following a specific genre in order to do so: the informal email; a job application letter, etc. Of course, it is important that they learn this kind of writing (which is usually essential for exam success), but it doesn’t always encourage them to write for the sake of writing, and to get used to writing in a more relaxed and creative way.
Clik to download »
Motivation and Effectiveness in ELT
By Biljana Pipovic, Gimnazija StevanJakovljević, Vlasotince
Key words: motivation, teacher behaviour, student behaviour
How can I motivate my students? How can I make my students think about what they are doing and not just focus on getting the job done? How can I get my students really understand and appreciate what they are learning, not just pass the test?
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Parental Influence in English Language Learning: The Primary Years
By Christina Nicole Giannikas,Cyprus University of Technology
Key words: young learners, parental influences, teachers’ tips
Primary language learning has become the centre of attention in a number of discussions and debates where the language teachers and students are, more often than not, the centre of attention. Little has been said about the parents who, despite being outside the classroom, play a vital role in what happens within.
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A perfect kind of teacher
By Danijela Mitrovic, student at faculty of Philology, Belgrade University
Being a perfect teacher for everybody in the classroom is not an easy task to deal with. A teacher has to be a magician, an actor, a rightful judge. There is no such thing as a right preparation for this vocation. Most likely, you will have to rely on your own possibility to make things work and keep your fingers crossed.
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There’s more than meets the eye
By Rolf Palmberg, retired senior lecturer in EFL methodology Åbo Akademi University, Vaasa, Finland
Key words: human face, multiple meanings, unscramble, puzzle
Words that describe the different parts of the face are normally introduced at a fairly early stage of most EFL language courses. The purpose of this three-step activity is to practise the vocabulary items needed to discuss the human face and at the same time make young learners aware of the fact that some words can have multiple meanings.
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