Gamification – an enjoyable way to solve problems

The idea to write this article came to me in a flash of inspiration while talking to one of my best student’s mom about his learning progress. That mom was convinced that her son doesn’t give a 100% in language learning and he’s spending too much of his free time on playing computer games. It took me some time to convince her that playing computer games is not only a great stress revealing technique but it also develops more efficient learning and prosocial skills.

Czytaj dalej Gamification – an enjoyable way to solve problems

How preschool children learn English?

Foreign language learning comes to preschoolers naturally because of their innate curiosity of the surrounding world. The most important task English teacher faces during work is to focus this innate curiosity on language learning. This seemingly simple task can be quite challenging because, unlike adults, preschoolers learn unconsciously which in practice means learning unintentionally, involuntary, through various active games, nursery rhymes and songs. However, children are easily distracted and it is tough for them to focus on a given action for a long time.

Czytaj dalej How preschool children learn English?

Fine language makes fine impression

Language is like a song – it has its rhythm and melody. When you listen attentively to other languages you may notice that some of them are rather quick like Chinese or Spanish and others stretch like a spaghetti because of phonetic lengthening which is present for example in Italian in Sicily. It is said that people with good ear for music are able to articulate foreign sounds more efficiently. There is a lot of truth in this claim. One can guess our cultural, social or educational background after the way we pronounce different words. A particular word can be articulated in several different ways, for instance Cracow inhabitants lengthen phonetically word endings and Koszalin inhabitants their middles. Ways of articulation depend on the phoneme resources which are present in a given language or dialect.

Czytaj dalej Fine language makes fine impression