Let the Brain Lead the Way! By: Mohammad Khari Share on facebook Share on twitter Share on linkedin “It does not do to leave a live dragon out of your
Author: Brain Admin
Yes, Language Teachers Can Teach Design Too
Yes, Language Teachers Can Teach Design Too By: Julia Daley Among the Best of 2021 Readers chose this article as one of the seven best from all of 2021! Check
A Glance at the Visual Design of Learner Materials
A Glance at the Visual Design of Learner Materials By: Anton Vegel Share on facebook Share on twitter Share on linkedin Controlling visual information is not easy, and design problems
UX Design in the Classroom
UX Design in the Classroom By: Rishma Hansil Share on facebook Share on twitter Share on linkedin Designing for education can be challenging. As I transitioned from user experience (UX)
Why design?
Why Design? By: Curtis Kelly Share on facebook Share on twitter Share on linkedin Now why would a magazine that connects brain sciences to language teaching have an issue on
Call for Contributions: Ideas & Articles
Become a Think Tank star! Here are some of the future issue topics we are thinking about. Would you, or anyone you know, like to write about any of these? Or is there another topic you’d like to recommend? Do you have any suggestions for lead-in, or just plain interesting, videos? How about writing a book review? Or sending us a story about your experiences? Contact us.
Just Give Me Three Minutes
Just give me three minutes. Just three. Click below and watch this video. Don’t worry what it is about, just click here. That’ll be two of the three minutes.
A Message to Teachers from Me with Asperger’s
A Message to Teachers from Me with Asperger’s By: Jun Kuwabara Share on facebook Share on twitter Share on linkedin (2021 Editor’s note: After graduation, we kept in touch with
Empathy – What, How, and Why for a Better Understanding of this Shift in Perspective
To start a productive discussion–ideas are first born in the mind and then become food for thought that can be digested in public in fruitful exchanges–let me begin this article on empathy with a multiple-choice question. According to the experts, which option below is the most empathic response?
If you hear that a colleague is getting bad results at school because of a hard phase he/she is going through, what are your thoughts?
a. This person does not know how to establish priorities.
b. Oh, poor thing! What can I do to help?
c. It might someday happen to any of us.
d. It is none of my business. I barely know this person.
Cognitive Load Theory and the Differences Between Experts and Novices: What Chess Tells us about Teaching Foreign Languages
My interest in Cognitive Load Theory (CLT) started with two books I read last year which had a big impact on me. They made me start questioning some of the ideas I’d gained during my teacher training. Both books were about how students learn in the classroom, one by Chall (2000) and the other by Hattie and Yates (2013). Both attested to benefits of explicit teacher-led instruction over inquiry-based or student-led learning. Hattie and Yates’ book also includes chapters on CLT and on the acquisition of expertise. All three areas were clearly closely linked and together challenged two underlying principles behind a lot of my lesson planning: maximise student talk-time, minimise teacher talk-time, and encourage students to be creative in making real meanings rather than practicing discrete aspects of language. Given the shock these two books gave to my system, I clearly had to learn more about these ideas. So, I started reading journal papers about CLT and the strengths of explicit instruction over inquiry-based learning, all the time trying to keep in mind how they might relate to foreign language learning.