A student’s mother tongue is an essential link for learning English effectively
 

Guest post by Anthony Vaughan

Did you know that students have a mother tongue?  It seems like a funny question, yet all too often, students learning English are discouraged from using their native language in the classroom.  Is it possible that sweeping it to the periphery of a monolingual class may be wasting a valuable educational tool?

 
Local teachers’ insight
Teachers in a non-English speaking country are in an enviable training position.  Sharing a common tongue with their students, they have a greater insight into the linguistic ‘behind the scenes’ of their students’ minds.  Despite this insight, they may be told that the only way to teach English is by maintaining a…  read more

Language has its rules and proper usages, but there is always a little wiggle in spoken language that can smack of error when heard by language learners and staunch grammarians alike. Here, contributing blog writer and LiveEnglish with Livemocha teacher, Miranda González, finds herself in a position where she needs to clarify the types of grammar, and help her students understand the balance of among them.

A couple of weeks ago I was teaching my LiveEnglish with Livemocha students about the word “like” and how it is used to compare similar things or give examples.
Example -
My book is like yours.
Cities like New York have large populations.
I had taught them all of the formal usages and was considering moving on to the next topic. …  read more

In our Wednesday, February 27 webinar, Livemocha CEO, Michael Schutzler, presented strategies, tips, and resources for an effective and successful blended learning experience in the language learning classroom.

Educators today have a staggering number of new technologies at their fingertips – but technology alone cannot create a successful blended learning environment. Schutzler will examine a series of case studies in which technology is used both as a supplement and as a full classroom curriculum in order to highlight the challenges, solutions, and best practices for blended learning in a language learning classroom.

Thousands of high school and college-age students already have Livemocha in their language learning classrooms. For information about how Livemocha can become a part of your blended learning classroom, contact…  read more

Perspectives in teaching a language are often formed in the process of doing so; either when you realize that there are gaps in the coursework, or you see that concepts expressed in the target language are misunderstood or simply missed by the students. Here, Anthony Vaughan, an English language teacher in Kuala Lumpur, shares his classroom-realizations and subsequent methods of teaching what was initially lost in translation. 
 
Written by Anthony Vaughan – originally published November 10, 2012 on his blog.
 

Thinking is something that we do without … well … thinking.  Sometimes we do it too much and unfortunately sometimes too little.  The same can be true in the EFL (English as a Foreign Language) classroom.

Recently I taught my beginner students how to spell…  read more

“The core of Livemocha’s business model is to engage”

We are very pleased to share that Gartner, the leading global provider of independent and objective technology related research and advice, has published a case study focusing on Livemocha. For anyone who is interested in, or is curious about how the business of elearning is changing the face of education, this is a great read (the fact that Livemocha is the subject of the study is icing on the cake.)

“The general intention of this case study is to inspire and add several new perspectives, tools and potential revenue streams — in short innovative business models — that can help traditional institutional players reform and stay competitive in the expanding education ecosystem.

“To…  read more

Join Livemocha CEO, Michael Schutzler

Wednesday, February 27, 2013
10:00 AM – 11:00 AM PST

… where he will present strategies, tips, and resources for an effective and successful blended learning experience in the language learning classroom.

Educators today have a staggering number of new technologies at their fingertips – but technology alone cannot create a successful blended learning environment.  Here, Schutzler will examine a series of case studies in which technology is used both as a supplement and as a full classroom curriculum in order to highlight the challenges, solutions, and best practices for blended learning in a language learning classroom.

 
 Register Here
 
We look forward to having you join the conversation.
 

Miranda González, LiveEnglish with Livemocha teacher and contributing blog writer, always has a great take on what language learners really want to know. Here, she gives some great advice for learners and teachers alike on how to deal with those words your mother told you not to say.

by Miranda González

When my husband and I were first dating, I distinctly remember a time when we were sitting next to each other in a booth at my favorite hole-in-the-wall pizza place near the university where we met.  He leaned over, brushed my hair aside, and whispered, “Is this a bad word?”

“Huh?”

“Jerk,” he said, in a low voice.  “Is it a bad word?”

It took all of my self-control not to fall out of…  read more

This is so cool. We have a hyper polyglot in our midst! Geraldine contacted us wanting to contribute to the Livemocha Blog. How lucky are we that she has shared her tips on how to learn multiple languages (at this point she’s got about six under her belt!)

Here’s Geraldine in her own words:

Hello Livemocha!! I am Geraldine from Bogotá, Colombia.

I was exposed to Spanish and English at a young age (I lived in the States for 4 years) which was a challenge. I could understand everything my parents asked or told me in Spanish but would only answer back in English. Nonetheless, I became fluent once we were back in our home country.

I came to study languages by chance….  read more

By Miranda González

As a teacher for LiveEnglish with Livemocha on Facebook, I usually like to start my class with a warm-up question like “What do you like to do in the summer?” or “If you had a million dollars, what would you buy?”  These warm-up questions serve two purposes: 1) Students get a chance to practice their writing and 2) They get to share their interests with people from all over the world.  These LiveEnglish students come from distinct nations and speak many different languages, but they make a lot of the same mistakes when writing in English.  How can this be?  English is tricky, and some parts are trickier than others, so to help you out, I’ve compiled…  read more

If you’re an English language student with Livemocha, you may have come across this gal, Meredith Miller, one of Livemocha’s English language tutors. Aside from helping students with their lessons, Meredith also has a blog called Flowing in English, where she gives tip and tricks to mastering your target language. The following is a post that she wrote last fall that we thought might help you with your lessons. Take a read and let us know what you think.

by Meredith Miller

Originally posted on Flowing In English, September 24, 2011

Don’t worry about where you are with your English right now compared to where you’d like to be or where you think you should be. The important thing is to see your goals…  read more