Tag Archive for 'beginners'

Ciudad Bonita is open !

Published
by
jessie
on November 13, 2008
in Spanish
. 0 Comments
Opening party of Ciudad Bonita

Opening party of Ciudad Bonita

Head Teacher and Spanish Teacher Daf Smirnov opened Ciudad Bonita last night with a tapas and drinks party and a tour of the city. Students and teachers could meet and talk about the new beginners Spanish course starting soon.  The teachers were from all over the Spanish speaking world; Mexico, Argentina, Venezuela and Spain and all were enthusiastic to begin teaching at Ciudad Bonita.

The Languagelab Teaching Team worked closely with builders Xandi Mars and Random Cole to provide this great city for Languagelab students. The finished city and course were the result of a successful Beta programme earlier in 2008 and research into how best to teach beginners Spanish in virtual worlds.  Ciudad Bonita will be open to the public until the start of classes so you are all welcome to walk around the city, have a drink at the bar and buy some delicious food from the market!

Enjoying tapas and sangria at the Ciudad Bonita Party

Enjoying tapas and sangria at the Ciudad Bonita Party

Continue reading ‘Ciudad Bonita is open !’

Teaching Beginners in SL

Published
by
Lee McFadden
on August 7, 2008
in Uncategorized
. 0 Comments

Teaching beginners in SL

I am teaching Spanish to beginners in Languagelab. I have taught beginners of all ages in RL, but this is my first experience in a virtual world, and I am enjoying it. We have just finished delivering a course of Spanish for Travel where 95% of the language used was Spanish.
In order to cope with the lack of facial expressions and body language in general, certain elements need to be included to make sure students don’t get lost.
These are some of the aspects that characterized the Spanish for Travel course:

  1. Team teaching: In order to model the language, pronunciation, dialogues, etc., the class is team-taught, a teacher and a helper.
  2. Whole language approach: the four skills of the language (reading, writing, speaking and listening) are integrated in each lesson.
  3. Eclectic use of teaching methods and approaches: In order to cater to different learning styles, and to the content being taught, we use different teaching methods and approaches (TPR (Total Physical Response), notional-functional situational, task-based, among others), to achieve our main aim: communicate in the target language.
  4. Use of 3D objects: Lots of materials are needed for beginners, in order to introduce new vocabulary and concepts. Materials should be colorful and well-designed (layout – font sizes – combination of colors – size of images). Objects interactivity is highly appreciated by students.
  5. Varied activities and locations: Changing activities and places is fundamental to make the class varied and to keep students attention.

I will expand on these aspects in future entries.

Meanwhile njoy these images from one of our Spanish classes:
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