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Last week we talked about simple repetition techniques. This week we will cover spaced repetition, task repetition and recycling.

Spaced repetition:
increasing intervals of time are used between subsequent reviews. In order to follow this repetition technique,
we can use different recall methods such as questioning, free recall (e.g. write 3 words we studied last week), free association
(e.g. what words are related to “clothes”), intellective reflection (Identify the word that does not belong in a category), or
prompting using other mnemonic triggers or cues (describing images, matching words to sounds, for example). This is a great technique
to use at the beginning of each class to review previously presented vocabulary items.

Task repetition:
including the same kind of vocabulary in different tasks or activities. These different activities can be included
in one lesson. In Languagelab.com we have the City People who are always there to talk to our students in the different locations of the town.
Sending our students to complete a given task at these locations is a great way to use the language learned with other native speakers who are not teachers.
This is by all means the best repetition activity.

When we add previously presented vocabulary to new vocabulary, we are talking about repetition through recycling. For instance, we have presented
vocabulary on clothing, this vocabulary can be incorporated, in a following class about seasons (What do you wear in the summer?).

Repetition is important, but it should not be boring!

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In this picture we see the students repeating vocabulary already learned. Each student was assigned a pyramid which contained images. They had to project these images and identify them.

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Giving instructions
Giving instructions using the target language in a beginners course is another challenge in SL. In our Spanish for beginners we follow three procedures to make sure the participants in our course can follow class instructions: translation to English, images and modeling.

In the first place, we have an introductory lesson to present the most common instructions students will be listening to in each class. In this introductory class, we use English to explain these expressions (listen, pay attention, repeat please, come here, follow me, how do you say …. in Spanish? among others). All the phrases taught are posted to the course wiki, in a written form and we also add a recording. In this way, students can access this resource as many times as they want.

In this introductory lesson as well as in our regular classes, we use boards with images that illustrate instructions. Images help students understand and retain the message. In some cases, especially at the beginning of the course, we offer the written instruction in English and Spanish.

Modeling is perhaps the most efficient way to give instructions using the target language. In order to do this, we have a helper (team-teaching). The teacher gives the instructions to the helper once or twice, for the students to see what they have to do. This is especially good for complex activities. In case that the instructions are not clear, the helper translates them. We believe that we should not waste time in the instructions because what is important is the activity. As the course proceeds, students get used to the language used for instructions and there is no need for translations.

In the following pictures you will see some of the instruction boards we have created for our Spanish lessons.

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Important! Read this blog quickly, before you look up difficult words.

To improve your reading skills, it is sometimes a better idea to find the main point of a paragraph, chapter or even the book.
To do this, you could ask say or ask yourself:

• This mainly deals with …
• The main idea may be expressed as …
• The title that best expresses the ideas of this paragraph is …
• The writer wants to tell us that …
• The best name for this story is …

Last month, I gave you part of the opening paragraph of Eva Luna (by Isabel Allende). Here is the first paragraph, again,
but in full. As you read it, try and complete the sentences.

My name is Eva, which means “life,” according to a book of names my mother consulted. I was born in the back room of a
shadowy house, and grew up amidst ancient furniture, books in Latin, and human mummies, but none of those things made me melancholy,
because I came into the world with a breath of the jungle in my memory. My father, an Indian with yellow eyes, came from the place where
the hundred rivers meet; he smelled of lush growing things and he never looked directly at the sky, because he had grown up beneath
a canopy of trees, and light seemed indecent to him. Consuelo, my mother, spent her childhood in an enchanted region where for centuries
adventurers have searched for the city of pure gold the conquistadors saw when they peered into the abyss of their own ambitions.
She was marked forever by that landscape, and in some way she managed to pass that sign on to me. (Allende, published by Knopf, 1988)

This paragraph is a little complicated and, in my opinion, there is more than one idea. Here are my answers. What do you think?

• This mainly deals with an explanation of why Eva is such an unusual person.
• The main idea may be expressed as how it is possible to have a rich and a poor life.
• The title that best expresses the ideas of this paragraph is (perhaps) ‘Drama, Comedy, History’
• The writer wants to tell us that Eva is a good story-teller.
• (One of) the good names for this paragraph is ‘Where I was born’ or ‘My parents.‘

This tells us that there are no wrong answers. Think, read and then think again.

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As I have said in previous posts, when we teach beginners we need to make use of visuals and interactive activities.
One of the first things that made it difficult for me to design a lesson in Second Life was my lack of knowledge of the kind of tools
I could use to teach in that environment. We know that in a Real Life classroom we can use overhead projectors, video players,
video beams, maps, whiteboards, among many others, and the tools labeled as web 2.0 have made the process of planning e-based
lessons very easy. However, I did not know what tools I could use in SL. To solve this problem, I started a search for
educational tools, and found many free tools as well as tools that can be bought from different designers. At the same time,
I learned that I could create simple objects adding textures, sound and ready-made scripts to make them interactive.
For more sophisticated tools, Languagelab has technicians who can create them for us. Nowadays, with this knowledge, planning
is easier but also a challenge to the imagination.

In order to have images and text shown on boards in SL, we have to upload textures (images) created in Power Point or any image editor
such as Photoshop, Paint Shop etc. Two excellent free solutions are Paint.NET (Windows only),
and Gimp, etc.
Sounds can be uploaded in Wav format. They cannot be longer that 10 seconds
which is a restriction for language teaching. However, you can use sounds from the web. The downside is that for every image and sound
we have to pay 10 Linden $

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I distinctly remember my art lessons at school They were not very exciting. Mostly, we would try to remember pictures and artists and every 2 weeks, we would go outside and draw trees! You can only guess how enthusiastic I was about art! I say “was” because last week we went to Language Lab’s art gallery in Second Life…

We began the lesson by taking a quick tour of all the exhibits. They were mostly three dimensional art like sculptures but they were incredibly detailed and very imaginative! We used camera controls to look around and inside the objects. We could even click on some objects to see inside or to give us more information. After the tour, we decided on a favorite piece of art and then we began to look at how to make a presentation.

We had to describe the object and then try to describe how we feel about the art and what it means to us. We also had to use language to try to get people involved in the presentation (“can you see..? If you click here, you will see.., can you guess what..?”) The presentations were brilliant and everybody had a great time. The expression “to get into something, usually means to begin to like something. Only this time, we really got into things! Art appreciation and learning vocabulary in 3D

Thanks to all the advanced English students for making this lesson memorable and for helping me to ‘get into’ art again.

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