Question: What new services do we need?
http://annehodgson.de/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/services.mp3Podcast: Play in new window | DownloadLast week I was getting a class ready to go to “Seven Days in the Life of Simon Labrosse”, a play being presented by the BeMe Theatre. It’s about a guy who has been unemployed and is trying to break back into the market (and into life, really) by […]
Losing face in English
I woke up this morning thinking about the debate on this blog on Westerwelle. It seems to me that this is an interesting case of a person losing face in public because he is being forced to speak English. BTW, I think the discussion has showed that both sides lost face: Westerwelle was most obviously […]
Net neutrality
It’s not always easy to follow the bureaucrats, but Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairman Julius Genachowski outlined actions he says the FCC must take to preserve the free and open Internet. The FCC’s existing case-by-case enforcement of communications law is already guided by four open Internet principles that say that consumers must be able to […]
For teachers only: Vocabulary
Yesterday I ran a workshop for English teachers at VW in Wolfsburg who are having trouble adapting the coursebook they are using for their mixed level courses. Before they get started on the given tasks, they have to pre-teach the more challenging vocabulary. The coursebook comes with great texts that can be exploited, along with […]
For teachers only: One to one
In a workshop that I’ve given for Cornelsen (and will be giving again on Friday) to promote a book on one-to-one teaching, I invite English teachers to formulate questions. Teachers at MELTA asked these questions last Saturday, and I’ve sorted them into three groups: 1. My role as the teacher vis a vis the student […]
Question: How do two of the things you do compare?
http://annehodgson.de/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/twothings.mp3Podcast: Play in new window | DownloadWe generally have more than one kind of task to do at work or at college. For instance, we might need to write up our research and then make a presentation, which are two entirely different kettles of fish (“2 versch. Töpfe mit Fischen” = 2 Paar Stiefel). Or […]
Dan Pink: Rewards and incentives don’t work
At TED Dan Pink (a favorite of mine) presented surprising evidence showing that rewarding performance financially does not lead to higher productivity in competing individuals and groups when any skill at all is involved. Rewards work well enough when the competitors just have to complete a simple task quickly. But as soon as they have […]
