Pete Sharma Associates

Byron and I having a fantastic time – great to see everyone and enjoy the mixture of input, frantic networking, discussion and eating / drinking. I am attending as many tech talks as possible – loving seeing the latest apps. Too frantic to write more but hopefully more will follow after a suitable period of reflection! Great to meet Tweeters face- to- face and folk from India, Bangla Desh, Greece and Argentina – the countries I’ve visited this year, as well as colleagues from Warwick Uni in a different settings. A beautiful Dawn in Glasgow and as someone says….Glasgow rocks!

We are enjoying listening to views on Blogs and Wikis!

Tweeting: it’s not just for birds

This blog post looks at the Internet phenomenon of Twitter. We’ve all heard of Twitter. But do you tweet? And why would you?

For the rest of this blog entry, please visit the Linguarama blog. http://blog.linguarama.com/

Would you like to subscribe to the PSA Newsletter? Click here to watch a video clip and find out out how…..

PSA Newsletter

Very much looking forward to going (back!) to India to deliver the Keynote speech at the IndiaCALL conference this weekend.

Here are the References for the talk. References

To what extent is there a divide between the world of academia and the world of the language classroom?

Well, as an RSA trained-teacher with a Diploma, I embarked on an Masters. I went to a (fantastic) conference about computers in language teaching in Barcelona where I first met the Dude (aka Gavin) & saw on the programme the following names: Mark Warschauer, Catherine Doughty, Carol Chapelle, Martha Pennington. I picked up my Bibliography for the Masters and anyone who was anyone in the booklist was at this conference! Holy schmolly. In the hallowed world of CALL, theory, research and SLA, these were mythical figures.As a teacher, I never heard of any of them.

Now we have our practitioners book out there, (400 ideas, in case anyone has forgotten), I am spending this Christmas reading Interactive whiteboards for education: theory, research and practice, Edited by Michael Thomas M. & Eulin-Cutrim Schmid  (2010).  A mere 314 pages, heavier than a door-stop.

I’m preparing for running a session for the Research group at Warwick University, and for the Pro-T conference in Argentina. I’m delighted to consider the link between theory and practice. Like great contrarians, I have decided to work backwards from what we do in real life to what the research shows.  Tee hee.  After all, wikipedia could never exist in theory…………

Interactive whiteboards for education: theory, research and practice, Edited by Michael Thomas M. & Eulin-Cutrim Schmid  (2010), published by Hershey, PA (USA): IGI Global. ISBN: 978-1-61520-715-2.

Announcement: coming soon!

Technology and business English: a new series of blog posts written for Linguarama by Pete Sharma

I am delighted to launch a new series of blog posts, starting December 2011, written for the language training organisation marcus evans Linguarama. These posts are available to everyone in the language teaching profession on the Linguarama blog.

Over the coming months, this series of posts will be looking at technology in language teaching, along with other aspects of business English and language teaching.

Here are some of the areas the posts will focus on:

1. Apps to improve your language learning

2. Business English on the move: how mobile devices can help you

3. Storing your new vocabulary electronically

4. Best websites for studying business English

5. Why tweet?

6. Linguarama Connect

7. Sounds: a new pronunciation app to help you

8. What is Blended Learning?

Visit the Linguarama blog to read this exciting new series of blog posts at: http://blog.linguarama.com/ You can also subscribe to the blog.

We are delighted that the next update – the tenth – is available.

The update, which is free, focuses specifically on Interactive Whiteboards.

To download the update, simply visit: http://www.macmillanenglish.com/methodology/books/Blended-Learning.htm

Enjoy!!!

We are really looking forward to running our workshop on Learning Technologies next week in Croatia.

We are taking a snap-shot of business English now, using the cross-section of attendees to establish:

Where are we now? Where do we go from here?

We are preparing a list of key topics to discuss.

Pre-workshop task

We would like the participants to discuss areas of  most interest and concern to them.

If YOU are coming along on Sunday morning, 20th November, please send us a short mail with the topic (or topics) which you would like to discuss.

You can use the COMMENT box below, or use the mail link on this website. Click here for mail link.

Please include your name. Please mail us before end of Tuesday 15th November!

Thanks very much in advance for contacting us – it will help us include YOUR ideas and ensure that the session is of most use and relevance to participants.

(Note: we will be announcing this pre-session task on a number of forums. Apologies for cross-posting).

Results

Kevin and Pete will be writing up the results of the workshop for distribution afterwards through channels such as the BESIG newsletter and our website.

Enjoy your trip to the conference!

I’m just about to review Sounds – the Pronunciation app from Macmillan for the ELTJ.

It is for iPhone and iPad, and adds a new dimension to Adrian Underhill’s well-known Sound Foundations chart. It is easy to use: simply tap a symbol to hear a sound, tap and hold to hear a word with that sound. It is best to rotate the screen to see the chart in a whole page view.

Students can gain practise in four skills. The app contains 340 useful words they can listen to, practise copying / repeating (i.e. speaking) and compare their effort with an original. They can read a word and then type it in phonemic script (writing); listen to a word and type it; or read a phonemic transcript and type the word itself. A nice feature allows you to import writing in phonemic script into programmes like Notes.

Looks like great value for students and teachers alike! I’m enjoying putting it through the paces for the full review. So far, ‘app-iness