In this episode, we interview Leon Butchers, creator of AGO card games, for use in ESL/EFL classrooms for young learners. The games, in the form of packs of cards, encourage interaction in the classroom and assist with early literacy in English.&nbsp; Leon talks about the start to his (originally unplanned) English teaching career, how he kept learning by networking with other teachers, and how he found a need and met it. To learn more about the games, visit www.agocardgame.com. There is also an app which goes with the phonics cards, available on both android and ios. You can also find the game on Facebook at&nbsp;https://www.facebook.com/agocardgames/ &nbsp;

Language Fuel Podcast Episode 8

Today we’re talking with Chee En, or Timothy Febey, or Larry Chinese, about his program, Chinese Buddy, and his journey through music, international travels, language teaching and now Chinese Buddy. Timothy is a musician, linguist and teacher, and has combined his talents to create a syllabus suitable for teaching kids Mandarin, in a fun and memorable way. I’m particularly impressed with Timothy’s dedication to find great teaching practice. As well as including (good quality) music, he includes gestures, based on decades of research, starting with TPR (Total Physical Recall). See his blog here for an overview: http://www.chinesebuddy.com/chinese-kids-gestures/ You can connect with Timothy at www.ChineseBuddy.com or https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJdwm0ut_GzVT5VzzylqDQA

Language Fuel Podcast Episode 9

In this episode, we interview Michael MacKinven, author of Kanji Pro: The easy way to remember kanji. During the interview we hear how Michael’s first interest in language learning was ignited by another language learner – a friend who was learning Italian. He also mentions some of the things which keep language teachers going, and he tells us of his classic exemplification of the “spiky profile” learner – high level skills in one area, and lower level skills in another area. This eventually led him to create KanjiPro. Michael uses his language and cross-cultural skills in his everyday business life, even when not directly interacting with Japanese speakers. To buy Kanji Pro, you can click here.&nbsp;

LFP Ep11 Interview with Michael MacKinven

We’re talking about games and why they are so good in the language learning classroom. They encourage lots of repetition, helping to cement the target language. The rule-based nature of the interaction also levels the social playing field, encouraging more even participation among students. The teachers also gets a chance to step back, and pay attention to student language production. And of course it’s quite simply a lot of fun energy. I suggest a best practice method to incorporating games in your lessons, using the acronym P-L-A-Y. (Prepare, Learn, Activities, Yet again). I then share a story about how I have used this method with one of my all-time-favourite pronunciation games from Mark Hancock’s classic book “Pronunciation Games”. (Order a copy  here if you don’t have one!)

Games and Language Learning

This episode is particularly relevant to you if you have decided you’d like to learn a language, but you’re not sure how to go about doing so. Hiring a coach might be the way to go. Meet Leslie Foster, our resident Language Learning Coach. Leslie describes her role as assisting self-directed language learners understand the how, the why and the what of language learning. Tune in to hear her advice about learning to crawl before you attempt to run, benchmarking your language learning progress, the importance of reflection in the learning process, some language myths, and the importance of learning the culture along with the language. To contact Leslie, click here and send her an email via our website, and she’ll be in touch.

LFP#14: Introduction to Language Coaching, with Leslie Foster

Are you struggling to manage classroom behaviour? In this episode, I discuss three main causes of unwanted classroom behavior, and share tips for addressing those. We look at issues relating to unclear expectations, materials which may not be appropriate, and social dynamics in the classroom. I share an experience I had early in my language teaching career, where a negative relationship between two students surprisingly reared its head. It taught me to appreciate the internal emotional landscape that my students have, which I simply can’t see, and how important it is to consider these when planning lessons.

LFP#15 Managing Classroom Behaviour

Are your students using devices in the classroom? How confident do you feel choosing the right technology to employ these devices? In this episode, I discuss ways to approach BYOD, whether true BYOD, with multiple device types, or institution-issued devices. We look at the two main types of technology in the classroom (communication technology and language learning technology) and what to consider when using each type. We finish with 8 question to ask before choosing to use technology for language learning.

LFP#16 Understanding BYOD

In this episode, I attempt to clarify the meaning of a few key pronunciation terms which are often misunderstood, or used incorrectly. These are: phones, phonetics, phonology, phonemes, allophones, phonics, the phonetic alphabet and the phonemic alphabet.&nbsp; I also discuss why understanding these concepts is important for language teachers.&nbsp; Teaching mature language learners in particular has its challenges when it comes to pronunciation, so the more you understand these issues, the better you will be able to help these learners.&nbsp; This episode comes with an infographic summary which contains the definitions of these terms. Download the infographic at www.languagefuel.com/episode18

LFP#18 Pronunciation Terms Explained

Immersion experiences can be hugely instrumental for language learners, providing a big boost to their language capability, and they are often described as life changing. But what if immersion experiences are simply unrealistic, due to distance and expense? I suggest that all language learning experiences can be put on an ‘immersion continuum’, and I encourage teachers to think about how they can push their activities one notch further along that continuum, in order to create more authentic and closer-to-immersion experiences as possible for their students. Download the infographic which accompanies this podcast at www.languagefuel.com/episode19.

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