If your progress in a foreign language has fallen short of your goals, you may be sabotaging your efforts without even knowing it. Watch out for these five surprising language-learning pitfalls.
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How to translate a video on dotSUB | Amara
Shona Whyte's insight:
Nice tool for language learners: subtitling videos, translating into and out of English. Delete the scoop?
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Copy is a cloud for people, friends, and companies. Use it to keep your computers in sync and your files available from anywhere and from any device. Sign up and get 15 GB FREE. 
Shona Whyte's curator insight,
May 22, 3:30 AM
New free cloud storage. Go via https://copy.com?r=idYrIO to get an extra 5GB. Delete the scoop?
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This is a great tool which matches up YouTube music videos to lyrics. Just enter the name of a singer you like then select a song. You'll see the lyrics appear beside the song. Great way to improve your language skills. Via Nik Peachey, Chris Jaeglin
Shona Whyte's insight:
Practice listening, speaking and reading all in the space of one track ... 
Ana Sclerandi's comment,
May 3, 11:16 AM
I've just searched for a couple of songs and artists and worked out for me.
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Lessons On Movies.com. ESL lesson plan on The Hobbit. Complete with printable handout, 8 online quizzes and mp3.
Shona Whyte's insight:
New website from Sean Banville with EFL activities based on movie trailers.
Shona Whyte's curator insight,
April 21, 4:14 AM
EFL activities for intermediate learners and above, perhaps best as self-access/homework. Delete the scoop?
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The Listening Project is a BBC Radio initiative, in partnership with the British Library, to capture the nation in conversation. Listen to conversations from across the country, record and share your conversation.
Shona Whyte's insight:
More listening opportunities. 
Marie Dossogne's comment,
April 2, 8:58 AM
surely for advanced esl students but great source for listenings!!!
Marie Dossogne's curator insight,
April 2, 8:59 AM
great source for listenings for advanced students Delete the scoop?
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Aaron G Myers says: "I would like to share ten free resources that I have used or newly discovered that will help you learn nearly any language that you wish to learn. I don’t see any of these as a silver bullet or as capable in and of themselves in taking you to fluency in your target language. I don’t really believe in silver bullets! They can all be a part of building an overall personal language learning program that will lead to success."
Shona Whyte's insight:
Nice selection, including places to interact with native speakers as well as lists of resources. 
Blake Turnbull's curator insight,
April 19, 12:25 AM
A nice selection of 10 free online resources that cover a vast range of languages in total. The programmes include the ability to chat with native speakers, submit your work to be checked by native speakers, online language games, flashcards, and more! Delete the scoop?
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WeSpeke is a free and open global language platform and marketplace cultural exchange where users teach, learn and practice languages.
Shona Whyte's insight:
Anyone tried this out? Delete the scoop?
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Although corpora are now widely used in putting together ELT Dictionaries, and increasingly used in writing ELT materials, it is still rare, I think, for corpora, and especially for concordances to...
Shona Whyte's insight:
Nice post on using corpora for ELT without being a corpus linguist or a tech whiz. 
Stanislav Okhvat's curator insight,
April 13, 12:09 AM
A nice introduction to corpora and concordance tools and how they are useful in teaching languages and, by extension, translation. Delete the scoop?
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Shona Whyte's insight:
Interesting information about language and limguistics for the lay reader. Good for advanced students and teachers. Delete the scoop?
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Type in chat and get text chat with text-to-speech in reply.
Shona Whyte's insight:
Not entirely coherent, but perhaps entertaining for intermediate to advanced learners. 
jillyfrees's curator insight,
May 6, 3:31 AM
She's cute and disarming - but she can't handle embedded questions! Have to think about how to use her in the ESL classroom. (I suspect the students will enjoy 'her'). Delete the scoop?
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Vocabulary is one of the pillars of language learning and especially significant for the advanced learner. Once you are familiar with the basic structures of your target language, you'll want to start saying and understanding more words!
Shona Whyte's insight:
Online language tutor Kerstin has these tips for memorising vocabulary. 
Carmenne K. Thapliyal's curator insight,
April 14, 6:16 AM
I'm not convinced that these are the very "best" techniques that there are for memorising vocabulary... but I suppose these could be alternatives Delete the scoop?
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Our interactive language games are intended to improve language skills and help English language learners.
Choose a phrasal verb synonym or antonym from three options for each (non-phrasal) verb.
Shona Whyte's insight:
This is a decent game. No context, so you have to juggle possible interpretations quickly, and the synonym/antonym variation keeps you on your toes.
Intermediate learners and above given the lack of context - if you don't know, you can't really figure it out.
Immediate feedback on your answer, a time constraint, and a total score at the end, which you can share on Twitter or Facebook. Delete the scoop?
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Windows/Web: LaMP, or Lingual Media Player, is a neat program for learning a new language through watching videos—one of the best ways to become more efficient in a foreign language. Via Yuly Asencion
Shona Whyte's insight:
Worth a try for language learners: load your movie, select subtitle files for target and native language, and the player shows everything together. Delete the scoop?
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Share what you have to say to your followers. Give news, updates, advice, tips, tricks, previews, and more. Share with Facebook and Twitter, and support your broadcasts with trending Topics and imagery. Via Nik Peachey, Shona Whyte Delete the scoop?
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Shona Whyte's insight:
VOA Special English - karaoke-style videos where each word is highlighted in turn as the speaker reads. This one is an agricultural report.
While these videos certainly support autonomous language practice, some imagination is required to make them effective for learning. I suppose minimally a teacher would need to make sure the text was comprehensible, but I'm not sure what a good task or learning activity would look like either. Delete the scoop?
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Aaron Myers blogs about learning languages on the Every Day Language Learning, and has this blogroll offering a variety of perspectives on the same topic.
Shona Whyte's curator insight,
April 25, 1:33 PM
Send your students to read how other people are tackling the task of learning a new language.
Carmenne K. Thapliyal's curator insight,
April 26, 3:27 AM
Interesting blogs to look at for teacher training for teaching foreign languages Delete the scoop?
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An easy listening game about British painters, using learning apps, Quia and Rhinospike. Via Renee Maufroid, Esther
Shona Whyte's insight:
Listen to audio descriptions of paintings and painters, then choose from a list of answers.
Shona Whyte's curator insight,
April 8, 10:08 AM
Nice use of online tools to create listening exercises. Learners could do this too for speaking practice with the goal of creating quizzes for other learners. 
sarspri's curator insight,
April 12, 10:49 AM
Be sure to click to open the audio portion of the activity.
If you like this type of resource, you might want to follow Shona Whyte's topic,"Learning technologies for EFL" Delete the scoop?
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(You can listen to this blog post while you are reading. Just click below.) Part 1: Part 2: podcast (noun) a recording of a radio broadcast or a video that can be taken from the Internet To listen ...
Shona Whyte's insight:
ELT blogger Sandy Millin has these tips to help students use podcasts to learn English. Delete the scoop?
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Shona Whyte's insight:
Primary resources for native English speakers, easily adaptable for young EFL/ESL learners. 
Alain MICHEL's curator insight,
February 6, 12:04 PM
Un outil en ligne qui reprend les fonctions basiques d'un logiciel de TBI : possibilité d'écrire, d'annoter, de dessiner ou d'importer des objets, des arrière-plans et des outils pour travailler en mathématiques sur TBI, en fonction du niveau de classe choisi. EXCELLENT !
Shona Whyte's curator insight,
March 27, 1:18 PM
Jeux sympas et faciles à mettre en place pour les enseignants de jeunes apprenants qui ont un TBI ou projecteur interactif et puis une bonne connexion internet dans la classe. Tout est en anglais ce qui permet de faire ce qu'on appelle l'EMILE (Enseignement de Matières par l´Intégration d´une Langue Étrangère, en anglais CLIL) ou parfois l'enseignement bilingue ou bilangue. Delete the scoop?
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is an online language learning program that helps you improve your English for free. Delete the scoop?
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Audio and video resources for the classroom - all ages
Shona Whyte's curator insight,
March 6, 5:06 PM
Des liens vers des ressources audio/vidéo pour les apprenants d'anglais Delete the scoop?
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“Extensive Watching“. I’d like to outline this important concept for language learning here and get your own feedback, opinion, thoughts. (and this compliments what I’ve also termed, “Narrow Watching“.
Shona Whyte's insight:
Why watching your favourite series can help you learn English.
Shona Whyte's curator insight,
February 28, 1:03 PM
My colleague Geoff Sockett at the University of Strasbourg has been looking at this as part of informal learning http://prismelangues.u-strasbg.fr/uploads/media/Eurocall_handout_01.pdf Interesting and important topic - what are learners getting out of this type of exposure to English, and is there a role for teaching to help them get more? Delete the scoop?
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Listen to the audio. While you listen, read the following information:
In natural, spoken English, we don’t pronounce each syllable with the same emphasis (word stress)
For example: 'guarantee' In a phrase, we also have a mixture of weak and strong stress sounds: For example: ‘a single to Leeds’ ‘turn left at the lights’
Shona Whyte's insight:
Pronunciation practice from the British Council. Delete the scoop?
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Our interactive language games are intended to improve language skills and help English language learners.
Choose the best of four prepositions to make the correct phrasal verb.
Shona Whyte's insight:
This is probably the best of the four games I have just posted - there is a full sentence to give context, and learners choose the correct particle to complete the sentence.
The game factors should help maintain motivation, so the only question that remains is retention - can/will learners remember any corrections? Or is the reinforcement provided for the expressions they already know enough? Delete the scoop?
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Uncontroversial advice for self-study
An extremely interesting list. I'm going to use this for sure!