Exercices
annamattei
November 23, 2011, 05:43 AM posted in General DiscussionHi!!!
In general, I like your website very much. I listen to the lessons on my Iphone and I review on the website.
I only have one comment regarding the exercices, I find them quite bad, in particular the "order the dialogue" (or whatever like this) and the dictation ones: they are useless in my opinion. For the dictation and the fourth exercice, taking sentences different from the "Expansion" ones would increase the challenge, and the effectiveness, greatly.
I hope you will change this in the future, for sure it gives more work to create new sentences, but the benefits for students are absolutely worth it!!
Keth
November 27, 2011, 07:24 AM
‘’Doing the same thing twice’ is still widely considered time-wasting and potentially boring. But research
evidence shows the opposite is true; repeating certain kinds of activity such as summarising a text orally
one day and again a few days later may be the most efficient way of improving learners’ language. This
applies to both lexical and grammatical knowledge’’
Michael Lewis (1997) Implementing the Lexical Approach
Also interesting is :- Memory Activities for Language Learning by Nick Bilbrough -Cambridge University Press
2011)
guolan
November 27, 2011, 11:04 AMI like the "order the dialogue" exercise, even though, like you, I usually skim for a few key words and don't read the whole thing as I order them.
After all, isn't "skimming for a few key words" to order a sequence in a logical manner a skill worth improving? I mean, skimming a foreign language quickly and picking out key information that enables you to make sense of a piece of writing is a highly practical skill.
It also forces me, at the advanced level, to be sure I understand the logic that connects one person's comment to the next person's comment. I like having to do this.
Repetition creates familiarity, which increases speed.
miskat
November 26, 2011, 03:54 AMI agree about the "order the dialog". I do not find it useful at all. I usually finish that excercise in a matter of seconds by only looking at first few words of each sentence.
I usually leave the lesson alone for a while before doing the excercise (to check if I am ready to mark the lesson as "Studied").
By that time I have forgotten most of the expansion sentences, so the dictation excercise is ok to me. But I still remember the dialog very well and the "order the dialog" makes very little sense from learning point of view.