Do Schools Kill Creativity?
In his thought provoking and entertaining TED Talk, Sir Ken Robinson (speaker, international advisor on education, and author of The Element: How Finding Your Passion Changes Everything) argues that schools stifle creativity by focusing too much on only a few of the human mind’s many kinds of intelligence. While not specifically related to language learning, I think Sir Ken Robinson’s suggestions about educational reform apply across all fields of study, especially skill-based subjects like foreign language. Here’s my favorite excerpt from the talk: We know...
read moreMultiple Intelligences: What Are They and How Can They Be Applied in Language Learning?
The term “Multiple Intelligences” was first coined by Harvard psychologist Howard Gardner. His theory is spelled out in the 1983 book, Frames of Mind: The Theory of Multiple Intelligences. In the book, Gardner posits that humans possess many varied types of intelligence, not just one. This stands in stark contrast to IQ and standardized testing, both of which look at intelligence as a one-dimensional concept: you either have it or you don’t. While Gardners’s work is still somewhat controversial, I think it is a helpful way to frame intelligence and useful tool for...
read moreUCLA Professor and Polyglot Michael Heim Discusses the Importance of Goal-Centered Learning
Michael Heim is a highly respected professor of Slavic languages at UCLA. He speaks 10 languages (though he explains that the number is hard to tie down due to the slippery political nature of language-dialect distinctions). Heim believes that effective language learning must begin (and progress) with a specific purpose in mind; he has never learned a language just for the heck of it. In a two-part interview posted on the UCLA Center for World Languages website, he explains why language experts produce poor textbooks, what he would do as "Langauge Czar" if such a position were to be created, and why Americans tend to do poorly in second language learning.
read moreReview of LingQ.com
Pronounced like the word "link" (not "ling-kyu" as it is often mispronounced), LingQ is an an online and iOS app based language learning system created by Steve Kaufmann. The "freemium" site allows users to easily look up and save unknown words and phrases (what they call "LingQing", hence the name of the site)m with tools for 11 languages: Chinese (Mandarin), English, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, and Swedish (which happen to be the same 11 languages Steve speaks).
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