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Showing posts from May, 2021

TEACHER'S WELL-BEING: PROBLEM-FOCUSED COPING APPROACH

1. What is well-being? 2. What factors can affect teachers' occupational well-being? 3. Problem-Focused Coping Approach 4. Applying Problem-Focused Coping Approach What can you do to improve your well-being? Exercise, yoga, good planning, striking a balance between family and work, meditation, mindfulness – these are just some of the things you can find online if you're looking for new ways to improve your quality of life. Obviously, there are different views on this, and I don't want to downplay the importance of different approaches to improving teacher wellbeing. It's a bit like that Coldplay lyric, "Nobody said it was easy," and anyone who's been there will know that teaching isn't easy at all. That's why I've put together this article with some useful info on how to deal with stress and burnout. It'll help you stay on top of your game. Picture 1: Credit Stuart Kime But, before you get into the nitty-gritty, let's quickly run throug

PRONUNCIATION A STEP BY STEP GUIDE #1: What is learning Pronunciation and 12 Vowel sounds

Pronunciation is one of the most important aspects when we try to learn a new language. You can use high level vocabulary or grammar, but if you are not capable to transmit a clear message, in other words to be easy to understand, probably you have a problem of pronunciation. Additionally, to have a good pronunciation will help you to listen well. In this Guide, I will try to give the best things that work with me when I was a learner, but I still use now that I am an English teacher (if you are an English teacher you probably would like to read my post  PRONUNCIATION: WHAT, WHY AND HOW IN THE VIRTUAL ENGLISH CLASSROOM ) . On the other side, if you try to find the ultimate key to improve your pronunciation, let me tell you that this key does not exist, but do not get discouraged you can still get better. Also, in this guide you will find some theory, yeah I know that this does not sound attractive, but I have a point, so please continue reading. In fact, in this and the future articles

PRONUNCIATION: WHAT, WHY AND HOW IN THE VIRTUAL ENGLISH CLASSROOM

Despite the value that pronunciation has when learning a language, when it comes to teaching English -and probably other languages- it is one of the skills, according to some studies not my opinion, with less attention. Picture 1. Pronunciation: using phonetic symbols. Back to the topic of this post, as Jenkin pointed out (as cited in Wong, 2016) "even when learners use a variant grammatical form or an inappropriate expression, they can still be understood. It is usually the wrong pronunciation that leads to communication breakdown" (p. 243). Due to this, being able to speak with good pronunciation is of paramount importance, on the grounds that it allows real communication. Therefore, there are some important questions we must answer in order to teach pronunciation, such as: What is 'teaching pronunciation'? Why is important? How can we use technology to do in distance or virtual learning? Kelly (2000) stated that we can breakdown the main features of pronunciation a