Here’s a post on language learning that reflects the common belief that we learn our native language the same way we learn algebra. “It’s not (Continue Reading)
Pat’s Polemics
My new Web site
Anytown
09/13/2007 Pat Barrett Add CommentBack in 77 or so, I volunteered as an advisor to a human relations youth camp. The kids were all 16, about 120 of them, (Continue Reading)
Two Days in Middle School
08/31/2007 Pat Barrett Add CommentI had to throw over my job teaching Sp at a charter school so I’m subbing now, 2 days at a Middle School, and how (Continue Reading)
similarities between teaching and psychotherapy
08/20/2007 Pat Barrett Add CommentTrue confession time: I’m a bit of a mystic. Not in the sense that I believe in things unseen but in the sense that I (Continue Reading)
Proficiency and Mastery
07/27/2007 Pat Barrett Add CommentMy own take on them is that proficiency is a term from SLA (second language acquisition) and refers to what a student can do with (Continue Reading)
How Much To Practice – a post
07/26/2007 Pat Barrett Add CommentHere are some examples to add to my response to Amy Pento’s response to Mary Young re: practice. Go to the flteach list and read (Continue Reading)
Warm Fuzzies
07/21/2007 Pat Barrett Add CommentKristy Placido put a message out on moretprs thanking everyone and acknowledging the honor of receiving an award at NTPRS. She made it very clear (Continue Reading)
Response to What’s Interesting About Grammar
07/02/2007 Pat Barrett Add CommentAfter the initial responses on this thread, I stopped responding to individual posts and printed out all the subsequent posts up to the point where (Continue Reading)
Teachers should tremble…..
06/27/2007 Pat Barrett Add CommentWhy should teachers tremble? Listen to several things my 5 year old granddaughter has said recently. She starts kindergarten July 23. When I asked her (Continue Reading)
Old Ship of Zion
06/26/2007 Pat Barrett Add CommentNo, I haven’t turned religious; it’s just the title of a great book I just finished. It’s by William F. Pitts, deceased, who did field (Continue Reading)
Extrapolating from rules… does it work?
06/26/2007 Pat Barrett Add CommentThis to me is at the heart of the controversies in foreign language teaching. Teachers believe that teaching the intricate grammatical, phonological and syntactic rules (Continue Reading)
The relation between writing and language
06/19/2007 Pat Barrett Add CommentRecently in a post on a listserv a member showed a great deal of concern about a statement that an American had gone to France, (Continue Reading)
Teaching Spanish-Speaking Children in the 50s
06/14/2007 Pat Barrett Add CommentAs I was reconfiguring my library I came across a book titled Teaching Spanish-Speaking Children by L.S. Tireman, published in 1951. I was 10 and (Continue Reading)
certification, reasons for
06/09/2007 Pat Barrett Add CommentIn response to a job-seeker highly qualified to teach Chinese EXCEPT for not having a h.s. certificate, I responded on a List thus: Having seen (Continue Reading)
Self-censorship
09/25/2006 Pat Barrett Add CommentRecently I posted to the blog some comments about what goes on in my school. I thought it was balanced, but someone kindly pointed out (Continue Reading)
Fun & Games
09/24/2006 Pat Barrett Add CommentCatalogues for language teachers usually have a section on games, quite a bit smaller than the section on how to teach the….. IO pronouns, subjunctive, (Continue Reading)
“skills”
09/24/2006 Pat Barrett Add CommentThe term “skill” is so often used in language learning we don’t seem to question it. But one person, I know for sure, did: Frank (Continue Reading)
Research in the Classroom
09/10/2006 Pat Barrett Add CommentFrom time to time, I read posts where the writer/teacher assures me that he has observed certain phenomena and no amount of SLA research will (Continue Reading)
School marms
09/10/2006 Pat Barrett Add CommentA recent post from a native speaker of Spanish appeared on one of the Lists. In it, she declared that the “v? and “b? of (Continue Reading)
What I do in the classroom – concrete examples
09/06/2006 Pat Barrett Add CommentI’ve been asked to provide concrete examples of what I do in the classroom that has students using verbs in various persons and tenses (even (Continue Reading)
Brain Research
08/08/2006 Pat Barrett Add CommentInteresting in-service today on brain research. Not that we all hadn’t heard most of it before. But it was well presented. I’ve just always been (Continue Reading)
Why it’s Tough To Be a Teacher
08/08/2006 Pat Barrett Add CommentSchool starts soon. I look forward to teaching; I do not look forward to school. Why is that? let’s start with the way I was (Continue Reading)
Response to Marilyn’s post on flteach
08/07/2006 Pat Barrett Add CommentAnd herein lies the glitch in communication (yeah, communications R us) on this List. I’ll bet you anything that Marilyn’s class is awash in Spanish. (Continue Reading)