4 Top Tips for learning a second language at home
Language learning thrives when it is part of your daily routine. Here are four easy ways to get language into your household everyday.
Languages and games help us stay mentally sharp in old age and fight dementia
There is growing evidence that attaining a second language also has many mental benefits including helping us to fight the onset of dementia. That has to be worth a looking to?
4 Rules to help you decide the best language to learn
Second languages have been shown to improve your mental agility, your creativity, career prospects, earning power, improve your holidays and even fight off dementia in later life! So it's definitely worth doing. Question is - which one?
Cartoon characters play a fun game to learn a language
Fun MFL Game for Building French and Spanish Vocabulary We love this video. It shows two cartoon kids showing how learning foreign words can be fun - when they turn it into a Penalty Shoot-Out! Which word do you pick to take the first penalty? Pick your corner, focus, strike... This is one of 16 great language games you can play with KLOO cards:
MFL Resources: White Board v Game Board
Pay Attention. The White Board is centre stage in most classrooms. MFL Resources for the classroom People of a certain age (alas this includes me) are always impressed by the technology in today's classrooms, especially the ubiquitous interactive white board. The nearest I came to hi-tech teacher resources in my day was an overhead projector! Are they used anymore? Smart phones are the norm As impressed as I am, I know a large group of important people who are not impressed......children. White boards are all they have ever known and when I asked [...]
We’re turning into “Little Britain” – cut off from the continent – Ouch!
Dr Anthony Seldon, Head of Wellington College, argues that our collective weakness in speaking foreign languages is turning us into a "Little Britain". Pulling no punches, he argues that we are becoming deeply insular, expecting all foreigners to speak English. He goes on to say ""Our record in language learning is uniquely bad in the developed world. We cannot simply assume the rest of the world will learn English to accommodate us. We cannot lose the plot at a time when other countries are expanding their language teaching. We desperately need to shift that culture and dramatically expand the teaching [...]
The UK’s Best Board or Card Game is a language game!
The Best Board in Britain teaches foreign languages! KLOO - BEST BOARD OR CARD GAME We are very proud to say that KLOO has been recognised by ToyTalk as Britain's Best Board or Card game. This is great news for the language learning community. It means that language teachers have a resource that happens to be the best in category against all comers - not just language games. To win top prize, KLOO had to beat off stiff competition from the giants of the games industry including the likes of Raveneberger's "Labyrinth", Gibsons [...]
How Games make learning a language easy – welcome to “The Oblivious Learning Zone”
When you're lost in a game, learning a language comes easy ToyTalk 2011 "UK's Best Board Game" KLOO Many students fall into two camps when being taught. There are those that enjoy the subject and are incentivised to learn. These are a teacher's dream and unsurprisingly they make more of an effort - and achieve better results. Alas in many, if not most classrooms, there are also the polar opposite students. Those that don't enjoy the subject, have no wish to learn and possibly would rather be anywhere else. These are a teacher's challenge. It's [...]
The importance of games in language learning
Language Games prove their value KLOO's Race to Madrid to learn Spanish A well designed game can simulate real life. Monopoly simulates the property market while flight simulators let pilots play at flying a plane before they are let loose on a real one. There are even war games. Countries don't want to gain experience of war by going to war - so they simulate it. Simulation is a fancy word for "make believe" (as my children call it). It's an elaborate game. Turning language into a game I have worked with games [...]
Professor Lonergan: Play to learn a second language fast
Playing MFL Games and learning a second language Jack Lonergan - Language Professor I was fortunate to have a coffee with Professor Jack Lonergan in a hotel near St Albans. Jack is amongst other things a Director of LTL Training, author, media producer and Emeritus Professor of Applied Linguistics. As an author of over twenty books on language and language learning, he is an undisputed expert in this field. He was kind enough to cast his eye over a KLOO language Games prototype and give me feedback. I took great interest, therefore, when the [...]
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