Here you can find details of our past meetings. Click on a meeting title to see the original meeting announcement.
Details of meetings held before July 2008 can be found in our archives.
Matthew Jenkins
10 April, 2010
Dave Pite
Jenkins agrees with Thornbury that second language acquisition research is useful for validating our classroom practices and as a starting point for developing new techniques-- as well as a bulwark against imposters promoting questionable teaching methodologies. After distinguishing between second and foreign language acquisition he introduced several of the better-known theories in these fields and invited us to discuss them in the context of actual classroom application. We brainstormed in groups to recall and consider a specific kind of lesson we had done or seen, and then tried to match it with a supporting theory from those he had told us about. When some time had been spent on this, each group in turn reported their conclusions followed by a general discussion of further possible practical exploitation, and difficulties that might be encountered.
