I subscribe to way too many Facebook groups. I need to stop it actually, they've become like women's magazines. But worse. You keep seeing the same things come up over and over again, but instead of ignoring them you can actually have a say, which is giving yourself the delusion of helpfulness, but actually the … Continue reading Educational advice – from Facebook?
I received an email last night from someone who had read my blog on Building a LOTE collection in an international school and she quite rightly pointed out that it's a relatively easy thing for a librarian thing to do. Here is her question: I am a school librarian in an IB candidate school. We are … Continue reading L1 and the role of the school
A few months ago a tradesman came to the door to fix something. Here in Singapore such people are often Muslim and therefore petrified of dogs. So my helper put the dog in a separate part of the house and closed the door, not knowing that it was one of those doors that lock themselves … Continue reading Picking the locks one-by-one
I'm always somewhat surprised at how many parents assume that the school will take care of all aspects of their children's education. Perhaps I've been around the block (or world) too long to take anything for granted, or maybe I care too much or have made too many mistakes along the way. Or it could … Continue reading Taking ownership and control over language learning
Virginia RojasBefore I embark on my summary, here are a couple of links written by other people quoting her, from Patana, the Telegraph, and some very useful myth busting on language (worth a read).Rojas commenced her talk by going through the common myths on children and language (see myth busting above). She then explained the 5 types of … Continue reading A linguistic trio – Part 1 – Rojas
Crisfield (Blog) Like Rojas, Crisfield began by dispelling some of the common "mummy myths" around language, particularly that it was easier to learn for children - she said something that every parent with older children will have personal experience of - "no it's still hard, but they're just too small to complain". Although they are more … Continue reading A linguistic Trio – part 2 Crisfield
I went to a professional development session the other day on motivating secondary students to read. It was a pretty good session with lots of interaction and ideas. But it did give me pause for thought. About the premise. Yes I agree that reading is important - fundamental in fact to any kind of academic … Continue reading The myth of "reluctance"?
One of the things I did as part of my research was to summarise the factors that contributed to a family being able to teach and maintain their mother tongue in their children while living / being educated in an English dominant environment. First I present the table of factors, and then I present myself … Continue reading Mother Tongue – How to assess your likelihood of success
The post below is based on the background research I did for INF538 Value Added-information Services in June 2014. Please cite me as the author should you wish to quote / use any of this.Bailey, N. (2014, November 12). Research summary on Language. Retrieved November 23, 2013, from http://informativeflights.blogspot.sg/2014/11/research-summary-on-language.html_________________________________________________________________________________Background ResearchThis study has presented the typical … Continue reading Research summary on Language
As the parent of children who are growing up in a bilingual household I am passionate about languages, bilingualism and supporting mother tongue.In February 2013, international Mother Tongue Day I organised a forum for parents to share ideas on mother tongue promotion and maintenance. The following link will take you to a summary of the … Continue reading Events & Initiatives
Informative Flights - Musings of a Teacher Librarian 