Here are a few of the FAQs (Frequently Asked Questions) people interested in language education may want answers to. Responses are designed to fit into limited amounts of space, but there's a lot more to say, ask, learn, and get excited about.
For the titles of Authors & Editors products, click here for an Alphabetized Authors & Editors Product List. Choose an item that interests you. Get the info and samples you want from the links that come up.
For other no-cost materials, click on Teaching Tools, Tips, & Techniques. You will get immediately useable pages to download, print, make use of, and enjoy will appear. There are also complete or partial Teacher-Training Workshop Handouts.
For more information, see the print or Online Authors & Editors Creative Language Teaching & Learning Catalog. Go to the Authors & Editors Online Store. Products can be ordered online, by FAX, by phone, or by mail.
- Why are there so many educational products, offerings, and resources available? Because instructors, helpers, learners, and situations will always be unique! No one-sized program, textbook, set of instructions, game, or even lesson procedure can ever serve all users at the same time. The solution to diversity lies in the availability of an optimum variety of multi-purpose, multi-leveled materials, techniques, and concepts. These can be integrated or separated; combined or unlinked; reduced, enlarged, or otherwise adapted; used, re-used, and recycled for maximum benefit, efficiency, effectiveness, pleasure, and success.
- What makes materials, methods, and concepts “ideal” for individual needs at any point in time or space? [a] The completeness and correctness of their content; [b] the balance of their elements; [c] the adaptability of their features; and [d] the leveled variations for use in various situations, such as large classes, small groups, workplace literacy or training sessions, one-on-one tutoring, self-teaching, home schooling, etc. It is [e] the variability of available products and practical suggestions for use (as well as ideas for “going beyond the text”) that increase their potential for success. It is [f] the wide array of possibilities that enables users to tailor what they already have to what their ever-changing needs, purposes, interests, or preferences.
- How were and are the topics of any program, product, or lesson chosen? Examples of typical language-instruction topics are sentence-structure patterns + grammar rules; oral or written language abilities + strategies; academic or real-life language competencies; vocabulary + phraseology; etc. Examples of content topics are survival in a new environment, business + work, social relationships, history + geography, economics + money, science + technology, cultural patterns, and many more subjects in our complex physical or online world.
For both language-learning and content, many curriculum outlines and Scope and Sequence charts were compiled and studied. Not only the “experts,” but also “front-line teachers and learners" were consulted again and again. The “not-so-final results” were provisional Tables of Contents and other organizational plans that could—and still can—be conveniently updated and tweaked for ease of use or even "temporary perfection.” And not only publishers or materials developers can improve the topics, but also—and even more productively—end-user educators and students.
- In what order—and for how long—should we use various products, texts, lessons, materials, techniques, activities, assessment instruments, etc.? As with so many queries that address individualized situations, the most useful answer is “It depends on many factors—unique not only to individuals but to their specific situations at any point in time and space.”
For administrators, resource specialists, instructors, self-teachers, and learners alike, an assessment—perhaps intuitive—of what is needed now comes first. The ability to connect instinct about needs to decisions about what to do develops with experience. And there are so many possibilities! For instance, in any given situation it might be best [a] to follow directives in a text in order; [b] to repeat or review what was done previously; [c] to give a quick oral or written “test to wake up achievers,” [d] to approach comparable goals in a way that offers a “learning-style" break; [e] to provide a surprising, motivating change-of-pace cooperative-competitive-learning activity; [e] to change to a completely different subject of study; [f] to relax with some deep breathing or physical exercise; [g] to dismiss class; and/or [h] on and on and on and on. In fact, it may be individualized experimentation and the natural tendency to try something different that leads most directly to accomplished, enjoyable teaching and learning success.
For the titles of Authors & Editors products, click here for an Alphabetized Authors & Editors Product List. Choose an item that interests you. Get the info and samples you want from the links that come up.
For other no-cost materials, click on Teaching Tools, Tips, & Techniques. You will get immediately useable pages to download, print, make use of, and enjoy will appear. There are also complete or partial Teacher-Training Workshop Handouts.
For more information, see the print or Online Authors & Editors Creative Language Teaching & Learning Catalog. Go to the Authors & Editors Online Store. Products can be ordered online, by FAX, by phone, or by mail.
