Posts Tagged ‘context’

Hot Air Balloon Ride

Saturday, June 19th, 2010

I took a 60-minute flight in a hot air balloon two days ago. It was a dream ride from the start. I had one person videotaping from below, and I videotaped from the basket. People waved as I floated over their neighborhoods. I saw houses, trees, grass, bicycles, cars, roads, schools, parking lots, swimming pools, people old and young, animals, and a big round earth and sky. A group of kids 11 to 15 years of age called to us, “Can you hear us?” I said, “Yes,” and they broke into screams as though they had connected with a lost world.

The balloon ride will become a series of video lessons using ordinary vocabulary as seen from an un-ordinary perspective. The series will appear in our third batch of 100+ ten-minute video lessons for homes and schools.

Combining Languages

Sunday, February 28th, 2010

In the real world of bilingual and multilingual speakers, languages are mixed all the time to maintain momentum in conversation. School language courses have traditionally not allowed that. The basic problem is in treating a familiar language as illegitimate context. Nothing in the principles of learning requires us to do that. Context is powerful, and how you use it determines how much it helps.

I use English to teach Spanish in certain Max and Max lessons because English is such a powerful context for people who already know it. Mixing languages correctly produces very nice benefits. As we get ready to launch our On the Go series, I know a lot of people will wonder what in the world we’re doing. Without explaining the technicalities, I’ll just say that I know on the basis of success that it works. I’m looking forward to making tweaks as feedback comes in. Oh, blessed feedback.