{"id":127,"date":"2012-03-05T04:06:28","date_gmt":"2012-03-05T04:06:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/itdi.pro\/blog\/?p=127"},"modified":"2012-03-05T04:21:58","modified_gmt":"2012-03-05T04:21:58","slug":"how-important-is-homework-scott-thornbury","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/itdi.pro\/blog\/2012\/03\/05\/how-important-is-homework-scott-thornbury\/","title":{"rendered":"How important is homework? – Scott Thornbury"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Scott<\/a>Two or three hours of English is just not enough. Even studying in a classroom for several hours a day, you\u2019re unlikely to achieve a high level if you do nothing in between.<\/p>\n

As Leo van Lier put it, \u2018The students\u2019 minds must occupy themselves with the language between<\/em> lessons as well as in<\/em> lessons, if improvements are to happen\u2019.<\/p>\n

Maybe what happens between lessons is as important \u2013 or more important \u2013 than what happens in them. Think of the classroom as a kind of \u2018pit stop\u2019 where learners come in to be re-fuelled and change their tyres. The real action is happening outside.<\/p>\n

But I don\u2019t like to call it \u2018homework\u2019. To me it\u2019s more like \u2018out-of-class work\u2019. Or \u2018between-class\u2019 work.\u00a0 Confining it to the home is to limit it unnecessarily (not to mention all the negative connotations that are associated with the term \u2018homework\u2019).\u00a0 We need to take homework out into the street.<\/p>\n

Literally. There is English everywhere and every learner have some means of collecting it, whether camera, cell phone or just pen and paper. Even if each student captures just one piece of English \u2013 that\u2019s 20 potential topics for discussion (in a class of 20).<\/p>\n

Here is some of the English I collected today in my \u2018barrio\u2019 in Barcelona, in just 20 minutes on the way to the gym.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a><\/div>\n
\"\"<\/a><\/div>\n
\n

OK, Barcelona is a fairly touristy town, but there\u2019s English in the most unlikely places.<\/p>\n

Some of it is just words, some phrases, and some whole sentences. Some is translated. Some is not. But it all sends a message. It\u2019s part of the linguistic landscape, and it\u2019s a great source of discussion and research, when your learners bring it back to the classroom.\u00a0 Here are some questions you could have them discuss:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Where was this photo taken?<\/li>\n
  2. How many languages can you see?<\/li>\n
  3. Who wrote it? For whom?<\/li>\n
  4. Why is (some of it) in English?<\/li>\n
  5. Is there a translation? Why\/why not?<\/li>\n
  6. Is it correct?<\/li>\n
  7. Is there anything you don\u2019t understand?<\/li>\n
  8. Is there anything you would like to remember?<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Scott<\/em>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Two or three hours of English is just not enough. Even studying in a classroom for several hours a day, you\u2019re unlikely to achieve a high level if you do nothing in between. As Leo van Lier put it, \u2018The students\u2019 minds must occupy themselves with the language between lessons as well as in lessons, … Continue reading How important is homework? – Scott Thornbury<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":42,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-127","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-homework"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/itdi.pro\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/127","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/itdi.pro\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/itdi.pro\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/itdi.pro\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/itdi.pro\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=127"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/itdi.pro\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/127\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/itdi.pro\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/42"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/itdi.pro\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=127"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/itdi.pro\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=127"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/itdi.pro\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=127"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}