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ESL forum >
Message board > To Reporters and Moderators
To Reporters and Moderators
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mariamit
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I didn�t want to answer this post but Victor�s asked for opinions from us so this is mine.
I am one of those who have never voted for a ws to be removed nor to stay if it contained another language because the rule has never been clear to me. Like Mena, I believe moderators should vote according to the rules, not to their own personal opinions.
The idea of L1 usage in the classroom is a topic that will never end. The point is that on this site � an international site we share ws that we can all use. There have been many a morning when I have turned on my PC to download a ws that I had neither the time nor the strength to edit and have been �saved� by this marvelous site. Would I have found it as useful if I had to sit and edit- NO. Victor asks �What would happen if all users send contributions like this? Would it harm the website?"
I personally would answer yes. If we all send in ws partly in own language the site will be harmed. Not everyone would be able to use them. If the work shared has to be worked on well, why download it? Following reason if you are not downloading well, why should you be uploading?
We all know that using a student�s native language can be helpful but what about those of us - few though we may be who are not teaching linguistically homogeneous classrooms? I have a class where the students come from six different countries. I guess in the end one thing is clear: The language we all share is English. WE joined this site to share resources in that language. Like Zailda and Cheezels say � If we open the site for the first language, we�ll open it for hundreds of languages, in fact.
So let�s keep this site in English |
29 Jun 2009
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LuciaRaposo
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WELL, I BELEIVE THIS IS GOING TOO FAR!!
IT �S GETTING ANNOYING AND UPSETTING!!
We should be discussing interesting matters, not the fact that a worksheet has a second language in it!!
I really don �t mind! In fact, I �ve already downloaded one or two worksheets that contained some translations in Spanish and in Portuguese (from Brazil). As I found them useful and interesting I made my own chages and used it in class with my students.
IT SAVED ME A LOT OF TROUBLE AND TIME!
When we upload we have to be conscious and see if the ws contains a lot of a mother tongue!
We don �t need Victor to specify EVERY SINGLE WORD.... for God �s sake... it seems
we �re in a court of law....
And I also truly believe "MODERATORS" SHOULD BE CANCELLED! Since "moderators" appeared we have more and more problems and discussions!
PLEASE VICTOR! TRY TO FIND ANOTHER SOLUTION! The site must recover and get healthy again!!! All I can find is a "bad mood"... this is not relaxing, funny or interesting as it used to be!!!!!
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29 Jun 2009
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libertybelle
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Lucia
It doesn �t save ME a lot of time - I have to delete it.
What you are saying is that it �s ok to prioritize our Portuguese teachers but not the others?
As a teacher- you should be able to edit and add your L1 if necessary.
L
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29 Jun 2009
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manonski (f)
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Again, if it �s that easy to add L1 to a sheet, why don �t we keep this in English only and add our own mother tongue if we feel it �s necessary for our students.
And Lucia, we �re not in a court of law like you said and because of that I believe we are entitled to give our opinion. And why should it be only Victor who has the job to find a solution. The bad mood is not solely because of the moderators. It also come from people who lose points or are looking for points because they did not read the rules when joining. Come on! Stop putting all the blame on the moderators. |
29 Jun 2009
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gabitza
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Hi guys,
I will be quick: 100% English - is what this site needs. That �s my humble opinion.
I �m an EFL teacher, exposure to English is more than essential to my Ss. I often use L1 in class, in the oral activities - but I never use it in the writing form. I don �t give them Ws with instructions or translations in L1. We sometimes translate into L1, but only orally.
We try to use as much English as possible - at is the only case they are exposed to the language (twice or thrice a week).
Have a great day / night!
Gabitza |
29 Jun 2009
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goodnesses
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Dear libertybelle
Don �t you think that your WS with Danish support (L1 as a support like any visual support; cliparts, pics... through some specific task as the one Victor described and their are many other ideas to use L1 without falling completely into bilingualism) can be at least time saving for members like you? I mean members who have Danish as L1.
I am not for the the use of L1 to teach English. I mean speak in L1 to explain English grammar and whatsoever. Give instructions in L1 and content in English.
Wouldn �t it be interesting to have ideas which can be genius on how to use L1 usefully.
Where is the problem if I download your WS with Danish (which I don �t understand at all) just to see how you use it smartly and then prepare my own WS with my L1 using your genius idea.
Just try to think about L1 as any visual aid.
I am sure that if we take it like this, there would be a lot of people here who are going to share surprising ideas related to the use of L1 without falling in bilingualism or multilingualism.
To clarify my point , would never vote for the following WS to stay:
- WS in English not meant to teach English; WS containing text excerpts without any tasks.
- WS with instructions in L1 and content in English (That is bilingualism; I ask you (SS) in Arabic and you answer in English.)
- WS with the all the examples translated in L1 one by one.
- WS containing the two last together.
- WS giving grammatical explanations in L1 (for the simple reason that the grammatical term aren �t the same and so is the grammatical functionality of the 2 languages ; eg: the simple present is not the same as "le pr�sent simple" in French)
- Finally, WS completely in L1 even if it is meant to teach English which I doubt.
Hope I did not forget some thing. I am very tired.
This is a pedagogical issue let �s discuss it professionally.
Just for information especially to those who insinuated that I am just looking for trouble or for matter to argument or that I am defending a certain L1 language. To surprise you, the WS you can see in the initial post of this thread is the only Ws containing L1 in all the WS I have here on the site and moreover in all the WS I have in the archive I collected along the years of my career. Just browse through my WS and you will see. You will find WS from the 90s up till now but you will never find one containing my L1. To tell you that it is not a matter of points or of defending a certain L1 against another. I am simply convinced that we should not neglect this option in the ESL and/or EFL teaching process. So, if you don �t mind, why don �t start sharing ideas about this. About how to use L1 efficiently.
Finally if the matter is to help the site clean up why don �t we concentrate on the thousands of WS which are clearly useless as ESL material; empty WS, corrupt WS, WS with only single pic and no activities (not sets), WS with a frame only so as to give the time to Victor and ourselves to find a better way to deal with these WS, instead of taking an action people don �t see the way. Just a question which are more harmful to the site the plenty of empty WS or the WS with some words in Spanish, French or Arabic?
Regards LibertyBelle andeverybody.
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29 Jun 2009
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moravc
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Dear friends,
how about this option:
upload BOTH versions - 100% English only + English+L2 in ONE FILE
State this in the name of the worksheet
Eg:
My Holiday (2 pages -Eng only + Eng-Spa)
That would be perfect in my opinion.
Spaniards could use the second page, non-Spaniards would use the first page 100% English.
No-one would be harmed then...
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29 Jun 2009
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juliamontenegro
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Well,
What I use as methodology is to estimulate students think in English and not translating at all, therefore, I�d never download activities that demand translating to any language.
However, It�s happened to me to get interested in a WS (just looking at the description and the first image of it) and download it and then, when I was going thru the second and third page I discovered it was useless to any of my groups because of the translation.
Maybe I should have checked the scrolling of the second, third and so on pages, but, I didn�t as I get really dizzy with this scrolling, but no one has nothing do do with this problem of mine.
My point is pretty much like Zailda�s. Would we have another section for those WS???
Should there be a field to inform the languages used in the WS???
Have a good evening you all!
Julia |
29 Jun 2009
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mr.dgdln
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I couldn �t help but wonder how big problem goodnesses has made it for a WS that is downloaded as many times as can be counted with the fingers of a hand.
we have to frame the regulation of this site with rules. So nothing to do but obey the rules is what we should do.
I �m disturbed to see L1 in ws. I �ll always vote against such WSs.
I �m not thinking about to read even a word about this issue. But some people �d better be respectful to majority �s decision as I did in the past.
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29 Jun 2009
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GIOVANNI
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Like I stated once before, I fear that if worksheets are put in more than one language we may have a landslide of worksheets containing othe languages. I understood this to be a site with English only worksheets. Like Mena, I read the word must and was also under the impression that the worksheets must be in English. People from around the world use this site. Think what would happen if everyone started adding their own language to their worksheets. I teach English to solely French students. Worksheets with French would be very helpful to me yet, I am still against it on this site. One of the solutions I see is the suggestion by Moravc. |
29 Jun 2009
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